The changing constituent shares of oil’s value chain - i.e. the contributions to the final price of oil made by pumping, transporting, refining, marketing and distributing, and taxing oil - show that the main beneficiary of the surge in oil prices since 1973 is the upstream sector, whereas transportation, refining and distribution/marketing have all seen their share of the final selling price squeezed.
In 1973, the cost of crude accounted for 32% of the final price of oil and consumer taxes amounted to 40%, leaving 28% for the rest, but by 2013 the upstream share has more than doubled to 70%, tax accounting for a further 19%, leaving only 11% of the final price for the other components.
Oil transportation has been the worst hit, seeing its share fall from 15% to 1.7%, highlighting the classic economic case of the surging cost of the principal raw material eating into the earnings of the other activities in the chain.
http://www.cges.co.uk/news/1069-upstream-sector-main-beneficiary-of-the-surge-in-oil-prices