Gasoline!?!?!

"Exactly. I worked for Chevron USA for almost 7 years and I can tell you without a doubt that these thieving SOB's raised the price overnight based on this news, even though millions of gallons of gas are in the system pipeline and storage reserves that didn't cost them anywhere near this price at all."

Well somebody was buying oil and oil futures today, which also are jacked up.
Chevron and other refiners have to maintain continuity of supply, so if not today, soon they are going to have to buy some oil/futures at these high prices. If the price of oil goes down by the time the oil today is refined into gasoline, you you can bet your @$$ folks would go bat$h1t crazy if in the future gas prices were to increase suddenly in the absence of any current event because the oil it was made from months ago was purchased during a time of high oil prices.

NOBODY would believe that.

Now is the only time they can be certain of selling gas at a price that reflects what they are currently paying for oil.


It would be ridiculous to try and price different lots of gasoline by the cost of the oil it was made from.

Competition between the different producers is supposed to keep prices from getting out of hand on the high side. If that is lacking, then it is a different ball game. And that might the current case in the SE, since some producers have downed refineries.

Not saying that there isn't a bunch of greedy bastids in the mix, etc. But they are everywhere, and I don't really think the oil companies are any worse than other companies in that regard.
 
BruiseLeee said:
I'll sell you the secrets of levitation for $19.99. :)
Click to expand...

Bruise, what about where you are as well as some other guys in your general vicinity? What's gas running up there now?
And it's always been sold by the liter there hasn't it?
Has Katrina changed anything in prices for all of you guys?
 
I was in Oslo, Norway in June. Gas was about $6.50 a gallon. They sell it by the liter, but this is the gallon price. THey are a rich people in a rich country, and produce lots of oil in the North Sea. The price is high because the stuff is taxed to encourage most people to drive small cars. I saw some big SUVs there, but very few. Most of the cars are small and relatively fuel efficient. Only the rich there drive VW and similar SUVs.
The cabs were a form of small Mercedes Benz. I saw Honda CR/Vs and even smaller SUVs by Honda and other Japanese car manufacturers.
 
Yvsa said:
Bruise, what about where you are as well as some other guys in your general vicinity? What's gas running up there now?
And it's always been sold by the liter there hasn't it?
Has Katrina changed anything in prices for all of you guys?
Click to expand...

My conversion comes to 4.27/gallon. :eek:

I think the only thing that so far has affected gas prices is the price of a barrel of crude and taxes :grumpy:

Prices fluctuate every day by several cents.
 
Nasty said:
$2.99 - $3.09 in Ohio and still no hurricanes or earthquakes.
Click to expand...

God figured hurricanes and earthquakes on top of the Browns and Bengals would be too much. :D

About the same prices in Pittsburgh... I guess God figured even having the Steelers wouldn't offset high gas prices on top of life in Pittsburgh...
 
arty said:
When I bought my van in 1998, it was about $.95 for a gallon of gas. I didn't worry about the 20 mpg on the highway.
When I bought my Camry in 2001, gas was about $1.40, and I was getting concerned.
Gas went to $1.85 in Jan., when I traded in the van for a Honda CR/V. I wanted something more fuel efficient, but compromised with my wife - she wanted something bigger. The salesman said that gas could reach $3, and I thought that he was nuts. I didn't think that gas could go over $2.50.
It was $2.60 two days ago.
It went to $2.80 on Sunday in Central Illinois, and $3.00 today.
Wholesale gas futures are running at $2.90.

To quote GW, it took a long time to get like this.

We are fighting in the Middle East, and that puts pressure on prices.
Our Gov't has been looking away as the auto industry lowered fuel economy standards by (the Gov't) exempting "trucks." We now have cars and SUVs that get worse fuel economy on average than they got in 1980. China is sucking up the world's energy supply - the big sucking sound that Ross Perot referred to some time ago....But - the sound is that of China taking our oil.

Our Gov't really should be thinking more about us than about people over "there." .... wherever that is. I am referring to all of those people in DC who are not acting in our best interests, and not one political party.

What a surprise that the oil industry is making a killing on gas.

I may be wrong here, but I think that our government is owned by the oil and medical/drug industries. If they don't own our gov't, then someone does....and it is not the voter. The voter has seen a decline in income over the past 4 years, and these gas prices really hurt.

I drive 400 miles each week commuting to work. It is getting expensive.
Click to expand...

This is a great analysis Arty, and Firkin is right as well on the pricing I guess. At least his points make more sense than mine. I just remember at Chevron getting a call at midnight to stay late and raise prices across the board a couple of cents, and then two days later reading in the paper that there was a refining shortfall at the Richmond facility. It seemed that these guys knew in advance that there was going to be a shortfall, which of course they did, and they were poised to take advantage of that, and in fact had done so statewide for 2 full days before the announcement. I think it's just disingenuous at best to raise prices across the board within a day of a natural disaster when you don't even know the duration of the shortage or the percentage of lost refining capacity over that unknown period.

The one thing I recall about that period in the late 70's is that the hit on folks was so extreme, that the innovators went into high gear. The Oldsmobile Diesel came out then, and I remember that VW also came out with a small diesel truck that got 50 mpg. Everybody switched to smaller more fuel efficient cars, and started paying attention.

I think your analysis about China is correct as well. I think there will be plenty of oil, and there are proven reserves for literally hundreds of years, but China and India are getting bigger and bigger and more industrialized, and IMO they will be running the world in 50 years, if not less. They are going to be using one heck of a lot more oil.

Like them or not, France is now 100% onto nuclear power for their countries electrical needs, so they have far more independence in that regard than we do. No comment about our overseas adventures, but maybe it's time that whichever party is in charge start paying a bit more attention to the needs we have at home. $4 billion a month can buy a lot of gas...!

Thanks,

Norm
 
SASSAS said:
God figured hurricanes and earthquakes on top of the Browns and Bengals would be too much. :D

About the same prices in Pittsburgh... I guess God figured even having the Steelers wouldn't offset high gas prices on top of life in Pittsburgh...
Click to expand...

All I can say is what Browns fans everywhere have traditionally said to Steelies..."Kiss my *$$"

;) :D

Nice to get to know ya SAS!
 
I can remember when gas was so cheap that people were shocked when it hit $.75.
In the past, when gas companies were taking advantage of us, the President normally tried to jawbone the oil companies to try to limit the increases.
 
The consumer takes it in the short hairs everytime. Good days, bad days, in between days; what's the difference?

We do consume a lot. Life is changing here. High gas is going to be a reality. Adjusted for inflation from the 70's, I heard the price per barrel of oil should be 90 dollars, not 70.

I wish there were a solution. Unrestrained capitalism is a dream for many people, the best alternative. But history shows us unrestrained capitalism crushes people too. So we have a kind of limping corruption. Some controls, lots of collusion, some free market and some not.

What really makes me 'laugh' is not only fuel and food prices and taxation, but toll roads. A guy has to pay for the privilege of driving to a city to work where he cannot afford to live.

I've said many times the Working Man will never win his own Revolution.


munk
 
There is a rumour in Williston ND,that a Chinese oil company is bringing in 10-15 drilling rigs to help with the shortage of drilling rigs there.Don't know if this includes their own crew or not. :rolleyes:

shearer
 
I found this on another site:

Insider report on Katrina damage - take it for what it's worth....

There are MANY production platform missing (as in not visible from the air). This means they have been totally lost. I am talking about 10's of platforms, not single digit numbers. Each platform can have from 4 to 100+ wells on it. Most larger ones have 20-30 wells in this area, with numerous caisson wells. They are on their sides, on the bottom of the gulf - they will likely be left as reef material, provided we can get permission. MMS regulations require us to plug each of the wells that were on these platforms - HUGE cost now, as the platforms are gone... Hopefully, MMS will grant `abandon in place' status for these wiped out structures.

We also set individual wells as satellites and pipe them back to existing platforms. These stand-alone wells are called caisson wells. 90% of those in the storm path are bent over, rendering them a total loss, We would have to remove the existing bent structure and drill a new well, as bent pipe is basically unusable.

We utilize platforms as gathering hubs. We pipe the raw oil/water to them and then send it on for separation, or separate it there and send finished oil on. Damage to a hub means everything going to the hub is offline indefinitely. There are +/- 15 HUBS missing. MISSING!! As in we cannot find them from the air.

Thus even if the wells feeding the hub are ok, we have nowhere to pump the oil to...

The jackup drilling rigs appear to be in various stages of damage, but most rode the storm out with minimal problems. However, each of them has shifted position.

When we jack the rig up, it is carefully positioned directly over the well slot where we are working. The derrick has rails that allow us to slide it in 4 directions to get the derrick directly over the well or slot. If the rig moves (right/left, or from level to uneven), it has to be jacked back down to the waterline and repositioned with tugboats, then jacked back up. After it is back up and level, the derrick is slid on the 2 sets of rails, and bolted into position over the well or slot again.

Thus we have to reset each of the drilling rigs, which requires getting OUT of the well, tugboats and a move, then getting back into the well. The open hole we have drilled (what is not enclosed in cemented casing) is likely to be lost, and if the wellhead or the casing is bent, then the well will have to be redrilled. This is an exploration setback of at least a month, but we don't yet know the boat situation.

Boats are usually brought into harbor to weather storms. We do not have a boat count yet, but from the initial reports, we may have lost or grounded 30% of the Gulf of Mexico fleet. This means everything will cost more, take longer - repairs, repositioning, everything.

In short, the Gulf area hit by the storm is basically in about the same shape as Biloxi. The damage numbers you have gotten from the government and analysts are, in my opinion, much too low. We are looking at YEARS to return to the production levels we had prior to the storm. The eastern Gulf of Mexico is primarily oil production...


Loss of the MARS platform alone cost us 95,000 barrels a day for a year or maybe more.

YEARS, people. I know what this means - hope everyone else gets it too...

The front page of the Houston Chronicle has a rig beached on Dauphin Island. The legs have been sheared off and derrick is missing – thus it is a total loss. This rig was operating in Main Pass (adjacent to Plaquemines Parish), and thus was blown to Alabama and beached.

It looks like we will be living in interesting times for a while.

n2s
 
We need to find out how Al Queda caused this Hurricane and which nation to invade because of it.




munk
 
Don't even go there munk...the result would be their explaination that this is just the beginning of Allah answering His people.
 
their explaination that this is just the beginning of Allah answering His people.
Click to expand...

It sounds just like what the American left is saying....

n2s
 
You are so right. But they aren't waiting for me to go there; what you want to bet this is already being preached in Mosques?

And I still recall the comment by a Christian leader here that 9-11 was caused because we'd strayed from God. Not that he spoke for the Christians who are my neighbors.



munk
 
Gas is going nowhere but up regardless I believe.

As soon as everybody in China and India all have 2 cars and an air conditioner there will be $6 gas.

In a lot of ways it is sad that we failed to continue with the initiatives President Nixon and Carter started to conserve and encourage domestic production and alternative sources of energy. After the OPEC stranglehold kind of collapsed in 86 we basically abandoned all conservation.

When I started to work here 1984 I was driving a 4 cylinder and when I would get stuck in traffic what was around me? Pintos, Gremlins, Chevettes, Chevy Luvs, VW's. Fast forward to 2005. I'm stuck in traffic in my 4 cylinder. What's around me?? Hummers, F150's, SUV's. I think we should have at least figured out some way to encourage conservation thru tax breaks.

Here's an idea:

http://biowillie.com/
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top