Rising Gas Prices

[MomIcantFindmy]

What's most interesting about the high fuel prices is that none of the several so called "experts" have reached a consensus as to why prices are actually so high.

I am not an expert by any means but I do have a theory as to why gas prices are so high when all of the oil companies are recording record profits and placing none of the money into finding alternatives.....my theory...basic greed.

[BankruptPinoy]

Shell CEO says record oil not due to shortage

"What we say and what we see is there are no physical shortages," Shell's Jeroen van der Veer told Reuters television. He runs the world's second-largest fully publicly traded oil firm by market value.

"There are no tankers waiting in the Middle East, there are no cars waiting at gasoline stations because they are out of stock. This has to do with psychology in the markets and you cannot forecast psychology".

His view that there are no shortages chimes with that of other oil producers, such as members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Others, such as the U.S. government, say supply is tight.

While rising prices are boosting profit for the industry, the Shell CEO agreed that high oil costs were a mixed blessing.

"For many consumers in the world, this really starts to hit them. Secondly, we see that you get a kind of public outcry.

article continues at:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKL2232289720080522

My friend from the UK says:

[BankruptPinoy]

From the Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2004288/Garages-use-'stingers'-to-combat-petrol-theft.html

Excerpt:

The increase in "drive-aways", as they are known in the industry, has been linked to the 20 per cent increase in the cost of petrol in the past year.

The new Drivestop device has a sensor which detects when a driver is pulling away without paying. The cashier triggers the system which starts with a loudspeaker announcement warning the would-be thief that his tyres will be shredded.

If the warning is ignored a set of metal spikes spring up and punctures the rear wheels, deflating them in ten seconds.

[DisneyGirl]

The Chevron by us just went to $4.05 today for regular. This is the first time in the two years I've lived in Southern California that I've seen it that high. I feel sick.

[BankruptPinoy]

From Paul Joseph Watson:

Three separate internal confidential memos from Mobil, Chevron and Texaco have been obtained by The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.

These memos outline a deliberate agenda to gouge prices and create artificial scarcity by limiting capacities of and outright closing oil refineries. This was a nationwide lobbying effort led by the American Petroleum Institute to encourage refineries to do this.

From the 5103.pdf-the second link, the internal Chevron memo reads: "A senior energy analyst at the recent API convention warned that if the US petroleum industry doesn't reduce its refining capacity it will never see any substantial increase in refinery margins."

Here are the links:

http://web.archive.org/web/20051226155213/http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/energy/fs/

http://web.archive.org/web/20051223115702/www.consumerwatchdog.org/energy/fs/5103.pdf

http://web.archive.org/web/20060108145356/www.consumerwatchdog.org/energy/fs/5104.pdf

http://web.archive.org/web/20051225114228/www.consumerwatchdog.org/energy/fs/5105.pdf

The Californian (Salinas, CA)
Apr 07, 2004
by Doug Abrahms, Gannett News Service
Refinery closure angers watchdog
WASHINGTON - Shell Oil is reaping big profits from a Bakersfield refinery it plans to close Oct. 1, raising questions over whether the company is trying to keep gasoline prices high by reducing California's already tight refining capacity, a consumer watchdog said.

Company documents obtained by the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights show refining margins at Shell's Bakersfield refinery were three times higher than at its Gulf Coast refineries during late March.

A lack of refining capacity is partly to blame for California's high gasoline prices. Regular gas prices averaged nearly $2.20 a gallon Tuesday in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, according to the AAA motorists group.

Regular gas prices averaged $2.11 a gallon Tuesday in the Salinas area, according to AAA.

"This is a national example of how refiners cheat rather than compete in the restriction of supply by artificial means," said Jamie Court, president of the Santa Monica-based watchdog group. The group said it obtained the documents from company sources.

A Shell spokesman said the documents showing the refinery making substantial money in March are accurate, but only represent a snapshot in time and not a long-term financial picture.

"Two out of the last three years we did not make money in the Bakersfield refinery," Shell spokesman Cameron Smyth said. "That refinery was built over 70 years ago atop its crude source. The crude in the ground is declining."

http://web.archive.org/web/20050416110730/www.consumerwatchdog.org/utilities/nw/nw004200.php3

[AMISLANDER]

Care to join me on the bus?

[HRx]

The cost of public transportation keep going up too! Albiet still much cheaper than filling up ones tank a couple of times per week. I'm reading that even many affluent families are trying to sell or trade thier SUVs for more fuel efficient small cars now. $200+ per week in gas is no laughing matter!!

[Cali]

I hear you, that is why we moved closer to our kids school. They can walk to and from school, I don't have to go pick them up at different times and I save a lot of money because I don't have to fill my SUV up weekly.

I saw on TV that SUV's and truck sales are way down, and cars like Malibu/Impala, etc are up.

Some of my affluent friends are still driving their premium only vehicles and some have opt for better gas mileage vehicles. Nobody I know is riding the bus though.

The cost of public transportation keep going up too! Albiet still much cheaper than filling up ones tank a couple of times per week. I'm reading that even many affluent families are trying to sell or trade thier SUVs for more fuel efficient small cars now. $200+ per week in gas is no laughing matter!!

[Bandit]

I saw on TV that SUV's and truck sales are way down, and cars like Malibu/Impala, etc are up.

...and some of them want to trade in the big gas guzzlers but found out that the value last year at 50,000 is only worth 30,000 or less this year, so it is not wise because they will spend/lose thousands to only save hundreds.

[Bandit]

Care to join me on the bus?

yes. Only there is no bus that goes my way & does not run when I need it to.

So I would have to walk about 1 mile out of my way to get to the bus, then have no way to get home because they stop running at that hour.

[Bandit]

I am not an expert by any means but I do have a theory as to why gas prices are so high when all of the oil companies are recording record profits and placing none of the money into finding alternatives.....my theory...basic greed.

yah, pretty much. Boosh could not get the saudis to make more oil. Twice he asked & twice he was turned down. they wont give until it is actually in demand. Interesting politics/economics...that whole bush/cheney/saudi mess.

Too bad we cant have huge tanks in our yards & have filled them up two years ago with gasoline making our own reserves, that or purchased it early at the lower prices.
Why does this remind me of the social security problem?

http://www.ktvu.com/news/15993388/detail.html

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabian leaders made clear Friday they see no reason to increase oil production until their customers demand it, apparently rebuffing President Bush amid soaring U.S. gasoline prices.

During Bush's second personal appeal this year to King Abdullah, Saudi officials stuck to their position that they are already meeting demand, the president's national security adviser told reporters.

"What they're saying to us is ... Saudi Arabia does not have customers that are making requests for oil that they are not able to satisfy," Stephen Hadley said on a day when oil prices topped $127 a barrel, a record high.

The Saudi government indicated that it is willing to put on the market whatever oil is necessary to meet the demand of its customers, Hadley said.

But even then, he said, Saudi leaders say increased production would not dramatically reduce pump prices in the United States.

The Saudis are investing in ways to increase oil production over time. Officials told Bush they are doing "everything they can do" for now to address a complicated market.

Hadley said the Bush administration will take the explanation back to its own experts and "see it if conforms."

When Bush and Abdullah met in the kingdom in mid-January, the president also sought more Saudi output but got a chilly response to that plea. Saudi Arabia said it would increase production only when the market justified it and that production levels appeared normal.

Bush acknowledges that raising output is difficult because the demand for oil -- particularly from China and India -- is stretching supplies. Also, economists say prices are being driven up by increased demand, not slowed production.

High energy costs are a major drain on the U.S. economy, which is experiencing a slowdown that some think is already a recession. At the pump, gas prices rose to a national average of $3.78 per gallon on Friday, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.

Beyond oil, Iran also dominated the meeting between the president and the king. The two shared a concern over the recent in violence in Lebanon, where Hezbollah overran Beirut neighborhoods last week. The display of military power by the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization, resulted in the worst internal fighting since the end of Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war.

Hadley said the leaders shared concerns the recent events would "embolden Iran." The U.S. and Saudi Arabia, he said, "are of one mind in condemning what Hezbollah did in bringing pressure on the duly elected government of Lebanon."

"Iran, working directly and through Syria, was very much behind what happened in Lebanon over the weekend and it is another example of Iran taking actions that are contrary to the interests of those in the Middle East who want peace, security and freedom," Hadley said.

On Thursday, the Hezbollah-led opposition and U.S.-backed government reached a deal to end the violence after Lebanon's Cabinet reversed measures aimed at reining in the militants.

Earlier, Bush and Abdullah formalized new cooperation between the kingdom and the United States on a range of topics, including the development of civilian nuclear energy in Saudi Arabia.

Bush was spending the day with Abdullah at his horse farm outside Riyadh, talking mostly out of public view over three tea services and two meals.

The White House says the president's visit is intended, in part, to celebrate 75 years of formal U.S.-Saudi relations. But the rising price of oil commanded attention.

When Bush first ran for president in 2000, he criticized the Clinton administration for high fuel prices and said the president must "jawbone" oil producing nations and persuade them to drop rates. At that time, oil was nearing $28 a barrel. The run-up of oil prices lately has been dramatic.

Bush's visit comes two days after Congress voted to temporarily halt daily shipments of 70,000 barrels of oil to the nation's emergency reserve. Bush has refused to stop pouring oil into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, saying the stockpile was meant for emergencies and that halting the shipments would have little or no impact on gasoline or crude oil prices.

It's a move that Democrats have sought for the past year to increase supply and apply downward pressure on prices. With an eye to the November election, the Senate sent the measure to the president Wednesday night without a single GOP objection. The White House has indicated that Bush will sign the reserve measure.

Also, as Bush prepared to leave Washington, Senate Democrats introduced a resolution that would block $1.4 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia unless Riyadh agrees to increase its oil production by 1 million barrels per day. The Democrats said they introduced the measure to coincide with Bush's trip to send a message to Saudi Arabia that it should pump more oil to reduce the cost of gas for Americans.

Besides wanting to discuss oil, Bush is paying his second visit to Abdullah this year -- on top of a stop by Vice President Dick Cheney in Saudi Arabia in March -- to talk about his goal of achieving an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal before he leaves office. Saudi Arabia's immense power in the region means that its backing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and any concessions he will have to make is key.

[Bandit]

The cost of public transportation keep going up too! Albiet still much cheaper than filling up ones tank a couple of times per week. I'm reading that even many affluent families are trying to sell or trade thier SUVs for more fuel efficient small cars now. $200+ per week in gas is no laughing matter!!

but they wont even get half of what they think/ blue book value because no one wants them now. people think they are getting ripped off by gas price, now they are really getting ripped off trying to trade their Stupid Ugly Vehicles

I see more than half of the vehicles today are modern looking stationwagons with a fancy name, but a stationwagon none the less. Reminds me of the 70's Brady Bunch. No one wanted a station wagon for the longest time but change the way it looks, give it a new name, & everyone wants one.

[HRx]

Very true...hell most dealership can't even give away thier SUVs/Trucks! lol There's an article that says London truck drivers are creating a major ruckus because of extremely high gas prices.

[Cali]

It seems SUVs are doing well overseas. Many people from other countries are coming here buying them for cheaper than they cost in their country. And Internet sells from overseas buyers are up as well.

Very true...hell most dealership can't even give away thier SUVs/Trucks! lol There's an article that says London truck drivers are creating a major ruckus because of extremely high gas prices.

[Bandit]

Very true...hell most dealership can't even give away thier SUVs/Trucks! lol There's an article that says London truck drivers are creating a major ruckus because of extremely high gas prices.

yah! I just saw that yesterday and was a bit suprized. They were doing it because 60% of the price they pay is tax.

I hope their government listens. That or we in for some serious big global changes that will make the small people even smaller.