What's up with Fuel Prices ....

Status
Not open for further replies.
I remember back last fall when gas was over $3/gallon, they said on the news that it was because the refineries had to switch to a more costly winter blend gasoline. Now that it's spring and gas is starting to go up sky high again, the same news channel that aired that article last fall recently said that the latest price hike is because the refineries are having to switch over to the more costly summer blend gasoline.

So what is it??!? Is the winter blend or the summer blend more costly? They probably just banked on most people forgetting what they had said last time.
 
Quote:


Quote:


As long as the oil companies and their allies have their man in the Whitehouse they will manipulate the gasoline market to the extent they can--at will.



Hahahahahahahah GWB is controlling world prices of Gasoline. LOLZ
laugh.gif





That's right. It's really a brain-dead argument. I wish we collectively would use our brains more and our biases less. In a world that was perfectly at peace, the price of oil would probably settle to around $40/barrel, maybe less. The price of gas would be under $2.00 a gallon. But that, world peace, is probably not happening soon.
 
Forget USAID and World Bank, they should hand over their jobs to EM and Shell, since those companies and their likes now have far more money to give away, and far more business savvy than the old world 'aid' organizations.

Just trying to divert the stream here.
wink.gif
 
Diesel is cheaper than 87 again around here.

Doesn't bother me though, I don't have an extreme commute or a low fuel-mileage vehicle.
 
We feel the pain up here in Canada too. Todays price in Ottawa is 3.38 $US per US gallon. (1.04 $Cdn/Liter) People in Quebec and the Maritimes pay more. Sucks big time.

Bry
 
Actually, there probably is a story here for someone willing to do the digging.

Oil companies do not set the price for their product any more than farmers set the price for grain. Both are commodities and their prices are established by brokers bidding on exchanges.

The news here is that while we are told that supply/demand ratios are tight and geo-political tensions are high, the truth is that crude inventories have continued to build for the last three years and are above five year averages. Gasoline inventories have stayed very much within their seasonal averages for the entire period. Think about it, with Katrina wiping out refineries and power to pumping stations, if supplies were as tight as the media tries to tell us, there should have been rampant shortages and outages. There were an infinitesimally small number of brief shortages, but having talked to family and friends across the U.S., NO ONE was unable to buy gas.

Then why did prices spike? Because investors hoping to capitalize on presumed shortages desparately bid up contracts hoping to score big. It has been suggested that hedge fund managers are/were among the worst offenders. I suspect there is some truth in that.

Big Oil is somewhat complicit in that they have successfully propagated the 'peak-oil' myth, along with their compatriots in the middle east. Procurement costs have stayed in the $15-$20/barrel range for western hemisphere oil, and $8-$10/barrel for ME oil. So if they can get enough investors/traders to believe that oil will dry up any day now, the resulting spikes in comm. prices simply add to their bottom line. They are now laughing all the way to the bank and cannot believe the good fortune(pun intended) they have realized the last three years.

Mike
 
Way to go, ted s.

I agree with gizzsdad, I've long believed that it is the traders more than the big oil manipulating the market prices.

Now that big oil is so rich, they can become the premier aid sources. Wouldn't ventures like those of Mr. Gates do good for the oil companies' PR?
 
Quote:


We feel the pain up here in Canada too. Todays price in Ottawa is 3.38 $US per US gallon. (1.04 $Cdn/Liter) People in Quebec and the Maritimes pay more. Sucks big time.




And BC. Gas is floating around $1.17 a liter out here. And we have a Chevron refinery in town.
puke.gif


But 40+ mpg makes it not so bad. Is it gas month already?
coffee.gif
 
Quote:


I remember back last fall when gas was over $3/gallon, they said on the news that it was because the refineries had to switch to a more costly winter blend gasoline. Now that it's spring and gas is starting to go up sky high again, the same news channel that aired that article last fall recently said that the latest price hike is because the refineries are having to switch over to the more costly summer blend gasoline.

So what is it??!? Is the winter blend or the summer blend more costly? They probably just banked on most people forgetting what they had said last time.




The cost they're referring to is the cost of switching over their plants to refine the different blend, not the blend itself, if that makes sense.
 
I have also heard there are different blends (possibly more) for summer to meet stricter air quality requirements. So, some markets could see an increase in price depending on the supply for a particular blend. Californina comes to mind. I heard only a few refiners make the blend necessary for summer use in California. FWIW
 
Here are my tanks of gas since the beginning of the year. These are just cut and pasted from my gas mileage spreedsheet.

Monday, January 22, 2007 $1.90
Saturday, January 27, 2007 $1.96
Monday, January 29, 2007 $1.96
Thursday, February 01, 2007 $2.10
Monday, February 05, 2007 $2.07
Thursday, February 08, 2007 $2.18
Sunday, February 11, 2007 $2.18
Friday, February 16, 2007 $2.18
Monday, February 19, 2007 $2.18
Thursday, February 22, 2007 $2.25
Saturday, February 24, 2007 $2.35
Wednesday, February 28, 2007 $2.35
Friday, March 02, 2007 $2.40
Tuesday, March 06, 2007 $2.47
Thursday, March 08, 2007 $2.39
Sunday, March 11, 2007 $2.39
Tuesday, March 13, 2007 $2.49
Sunday, March 18, 2007 $2.49
Wednesday, March 21, 2007 $2.49
Saturday, March 24, 2007 $2.44
Friday, March 30, 2007 $2.57
Thursday, April 05, 2007 $2.70
Saturday, April 07, 2007 $2.63
 
Quote:


Quote:


I remember back last fall when gas was over $3/gallon, they said on the news that it was because the refineries had to switch to a more costly winter blend gasoline. Now that it's spring and gas is starting to go up sky high again, the same news channel that aired that article last fall recently said that the latest price hike is because the refineries are having to switch over to the more costly summer blend gasoline.

So what is it??!? Is the winter blend or the summer blend more costly? They probably just banked on most people forgetting what they had said last time.




The cost they're referring to is the cost of switching over their plants to refine the different blend, not the blend itself, if that makes sense.




for the refining industry, i can't imagine just how insignificant that 'change process' can be.
 
If it's the traders running up the price of crude, then why are the big oil companies making such HUGE profits, considerably higher than before, even though there are "supposedly" shortages or refinery problems? Seems to me if the raw meterial was more expensive, prices would go up but profits wouldn't increase exponentially. It just seems fishy to me- and I'm a carpooler/bus rider with ethanol compatible vehicles with no particular axe to grind.

Kev
 
Quote:


Here are my tanks of gas since the beginning of the year. These are just cut and pasted from my gas mileage spreedsheet.

Monday, January 22, 2007 $1.90
Saturday, January 27, 2007 $1.96
Monday, January 29, 2007 $1.96
Thursday, February 01, 2007 $2.10
Monday, February 05, 2007 $2.07
Thursday, February 08, 2007 $2.18
Sunday, February 11, 2007 $2.18
Friday, February 16, 2007 $2.18
Monday, February 19, 2007 $2.18
Thursday, February 22, 2007 $2.25
Saturday, February 24, 2007 $2.35
Wednesday, February 28, 2007 $2.35
Friday, March 02, 2007 $2.40
Tuesday, March 06, 2007 $2.47
Thursday, March 08, 2007 $2.39
Sunday, March 11, 2007 $2.39
Tuesday, March 13, 2007 $2.49
Sunday, March 18, 2007 $2.49
Wednesday, March 21, 2007 $2.49
Saturday, March 24, 2007 $2.44
Friday, March 30, 2007 $2.57
Thursday, April 05, 2007 $2.70
Saturday, April 07, 2007 $2.63




What do you do that requires a fillup every couple of days?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top