Rising Gas Prices

[b_girl]

2.55 here, AR

[Chrisi18]

$2.35 here in ohio!!! I just want to find as many gas cans as I can and fill them up lol

[JRScott]

Still 3.25 here in the mountains of North Carolina, you can tell they love us.

[syn]

$2.59 in southern Massachusetts.

[robivi3]

$2.92 in Davie, Florida.

[AMISLANDER]

$2.91 in Bradenton Saturday and yes, I filled up.

[magnix]

The reality is gas prices will never get low . They might hit a temporary low once a while , but over the long term ,the increasing demand and the decreasing supply will ensure that .

[HRx]

I came across a local gas station selling premium for $2.98

[BankruptPinoy]

http://urbansurvival.com/week.htm

In the Big Picture, we notice that OPEC is calling a meeting to discuss cutting their oil production quotas in order to hold prices high, but gosh, how coincidental; the meeting won't be till November 18th in Vienna. With an election over by then, they should be free to bump prices (via quotas) to whatever they feel like.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fc297918-9664-11dd-9dce-000077b07658.html

Oil prices plunged below $85 a barrel yesterday, the lowest level in a year, as Opec, the oil exporting countries' cartel, called an emergency meeting to discuss reducing its crude production to halt the collapse in prices.

==================
Opec calls meeting to discuss cut in output as oil price hits year-low

By Javier Blas and Carola Hoyos in London

Published: October 10 2008 03:00 | Last updated: October 10 2008 03:00

Oil prices plunged below $85 a barrel yesterday, the lowest level in a year, as Opec, the oil exporting countries' cartel, called an emergency meeting to discuss reducing its crude production to halt the collapse in prices.

The announcement came as crude oil futures in New York fell almost $5 to an intraday low of $84.19 a barrel, the lowest level since October 2007.

In late afternoon trading in New York, oil was down $4.14 to $84.81 a barrel.

The drop suggested that the market was firmly focused on the impact of the financial crisis on global economic growth and energy demand next year, rather than in the cartel's action.

The cartel, which controls 40 per cent of the world's oil output, said in an unusually frank statement that it was concerned about the "deteriorating economic conditions with contagion risks" and will meet in four weeks to tackle the problem.

Gold, seen as a safe haven in turbulent times, recovered earlier losses to trade at $913 an ounce, up $8 on the day.

Harry Tchilinguirian, an oil analyst at BNP Paribas in London, said the correction in oil prices had come to closely track movements in equity indices and, until such time that credit conditions normalise and confidence returns, "this is likely to continue".

He cut his price forecast for the first quarter to $81.30 a barrel, adding that prices would average in 2009 about $95 a barrel, well below the $115 a barrel he predicted just a month ago. Oil prices have fallen almost 43 per cent from July's all-time high of $147.27 a barrel.

The US Department of Energy reported this week that the country's oil demand averaged 18.66m barrels a day last week, down 8.6 per cent against the same period a year ago as the economic downturn takes its toll on oil consumption. High prices during the summer have forced US motorists to cut their mileage.

Olivier Jakob, of Switzerland-based consultancy Petromatrix, said: "Be it in November or in December, be it formally or informally, Opec will need to reduce production not because the price is currently too low but because there is not enough demand."

Opec said it would meet on November 18 in Vienna, a month before it was originally due to have its next gathering.

The fall in oil prices was not mirrored in other commodity markets. Agricultural commodities and base metals rose.

Commodities, Page 22 www.ft.com/oil

[JRScott]

Still 3.49 here....though that is a 30 cent drop in 3 days.

[BankruptPinoy]

Caution - "I told you so" message follows.

From post#856, this thread, on July 9, 2008:
Getting back to gas prices - I'll make a prediction:
Just before the November 2008 election oil will be selling for under $90/bbl and gasoline prices will be under $2.50/gallon in some areas of the country.

I hope I'm really all wrong on this one though:
Quote:Oh, and after the election oil will go back to $175/bbl and regular gas will be at $6/gallon by late spring of 2009.


I hope I'm really all wrong on this one though:

WhatMoney, yes you are exactly right!

I'm tired of us being played all the time. $2.99 in NE GA and people in line for that.

[justplaintired]

2.71 here, unbelievable!

[AngelinaCat]

The prices in our area have been dropping like lead weights for the past week or so. Sometimes they would drop several cents in the course of one day. Yesterday, the all time low for unleaded that I could see in our area was $3.12, deisel $3.65. Today they have rebounded a bit at an average of $3.17 for unleaded, and $3.70 for deisel.

We had to make a service call to a community about 35 miles northwest of us, and their all-time low was a Kangaroo selling unleaded for $3.05. They had a line of vehicles around the block.

[WhatMoney]

Why does everyone assume they're making a killing? In fact, Wal-Mart and most other retailers keep more of every dollar taken in than Exxon does. The fact that Exxon takes in far more dollars is as much our fault as theirs -- but their profit margin is sub-par.

That's not what their latest annual reports say:

Exxon:
Profit Margin 10.17%
Operating Margin: 15.72%
Return on Assets: 17.04%
Revenue: $429.28 Billion
Gross Profit: $171.70 Billion

Wal-Mart:
Profit Margin: 3.38%
Operating Margin: 5.83%
Return on Assets: 8.94%
Revenue: $397.38 Billion
Gross Profit: $92.28 Billion

[oldhack]

When I entered the job market out of college back in 1980, I earned $200 weekly, or $5 an hour. The average price of a gallon of gasoline passed $1 that year, or a half-percent of my weekly salary. To equal that same ratio today, I'd have to be paying $4.42+ per gallon, or 10% higher than it got here at its summertime high this year.
We've had cheap gas so long we feel entitled to it. But, with most American oil companies drilling only a fraction of what domestic consumers demand, they're having to buy it on the open market, too. Why does everyone assume they're making a killing? In fact, Wal-Mart and most other retailers keep more of every dollar taken in than Exxon does. The fact that Exxon takes in far more dollars is as much our fault as theirs -- but their profit margin is sub-par.