1. The price of a barrel of oil is actually .50/bbl less than it was last Friday.
2. Canada is a net exporter of Gasoline, meaning that refining capacity is more than we consume.
Why then did the price of gasoline jump by .29 per litre this week? Why did prices jump in Europe? Capacity wasn't affected there, nor was demand.
I'm particularly peeved about this as I live in a remote community that receives bulk gas shipments only every 6 weeks or so and the next shipment isn't due for another 3 weeks.
$#@$#
I guess the answer to this question is like the the answer to the old joke,
" Why do dogs lick their b*lls "
" Why do oil companies raise their prices "
... same answer
edit.. $1.557 / litre this morning for regular unleaded
[ September 03, 2005, 10:32 AM: Message edited by: Mike O'Neill ]
Posted by Kimberly Zanetti (Member # 2546) on :
Same thing here Mike - CA has it's own refineries - we don't use stuff from the gulf. Still prices went up here. Makes no sense.
Posted by Todd Gill (Member # 2569) on :
Yep...because they can!!
It's such a racket.....I'm thinking about buying a book I saw on Fox - - Book title was "Over a barrel"....can't remember the auther but he is supposedly some kind of expert on how oil is manipulated in the US (probably Canada too) to pimp us while lining the pockets of others.....
I'd be interested in checking that out. You make good points...
Gas actually went down today from 3.49 to 2.99 for some reason....
Posted by Mike Pipes (Member # 1573) on :
quote:Originally posted by Kimberly Zanetti: Same thing here Mike - CA has it's own refineries - we don't use stuff from the gulf. Still prices went up here. Makes no sense.
Yeah, Cali DOES use stuff from the Gulf. There was a story about that very thing on the Phoenix news tonight because AZ gets its gas from Cali, so someone asked where Cali gets their fuel.
The answer is, tankers bring it from the Gulf, through the Panama Canal, back up into Cali. Turns out, offshore rigs on the Cali side of the US account for only 20% of California's oil production.
Posted by jack wills (Member # 521) on :
I heard "Bill O'Reily" himself say this... "It costs (about) $4-5.00 to bring a barrel to the surface. He admonished the pres. for not taking a stand. Take it from there. Who's got the rudder these day's? Just quoting here.
CrazyJack
Posted by Michael Boone (Member # 308) on :
you know who has the rudder its an oil man.. hello
Posted by Glenn Taylor (Member # 162) on :
Gasoline is a commodity like anything else.
And, like so many of my customers, no matter what anyone does someone is going to be unhappy.
If the price is cheap, people complain that not enough is being done about alternative fuels and that we drive too much therefore we pollute more.
If the price is too high, some corporate bigwig must be making a dime more than me and should be executed. Meanwhile, higher prices encourage conservation and more R&D into alternative fuels.
Gripe, gripe, gripe......
.
Posted by Gene Golden (Member # 3934) on :
I'm sure the prices will come back down, like they did after the OPEC problem in the early 70's.
Hey, wait a minute...
Posted by Bobbie Rochow (Member # 3341) on :
A guy on O REILLY the other night told him that if they cut the price of gasoline, we would run out, because of the lack of enough refineries to keep up with the demand for it. He said the price increase "does it's thing". People have to conserve. Bill said that the price increase only hurts the poor & middle class, the rich can afford it. Anybody else hear that?
[ September 03, 2005, 02:56 PM: Message edited by: Bobbie Rochow ]
Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
how dare you start another post that has nothng to do with signs and is ONLY ABOUT SOME CRAP THAT WILL END UP WITH AMERICAN POLITICS being the main point of the discussion!!!!!!!hehehehehe wake up folks...its called the dumming down effect. since the oil boom of the early 80's to NO OIL WELLS PUMPING now....its all about GREED. after the 1st oil shortage 70's, the oil wells in this country started to be capped off in favor of cheaper oil from overseas. why was their oil cheaper? because over there they had no unions and labor was at our 1935 labor wages. so this intrun put us into a DEPENDANCY mode rather than a producer of oil. soon as the UNIONS here lose their ranks, you will see the oils wells start to pump again now they can get $50+ a barrel and pay workers $6-7 an hour to work the rigs with no unions to make the companies pay a decent wage....dont like this senerio do you.....but look around folks... its gettin to be if you got a job....your doin good, high payin jobs are gettin less and less....how many here are a single income household? and i got less then my parents had WITH ONE INCOME !!!!!!!!!
Posted by jack wills (Member # 521) on :
Yeh, I heard it Bobbie,
It isn't so much about politics as it is about common sense. Do you remember when the speed limits were lowered to conserve gasoline and save a few jobs and even save some lives? Where will we come up with solutions that can work like that? Keep it simple stupid, kinds of things that a good leadership can make happen. I will not wait myself. I have confined my driving to the slow lane at 55-60 mph and yes I'm saving fuel and my serenity.
CrazyJack
P.S. Some people still have to be led to the trough.
Posted by Mike Pipes (Member # 1573) on :
Hey Jack I got ya beat, I only drive 35MPH. Of course, that's the speed limit on most surface streets here, we only have one highway limited at 55 but there's so many stoplights on it, it's faster driving through town.
This week I tried something new. Monday when my tank was empty I filled it only halfway - 7 gallons - and decided that's all the gas I'm gonna allow myself for the week. So far so good!! I can't believe it, I went from spending $50/week on gas down to $20/week, at the snap of a finger!
Posted by KARYN BUSH (Member # 1948) on :
i go out once a day...early morning to get my mint chocolate skim milk one shot latte(with fresh ground chocolate sprinkles...ya know cause chocolate...it aint just for breakfast no more)...i drop my deposit in the after hours drop and get the mail...and do any errands b4 all the idiots are on the road...i don't put much mileage on myself...but i did notice my exxon/mobil has increased a bit.
Posted by Steve Trumbo (Member # 5962) on :
"Gas prices continue to rise. At the gas station near my house they have a slot for your credit card and one right next to it for your 401K." —Jay Leno
Mr. Bill's Hurricane Warning
"Saturday Night Live's" Mr. Bill appeared in this eerily prescient 2004 public service announcement to warn New Orleans residents about the danger of hurricanes.
I drive with my left turn signal going to keep the fleas (a--holes) off my bumper.I don't know if they count with any one, but they sure as hell don't mean Shyte to me.
CrazyJack P.S. I had a 42 ford back in the 50's that got 33 mpg on 110 octane. Hmm?
Posted by Glenn Taylor (Member # 162) on :
I think Dave Barry has a better handle on the issue.......
quote:If you've been to a gas station lately, you have no doubt been shocked by the prices: $1.67, $1.78, even $1.92. And that's just for Hostess Twinkies. Gas prices are even worse.
Americans are ticked off about this, and with good reason: Our rights are being violated! The First Amendment clearly states: 'In addition to freedom of speech, Americans shall always have low gasoline prices, so they can drive around in `sport utility' vehicles the size of minor planets.''
And don't let any so-called ''economists'' try to tell you that foreigners pay more for gas than we do. Foreigners use metric gasoline, which is sold in foreign units called ''kilometers,'' plus they are paying for it with foreign currencies such as the ''franc,'' the ''lira'' and the ''doubloon.'' So in fact there is no mathematical way to tell WHAT they are paying.
But here in the U.S., we are definitely getting messed over, and the question is: What are we going to do about it? Step one, of course, is to file a class-action lawsuit against the cigarette companies. They have nothing to do with gasoline, but juries really hate them, so we'd probably win several hundred billion dollars.
But that is a short-term answer. To truly solve this problem, we must understand how the oil business works. Like most Americans, you probably think that gasoline comes from the pump at the gas station. Ha ha! What an idiot. In fact, the gasoline comes from tanks located UNDER the gas station.
We actually found a gas station in Ohio last night that sold the ceaper grade for $2.99 a gallon! Woo-pee!!!!!
Posted by Dan Marquis (Member # 87) on :
>>Meanwhile, higher prices encourage conservation and more R&D into alternative fuels.<<
The news this evening reported that traveling this weekend was up slightly over last Labor Day weekend. As long as we keep sucking it up they'll keep sticking it to us.
Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
Supply and demand. They taught all of us this stuff in high school.
Posted by James Donahue (Member # 3624) on :
Back in the '60's, they had these races of a different sort: they would drive long distances, over normal road routes, not race tracks. The goal was to see which driver could get to the destination the soonest, but by using the least gas.
I do the same thing, but it's a game I play everywhere I drive, especially now. Fun game, but makes you look wierd to the other drivers, like I really care. You should see the latest graphics scheme on my Toyota truck. The 'WIERDO' label comes with the turf.
Anyway-y-y-y, here's some of the thinking that you'll need: (a basic refresher course in physics) The gas in your tank is chemical energy, it gets converted to heat energy, which through rods, crankshaft, gears, etc, gets converted to kenetic energy (movement).
Now here comes Joe Bright-o in his monster soovey (Vegggy Tales for S.U.V.). He's idling at the light, which turns green. He nails the pedal. Okay, we all remember (Newton's?) law of inertia: That which is in motion tends to remain in motion, unles acted on by an outside force, and that which is still tends to remain still, unless acted on by an outside force.
In order to get this 4000-5000(?) lb vehicle moving quickly, Brighto has to really put the outside force to the situation. If he were to roll gently off the line, working WITH inertia, as much as possible, then he would save some fuel.
Then of course, when Brighto is driving, he pays no attention to what the lights ahead of him are doing, unless it's to see who can get to the red light first!. WOW mega-bright. Now, the kenetic energy that was paid for so dearly at $3 plus per, is converted by the brakes into friction/heat energy. Bye-bye gasoline.
Folks, Using your brakes equals using gasoline. I know, insert no brakes jokes here, but what I'm advocating is coasting. Have some patience, it pays.
More thoughts:
I get a lot better mileage at 40 mpg, than 50 or 55.
I have a book about producer gas. It was a way of running cars on the carbon monoxide from burning charcoal. Not practiced in the US as much as France and Australia, in WW2. The setup is low tech if I recall, I'm thinking seriously about looking into it again, as I'm surrounded by hardwood and timbering tools.
I don't know if it can happen again, but people reacted during the shortages of the 70's. Economy cars sold like hotcakes, they were everywhere. I rember seeing an ad for a Honda compact car. It said: "Why gasoline stations sell food".
I for one would like very much to see a widespread reation whereby people showed the oil companies that we're not completly helpless in this situation. Posted by Checkers (Member # 63) on :
Setting speed limits to save gasoline is a load of crap! I went on a 3 hour tour about a month ago, taking my 1994 Saturn SL. It has a 4 cylinder engine with an automatic transmission. It has over 120,000 miles on it and it was very well maintained. Under normal local driving conditions, I get about 240 mile per tank of gas. Driving conservatively (doing the speed limit) on the highway, I get about 275. I decided to kick it up a little on this trip. My average highway speed was around 75 mph, maybe a little higher To my surprise, when I completed my journey, I still had plenty of gas left. So much that I managed to drive another week for a total of 375 miles before I had to refill my tank. Here's some numbers. I have an 11 gallon gas tank. Under normal driving conditions I get about 22 mpg local and 25 highway. During this trip and the local driving the week after, I managed to average 34 mpg. Setting speed limits saves gas? my arse
Havin' fun,
Checkers
Posted by Glenn Taylor (Member # 162) on :
Hmmmmmmm.....need fuel? Just pop a pill.
quote:Claus Hviid Christensen's pill looks like a regular aspirin, but the headache it is designed to relieve is one of global dimensions.
Christensen, along with his team of scientists at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), have found a way to store hydrogen in a tablet form, overcoming one of the biggest problems with using hydrogen: storage.
'The last 20 years, researchers worldwide have tried to find a practical way to store hydrogen. Without it, there is no hope for hydrogen to become a dominant fuel typ. We have found that way,' Christensen, who is professor of chemistry at DTU, told daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
After keeping their project a secret for the past six months while waiting for international patent protection, the researchers planned to publicly reveal their invention at a scientific conference in Chicago on Wednesday.
The DTU team has worked for a year and a half to develop a method to store hydrogen, a lighter-than-air, inflammable gas, in a compact, solid form.
'Before, the amount of hydrogen needed to fuel a passenger vehicle for 500 kilometres occupied the same space as nine passenger vehicles. With our pill, the same amount of energy can be contained in a normal 50 litre tank,' said Christensen.
This is one reason why I don't worry so much about how much oil we have left in the world. Necessity has always been the mother of invention and this is no different.
Posted by Bill Preston (Member # 1314) on :
Have to agree with Jack and James D. on the slowing down thing to save gas.
Same here, and no more driving just for fun. Well all right---the coffee runs to my favorite watering hole.
One of the local TV news stories the other night had to do with mileage estimates posted on new vehicle stickers. Big difference between EPA and Consumer Reports "real-world" mileage figures. As much as 30 to 40 percent difference.
My own truck is an 05 Ranger,4wd, 5 speed stick, 4.0 liter V6, with the so called performance axle. (Lower gearing, higher numerical, limited slip.) EPA numbers are 16mpg city, and 19 mpg rural. Mileage wise, I do better by quite a bit. Yeah, it can be done.
Get into 5th goin' home gear asap. Downhill start from a stop on a grade---2nd gear, let gravity help. If it is level from there, 2nd to 3rd, skip 4th and go for 5th. Don't wind it up to hell and gone.
Most vehicles these days are running P-metric tires, and call for higher air pressures than the old bias-ply type. 35 psi cold is about the usual. Keep it there, or even 1 or 2 psi higher.
Lately, I have been getting 21, 22, and as high as 23.7 mpg. When cold weather gets here, this will go down. The point is, better mileage can be had without too much effort. OK, here is a rural area without much in the way of traffic lights. On the other hand, it is hilly country, though not as much as down in the Catskills.
One other item: when income tax time rolls around, vehicles used for business should have a lot higher mileage deduction to reflect the increase in gas prices---at least here in the States----so that should take some of the sting out.
FWIW
bill preston
[ September 07, 2005, 01:57 PM: Message edited by: Bill Preston ]
Posted by Todd Gill (Member # 2569) on :
quote:we must understand how the oil business works. Like most Americans, you probably think that gasoline comes from the pump at the gas station. Ha ha! What an idiot. In fact, the gasoline comes from tanks located UNDER the gas station.
I know where my gas comes from...and my wife has banned me from ever eating those foods again!
Edit: Ooops....I missed the "oline" part...darn this dyslexia.
[ September 07, 2005, 03:01 PM: Message edited by: Todd Gill ]
Posted by Camille Norvaisas (Member # 501) on :
Funny in VT there are a couple gas stations with the "old style" pumps - ya know where the numbers flip up and there's no place to put a credit card. Well - those pumps won't go higher than $2.99 so all the octanes were that price. Bill asked the owner if he's still making a profit at that price and the answer was, "yeah we do ok."
Posted by Paul McDowell (Member # 5092) on :
jack wills:
quote:"It costs (about) $4-5.00 to bring a barrel to the surface. He admonished the pres. for not taking a stand. Take it from there.
It costs Saudi Arabia $5 US to pull a 55 gallons of oil out of the ground and deliver it to the docks. OPEC deliberately compresses the amount of oil that goes on the market. Competition between China, the UK and the US to purchase that oil drives the price up.
Everyone is mad at oil companies making $0.05 per gallon while OPEC makes $1.25 per gallon... or they comlain about foreign oil but object to drilling in frozen wastelands or offshore platforms... and forget about trying to build a new refinery or nuclear power plant. Face it. 30 years of restricting energy growth has caught up.
Gene Golden:
quote:I'm sure the prices will come back down, like they did after the OPEC problem in the early 70's.
Hey, wait a minute...
Price of gas in 1980: $1.40 Price of gas in 1992: $0.88 Price of gas in 1998: $0.99
This doesnt account for inflation.
Checkers:
quote:Here's some numbers. I have an 11 gallon gas tank. Under normal driving conditions I get about 22 mpg local and 25 highway. During this trip and the local driving the week after, I managed to average 34 mpg. Setting speed limits saves gas? my arse
Exactly. modern cars (especially compared to older automatics) are lighter, have better fuel economy, have stronger engines and have more gears. Having more gears in an automatic means the higher gears are taller, allowing highway speeds at lower rpm's. that means less fuel consumed. In some situations running slower in a lower gear can use more gas.
Posted by Glenn Taylor (Member # 162) on :
What I wanna know is when we finally switch over to hydrogen-fueled and hybrid-electric cars, how are we gonna hotrod'em and still look cool?
Putting a Lavallee flame job on a Prius just ain't gonna do it.
Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
or they comlain about foreign oil but object to drilling in frozen wastelands or offshore platforms... and forget about trying to build a new refinery or nuclear power plant. Face it. 30 years of restricting energy growth has caught up. not so fast glennie... where was the 1st oil well in the U.S.? and when? cant answer that .....ok. what happened to al lthe oil wells in texas, oklahoma, kansas? why are the only oil drilling that are up and running are either on the edge of alaska or in the gulf? all those wells in texas oklahoma...EMPTY? not on your life......all about labor wages.....taxes. refineries havent been built because they DONT WANT TO MET QUALITY CONTROL MEASURES that have been put in place since the 60's, so they keep the old refineries runnig with grandfathered in quality controls form the 50's!!!!!!! THEY DONT WNAT TO MODERIZE....BUT WANT TO MAKE PROFITS ONLY!!! 1865 oil city pa, 1st well was drilled and IT STILL IS PRODUCING OIL!!!!
Posted by David Harding (Member # 108) on :
I finally get to play Doug Allan:
quote:Putting a Lavallee flame job on a Prius just ain't gonna do it.
I'll bet Mike can do some awesome looking lightning bolts!
Posted by Glenn Taylor (Member # 162) on :
quote:Originally posted by David Harding: I finally get to play Doug Allan:
quote:Putting a Lavallee flame job on a Prius just ain't gonna do it.
I'll bet Mike can do some awesome looking lightning bolts!
I hadn't thought of that!
Better yet......
[ September 08, 2005, 12:44 PM: Message edited by: Glenn Taylor ]
Posted by Jay Allen (Member # 195) on :
Or here's another thought to slow the rising price of oil:
All oil futures are bought and sold in an AUCTION environment at the NYMEX in New York. I've been on the floor of the NYMEX - and you wouldn't believe the energy created in the trading pits!! And all bad energy if you ask me.
Ever been to an auction and paid too much because you got caught up in the frenzy? Of course, almost all of us has. And they sell oil that way?
Change the way the price is set (remove the auction/commodity format) and it will lessen the herd mentality!! I understand that is what capitalism is all about - but what if we sold everything like that? It may make a difference.
Did they ever think of stopping doing something just because "we've always done it that way"? It does seem to be the norm, now doesn't it?
Just a thought.
[ September 08, 2005, 01:11 PM: Message edited by: Jay Allen ]
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