Gas increase

[gage0921]

Seeing that I work in the oil industry as well as my father im usually abreast as to why there are increases and decreases. While smoking a stogie I decided to go for a cruise and noticed a severe increase in gas. Shell was $2.76 a gallon while exxon and chevron were $2.67. Now these are premium prices as my car will not run correctly on anything else. Just curious if any one knew.

 

[AACJ]

Seeing that I work in the oil industry as well as my father im usually abreast as to why there are increases and decreases. While smoking a stogie I decided to go for a cruise and noticed a severe increase in gas. Shell was $2.76 a gallon while exxon and chevron were $2.67. Now these are premium prices as my car will not run correctly on anything else. Just curious if any one knew.

Money!



Gee, this thread seems awfully familiar!

 

[gage0921]

As weird as it sounds....money alone is not a reason...........An example of an excuse to raise prices is the lack of product that a refinery is producing. Notice when hurricanes come and gas prices soar.......this is because platforms offshore are usually evacuated days ahead of time so there is nothing being produced.

 

[AACJ]

As weird as it sounds....money alone is not a reason...........An example of an excuse to raise prices is the lack of product that a refinery is producing. Notice when hurricanes come and gas prices soar.......this is because platforms offshore are usually evacuated days ahead of time so there is nothing being produced.

I realize that too, I was just being a little funny. I am in the energy business as well, I have to keep an eye on costs of all energy products, Natural Gas, Oil - both fuel and crude and coal and how they relate to producing electricity.

Typically I see prices rising during peak usage seasons like summer and the dead of winter, demand rises then and we all know the law of supply and demand. During the "shoulder months" when most people can feel comfortable opening windows instead of running their A/C and Heat Pumps is when utilities try to schedule thier power plant outages/maintenance and this makes for a slight increase in running higher cost units to supply the demand, ie...an expensive gas/oil combustion turbines running to replace a much cheaper coal plant that is down for a "tune up." But not to the degree of a winter or summer total fuel cost.

I would imaging gas prices reflect pretty much the same type of swings, of course the summer is when most kids are out of school and that's when everyone hops in the car and goes to Disney World and the beach, increasing the demand for gas, back to the old law. A hurricane does not hurt with rigs being evacuated, but we as Americans import about 90% of our oil supply to feed our voratious appetite for gasoline, especially when we drive gas hogs liek a Ford Expedition or Excursion.

Me personally, I drive a big ol' Ford F-150, it's 6 cylinder and gets about 18 mpg, so I am a little guilty of adding to the demand.


Just my .02 cents.

 

[gage0921]

Ok here is what I have come up with...........King of Saudi Arabia has passed within the past week and the prince has taken his place. Saudi Arabia has contorl over quite a bit. After looking back on prices when the king died that same day gas went up and has continued to rise. Here is a more detailed explanation how prices are determined. To particular groups...Council on forien relations and the trilaterus meet and discuss things such as gas prices. These are the people who make these changes, funny thing is though....CEO's of major oil companies are members of the Council on foreign realations so there is no telling.

 

[AACJ]

Ok here is what I have come up with...........King of Saudi Arabia has passed within the past week and the prince has taken his place. Saudi Arabia has contorl over quite a bit. After looking back on prices when the king died that same day gas went up and has continued to rise. Here is a more detailed explanation how prices are determined. To particular groups...Council on forien relations and the trilaterus meet and discuss things such as gas prices. These are the people who make these changes, funny thing is though....CEO's of major oil companies are members of the Council on foreign realations so there is no telling.

My general rule of thumb is it takes roughly 50 to 60 days from barrel price change to gas station pump change, due to shipping from Saudi Arabia to the US, then offloading to pipeline to the refinery then from there shipped to the gas stations. He only died about two weeks ago, so I don't see the price increase influenced by him, only by the oil companies, vacationers/summer travelers, etc....Wait another month and a half, I see prices spiking big time then.

 

[Austin]

One of the elements you guys are missing is oil speculators. These guys drive the cost of a barrel of oil. Anytime there is a bump on the radar the speculators start purchasing large crude futures thus they drive the cost up.

 

[gage0921]

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...............When price per barrel goes up so does the price at the pump. Why?..........Because as it is being produced it is being replaced. There is no wait period...........

 

[gage0921]

One of the elements you guys are missing is oil speculators. These guys drive the cost of a barrel of oil. Anytime there is a bump on the radar the speculators start purchasing large crude futures thus they drive the cost up.

And they are called speculators or one reason"speculation" Lets say there was a hurrican coming that could shut down poduction between Houston and New Orleans, so speculators buy up a ton of futures. Well the hurrican amounted to nothing but a light breeze so they will release it all and price will not increase. Because oil speculators buy up does not mean that immediatly price will go up.

 

[AACJ]

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...............When price per barrel goes up so does the price at the pump. Why?..........Because as it is being produced it is being replaced. There is no wait period...........

I will somewhat agree with you, not completely, in that as it is being produced it is being replaced, however, there is a wait period, I think wait period may be a bad term to use. As I mentioned in an earlier posting, it does takes time from when they buy it in some foreign country to when it goes into the gas stations tanks. Shipping and processing all take time. Last time I checked it takes a minimum of 3 weeks from a ship to go from Saudia Arabia to the US, then it takes a few days to off load and pipe to a processing plant and time to process, then ship to the retailers.

Same thing in the energy industry, we buy coal two or three months out, but do not recoup the cost of it until it is actually used at a plant. If we have to by spot gas or oil if we have gone over our nomination for the day, that also affects the price, but that is a small increment in the total package.

Speculators do drive the price up as well, that is true. I personally think the Kings death has a lot to do with the price of a barrel in the last week or so.

 

[gage0921]

As I mentioned in an earlier posting, it does takes time from when they buy it in some foreign country to when it goes into the gas stations tanks. Shipping and processing all take time. Last time I checked it takes a minimum of 3 weeks from a ship to go from Saudi Arabia

Cant argue with you there

 

[Jeftichew]

read an interesting opinion article this morning that some of you might enjoy. I'm sure many of you will find holes in this (I've already thought of some), but it raises some interesting points.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/08/14/EDGSHDTTGG1.DTL

Facing Our Energy Dependency
Rising gasoline prices? Terrific! Let's raise them some more!


OK, I realize everyone is worried about rising oil prices, and the painful news you get at the gas pump every time you fill up that 24-gallon behemoth you use to go shopping and pick up your kids. Heck, even filling up your Prius these days can be a harrowing experience.

But let's stop for a moment amid our fear and embrace it. Let's stand still and wonder how we can turn this oil-mad conundrum on its ear and use it to our benefit.

What if we, as Californians, put a huge tax on gasoline, and the federal government followed suit, and so did all the other states? I mean a significant tax, say $6 or $7 a gallon. Make gasoline cost $10 a gallon at the pump. Ouch. Suddenly that SUV costs 240 bucks to fill up. Scary to think about, and what a horrible thing that would be, right?

But let's follow this for a moment and look at the repercussions. With the tax money from gasoline flowing into the state's coffers, suddenly little pesky problems like schools, mass transit, bridges, highways and police officers all go away. For the first time in decades, both the state and federal finances are in order. Fewer cars on the roads mean less stress on resources such as police and fire departments, as well as highway-repair crews.

But not being a macro-economist, I am more interested in the cultural and anthropological changes such a tax would bring to our lives. With the price of gas skyrocketing like that, most people will be forced to take public transportation: light rail, BART, trains and buses. Granted, in the early moments of such a tax, the price of gas would cause some hearts to flutter in the city's maintenance yards where they fill the buses up. Obviously there would need to be money flowing from the state to the cities to subsidize that effort, but with increased ridership -- not a slight increase, but a huge increase -- bus and train revenues would also skyrocket, leading to increased services, more buses and trains, and improved routes and schedules. With better security and increased police patrols, along with better maintenance and lighting at the stations, we end up with more jobs and better public-transit systems.

Now comes the best part: With the decrease in cars on the road, traffic ceases being such a problem. Obviously, rich people will still drive everywhere -- but then, rich people have always done pretty much whatever they wanted to, and this won't stop them. But for the rest of us, we will think long and hard before we drive somewhere.

The effect on our neighborhoods? Think about it. We won't drive to Costco or WalMart when we can walk down to the corner store for some milk and eggs and cookies. That neighborhood movie theater, run down or showing vintage films, suddenly sounds like a fun date, much more attractive than the multiplex in some faraway mall. Suddenly, we walk places we never would have, our health improves, we lose weight and we meet our neighbors and get to know them, because they are out walking to the neighborhood grocery as well. Instead of driving miles for dinner, inviting your neighbors over suddenly sounds way more affordable, and everyone walks home.

All this online shopping slows down, because the price of shipping by truck or air just got more expensive. Web booksellers are not as good a deal as that mom-and-pop bookstore on the corner. When you do come into San Francisco, or use your car, rest assured it will be a special occasion.

Think about this: Freeways that actually have less traffic than they were designed to carry. Bridges that flow smoothly. Trains and light-rail systems that run right where you need to go. Small neighborhoods flourishing, with small family-owned businesses opening up to provide services now available only at large chain stores, and big-box stores drying up, and not because of a few loud-mouthed politically-correct protesters, but because of the natural free-market system. State and local finances would return to where they should be, paying for essential services and no longer running in the deep red. And suddenly, we are no longer so dependent on oil-producing nations.

It is an accepted fact that to change the public's behavior, you must either introduce pain or rewards. It's not that much different than children, really. Undesired behavior must become painful, with consequences (not necessarily physically painful, but painful in some way, and few things hurt as much as a knife into the pocketbook) and desired behavior must be rewarded. When the price of gas goes from $2.81 to $2.97, we are so callous and numb about it that we don't even feel the pain, if in fact we even notice it.

But we will be paying 8 or 10 bucks a gallon soon enough, much sooner than you might want to believe. The question is whether we want to pay ourselves or Exxon/Unocal/Shell/OPEC/fill-in-the-blank. The plan to become less dependent on gasoline, to remove the rope around our neck held by the oil- rich companies and countries, must be authored by ourselves, and waiting until the price of gas is $10 a gallon makes less sense than collecting that money now, and building a society where we know our neighbors and walk to the store, just as we did way back when.

Dave Richards owns a small high-tech business and lives in San Francisco with his wife and two children.

 

[mark the shoeshine boy]

what about the pressure that China has put on the market by becoming a more industrial nation ???

It has to have something with the supply and demand side of things here ???

mark tssb

 

[rtaylor61]

I'm a pretty laid back guy. If the cost is up and prices need to be up, okay. But what REALLY pisses me off is when they announce that there has been an increase in the price of oil, and gas prices go up THAT DAY!

Thank goodness I drive an economy car and live 5 minutes from work!

Randy

 

[gage0921]

what about the pressure that China has put on the market by becoming a more industrial nation ???

It has to have something with the supply and demand side of things here ???

mark tssb

We were just discussing this a couple weeks ago and yes it does effect to some degree.

 

[p_man]

Randy,

That's often true for independents. Generally, they're quick to raise prices in anticipation of having to pay more for their next supply. And they're slow to lower them because a) they paid more for the supply they're now pumping and b) they're worried prices might start going up again.

Dave C

 

[rtaylor61]

Dave,

I can understand the prices coming down gradually, and I appreciate you pointing that out, but it's just the immediate increase that does not sit well with me.

Randy

 

[lint]

Here in Berkeley, CA we have tons of vehicles running biodiesel. Seems like a great alternative.

Last I heard it was about $1.50 a gallon at the fill station in town. It's a great system since the place get all the used oil from restaurants in town for free. Very little processing has to take place before you can dump it in your car. It can be mixd in any ratio with regular diesel, and it burns much cleaner (exhaust smells like french fries).

Lots of people make their own bio in their backyard. its quite safe to make yourself. Diesel engines rarely need any modification to run it either...


-todd

 

[robofunk]

all i can say is that i have to reduce weekend road trips because fuel is too expensive! what a terrible way to live

 

[Jeftichew]

Check out the discrepancy in gas prices worldwide. Crazy! I suppose you can say that we don't have it THAT bad.

http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/global_gasprices/

Nation City Price in USD Regular/Gallon Netherlands Amsterdam $6.48 Norway Oslo $6.27 Italy Milan $5.96 Denmark Copenhagen $5.93 Belgium Brussels $5.91 Sweden Stockholm $5.80 United Kingdom London $5.79 Germany Frankfurt $5.57 France Paris $5.54 Portugal Lisbon $5.35 Hungary Budapest $4.94 Luxembourg
$4.82 Croatia Zagreb $4.81 Ireland Dublin $4.78 Switzerland Geneva $4.74 Spain Madrid $4.55 Japan Tokyo $4.24 Czech Republic Prague $4.19 Romania Bucharest $4.09 Andorra
$4.08 Estonia Tallinn $3.62 Bulgaria Sofia $3.52 Brazil Brasilia $3.12 Cuba Havana $3.03 Taiwan Taipei $2.84 Lebanon Beirut $2.63 South Africa Johannesburg $2.62 Nicaragua Managua $2.61 Panama Panama City $2.19 Russia Moscow $2.10 Puerto Rico San Juan $1.74 Saudi Arabia Riyadh $0.91 Kuwait Kuwait City $0.78 Egypt Cairo $0.65 Nigeria Lagos $0.38 Venezuela Caracas $0.12