Message Forum - Read Message

Category: Boycott/Gasout Talk > Topics	Add to favorite topics Post New Topic

Author	Topic: Crude oil price down, gas prices up!	Topic is locked Back to Topics

miroMI Rookie Author Grand Rapids Posts:15 Points:3,450 Joined:Sep 2008	Message Posted: Sep 10, 2008 11:20:18 AM Ignore miroMI Report Abuse Could somebody, please, try to put some light on this question for me. Maybe I am stupid, but I don't understand how crude oil price is going down since 09/02/2008 (as of today more then $10 less per barrel), gas station are keeping the price at around $3.75 all this time, and then yesterday crude feel down for about $2.00 per barrel, and gas station bumped gas price for 20 cents up!!!! And, second is: national average is around $3.65 for regular, here in Grand rapids we pay almost 30 cents more. Does that mean that Michigan economy is so much higher then national level? I don't believe this. I thin more that we are dealing with gas station owners who are more greedy then national average.

miroMI

Rookie Author
Grand Rapids

Posts:15
Points:3,450
Joined:Sep 2008

Message Posted: Sep 10, 2008 11:20:18 AM

Ignore miroMI Report Abuse

Could somebody, please, try to put some light on this question for me. Maybe I am stupid, but I don't understand how crude oil price is going down since 09/02/2008 (as of today more then $10 less per barrel), gas station are keeping the price at around $3.75 all this time, and then yesterday crude feel down for about $2.00 per barrel, and gas station bumped gas price for 20 cents up!!!!
And, second is: national average is around $3.65 for regular, here in Grand rapids we pay almost 30 cents more. Does that mean that Michigan economy is so much higher then national level? I don't believe this. I thin more that we are dealing with gas station owners who are more greedy then national average.

REPLIES (newest first)Ignore Short Messages

GooseMI Champion Author Grand Rapids Posts:15,141 Points:1,997,095 Joined:Sep 2007	Message Posted: Nov 2, 2008 12:15:40 AM Ignore GooseMI Report Abuse Profitteering
Liebemich7 Veteran Author Denver Posts:354 Points:74,930 Joined:Oct 2008	Message Posted: Oct 29, 2008 5:51:44 PM Ignore Liebemich7 Report Abuse Cause it's a case of them being able to charge whatever they please.
CKDeals Rookie Author Oakland Posts:38 Points:7,010 Joined:Oct 2008	Message Posted: Oct 29, 2008 12:45:43 PM Ignore CKDeals Report Abuse When Oil goes down or up on any certain day, it takes a month before you see that gain or loss. Its called Oil futures and when you see Oil at $60 / barrel then you might see gas futures are at $1.799. In 30 days you will see gas at or around that price
lunarrv15 Champion Author Cincinnati Posts:14,862 Points:2,384,335 Joined:Dec 2005	Message Posted: Oct 26, 2008 2:36:23 PM Ignore lunarrv15 Report Abuse $2.17 near Cincinnati, OHio it isn't declining at the pace as it was climbing
victorgaintsfan Sophomore Author New Jersey Posts:245 Points:22,940 Joined:Aug 2008	Message Posted: Oct 25, 2008 10:04:42 PM Ignore victorgaintsfan Report Abuse Gas is down to 2.55 in NJ
ChrisBC Rookie Author British Columbia Posts:1 Points:120 Joined:Oct 2008	Message Posted: Oct 14, 2008 11:54:41 AM Ignore ChrisBC Report Abuse SEEMS TO ME THAT THE WHOLE OKANAGAN IS BEING RIPPED BY ALL THE GAS STATIONS.
shel777 Rookie Author Florida Posts:73 Points:202,700 Joined:Nov 2005	Message Posted: Oct 10, 2008 10:39:21 AM Ignore shel777 Report Abuse I remember that after Katrina, prices were supposed to go down after the rigs were repaired or replaced. But the price stayed high because we chose to pay it. Oil is way down now, any they're paying like $3.05 a gallon in Columbus, OH (I know someone there). My guess is that we are in the southeast, where supplies have ben limited. At least we had gas; Atlantans had zero for some time. But the bottom line is, as it is with any other product: If we keep voluntarily paying those high prices, the oil companies will leave them that way. It's called the marketplace. But it's also made everything else cost like 20% more due to transportation costs, and because, again, we have bowed down to the greedy ones.
narcar1973 Champion Author St. Louis Posts:1,637 Points:172,475 Joined:Jul 2008	Message Posted: Oct 5, 2008 5:46:58 PM Ignore narcar1973 Report Abuse greed
HeavyDuty_cache Champion Author Omaha Posts:12,980 Points:2,483,685 Joined:Sep 2005	Message Posted: Sep 16, 2008 12:31:05 AM Ignore HeavyDuty_cache Report Abuse Service was disrupted, the price will go back down once the waters go down and power is restored.
rocko116 Rookie Author Atlanta Posts:20 Points:1,625 Joined:Jul 2008	Message Posted: Sep 16, 2008 12:07:47 AM Ignore rocko116 Report Abuse They have reported that the infrastructure was not damaged by Ike. Just a few refineries are without power. They could have shifted refining capacities to other areas that are not in harms way if they wanted to. A little extra in delivery from the other areas is all that should be affecting the prices, along with blind slave consumers rushing the pumps(the people that don't need gas but get it anyway because of panic). Prices should have never went up more than 25 cents a gallon. Most places it is up 50 - 80 cents or more. And I guess that is my 2 cents worth.
Sneakers55 Champion Author Houston Posts:51,297 Points:2,143,175 Joined:Nov 2005	Message Posted: Sep 14, 2008 3:41:37 PM Ignore Sneakers55 Report Abuse You've got an abnormal situation here. Most of the refineries shut down in preparation for Ike. Most of the areas around the refineries they're asking people not to re-enter because it's not safe. So, you're having to pay for hauling around fuel from where it is to where it's needed. I'd suspect most of the pipelines are down, they hadn't even recovered from Gustav.
UP-Skier Champion Author Twin Cities Posts:13,356 Points:2,958,045 Joined:Oct 2002	Message Posted: Sep 14, 2008 1:10:56 PM Ignore UP-Skier Report Abuse gavindyer - 20% of the refineries in the US are shut down. That means that 100% ofthe consumers are vompeting for 80% of the gas. If you are "smarter than a 5th grader" that should explain hte price change.
gavindyer Rookie Author North Carolina Posts:8 Points:25,600 Joined:Jul 2007	Message Posted: Sep 13, 2008 8:00:20 PM Ignore gavindyer Report Abuse Here in Indian Trail NC, the Pure gas station on Hwy 74 raised it's price from $4.29 at 4pm to $5.39 by 8pm, is this not crazy!!!! or gouging????
miroMI Rookie Author Grand Rapids Posts:15 Points:3,450 Joined:Sep 2008	Message Posted: Sep 13, 2008 3:06:27 PM Ignore miroMI Report Abuse What! Demand!!!! Demand is down, crude oil price is down, USA economy is down, Europe economy is down, even China and the rest of the global demand is down, only our oil companies profit is up!!!!! Second, gas prices are up today in MI about 25-30 cents per gallon, and this gasoline was not bought or delivered to gas stations across Michigan in last few hours. This gasolinee was in the underground tanks for at least 2 days, bought much chipper, and now selling with prices over $4.20! Who is crazy here????????????????????????????????????????????
kjjfish Rookie Author Georgia Posts:3 Points:1,660 Joined:Sep 2008	Message Posted: Sep 13, 2008 1:44:01 PM Ignore kjjfish Report Abuse Not enough refineries to satisfy demand.
CumminsCO Rookie Author Denver Posts:13 Points:20,235 Joined:Aug 2008	Message Posted: Sep 12, 2008 2:50:59 AM Ignore CumminsCO Report Abuse Miro ... Michigan also has just one refinery (Marathon) with 105,000 barrels/day capacity. Norhern Ohio has Sunoco 165,000 b/d and BP with 160,000 barrels/day. They'll probably be starting to switch over some product to heating oil. Winter's just a couple of months away!
CumminsCO Rookie Author Denver Posts:13 Points:20,235 Joined:Aug 2008	Message Posted: Sep 12, 2008 2:31:06 AM Ignore CumminsCO Report Abuse Catfish is right in my opinion ... Valero and Tesoro's stock prices (pure refiners, not producers of oil) tell the story. Yes, so does XOM's quarterly reports. Where a station is in relation to a refiner will also impact what you, or we all pay for gasoline/diesel. One thing that's going on write now as I type is Hurricane Ike headed toward Houston, TX. There's a bunch of refiners sitting on the water's edge. They've shut down quite a bit of their refining capacity last week in preparation (they cut their oil inputs by 1.77 million barrels per day, and cut their utilization of refinery capacity down to 78.2% from the prior week's 88.68%). So, oil price falls (less refiner demand) and gasoline prices either steady, or rise. Once hurricane season passes, you should start to see oil and gasoline prices start tracking each other again. As for Michigan gas prices. What kind of TAX, TAX, TAX policy does Michigan have on oil companies, or fuels? Check out the gasoline heatmap. See how some states are a little brighter than others? You can change things. Get out and VOTE this fall! If your politician tells you he/she will tax the oil companies and that will bring down your gasoline prices, well, find a candidate that doesn't tell you that and send your vote his/her way. [Edited by: CumminsCO at 9/12/2008 2:39:23 AM EST]
catfish99 Champion Author Wilmington Posts:13,972 Points:2,496,525 Joined:Sep 2005	Message Posted: Sep 11, 2008 5:33:00 AM Ignore catfish99 Report Abuse No, the refiners are making very, very little per gallon of gas. Using the Exxon annual report, you can check out the throughput in barrels from their refining and their "downstream" profits. A little quick math shows the total pre-tax profit from their refining and retailing operations runs less than 20 cents per gallon.
miroMI Rookie Author Grand Rapids Posts:15 Points:3,450 Joined:Sep 2008	Message Posted: Sep 11, 2008 1:39:57 AM Ignore miroMI Report Abuse Thanks "Blinktwice", this is nice explanation. But, this brings me to another question: If the gas price from terminal in Chicago is so high, then we come to the point that actually oil companies and refineries are those one who make those huge profits! Bigger profits then ewer in history! Or not?
blinktwice Veteran Author Milwaukee Posts:279 Points:82,740 Joined:Jun 2008	Message Posted: Sep 10, 2008 8:31:54 PM Ignore blinktwice Report Abuse I assure you that there's more to the situation than greedy station owners. There are four major wholesale gasoline markets in the US with lots of sub-markets around them. They're based heavily on refinery supply and competition between regional refineries. The markets are, predictably, the northeast, midwest, west coast, and the south. The major midwest market center is the Chicago terminal and wholesale prices out of there are $3.20 before taxes. Look at the gas price temp map and you'll see a lot of red in a radius extending from that city. Traditionally the west spot prices at wholesale level are the highest, but over the past month the Midwest and the south are significantly higher and the west has come close to matching the northeast. This is probably mostly due to hurricane activity but hey I'm not a refiner so I can't say for sure. See if things cool down in MI after the storms pass.