what's up with gas prices?

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Ive seen a few big jumps recently. Between last night and this evening it went up 6c I noticed...
 
Its going up here in South FL. Its a game to which the likes of us will NEVER know all of the rules.
 
Ours went up maybe 10 cents in the past 3 days. I did find one station where it was the same price before I went out of state and returned from being out of state earlier today.
 
Price of wholesale oil eventually gets down to the level of consumer. Also may well be changing from winter blends to summer blends has an effect. Profit margin for the refineries is between 8% and 12%. Truth is we pay more in taxes than the refiners make in profit margin. How much profit in a 20 oz Pepsi at a convenience store selling at $1.79? How about the profit margin on frozen foods at a grocery store?? Try 40 to 50%. Meats and produce run 25 to 40%. Regular grocery items are barely 1%.. That's where grocery stores make their money in the speciality departments.
So 8 to 12% margin is not excessive at the end of the day compared to other products we buy everyday.
 
Just a guess but the cap and trade thing that started here in california may be to blame. It was one of those wonderful new rules where they couldnt even guess what it would cost us. It has gone up at least .75 over the last month.

I dont know why but diesel is about .80 a gallon cheaper than regular unleaded right now.
 
Originally Posted By: hpb
The good news is you're still paying far less than pretty much everyone else around the world!


This is true, I was in the Netherlands in August 2013. Petrol was 1,79 Euro per liter. That equated to $9.15 usd a gallon at the time.

Of course it's flat there and you can ride your bike and/or the train everywhere...which we did.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
It has gone up $.60 a gallon in 6 working days!


Equals to about 16 cents per litre increase in a week.
We get that often in Montreal, but as one single overnight price hike (not over a few days).

Price hike this evening to 1.30$ per liter / 4.91$ CAD$ per US gallon.
 
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Originally Posted By: mlatour
Originally Posted By: Chris142
It has gone up $.60 a gallon in 6 working days!


Equals to about 16 cents per litre increase in a week.
We get that often in Montreal, but as one single overnight price hike (not over a few days).


Yup, we get that here as well.
 
Plan on over $3 by end of summer, unless the Saudis increase production again....blame corporate greed.
 
I'm planning an 800 mile road trip next weekend, it's my fault.
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Supply is probably down due to changeover to summer blend. Also there might be a refinery down somewhere ... hard to follow because it might only make local news.

Finally the majors only control about 30% of supply, the majority is small wells on private property ... many thousands of small suppliers in North America.

There are about a dozen separate and distinct fuel markets in North America; a surplus in one market does not mitigate a shortage in another; there is very little cross-market transport. So a wide variety of prices across the nation as each market is self-regulating based on supply and demand in that market alone.

Since oil lasts essentially forever in the ground, but begins to deteriorate as soon as it's pumped, well owners restrict or shut down wells as price falls and restart as prices rise.

There is a huge difference between petroleum storage capacity and actual demand; it's best to think of gas as something that has to be pumped and refined on a short on-demand basis. Broadly speaking the gas at the pump is less than 3 months from the wellhead old.

The supply and demand situation is such that there is always a little too much or too little product available; that's the real determining factor in pump prices.

Supply falls as crude prices fall due to the producers altering well production.

That's why there is such a discontinuity between crude and pump prices.
 
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Originally Posted By: Kuato
Plan on over $3 by end of summer, unless the Saudis increase production again....blame corporate greed.

We didn't have below $3/gal here in So Cal, it is already $3.70-3.80 at Chevron and Shell stations near my house.

Oil companies don't control retail gas price, the middleman is the one who bid up/down whole sale price, and they are the one sells to retail stations.

If oil companies control gasoline price then why did they let the price dropped from $3.50-3.60 last year to as low as $2.30-2.40 ? Why didn't they keep the gasoline price high so they can have larger profit ?
 
If you believe the LA Times (May 1):
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gas-prices-20150430-story.html

The state has been grappling with tight supply after a February explosion at Exxon Mobil Corp.'s Torrance refinery, analysts said. Oil Price Information Service, an energy information service, reported it might take until July before operations there return to normal.

An Exxon Mobil spokeswoman said the company doesn't comment on the details of daily refinery operations. Last week, Chevron Corp.'s Richmond refinery reported it was flaring, and Tesoro Corp. indicated it was experiencing minor issues at its Martinez refinery, according to GasBuddy. The incidents trimmed output, worried traders and sent wholesale prices shooting up, Mac said.

Tesoro is also undergoing unplanned maintenance work to solve a problem at its Los Angeles facility, said Brian L. Milne, an energy editor with Schneider Electric. Chevron has shut some units in El Segundo for planned maintenance work, Milne said.
 
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