Gas Prices Where You Live ?

[bru333]

It was $3.12 (for regular) a few days ago, just filled up today at Wally @ $3.04.

Stopped by the airport to chat for a while, 100 octane low lead aviation gas was $4.39!

[Trash man]

joe to answer ur question. the oil companies are claiming they arent making huge profits but even with the warm winter we had they are still blowing wal-mart out in the profits

[raroZ28]

It isn't supply and demand at all really. They say the uprising of SUV popularity is a big reason for it, but we've averaged about the same consumption for years. Demand for gas has gone down a ton in the past 30 years.

Some charts...

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004727.html

http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/e...nsumption.html

[Dave M]

joe to answer ur question. the oil companies are claiming they arent making huge profits but even with the warm winter we had they are still blowing wal-mart out in the profits

They aren't claiming they're not making profit, they're just claiming they don't have any control over price. Exxon has been posting record profits each quarter for the last few years. They are the most profitable company on the planet and make Wal-mart look like a mom and pop operation. There were a few quarters where they posted $10 Billion in profits in the quarter. That's billion with a "B", profits not sales, and in only 3 months. That's tens of thousands of dollars in profits every minute.

Nobody is saying the oil companies aren't making much profit. But they are right to a degree in that they don't set the price. Oil and gas are traded on exchanges just like stocks are. Traders have bid the price of oil and gas up over the last few years. A number of reasons have been speculated, but it usually comes down to fear of rising demand because of China and India's growth, and fear of decreasing supply because of world political tensions or weather. Every day a news story comes out about Iran rattling their sabres, or Nigerian rebels siezing an oil field or some weatherman predicts an active hurrican season the price of a barrel of oil skyrockets. 5 years ago the price of a barrel of oil was $20. Now it's consistantly in the $60-70 range. You can see why oil companies, who sell that oil, are making record profits.

[Joshu]

This whole gas fiasco gets me worked up to a new level each day.
So Dave, theoretically, if the news stations stopped hyping every little detail about some foriegn affair that is forgotten the next day, would gas go down to a certain degre?

I think our media is hyping everything way too much. They need to hype for ratings, but this is just unfair.

EDIT: is there any way to take oil off the stock market?

[raroZ28]

Think about this. When gas prices go up, they say "Crude oil went up this morning, so we have to raise prices." But, if crude oil goes down, they leave the price where it is reason being "We have to sell all this gas off at this sale price because we paid so much for it crude."

So why don't gas prices drop immediately with the price of crude oil? It doesn't make sense. There is nothing anybody can do aside from drive less.

[96FirebirdFormula]

3.49 now was 3.59 for regular but county over its 3.32 i was like...

[Dave M]

This whole gas fiasco gets me worked up to a new level each day.
So Dave, theoretically, if the news stations stopped hyping every little detail about some foriegn affair that is forgotten the next day, would gas go down to a certain degre?

I think our media is hyping everything way too much. They need to hype for ratings, but this is just unfair.

EDIT: is there any way to take oil off the stock market?

It's not really the media. These traders are reacting to the information that's being released, not to any hype by the media. It's simply the unstable times we live in that's making the price of oil/gas get so high. The war in Iraq took a lot of supply off the table, Iran keeps threatening to do the same if we don't let them have their nukes, Nigeria and Venezuela, two of the biggest oil countries, are a mess politically. Add in China's amazing growth and rise in oil consumption and the ever-present threat of a hurricane wiping out all gulf production, the fact that refineries are old and not running at a very high capacity because they keep breaking down and we haven't built a new one in 30 years.... you begin to get the picture.

And no, you'll never get oil/gas off the exchanges. They are traded on a mercantile exchange just like any commodity, be it pigs, corn, gold, copper or oil. The price fluctuates depending on the market. Right now it's a sellers market for oil due to the above reasons. One day we might see the return of $20/barrel oil, but I kind of doubt it. OPEC has gotten so used to these prices they would start restricting supply to keep prices artificially high if prices started to fall too far.

You've had your financial education for the day....

[Black97]

These traders are reacting to the information that's being released, not to any hype by the media.

Yep if one of the Saudi's wakes up with a cold, the prices go up!

Hurricane season is upon you guys in the South. Another "perfectly good" reason to jack up the prices whenever a new is forming in the Caribbean.

[ConElite]

Its Getting close to $60 to fill up my car. I got Very luck yesterday when I was driving to the beach and found a gas station that was $3.43 for 91. Thats the cheapest I have seen in a while. Oh man do I miss my honda Now. It was $20-30 to fill. Damn it!! The highest I have seen is up there where Holmes Lives Close to San Luis Obispo and Pismo Beach. Its about $3.75 for premium. Its getting expensive dating someone from up there.

[FroSSty]

Last week it spiked to $3.69 from $3.35 for regular. I work next to a gas station and filled up before the hike. It paid for lunch that day...