My husband just looked outside his office window and watched the gas station across the street change to price to 3.09 a gallon for the cheap stuff!!
Will this ever end?

Over a $1.00/litre here in Canada. Translates to almost $4.50/gallon.

It's 3.84 a gallon over here (if my litre to gallon conversion is correct...).
Edit- Yeah, Zebodogs is probably more accurate. [img]tongue.gif[/img]
Edit2- Nevermind... [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[ 08-31-2005, 04:39 PM: Message edited by: Sir Goulum ]

This is just getting out of hand. Good thing we don't have to drive anywhere anytime soon.

Can you spell gouge?

Ah yes, US gallon. I was using 4.4L = 1 gallon, but that's for a standard gallon. Why can't we all use metric?

It's almost a $1.20/litre in Vancouver when I was there last.

$2.74 here.. they are scared.. but a barrel of oil went down in the last hr, and stocks went up 1.4 pts. strange.

I think they'll cap the prices if they reach $3.50. (hope).


God, the French Quarter is on fire right now. a footlocker that was looted, on fire in the french quarter.

Relatively speaking, I think it's still quite inexpensive compared to some Eastern and European nations. I could be wrong, though.

http://img384.imageshack.us/img384/6159/gas8pd.jpg

Ah well you US peeps still have it easy - us poor UK suckers currently pay £0.90 per litre = £4.05 per gallon = $7.30!!!!

[ 08-31-2005, 04:32 PM: Message edited by: Zink Whistlefly ]

The price jumped 8 cents pr. litre for some companies here. That makes the price app. 10.44DKK. 6 crowns is $1. A bit of math.
10.44/6 = 1.74 $/L
1.74*3.84 = 6.69 $/Gal.
I can get decent red wine cheaper than that.

We've actually been over $3 a gallon here for a while. (As my calculations go, 80 cents a litre=about $3 a gallon)

$6.00 in Atlanta this PM....Fights breaking out at pumps.

Your math is a little off since 1 gal. = 3.7 litres. But, point taken. ;)

We are paying around AUD $1.25 - $1.30 a litre at tme moment here in Sydney.

Its pretty funny that as soon as there is a spike in the barrel the prices shoot straight up. When the price per barrel comes down it takes ages to come down at the pump.

Can you say gouge?

Why on earth would you hope for that? A price-cap would create a gas shortage. I would rather be able to get expensive gas then not be able to get any gas at all.

Can you say gouge? </font>[/QUOTE]Yeah and about 50c of that goes straight to the goverment. Boo Hiss!

Why on earth would you hope for that? A price-cap would create a gas shortage. I would rather be able to get expensive gas then not be able to get any gas at all. </font>[/QUOTE]There is no shortage. It's price gouging. There are 10 days of reserve from the Gulf, plus many platforms are back up. The cap will stop leeches. The only reason there WOULD be a short-term gas shortage is people freaking out, and everyone buying gas. There is no need to freak out. Things will be back to normal in days. And opening the reserves is just to lower prices a tiny bit..

Atlanta buys directly from the hit areas, so thats why they are freaking out. there are still 8 days of reserve, so no worries.

[ 08-31-2005, 09:47 PM: Message edited by: Ziroc ]

That is pathetic.

I think the concerns are

1) A depot or reserve is usually build to be maintained (as to avoid complete overnight depletion) and not as a rubberband used in a normal supply chain. Basically anything less than 10 days reserve means shortage as the oil influx is smaller than the efflux.

2) While many Gulf rigs are operational there is no indication as to the impact it could have had on their yield. There could be an overall decrease in production even if all wells are operating as repairs are made (which is not true as at least some appears damaged beyond repair).

There are other aspects as well. Oil will not make a car go anywhere. Petrol will. How is the operational status of the refineries that process the Gulf oil? If these are non-operational or at low capacity crude oil may have to be stockpiled until it can be processed again. This will aggravate the situation even more.
Naturally such a situation is generally shortlived. Other wells in high production fields such as Texas ect. will be able to fill the supply gap. But it requires an alteration in supply chains and that will take time. Until then the prices WILL go haywire.
Take it from a logical point of view. If a petrol station owner runs out of petrol he has nothing to sell. Since he cannot control neither supply nor demand he will have to resort to price elevation. Not to earn a pretty penny, but to ensure he has something to sell if things has not normalized within a week. After all it is better to have petrol you can buy at $6 than no petrol at all.

I have to say that my knowlegde on the US oil supply and processing system is minimal. I have presumed it is the same as here.

Also there is a priority here. Oil shortage is not an isolated problem.
1) Save lives in affected areas (N.O.)
2) Secure temporary living space for the affected
3) Clean up and reconstruct (among other things normalize fuel supply)

EDIT: A few corrections.
EDIT[2]:
I have had some time to get an overview. A good summary can be found here:
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news...d=aHqhEmdWCp4U

Select quotes:
[ 09-01-2005, 01:03 AM: Message edited by: mad=dog ]

Your math is a little off since 1 gal. = 3.7 litres. But, point taken. ;) </font>[/QUOTE]Ah - I was using an imperial gallon which is about 4.5 litres.

2$ for 1 litre here..;(

Just went up about .50 overnight to $3.20 a gallon for regular here.

Why the hell does a 7% closing of refineries result in a 20-30% price hike? Gouging, that's all it is. The same as when NEXT year's coffee crops get washed out and prices go up THE NEXT DAY. A play on emotions, nothing more.

Hey, let's all try this. Don't buy Exxon/Mobile. AT ALL. No one buys it. Then Exxon/Mobile will lower prices, and so will the others to compete.

How about that idea?

We recently had a "petrol price war" here. There is some silent agreement between station managers and even companies within an area. Simply to preserve a profit. But emerging small oil/petrol companies were posing a threat to the big ones and they initiated a full blown price depression war. All the others followed soon after and the prices went down rapidly. Sounds good? Only problem is that after a brief spell of dreamlike cheap petrol the prices went up again. Rapidly. And they landed higher than they were before. Why?
I am not sure how it works in the US, but over here stations are run through a franchise. The manager essentially owns the place - the big oil billionares just supply the petrol and runs advertisement. In a price war he will take a tremendous loss and cannot pay out any mortgage. In short the interest rate on his loans shoots up. This means that after the price war he must charge MORE to cover his costs and make a sustainable profit.
Needless to say the guy on the floor gets hurt more than the wealthy people behind. Furthermore many retirement funds and insurance companies have oil stock in their portfolio as it a relatively secure investment - everybody needs oil. Lower stock prices could mean less money for the golden years.
I am not saying that oppotunism has not taken the better of some in this matter. However I must insist that the price you see now should not be confused with the price of the product in the tanks - it is the price they must pay to replenish the depot/reserve.
7% sounds rediculously low. But remember that a production that only covers 93% of the demand must raise the price to correspond to that. In other words they must make it so expensive that people buy 7% less fuel. The panic element aggravates it even more. People stockpiling will simply incur an even higher price elevation in an attempt to decrease demand.

News are that Venezuela - a nearby major oil producer - has plegded to fill any gap if the situation cannot be stabilised. Briefly put they crap on OPEC agreements and promise to pour oil into US pipes if it is needed for a period. Even if it may not be needed (which is likely) this is a valuable "scare tactic" card the government can play out - if domestic oil producers cannot control supply and keeps elevating the price a foreign oil producer can go in and sweep up. There IS price gouging for sure - something like this can stop it. Say what you may, but Exxon does NOT like the idea of profit going in another direction.

<font color=skyblue>$3.29 is the regular price here as of this morning, though I have heard of places that were trying to get more...but they didn't last long and were forced to drop back down to the $3.29 like everyone else.

Some places in the area have actually run out of gas because nobody has brought them any more.

In Greensboro (next city over), there's a huge tank field to accomodate our own needs at such a time as this, but something about broken electrical pumps and no way to fix them yet has got us all moaning.</font>

[ 09-01-2005, 02:46 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

A friend of mine lives in Charlotte, NC. Almost completely out of gas there and the prices are at about $5.00 per gallon. But he did say that people are panicking for nothing because it should be back to almost normal by Saturday.

<font color=skyblue>Yeah...that is exactly what is going on. So many people were buying gas last night, that they caused the shortage in the area!</font>

Yep, he said that he waited an hour in line to get gas and when it was his turn they had run out. They went back out at like 10pm last night and all of the stations were closed up tight because they were empty. He's in sales and was supposed to drive up to Raleigh today. No such luck.

[ 09-01-2005, 02:59 PM: Message edited by: NewbietoRPGs ]

Out of curiosity, anyone here seen that FX movie called Oil Storm?

Crappy coincidence I must say.

You people have it easy. Over here it is around US$5.30 per gallon. I think... Damn imperial.

BTW The correct term is fuel or petrol

[ 09-02-2005, 06:23 AM: Message edited by: Eagle eye ]

Actually gasoline is the correct chemical term for the oil we refine at the particular temperature to stick it in your car. Petroleum is (IIRC) heavier...

Oooh, oceanic language barrier alert!

Petroleum is a general term for all petroleum products in liquid form. Legally, anyway. Gasoline and No. 2 Fuel Oil are both "petroleum." An even broader term, "Petroleum products" range from gasoline to the plastic monitor casing you're looking at right now.

Petrol means the same thing as fuel and as gas in their vernacular uses in various countries. In Europe, you'll need a translator if you want to buy "gas" from someone. Here in the U.S. using the term "petrol" would let everyone know you're British, or wish you were.

Thanks for the clarification.

I use "petrol" mostly because I was taught British English in school. So I wouldn't say I use it because I wish I was English.
However in many Northern European languages you'll need to ask for "benzin" to get something in the tank.