anyone know why gas has been skyrocketing the last 2 weeks. last time i checked their wasn't a category 5 churning through the Gulf so i do not see why gas prices are approaching $3/gallon again

4/7/2006 6:29:10 PM

its because u touch yourself at night

4/7/2006 6:29:38 PM

yes that must be it

4/7/2006 6:34:22 PM

4/7/2006 6:43:29 PM

$3.05 a gallon in SoCal

4/7/2006 6:52:34 PM

Get used to it, oil production is peaking very shortly, and then its all down hill from there.

Mike

4/7/2006 7:13:32 PM

um, excuse me, but doesn't Venezuela have like 200 years worth of oil resources available?

LET'S GIT EM!

4/7/2006 7:40:22 PM

It only stands to reason that the oil companies found out just how much inflation the gas market will bear when the whole Katrina/Gulf devastation happened. They never looked back.

I wouldn't bank on gas prices dropping significantly anytime soon unless demand drops like a rock. And that won't happen until folks stop driving unnecessarily, develop and utilize public transportation, and trade in their Chevy Subdivisions and their Ford Excruciations for smaller, more fuel-efficient cars.

In other words, fucking never...at least until the last drop of petroleum has been refined and used up.

[Edited on April 7, 2006 at 7:56 PM. Reason : shit...]

4/7/2006 7:55:42 PM

Sheetz still has cheap fucking gas

4/7/2006 9:23:36 PM

Surely you've taken an introductory economics class. Did you pay attention?

4/7/2006 10:09:41 PM

Quote :

"$3.05 a gallon in SoCal "

you're going to the wrong place, is $2.69 across the street from me.

4/7/2006 11:18:18 PM

I saw 2.75 down here in Pembroke at a gas station. It's 20 cents cheaper in Lumberton 15 miles away.

People my advice is to just suck it up and pay.

4/7/2006 11:24:28 PM

this is another one of those topics i would say if democrats would have been in office it wouldnt be as high now .

4/7/2006 11:26:07 PM

i hope your'e fucking joking. this is not a partisan fucking debate.

4/7/2006 11:29:38 PM

I'd say lock it if it's going to go into a political debate.

4/7/2006 11:43:32 PM

Because they can.

4/7/2006 11:47:39 PM

Hey Queti, come tell us what's up with all the gas companies and how they're trying to break our wallets here.

4/7/2006 11:49:50 PM

I wish I had stock in the gas companies prior to Katrina.

4/8/2006 12:05:29 AM

Quote :

"um, excuse me, but doesn't Venezuela have like 200 years worth of oil resources available? LET'S GIT EM!"

Maybe 200 years worth of oil for them...

Mike

4/8/2006 12:38:08 AM

gas prices always increase towards and during summer. Econ 101.

4/8/2006 2:04:29 AM

Clearly if we switched over to a cleaner fuel source then in the end it would be cheaper and the Middle East wouldn't have our balls in a vice.

4/8/2006 11:51:00 AM

clearly people need to be more educated on the whole global fuel market.

4/8/2006 11:53:44 AM

How so?

Looking at fuel costs post-WWII versus now?

Other countries have increased fuel needs but to think that we aren't getting screwed is a joke.

4/8/2006 11:55:44 AM

i'm pretty sure the gas after ww2 wasnt as clean as the stuff is now

4/8/2006 12:18:23 PM

Quote :

"this is another one of those topics i would say if democrats would have been in office it wouldnt be as high now ."

Riiiiight. Because they just love it when greedy oil companies build air polluting refineries.

4/9/2006 6:46:09 PM

when katrina hit i was kind of hoping shit would get real fucked up to the point where government officials would really have to start planning some public transportation

im actually just sick of having to drive all the time

i wouldnt mind taking a subway from garner to north raleigh real quick to see my friends nahmean

4/9/2006 7:08:11 PM

there's a lot of stupid in this thread

4/9/2006 7:34:18 PM

^^
1-wait 20 years

2-wait 20-30 more years

3-take the NCSU people-mover to the campus TTA rail stop and go anywhere in the triangle without driving

4-go back to the nursing home

5-profit

4/9/2006 8:22:47 PM

Quote :

"anyone know why gas has been skyrocketing the last 2 weeks. last time i checked their wasn't a category 5 churning through the Gulf so i do not see why gas prices are approaching $3/gallon again"

The oil companies are phasing in a new kind of fuel. The new gasoline is 10% ethanol. This ethanol mix costs more to transport and produce. Hence, increased fuel costs.

Sigh

4/9/2006 11:12:50 PM

gas prices are about to kill me this is getting ridiculous

4/9/2006 11:19:16 PM

Quote :

"there's a lot of stupid in this thread"

I have to agree:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_prices
http://www.howstuffworks.com/gas-price.htm
http://www.thepriceoffuel.com/whataffectsfuelpricing/

And to answer your question HUR:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12240620/

Quote :

" The primary driver behind the price surge were costs from refiners converting to new, cleaner fuel specifications, which added about 14 cents per gallon to what distributors and retailers pay, said survey editor Trilby Lundberg. Higher crude oil prices also added 7 cents or 8 cents to their gasoline price rise, she said. Gas retailers’ profit margin shrank by an average of about 6 cents loss per gallon in the past two weeks as their buying prices rose more than retail prices."

[Edited on April 10, 2006 at 5:34 AM. Reason : .]

4/10/2006 5:33:53 AM

i swear...even though the us uses more gas than any other country on earth i bet we atleast use the cleanest

4/10/2006 5:51:26 AM

Sigh. I was hoping I wouldn't see the obligatory....

"I love the high prices. It forces people to start to look at alternatives. It makes the government look into developing new technologies and the high gas prices make potential new technologies more economical."

1) Meanwhile the middle class become the poor class.
2) You pretend like people can't research alternatives when the gas prices are low.
3) It costs about $0.10/mile to operate a vehicle right now. If the price has to go even higher to make any new energy source more attractive that would tell me that the new fuel would still clock in close to $0.10/mile. If it didn't people would still be using gas because it would be cheaper.

4/10/2006 8:12:24 AM

If you guys really believe that in 2005/2006 there just SUDDENLY happened to be a "lack of refineries" to handle America's gasoline production, I'd got some oceanfront land in Kansas for dirt cheap...

There is no "lack". They can make plenty of gas. But if I realized I could sell my product for over DOUBLE of what it sold for last year and everybody that was buying it then, kept buying it now, I would. So would Exxon and all those other jackasses. And there's your story.

4/10/2006 8:32:31 AM

^Yeah, pretty much.

4/10/2006 8:35:08 AM

i thought gas went up cause the economies in india and china are needing more gas, which makes less gas available to us, which makes prices go higher

kinda like a supply and demand type thing

4/10/2006 8:35:59 AM

^You just explained why they went up, ^^^ explained why they probably won't come down.

4/10/2006 8:42:21 AM

Supply and demand is a non-factor in things called "cartels".

Ever heard of diamonds? Yeah....

4/10/2006 8:42:42 AM

Quote :

"Hey Queti, come tell us what's up with all the gas companies and how they're trying to break our wallets here."

several reasons actually.

- conversion from MTBE to EtOH. ideally, you'd like to have your gasoline preblended before it hits the terminals. it is cheaper that way. but that isn't possible with EtOH as it would contaminate the pipelines and screw up the jet fuel that also goes on those same pipelines (and you do NOT want EtOH in jet fuel.... unless you want to go sky diving without parachutes). so we blend the EtOH at the terminals and it costs more. also, refineries usually make their own MTBE. we are having to buy EtOH since we don't have alcohol units typically.

- boutique blend gasoline. california and several larger us cities are requiring specific blends for smog/pollution reduction. this costs quite a bit more and reduces gasoline supply flexibility. for example. you can use gasoline meant for atlanta in rural nc. but you can't use gasoline meant for rural nc in atlanta. by the way - urge your city planning folks to improve traffic congestion by signal light optimization, HOV lanes, etc. traffic optimization is a much better way to reduce smog/pollution than changing fuel honestly. plus you have larger supply availability in the case of shortages. oh, and its cheaper on your wallets everyday.

- various other cleaner fuel technology. we are having to implement multi hundred million dollar projects at each refinery to meet new low sulfur gasoline and diesel requirements, SOx, NOx reductions, etc. these projects yield 0 to negative return on investment. they have to be paid for somehow.

- higher crude oil prices. duh. multiple reasons here too. besides the whole middle east thing.... 1. several platforms in the gulf are still down. so gulf coast refineries that use Delta/gulf crude are having to purchase oil elsewhere and pay more for it. 2. there is quite a bit of unrest in africa (i.e. nigeria) that is causing supply problems (i.e. revolutionaries bombing our facilities)



[Edited on April 10, 2006 at 8:45 AM. Reason : e]

4/10/2006 8:43:25 AM

^ And there's your politically correct answer.

EDIT: BTW, good luck getting anyone to believe those sap-stories when the fuel companies pulled in the biggest profits of any company in the history of the world recently. I'm sure they're bleeding money...


[Edited on April 10, 2006 at 8:47 AM. Reason : that's how]

4/10/2006 8:44:55 AM

? how is that politically correct or incorrect for that matter?

with regards to you "lack" comment. the us actually consumes more gasoline than we have capacity for. for example, my refinery can run roughly 250MBPD crude oil. we can tweak the units somewhat as far as gasoline/diesel/jet cuts but not much. we can't just magically run 300MBPD. it would take hundreds of millions of dollars and years to accomplish. same for any other refinery. all refineries today are run flat out. there is no extra room. when one goes down, you will see it.

now, if you want extra room... petition congress to get us some damn environmental permits. we'd love to build some more refineries.

^meh believe what you want. that is the truth. sure there is some ugly stuff that goes on in OPEC. we can't control that. you will have to talk to the govt about that.

[Edited on April 10, 2006 at 8:53 AM. Reason : e]

4/10/2006 8:46:36 AM

^ The reason I don't believe that is America did just fine from *-2004.
And last year only about 25,000 more people were born than died in America (yes, I know immigrants add folks, but still).

I can see how maybe we're cutting it closer than before, but there's no way in hell gas should've gone from ~$1/gal to nearly $3/gal without any plans of it going down. Companies "under duress" don't pull off the largest profits of all time (see: General Motors). Oil companies do not care to ever see the price of gas go down, there's just no incentive.

4/10/2006 8:53:19 AM

read your environmental law. 2004 is when LSG and boutique blends started really kicking up. (also look for a hike in diesel since 2006 is the year of ULSD). also early 2000's are when a lot of low SOx, NOx, etc requirements started. also MTBE phase out is 2007 (at least for us) so the last couple of years have been preping for that.

and the whole war thing..... yeah.

Quote :

"Oil companies do not care to ever see the price of gas go down, there's just no incentive."

why should we? the first goal of any company is to make money (in a capitalistic society, which we claim to be). if you start requiring them to cut profits just for the sake of "i don't want to pay $50/wk to drive my 10mpg SUV" then where is the incentive to stay in business at all? same for pharma - if you start imposing restrictions on profits of medicines, then where is their incentive to keep producing? capitalism. yay.

*i'm not going into an arguement over capitalism nor am i going to argue over OPEC. as a fellow gas consumer, tax payer, american, whatnot, it infuriates me as well. i am just answering the question originally posed to me... and also spouting my irritation at people's opinions that we should just give product away. supply-demand. k, done. ya'll have fun. i have to go start up an multi hundred million dollar (w/ zero ROI btw) ULSD unit today. yay.

4/10/2006 9:04:27 AM

Your argument was pretty decent until this:

Quote :

"supply-demand."

OPEC and the rest of the third-world countries in which we get oil from are so corrupt it's not funny. We're dealing with cartels, theives, and outright dictators of price.

There is no supply/demand with gasoline. For all intensive purposes, gasoline is an exception to capitalist rules just like the diamond cartel (DeBeers). I don't have a problem paying a lot for something when it's logically worth it. When dishonesty and outright criminal procedures take over (not much we Americans can do about the collusions and cartels, eh?), it goes too far.

When oil companies start operating by the same law and regulations (don't give me the enviro sob-stories, I mean nix the cartel functions), then I'll feel secure about it. Of course, that would require paying $5+/gallon most likely since we would just stop dealing w/ the 3rd-world countries. BTW, I'm not attacking you, just pointing out the obvious from someone not working in petro.

4/10/2006 9:11:58 AM

did you see where i said OPEC irritated the snot out of me too?

oil companies can't nix the cartels. well unless you want us to start heavily drilling here and getting all of our supply here (oh, and that will cost you a pretty penny at the pump too). talk to the govt. i'll gladly sign any petition on that subject.

[Edited on April 10, 2006 at 9:19 AM. Reason : e]

4/10/2006 9:16:39 AM

Indeed I did.

We agree in principle, just take a different angle as to the real underlying "Why"

4/10/2006 9:18:42 AM

Quote :

"it would take hundreds of millions of dollars "

does your company not make a figure larger than "hundreds of millions of dollars"

?

4/10/2006 9:23:02 AM

^ hah...precisely.

And I'm 100% for drilling in Alaska or anywhere else that'd make gas cheaper.

4/10/2006 9:24:34 AM

sure we do. in addition of hundreds of millions of dollars and years, it'd take acts of congress to grant permits. so.... start your letter writing.

4/10/2006 9:54:08 AM

^is there any new laws or environmental emissions thing thats going into affect in the next couple years, cause i'm sick and fucking tired of these new blends of gas that make the price go up

4/10/2006 10:07:00 AM