something wrong here with gas prices?

[21pro]

July 11th
price of a barrel of oil- $147
price of a litre of gasoline- $1.36

Sept 2nd
oil- $101/barrel
gas- $1.279/litre

a 30% price drop in crude but only a 4.5% drop in gasoline?

 

[mmouse]

I don't know if something's wrong but for sure it doesn't seem logical. I would appreciate reading some article that explains exactly how the pricing mechanism works. For such an important commodity it seems bizarre that nearly everyone is asking why prices are what they are.

 

[RTRD]

Dude...

July 11th
price of a barrel of oil- $147
price of a litre of gasoline- $1.36

Sept 2nd
oil- $101/barrel
gas- $1.279/litre

a 30% price drop in crude but only a 4.5% drop in gasoline?

...ummm...yeah.

The gas companies charge as much as they can. Period.

No other industry / no other place do competitors charge THE EXACT SAME PRICE for a commodity (meaning...they know there is no real difference between their products). when you have this type of scenario, companies compete on price...that is certainly how it works in the U.S....no two closely located stations will have the same price.

There is ABSOLUTELY price fixing here...everybody charges the same price???

I am so sick of hearing the government lie amount how they haven't found it I don't even listen anymore...

 

[canucklehead]

i think the pricing at the moment has to do with Gustav and supply rather then the actual cost per barrel.

 

[RayFinkel]

I blame it on Teddy (FUCKFACE) Rogers


.

 

[Keebler Elf]

Yeah people, let's totally ignore the huge fucking hurricane that was expected to hit the Gulf of Mexico.

Oil is all about speculation, not price fixing.

By the time the oil gets into the hands of the greedy little owners, the price has already been set on the international stage. Even if Shell and Petro Canada were colluding on prices at the pumps, you're talking a few cents at the station and prices would still be at record highs.

It's the international price of oil that matters and that's based on speculation. Someone calculates the risk of damage from Hurricane Gustav and then speculates what the price will be next week and presto, high international oil prices. Doesn't matter if the speculated event occurs or not. And it's even worse when you get these wannabe-rich guys playing as day traders and warping the system.

Let's see... hurricane in the Gulf, war in Iraq, unstable gov't in Iran, Georgia gets invaded by Russia, and on and on and on. Not exactly a stable environment for oil prices.

 

[enduser1]

IMHO, it is the paper markets. Basically the really big boys are driving the price of oil and gold and every other commodity down in order to get Mc Cain elected.

I didn't used to believe that markets were manipulated in this way but, IMHO it is becoming blatantly obvious, to me anyway, that there is a huge disconnection between "Free Markets" and the gas pump and for that matter the grocery store, where prices are soaring.

Have you bought a jug of milk lately? How about cheese, beef, butter or canned pop?

EU

 

[tired old perv]

I didn't used to believe that markets were manipulated in this way but, IMHO it is becoming blatantly obvious,

Think skull and bones.

It's not as far out as people think

 

[train]

Gas prices were probably affected short term by Gustav. Whether it makes any sense or not hurricanes in the gulf affect prices do to refinery capacity being threatened.

Other than that there is a bit of a time lag between when the $147 barrel gets made into gas and in turn it hits the pumps.

 

[whynot888]

ask the Bush administration, i'm sure they have the answers!

 

[WoodPeckr]

"Butt f**king" by any other name is still "butt f**king"!!!!!!!!!!!

ask the Bush administration, i'm sure they have the answers!

LOL!
They have the answers but they are locked up tight in DICK Cheney's 'Man-Size Safe' he keeps in his bunker......and he says nobody can see them, EVER!....

....and yes we are being HOSED, BIGTIME as the DICK is known to say.

It's all about their culture of corruption, along with deregulation which makes it just that much easier to, whenever they please, give you that "butt f**king"!!!!!!!!!!

 

[RTRD]

Oil is....

Oil is all about speculation, not price fixing.

..gas prices are not.

And if there is colusion, how can you be certain that the prices would a) only vary a few pennies, and b) not be dramatically lower than they are.

Case in point...gas is below $4.00/gallon again in many places in the U.S. How can an oil EXPORTING nation have more expensive gas than an oil IMPORTING nation?

Go ahead and do the math...currency conversion litres to gallons...yeah, yeah...still easily 20% more.

And I state again another point...in any other industry, when the price of your raw material goes up (in this case, oil), your profits shrink as you try to manage how much you pass along to your customers (because you have competition). What do we have? Oil companies with RECORD profits...not record profits for the oil industry...record profits for business period.

and oh yeah, those high exploration costs? There are tax breaks for those...

http://environment.about.com/b/2008/08/01/record-gasoline-prices-fuel-record-oil-company-profits.htm

Normally, I am a die hard capitalist, and I hate conspiracy theorist nut jobs. But true capitalism assumes a fair and level playing field, and only a idiot would think there is no correlation between record profits for oil companies, tax breaks for those same oil companies and having a former oil industry insider in the most powerful office int he world...

 

[Master Muse]

It is totally untrue that closely located gas stations in the US have different prices. They all follow the local leader. You can't seel Shell for $3.85 on one corner and Mobil on the othe corner for $4.25. Not for more than a heartbeat. Distance of even a few blocks does make a difference but again at the same intersection, prices are invariably the same.

 

[amber-jade]

Think skull and bones.

It's not as far out as people think

i was thinking the ''rothchilds'' actually... but same difference ..

.

 

[RTRD]

No...

It is totally untrue that closely located gas stations in the US have different prices. They all follow the local leader. You can't seel Shell for $3.85 on one corner and Mobil on the othe corner for $4.25. Not for more than a heartbeat. Distance of even a few blocks does make a difference but again at the same intersection, prices are invariably the same.

..of course they won't vary by 10 damn percent....hello?

The point is...they are not all IDENTICAL, nor do they all change their prices at the same time each night....

The larger point is THEY COMPETE...if even by one of two pennies per gallon. Why would the prices by IDENTICAL for two different stations...for different stations for kms in every direction? How come the news can report what the price is going to be for gas ALL OVER TORONTO every morning (no, I am not saying the radio news is in on it...I am saying that the prices are absolutely perfectly uniform).

My reference for all this? 6 years of watching prices in Canada...20 years of watching them in the U.S. What is yours?

Just drive over the border to Niagara.....there are about a half dozen gas stations within a few km right off of I20...all with different prices...sometimes the same brand...but different prices for a station located a few kms away. That is because their is no collusion...the owner sets his own price.

You have to have a double digit IQ if you think it is just a coincidence that a Petro Canada at King and Spadina can have the EXACT SAME PRICE as a Shell at Jane and Finch...

 

[james t kirk]

...ummm...yeah.

The gas companies charge as much as they can. Period.

No other industry / no other place do competitors charge THE EXACT SAME PRICE for a commodity (meaning...they know there is no real difference between their products). when you have this type of scenario, companies compete on price...that is certainly how it works in the U.S....no two closely located stations will have the same price.

There is ABSOLUTELY price fixing here...everybody charges the same price???

I am so sick of hearing the government lie amount how they haven't found it I don't even listen anymore...

Yep.

I laugh when the US gov't goes after Microsoft on anti Trust Law violations.

I only buy a new version of Windows when I buy a new computer and it comes with it.

But the oil companies?

OH NO, NOT THE OIL COMPANIES. Those guys are all for fair competition and the freedom of the marketplace....

 

[dajodo2]

Yeah people, let's totally ignore the huge fucking hurricane that was expected to hit the Gulf of Mexico.

Oil is all about speculation, not price fixing.

By the time the oil gets into the hands of the greedy little owners, the price has already been set on the international stage. Even if Shell and Petro Canada were colluding on prices at the pumps, you're talking a few cents at the station and prices would still be at record highs.

It's the international price of oil that matters and that's based on speculation. Someone calculates the risk of damage from Hurricane Gustav and then speculates what the price will be next week and presto, high international oil prices. Doesn't matter if the speculated event occurs or not. And it's even worse when you get these wannabe-rich guys playing as day traders and warping the system.

Let's see... hurricane in the Gulf, war in Iraq, unstable gov't in Iran, Georgia gets invaded by Russia, and on and on and on. Not exactly a stable environment for oil prices.

"Yeah people, let's totally ignore the huge fucking hurricane that was expected to hit the Gulf of Mexico." by KE.

Key words WAS EXPECTED.

From the Associated Press Today...

"Oil companies and rig owners, which shut down virtually all oil and natural gas production in the Gulf as Gustav approached, headed out to look for damage. Some were already putting equipment and people back in place to resume operations, and a $8 drop in the price of a barrel suggests traders are confident the storm didn’t cause much damage."

In the immortal words of Flavor Flav.."Don't believe the hype."

There has always been hurricane's in the Gulf.

There has never been peace or stability in the middle east.

Back in the day during the cold war russia was always an ominous threat.

How come only during this decade is every single fucking excuse to raise the price of oil used as a justification for robbing us blind?

Do you know who supplies and oversees the information of the daily supply and demand ratio used to set the cost of a barrel of oil.....THE FUCKING OIL COMPANIES! No government agencies or unbiased second party committees.

These speculators make me puke and it makes me sicker how they are allowed to get away with their bullshit. Jackin' up the price of oil in a nervous knee jerk fashion 'cause something "might" happen to disrupt the flow of crude.

I've got a great idea...HOW ABOUT WAITING 'TILL THE PERCEIVED THREAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS ASSHOLES!

 

[LateComer]

A big component of the price of gas is the refining, distribution cost, and last but not least, taxes. Those figures stay roughly the same regardless of the price per barrel. The exception is GST which goes up in proportion to the price at the pump. A barrel of oil equals 164 litres so even at $147/barrel the raw cost was only $.87/litre. Having said that, a $46 drop in crude price should translate to a .28/litre drop at the pump. It looks like that didn't happen. The bulk of the difference probably went to more profit for the oil companies. Other factors come into play such as forward selling by the oil companies on the futures markets but I don't know enough about that to have an opinion (All figures in US funds)

 

[nottyboi]

July 11th
price of a barrel of oil- $147
price of a litre of gasoline- $1.36

Sept 2nd
oil- $101/barrel
gas- $1.279/litre

a 30% price drop in crude but only a 4.5% drop in gasoline?

Canadian dollar has fallen by about 12% as well.

 

[new2game]

I'd like to know...

...how much of the worlds oil capacity is actually in the path of these storms...probably less than 1%...but these fuckers make it sound like the whole world's capacity is being affected...

...and please give me an explanation as to why increases in the price per barrel can be passed to consumers immediately....but when the price goes down, some stunned cockbite from the oil industry is trying to tell us that it takes "months" for us to realize these savings...

...actually, I gotta disagree with vsailor...we're not gettin buttfu***d, that might imply that there is a segment of the population that enjoys it...we are getting plungerfu***d....but because we all need the product so bad..we smile and take the punishment..


N2G