Average US gas price rises 22% in two weeks to record $4.43
Source: AP
CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) — The average U.S. price of regular-grade gasoline shot up a whopping 79 cents over the past two weeks to a record-setting $4.43 per gallon (3.8 liters) as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is contributing to already-high prices at the pump.
Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg of the Lundberg Survey said Sunday the new price exceeds by 32 cents the prior all-time high of $4.11 set in July 2008. But that’s still quite a ways from the inflation-adjusted record high of about $5.24 per gallon.
The price at the pump is $1.54 higher than it was a year ago.
Lundberg said gas prices are likely to remain high in the short term as crude oil costs soar amid global supply concerns following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
FILE - A California street sign is shown next to the price board at a gas station in San Francisco, on March 7, 2022. The average U.S. price of regular-grade gasoline shot up a whopping 79 cents over the past two weeks to $4.43 per gallon. Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg of the Lundberg Survey says Sunday, March 13, the new price exceeds by 32 cents the prior record high of $4.11 set in July 2008. Lundberg said gas prices are likely to remain high in the short term as crude oil costs soar amid global supply concerns following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Nationwide, the highest average price for regular-grade is in the San Francisco Bay Area, at $5.79. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/gas-prices-record-high-russia-ukraine-ac7fcc350ad1f1c71db4185b99fef112
= new reply since forum marked as read
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for using big gas guzzling buses, trains, bicycles, and walking. 
While it screws everyone with trucking, shipping, airlines, etc. it screws rural/suburban people with long commutes more than the work from home crowd or city crowd.
That's because Saudi and Russia were engaged in an oil production/price war.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142443453
And as I often post, here was some of the result (from here - https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213319463) -
ETA - found the even lower one that I had saved -
They are trying to make up for that fiasco (to them).
The side benefit to them was to basically bankrupt the heck out of the U.S. shale oil industry that had blossomed in the Dakotas, forcing many to shut down and later shutter because the cost of producing that type of dirty oil was much higher and required them to at least maintain a greater than $45/bbl minimum just to break even.
Analysis by Matt Egan, CNN Business
Updated 11:06 AM ET, Tue March 10, 2020
New York (CNN Business)Vladimir Putin knows America's fragile oil industry is built on a mountain of debt. So when Saudi Arabia called for production cuts to mitigate oversupply, Putin decided to pounce. Russia shocked the world last week by blowing up its shaky alliance with OPEC. Moscow's refusal to join with the cartel is aimed in part at drowning US shale oil companies that rely on higher prices in a sea of cheap crude. Putin's goal is to wrest market share back from American frackers, whose debt-fueled growth caused Russia to lose its title in 2018 as the world's largest oil producer.
"This is a response to try to cripple the US shale industry," said Matt Smith, director of commodity research at energy research firm ClipperData. Oil prices crashed Monday after Saudi Arabia said it would slash oil prices, launching a ferocious response against Russia's move. US crude plummeted 26%, its worst day since 1991, to a four-year low of $31.13 a barrel. Crude is now so cheap that many US shale companies will be forced to cut production. Bankruptcy fears are already rippling through the oil patch, sending the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas ETF (XOP) to its lowest price on record going back to 2006.
(snip)
Payback for sanctions?
Beyond the market share battle, analysts said that Russia could be retaliating for Washington's recent campaign of energy sanctions -- penalties made possible by the shale oil revolution. For instance, just three weeks ago the Trump administration announced sanctions against a subsidiary of Rosneft in response for its support of the Maduro regime of Venezuela. Russia's strategy seems to be targeting not simply US shale companies -- but the coercive sanctions policy that American energy abundance has enabled," Helima Croft, head of global commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, wrote in a note to clients Monday. Croft said that Igor Sechin, the CEO of Rosneft and a close Putin confidante, appears to have convinced Moscow to take on the US shale industry.
Like Putin, Sechin hails from the Russian intelligence services and is a strong nationalist," Croft wrote. "Undercutting American energy dominance therefore most likely appeals not only to his bottom line but also to his ideological affinities." Putin also has a big financial advantage over Saudi Arabia. Russia relies on oil revenue for only 37% of its budget, compared with 65% for the kingdom, according to Argus Global Markets. Analysts said Russia can balance its budget at just $42 a barrel oil, compared with around $80 for Saudi Arabia. Everybody will be hurt by this, including Russia," said Bjornar Tonhaugen, head of oil markets at Rystad Energy. "The extra benefit from this decision is that it will of course hurt others, including the US."
(snip)
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/10/business/russia-us-shale-oil-putin-opec/index.html
ANNNNDDDD.... what just happened last week...
As oil prices soar, U.S. shale, OPEC in no rush to resume price war
By Liz Hampton
OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo speaks during the CERAWeek conference in Houston, Texas, U.S., March 7, 2022. REUTERS/Daniel Kramer
March 10 (Reuters) - U.S. shale producers and OPEC, who not long ago were waging a price war, this week found themselves on similar sides as oil prices have surged well above $100 a barrel: in no rush to rapidly boost production. Less than a decade ago, OPEC was flooding the market with oil in a bid to drive out U.S. producers, who were enjoying surging production as improvements in hydraulic fracturing brought on the so-called "shale boom."
But on Monday night, at an oil conference in Houston, both sides gathered in a private room at a restaurant and U.S. producers presented OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo with a bottle labeled "Genuine Barnett Shale" - from the oilfield that launched the shale revolution. Barkindo proudly displayed the memento as he left the meeting, which included executives from Hess Corp, EQT Corp and Chesapeake Energy. OPEC began hosting the annual dinners in 2017 to better understand its rivals.
While high prices should boost profits for OPEC and U.S. producers alike, drillers fear expensive oil could also sap demand, especially with governments pushing plans to ramp up alternative energy. Both sides also fret that huge new investments in drilling will produce oil only after the crisis has passed. "What we don't want to do as a company, and I don't think anyone in the industry wants to do, is try to chase prices up in the short term and have that run-up be ultimately ineffective," Chesapeake CEO Domenic Dell'Osso said in an interview.
Were shale to ramp up output only to have prices fall, "we have destroyed a lot of value for shareholders and haven't helped the problem," he added. The gathering of oil barons did not include Russia's oil minister, a regular attendee of such meetings. Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a "special military operation," has global buyers steering clear of its cargoes for fear being hit by sanctions.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/ceraweek-oil-prices-soar-us-shale-opec-no-rush-resume-price-war-2022-03-10/
(bolding mine - lookie at this "annual dinner" thing of "oil barons" that started in 2017
)
no, wait...
must be the democrats fault.
no, hold on...
it's obama's fault.
yeah, that's it--that's the ticket
