Think about it. The oil companies keep this technology away from us.

To put this into perspective:
Coca-cola makes 22% net profit,
Microsoft makes about 32% net profit,
Disney Amusement Parks makes over 30% net profit,
Intel makes 20%,
Google makes over 24%.

Actually, while the oil companies are happy to accept these prices, they do not set them.

To some extent I agree with this and I never meant to imply differently.

The market sets the baseline prices for oil, however the oil companies themselves decide on how much the end customer will be charged. This desire for massive profits is the root cause of the outrageous petrol prices paid in the UK. When I fill my car up at the Shell garage (limited choices in the rural backwaters where I live), I am not paying the “Market” price for the petrol, I am paying what Shell think they should charge me over and above the market rate.

Petrol prices may suffer from high taxes, but the root cause of their bank-balance-busting status is the uncontrolled greed of the oil companies.

Actually, while the oil companies are happy to accept these prices, they do not set them. The market does. Oil is massively useful but we’ve used up a little more than half of what we can probably get. As such, oil production is pretty much stalled and will begin declining over the next few years.

See peak oil.
http://www.theoildrum.com/tag/overview