Gas Prices WOW!

[dawgm]

What is the price of gas today? (TGIF)

$3.29.9/10 in athens. wow! I was going to put new tires on the explorer; if prices get real high, why bother? I'll never be able to drive it enough to use up those tires

note to self and others: go ahead and order anything you might want in the next 6 months, fuel surcharges will be added and shipping prices will skyrocket

 

[mm30004]

Gas was $2.96 last weekend...it's $3.25 today in Dublin, Ga. Wonder what it will be next weekend?

 

[fattboyzz]

I went in kroger and it was $3.15 a gallon ......came back out after buying groceries and it was $3.25 a gallon for regular near newnan today ............and another place had it for $3.42

 

[bearpugh]

3.25 in temple. guess the ol chevy will be sitting more. been tight enough as it is.

 

[19 Kilo]

I'm being conservative, we could be looking at $6-8.00, or worse if the Middle East doesn't settle down a bit. It's the business I'm in. Thus the handle.

You must have missed the whole "we don't get oil from the middle east" post.

 

[Crackerz]

Excerpt from an article in the local paper that's the most truthful I've seen:

The unrest in the Middle East appears to be the latest driver of increasing prices, because it's certainly not due to supply and demand.

"Supply and demand is what it used to go on," Hemrick said. But these days, "the demand is not there," he said.

Instead, it is the commodities traders on Wall Street working to get oil and gas prices up as high as they can, said Hemrick.

"It's legalized gambling. That's all it is," he added.

William Cook was putting gas in his minivan on Tuesday. "They're talking about it going up to $4," he said. "It's a mess. And nobody's got any jobs here, either."

Roger Hendley does mobile forklift repair. He uses two vans and it costs $75 to $80 every time he fills up. Every time gas goes up, it hurts the bottom line, but "I've still got to ride. We've got customers waiting on us," Hendley said.

The state average price for regular unleaded was $3.097 on Tuesday, according to fuelgaugereport.com. That's up from $3.058 a week ago and $3.025 a month ago.

The national average was $3.171, up from $3.124 a week ago, $3.113 a month ago, and $2.648 a year ago.

To illustrate the importance of commodities trading in oil and gas prices, oil price expert Tom Kloza compared the current situation with how things were in 2003, just as the Iraq war was starting.

"Current participation in NYMEX futures and options is about three to five times higher than it was eight years ago," Kloza said on his "Speaking of Oil" blog.

The current "open interest" in crude -- that is, the number of positions held by both buyers and sellers -- is about 2.6 million contracts, compared to less than 550,000 contracts in March 2003, Kloza said.

"Physical oil demand is perhaps 10 percent higher than it was in 2003," Kloza said. "But financial participation from banks, hedge funds, commodity pools, index funds, algorithmic traders, et al, has increased by 300 percent or more," Kloza said.

"Oil futures and options are now a major asset class, and the amount of money at risk when events break a certain way is exponentially higher than it was in 2003," he said.

While investors and traders are making more money in gasoline than they ever have before, gas stations are making very little.

"I used to make good money on gas," said Hemrick. But in the last seven or eight years there has been "less and less profit," he said. "It's definitely not a profit center. That's why you see car washes, delis, restaurants, and cafes. Anything you can make a little money on."

They don't care if they drag the country into destruction, they just care about greed.

 

[Petro_58]

I understand that we don't buy as much as you think, but oil prices are a world market which they (Middle East) dominate. Because we (US) don't produce enough to make as serious an impact on world prices as the Middle East does. The market prices are Primarily driven by the Middle East producers, OPEC being probably one of the biggest influences. Others are the poor performance of the Global stock markets, Oil & Gas Speculators (Greedy Bast#$ds driving the price up), manipulation by Our US oil companies, all coupled with World devaluation of the dollar.

Bet you didn’t know that the US refiners have kept production down to help keep prices up. Why do you think when gas was $4.00 plus per gallon, and the people where becoming so outraged that Congress finally started Hearings, and Miraculously prices started falling, yes there were several factors one being, they (US Oil Companies) got caught with their hand in cookie jar, and backed off prices a bit. Nobody to this day with one of the Major Oil Companies will answer the Question “who at your Company sets the price for gas that day?”
Back during the shortages (Oil Co. Created) in the 70’s. We were contracted by Texaco, Shell, Union 76 etc. and I personally capped (sealed) many underground storage tanks FULL of gas, that the Major Oil Companies were stock piling. There was no shortage, all created to drive the price up.

I’ve been in the Petroleum Industry for 36+ years, and I hear it direct from the suppliers, refiners, operators etc. I’ll tell you right now, I believe there’s a 95% chance your going to see close to $5.00 +/- per gallon gas by mid to late summer. Where it’s going from there is anybody’s guess I’m hearing $6-$8. I have a feeling & am hoping it don’t break $6. But a lot also depends on what happens in the Middle East. And I really hope I’m wrong. Because this country, our economy and our people are in dire straights already and it could the tipping point to a bad situation.

 

[Jody13]

Thank God I only live 7 miles to work and the wife only 5 miles. Good info Petro_58!!!

I still don't understand how a gas station can raise the price of gas that they already have in their tanks. (without a new load of fuel being delivered)

 

[Petro_58]

Jody,
Their watching the Market Price, and some stations operate on a consignment type deal were they are charged for what they pump. For instance: Say you get your tanks filled, the price was 3.00 per gallon when they brought it, you are paying them per gallon at the end of the week for how much you pump, so today your price is 3.10 but this afternoon the Market price goes up to 3.15, well if your going to get charged at 3.15 you need to go up. Then price drops back to 3.05, now you can keep your price up or drop back. This is part of the reason sometimes you see like the other day, when gas was 3.11 that morning and that afternoon it was 3.33, then droped back to 3.25. There are other factors but this is one.

 

[Jody13]

You da man, I'm off to the gun show in brunswick. Good stuff.