Gas Price pics

This one is interesting because it’s on native land, so gasoline can be sold with no federal excise tax collected. The price is per liter. As a bonus Johnny Reid is playing at the casino. :D

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What I find very interesting is the volatility; place to place and day to day... hard to make sense of it really. See below, I've done a lot of driving this week. All of these are within a 50 mile radius about 75 miles west of DC (All regular 87 octane 10% ethanol)
  • 24Dec Exxon $2.88
  • 22 Dec Sheetz $2.87
  • 21Dec Costco $2.35
  • 19 Dec Citgo $2.60
 
I know the theory is free market and all, but why is there such a disparity? Can it be nothing more than government intervention?
I have posted about California refinery closings here in the past and all the California folks told me it was a nothing burger. So I stopped.

California's major problem is its not connected to the rest of the US oil system - no pipe over the rockies. Now they are adding refining capacity issues to the mix and are completely beholden to others for refined product as well. So yes the gas taxes are higher - like 60 cents a gallon - low tax states are around 30 cents, so that argument really only accounts for 30 cents of the price difference. Mostly its just markets doing there thing - high demand - low supply.
 
I have posted about California refinery closings here in the past and all the California folks told me it was a nothing burger. So I stopped.

California's major problem is its not connected to the rest of the US oil system - no pipe over the rockies. Now they are adding refining capacity issues to the mix and are completely beholden to others for refined product as well. So yes the gas taxes are higher - like 60 cents a gallon - low tax states are around 30 cents, so that argument really only accounts for 30 cents of the price difference. Mostly its just markets doing there thing - high demand - low supply.
Yeah it’s crazy we don’t just use the same gas as the rest of the country.

This risks touching on politics, I hope it doesn’t go that way, but from my (limited) understanding since we can’t make enough California gas in California and we aren’t connected to the rest of the US for gas a lot of our gas gets shipped via ship from other places in the world? To me that seems like even if California gas might burn slightly cleaner the overall impact would be worse (and obviously leads to higher costs). Does anyone know if that’s true?

Obviously I haven’t bought gas in a long time BUT high fuel prices in our state make the price of everything else go up too.

In terms of price, I just looked it up - Costco is $3.89 here and the nearest station, a Chevron, is like $4.69
 
If a refinery goes down for 24 hours, gas prices will skyrocket for a month. And have as much of a chance of coming down again as a thermometer thrown into a campfire. This is called SOP, (Standard Operating Procedure).
 
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Yeah it’s crazy we don’t just use the same gas as the rest of the country.

This risks touching on politics, I hope it doesn’t go that way, but from my (limited) understanding since we can’t make enough California gas in California and we aren’t connected to the rest of the US for gas a lot of our gas gets shipped via ship from other places in the world? To me that seems like even if California gas might burn slightly cleaner the overall impact would be worse (and obviously leads to higher costs). Does anyone know if that’s true?

Obviously I haven’t bought gas in a long time BUT high fuel prices in our state make the price of everything else go up too.

In terms of price, I just looked it up - Costco is $3.89 here and the nearest station, a Chevron, is like $4.69
Most of what they tell you is lies. The spot price of gasoline in California is currently 15 cents more than the gulf coast - but there paying $2.50.

The blend is a bit different. It has a lower vapor pressure - evaporates less. It also mandates a certain amount of ethanol - the rest of the country the refiners are given an annual allotment so they can use more or less dependant on price they just have to use the right amount across the year. So both those do raise the price some. It all adds up, but the blend part is small.

So, here it is, as of Monday - direct from the EIA. Taxes add 60 cents vs 20 cents in Houston, so thats 40 cents of your difference. 15 cents for blend / transport. My guess is most of the rest of the difference is retail margins. https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/prices.php


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The QTs and the Murphys here are having a Mexican standoff. Steadily dropping a couple cents when the other does and back and forth for the last couple weeks. Stopped at $2.15/gal regular ($2.05 with QT app) and has stayed there. One is waiting for the other to blink to go below $2.

Hey @SC Maintenance, wasn't our gas tax supposed to fix our roads?? 😁
 
I know the theory is free market and all, but why is there such a disparity? Can it be nothing more than government intervention?
Thats all it is. In New Mexico gas is still $2.50 to $2.70 yesterday, Christmas eve where earlier that day when I found multiple $1.99 stations in multiple locations in Texas
 
The QTs and the Murphys here are having a Mexican standoff. Steadily dropping a couple cents when the other does and back and forth for the last couple weeks. Stopped at $2.15/gal regular ($2.05 with QT app) and has stayed there. One is waiting for the other to blink to go below $2.

Hey @SC Maintenance, wasn't our gas tax supposed to fix our roads?? 😁
That's way I stopped buying gas in new Mexico for like 3 years. Insane gas taxes, terrible roads I'd drive 25 miles to go fill up car with gas cans on the trailer in Texas out of protest.
 
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