Gas. $2.08 @ 7am, same station, $2.27 @ 4pm. What gives?

[MichiganVote]

[whistle]

1. Where, in Michigan? Here in FL, the prices for reg gas were at...

...$2.089 a week ago and are as high as $2.229 yesterday. Typical are running $2.159 to $2.189. I refused to drive today, so I have not seen what the posted numbers are now.

[MichiganVote]

6. West Michigan

[Pirate Smile]

2. I just googled because of your post and I found this - acckkk!

Gas prices might increase 24 cents
By James R. Healey, USA TODAY

Gasoline prices could rocket 24 cents a gallon the next few days, as stations across the USA scramble to keep up with big jumps in the prices of oil and wholesale gas, a veteran energy-price analyst forecast Thursday.

"It's going to be brutal, horrendous," says Peter Beutel, president of energy-price tracker Cameron Hanover. He has followed energy markets for nearly three decades.

Thursday, light, sweet crude oil for April delivery traded as high as $55.20 a barrel in New York before closing at $53.57.

A 24-cent jump in the price of gas would bump unleaded regular to a nationwide average of about $2.16 a gallon, blowing through last May's record of about $2.06. It could go higher as increased warm-weather driving in another two months pushes up demand, and therefore prices, forecasters say.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2005-03-03-gas-usat_x.htm

It was posted March 3, 2005. How much has gas gone up since then?

[MissB]

3. Yup.

I heard that on the radio this morning.

[CornField]

10. Wow -- glad I filled up at $2.06 yesterday.

I debated if I should fill the tank or wait and see if the prices came down... glad I decided to fill it then.

Has gasoline ever jumped a quarter like this?

[Pirate Smile]

13. I found this also

Analysts Predict Steep Increase in Gas Prices in Coming Weeks
Sourced From: Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, March 4, 2005

Situation
1. World currently consumes more than 84M brrls/day of oil
2. High world oil demand, cold weather and fears of tight supplies pushed oil prices higher in the past 2 weeks
3. Influx of speculators moving money from stock and bond markets into oil driving price higher still
4. NYME US benchmark crude oil for April delivery hit $55.20/brrl before closing at $53.57
5. Wholesale price of gasoline hit record high 2 days last week

Significant Points
1. Analysts predicting steep increases at pump in coming weeks
2. $1.92/gal gasoline average predicted to rise sharply to $2.10-$2.25 by later next month
3. OPEC played role in pushing up prices by cutting production even w/ oil trading at $40/brrl
4. Cartel scheduled to meet on March 16 and could set new production levels
5. Oil prices could top $60/brrl if demand remains high and any supply disruption occurs
6. Administration pushing lawmakers to approve drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Background
1. Supply disruption could cause shortages because world has little ability to pump additional oil from ground
2. Oil traded in dollars which has been dropping against euro
3. Devaluation restrains buying power of OPEC countries that import European goods
4. Oil prices have remained well below peak reached in 1981 when adjusted for inflation ($90/brrl)

http://www.automotivedigest.com/view_art.asp?articlesID=15091

[clem_c_rock]

4. I've seen the price go up .05 a gal one day and then .06 a couple days

later.

[Technowitch]

5. They were probably notified by their supplier...

...that the next shipment of fuel would cost that much more.

Or else they just got a delivery, and it cost that much extra.

[MichiganVote]

8. God, I thought it was something I said...on DU or something

[maxsolomon]

7. now that bush is reelected, you're getting a taste of west coast medicine

we got gouged like that last summer in washington state, now we're used to it.

it went up that fast because it is unregulated & they can fuck you if they want to.

and they want to.

what's funny is how many people thought a war would bring the price DOWN.

[SmokingJacket]

9. More or less the same happened here.

Upstate NY. Cheapest gas is now over $2.20. Highest EVER here!

[ClintonTyree]

21. $2.37 the cheapest I can find, Rochester, NY area...............

I'm thankful there's a Seneca Nation Reservation nearby. They're always around 20-25 cents cheaper, and they're STILL making a killing. New York's gasoline tax is the nation's highest at 35 cents a gallon. We've been controlled by Republicans for HOW LONG now? Yeah, tell me about "tax and spend" Democrats! :grr:

[charlie]

11. Gas lines coming?

This is smelling just like the 70s, when you bought gas and groceries the minute you got your paycheck, since you had no idea how much less it would be worth in a week.

[rzemanfl]

16. This will be followed by something like the early 1980's when a

home mortgage was 16 percent if you could find one. War is only good for the economy if everyone else in the World but us has their industrial base blown to shit, like in World War II, or their workforce decimated, like in World War I (and that didn't last long).

[plcdude]

12. This is another example

of the * administration in collusion with the energy industry remember California.

[Tactical Progressive]

14. It's all that Iraqi oil

After it paid for the war, it is filling our tanks with clean, cheap gas. Just like Republicans and their media toadies said it would.

[MichiganVote]

19. No kidding. $300 billion and higher oil and gas prices

No wonder they hate our freedoms.(tongue in cheek)

[bpilgrim]

20. these useless news readers need to be held to account

there needs to be a weekly 'reality' show that shows their current woring as well as hold up their past lest they forget :evilgrin:


http://images.globalfreepress.com

peace

[XemaSab]

15. 2.49 here

in California.

[stopbush]

17. Because now they're selling the GOOD gas! n/t

[ClintonTyree]

18. Inflation..............

welcome to the Brazil of the north.

[lastliberalintexas]

32. Nah, at least Brazil has Lula

[spanone]

22. Huge Profits for the Oil Companies.

The bush family is heavily invested in the oil biz, has been all their lives, from drilling it to negotiating mega deals. These are Texas oil piggin' out.

[Jokinomx]

23. I live in Greenville and they were 2.24 to 2.27 at 6:30 am ....

2.O6 yesterday.....I am so glad I don't commute to GR anymore.

On a side note... I was waiting for my Daughter in a school parking lot... she tutors at an elementary school. I got there about 15 minutes early and of course turned my car off and waited. Two large vehicles (a truck and a van)pulled up along either side of me.... both kept their cars running for over ten minutes. I know its a small thing... but... this is the attitude of so many Americans... they don't give a thought to conservation of energy. How expensive will gas have to get..before everyone looks for every way to save gas.

Just an observation....

[Dave Reynolds]

24. Must have been a Speedway

they went "in Jackson" from $2.109 to $2.279 in less than 2 hours.

[MichiganVote]

25. No it was some small indep. station I stopped at this am

When I got there it was deserted and then all of a sudden the place filled up. Must have informed people over the radio just after I pulled in.

[meganmonkey]

40. Shit, we're practically neighbors!

Well, relatively speaking. I live in Grass Lake!

:toast:

[Dave Reynolds]

44. Hey neighbor!

I pass by the Grass Lake exit every day on my way to work in Ann Arbor.

[elehhhhna]

26. 2.10 in Houston suburbs! What? Did Poppy & Bar MOVE?

We used to have a special deal.

[MichiganVote]

27. One wonders if jet fuel has also gone up

[B Calm]

28. People who voted for an oil president thinking that it would

mean cheap gas, have got to be feeling very stupid by now.

[MichiganVote]

30. They'd have to be smart to feel stupid

[Robb]

36. LOL!

Thanks! :thumbsup:

[tavalon]

48. Sad but true n/t

[Biased Liberal Media]

29. Damn. We just filled up on Sat at $2.27/gal for regular

here in WA state. (Whatcom County.) I wonder what the prices are now? I guess I'll see tomorrow when I go out!

[burythehatchet]

31. It could be as simple as

the station manager pricing according to which way rush hour traffic is going.

[anakie]

33. even at 2.27 a gallon it is still cheap by world standards

which is about 60 cents a litre. In Australia we are now paying around a dollar a litre which is about 80 us cents; and we have cheap fuel prices by world standards.

Wait till you folks have to pay European prices for your fuel. Or for your imported oil to be payed for in Euros.

[maxsolomon]

34. what euros get for their fuel cost:

a large part of the price of fuel in europe is in taxes, on the order of 50% of the cost i think. correct me if i'm wrong.

here's what you get with that euro tax money: public transportation subsidies. think bullet trains.

here's what you get in america with the gas tax money: shit roads & amtrak's budget being slashed. it all goes into private pockets.

[libhill]

39. That's the Republican way

help the rich get richer, and the hell with the infrastructure and the greater good. Gawd Bless Amerika -

[MichiganVote]

37. All money is local. Wait till you see what our higher prices do

to everyone else in the world. More wars coming.

[Ilsa]

35. We lost production in a large refinery last week.

It supplies 3%, and I realize your gas went up about 9%, so I don't know what the difference is except oil companies gouging us, for starters.

[libhill]

38. Chimp and the Repukes

taking care of Big Oil - that's what they're about, that's where they're coming from.

[Purrfessor]

41. Cartoon Idea for anyone who can draw..........

Picture a red state republican bent over with his pants around his ankles. Behind him stands Bush with his pants down, preparing to screw the red state pub up the butt. Except Bush has a gas dispensing nozzle where his d**k out to be. In the background above their heads is sign advertising our currently exhorbitant gas prices.

[thethinker]

42. We are getting robbed

I noticed this article earlier called "Proof You're Getting Robbed at the Gas Pump" from the NY Post:


March 24, 2005 -- HERE'S all you need to know to understand that Americans are getting screwed at the gas pump.

Fact 1: The inventory of crude oil in the U.S. right now is 8 percent larger than it was this same week last year. And that's the biggest amount of crude on hand since the middle of 2002.

Fact 2: That the 8 percent increase doesn't include all the oil purchased by Washington and put into the emergency Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which now has 685 million barrels. That's up from 650 million barrels last year and 599 million in '03.

Fact 3: There is 7.5 percent more gasoline in stock right now in this country than during the same week last year. And you'd have to go back to this same week in 1999 to find more gasoline inventory — when the average price at the pump was only $1.01 a gallon.

Fact 4: Including everything made of oil, there is 4.9 percent more supply this year than when Spring began in 2004. And there's about 10 percent more of all petroleum products in stock today than when the Iraqi war began.

And, finally, Fact 5: American consumers are being conned by speculators — and a media that doesn't ask enough tough questions — into thinking there is some sort of supply problem.

Now here's my No.1 Prediction: If the greedy bottom-feeders who are causing prices to rise end up being responsible for damaging the U.S. economy there will be as much hell to pay on Wall Street as there was when the stock market bubble destroyed people's dreams.

more


There is no oil shortage - we are getting robbed.

[MichiganVote]

45. Boy they're just tripping over themselves to rip us off these days

But one fine day, when we're all broke, what will they have?

[Sirveri]

49. What about inflation?

There might be more gas here, but with a highly devalued Dollar and inflation kicking in, well... I'd like to see those points adressed before I claim we're getting gouged. There might be more fuel in the country, but it's not relevant if that fuel happens to cost twice as much and more people are driving and using it at the same time.

[femme.democratique]

43. Some what-if scenarios indicate a one day increase to $10

when the markets react to inevitable evidence of a decline in production after peak oil (which could be anyday now).....

[LaPera]

46. $2.71 a gallon in Humboldt County, CA

[tavalon]

47. Probably a little price gouging

However, the prices will continue to go up.

[TWiley]

50. The oil industry "gives" to that ass-boil in the White House.

The prices go up because the oil industry can do it without question. It really is that simple

[Dees]

51. Something I just don't understand

It seems to me that a retailer's price is based on the laid in cost of fuel in the ground so to speak. It would also seem to me that the margin would be based on wholesale cost of fuel in the retailer's tanks vs. speculation on supply/price five days down the road.

I guess I don't understand why a retailer is changing the price five minuets after hearing about the fire at a BP refinery knowing it does not reflect (if the margin stays the same) the actual cost of fuel that is being pumped at the moment he/she is raising the price.

Watching stations change retail prices four or five times a week, I would presume means taking delivery from wholesalers that many times a week. Unless, unless the wholesaler is re-invoicing using an indexed "floating" price. If that is the case then retailers are subject to losing money on all sales from a bulk delivery if the fuel was sold at a static price. Who would do business that way? I certainly didn't.