Here is an interesting article about fuel costs. Yes it is industry sponsored, but it still is pretty accurate.
Fuel Costs
The number 1 cause of increased gas prices is the price for crude on the world market. The oil companies are not going to sell the crude for less than the world market price.
In Venezuela the oil companies are owned by the government. The government has decided to sell gas for cheap. Just like the Iraq government does.
The price of gas at various gas stations is similar because all of the gas comes from the same refinery. Not because the oil companies collude.
Who heard the quote from the Shell exec ?
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quote:For a brief time I worked p/t at a truck stop (Flying J, while trying the Dave Ramsey debt reduction plan - but I digress). Do you know what their fuel pricing policy was? As soon the Pilot across the street changed their price, we changed ours to be exactly 1 cent less than theirs. I realize this is anecdotal, but it's no doubt commonplace. Why can I drive from just north of Evansville and pay $2.619 (today's price) and drive a few miles up the road in a small town on the interstate and pay $2.999 for the same brand? Collusion doesn't have to occur in formal letters and memos, phone calls or emails. It happens, rest assured. It's not the only cause, but it happens.
Originally posted by Winston: The price of gas at various gas stations is similar because all of the gas comes from the same refinery. Not because the oil companies collude.
That's not collusion, that's a price war. Collusion would be "we'll keep our prices at $2.999 if you keep them there too so we can both milk customers for all they're worth".
I'd bring a few six-packs over to whoever ran that Pilot and offer them in exchange for them to set their gas price to 1 cent for a few minutes. Then set yours to 0. Fill up every vehicle you can find. "Well boss, those were your orders..."
quote:I would rather have the higher fuel price and the universal health care.
Originally posted by sprintman: You have cheap fuel but no uiversal health care. We have more expensive and higher spec fuel and universal health care. My ife had aneurism at Xmas and a month in hspital with ambulance and you name it didn't cost a cent. we like it that way. Different strokes for different folks as they say...s
Its around $4/gallon here right now. I'd gladly pay $6-$8, and still consider the stuff good value.
Never understood why people complain about the price of petrol. Its such a minor expense compared to everything else, and higher petrol prices encourage responsible use of the non-renewable resource.
quote:I would consider a price war to be downward in nature, although it's not exactly collusion, either. What it IS, however, is a local pricing policy that is not a reflection of the natural laws of supply and demand, although I'm not sure from a microeconomics perspective that this is necessarily possible.
Originally posted by Vilan: That's not collusion, that's a price war. Collusion would be "we'll keep our prices at $2.999 if you keep them there too so we can both milk customers for all they're worth".
The Oils Corps have stealthily created an oligopoly the past decade or two. Until something is done about this, they'll have their way with us.
Another way to look at this is we're a black box. How do you measure the output impedance of a black box? Short the inputs and DRIVE FROM THE REAR!! ![[Big Grin]](images/icons/grin.gif)
Sunday (June 25th), 60 minutes has a segment about how much oil Canada (Shell Canada that is!) has in their Fort McMurray Oil Sands deposits.
This isn't just a "possibility" (like oil shale talk since the 1960's) it is being developed at an astounding rate - there are five or six new "Upgraders" being built right now, each with about 100,000 finished barrels a day output.
(The company I work for) has theirs onstream, and just commissioned two more plants to be built right next door. The first one cost over 4 billion U.S $, but there is no hesitation - they are huge "money-making" machines!
The crude they make actually sells for a premium over regular oil well crude - it's clean, no sulfur/carbon/water/propane etc.
Check out the big picture on Sunday!
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Historically, the Arab Sheiks will soon drop prices to stiffle and crush development and investment in alternative fuels. I dunno if this time they can increase output to do that, but it remains a potential. As-is, I'm spending about $230/month on gas for my new car that is almost 50% more efficient than my old one that would run me $320/mo in gizz-***. I'm happy "saving" $90 plus my repairs were running me on the old car$100 too. Meh.
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