Gas Prices

[Ripsnort]

How does one directly affect the "supply and demand" of any service or good? Reduce consumption. In the case of fuel, reduce the trips you make, kill 2 birds with one stone when running errands, vanpool to work, go "virtual" if you can, etc.

[eskimo2]

Originally posted by Ripsnort
How does one directly affect the "supply and demand" of any service or good? Reduce consumption. In the case of fuel, reduce the trips you make, kill 2 birds with one stone when running errands, vanpool to work, go "virtual" if you can, etc.

And carpet less of your home…

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by eskimo2
And carpet less of your home…

Hardwood floors downstairs.

[Charon]

Now that's a laugh when we have a three year reserve stockpiled. Makes you wonder how man decades we had in storage before, doesn't it?

The only significat stockpile I am aware of is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which has about a 57-day supply of crude. There is no gasoline reserve, and in fact the very nature of gasoline makes it difficult to store for any extended period of time because it degrades. That is one of the reasons the discussions over setting up a potential gasoline reserve didn't get traction after Katrina. And the fact that as a global industry, it disturbs the ability of product to shift from market to market through natural market forces when a disruption occurs.


Charon

[lasersailor184]

Originally posted by AWwrgwy
Tree huggers?

I know, commie liberal page....

I've heard this more than once.  Oil companies buying refineries and closing them.  Even for 'environmental' reasons.  With the profits they're making, you'd think (hope?) they'd invest.  But why should they?  You know we're importing not just unrefined oil but gasoline as well.

Summer's comming.  Prices will go up due to 'demand' of vacation season.  Thin I can't figure out is why gas prices haven't really affected the rest of the economy yet.  Prices for other stuff isn't rising as fast yet and it seems to be bussiness as usual for everyone else.

As for oil from Iraq.... Not much, if any comming out of there as it is.  I thought that was how -they- were going to pay us back for liberating them.



wrngway

It's common liberal-think to believe that higher prices generate better revenue or profit.



Anyway, a refinery burned down in Alabama.  Partial cause of this.

[MotleyCH]

Prices just went up this afternoon to $3.58 for regular for most places in the Chicago area...thats about a dollar more than it was about two months ago.

[Tango]

Originally posted by MotleyCH
Prices just went up this afternoon to $3.58 for regular for most places in the Chicago area...thats about a dollar more than it was about two months ago.

Move South.

I was just over in Greenville Mississippi and saw a station with $2.77 a gallon. Its $2.89 over here in Louisiana.

[Serenity]

[parker00]

Originally posted by Tango
When we get the tree huggers to get out of the way so we can build some more gas refineries.

And who is going to build them? If you think oil companies then think again:
Maybe one day you guys will realize the oil company's really are as bad as people say.


http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/pr/?postId=5110

[parker00]

Originally posted by Tango
I live here in Louisiana and know people that work in refineries down south. They will tell you they have been operating as fast as they can to try and keep up.

Now who is BSing who?

Seems you are BSing yourself. When they shut down others I would guess the ones left open would be a bit busy.

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by Serenity

The irony of that picture is that the same people who said it was a war over oil now make theses pictures.

[parker00]

Originally posted by lasersailor184
It's common liberal-think to believe that higher prices generate better revenue or profit.



Anyway, a refinery burned down in Alabama.  Partial cause of this.

 You have to be kidding. Record profits at the same time of record prices, yeah no affect what so ever.

[Shamus]

We saw the same "free market supply and demand" forces at work in California as regards to electric prices a few years back.

Take a facility off line for maintenance at the right time and prices go thru the roof.

The oil refiners have become quasi utilities, more of a monopoly than free market product providers.

shamus

[Charon]

You have to be kidding. Record profits at the same time of record prices, yeah no affect what so ever.

They are absolutely linked, though the record profits come from crude oil and not gasoline. These prices are also set by international commodities markets and not as a direct price from the oil companies. The CEO of BP doesn't just walk in the meeting room one morning and say: "Let’s set crude at $70 per bbl." Now the oil companies could technically conspire to manipulate the market, but they have endured regular FTC investigations (and will in the future from grandstanding politician and AGs looking to score points with the public) with no fire found behind the smoke.

We could go to price fixing and a regulated market, but the result of that was the highest standard gasoline prices we ever paid as motorists (peaked in 1981 as adjusted for inflation at about $3.20) and the occasional outages and shortages and rationing of the 1970s. Again, the good old days of unlimited cheap gas passed by 1973, with the 1990s being the exception, not the rule. The Rise of the developing world will work to make sure there are fewer exceptions in years to come barring events like a World-wide recession -- but that would hardly be something to cheer about.

Charon

[Charon]

Take a facility off line for maintenance at the right time and prices go thru the roof.

Maintenance is a fact of life in all industries. Converting from one gasoline blend to another is a fact of life under the Clean Air Act. The conversion happes in the spring and fall. The spring is particularly bad since it leads into the summer driving season which is high demand. Just the way it has worked for decades now. Also, with the numerous independent refiners (as I mentioned, major oil is moving out of refining to a great degree) there is no incentive to be artificially out of production since you lose all those profits generated by the reduced supply.

The California Electric Utility Market and our gasoline infrastructure have few similarities given the vastly different competitive natures of each, with petroleum being far more diverse, independent and competitive.

Charon