Why has the price of gasoline gone up?

[mithrandir2001]

OK, they say it's about tight supply in the midst of heightening demand, but...

The northeastern part of the US had perhaps its warmest winter on record. The northeast is also the world's largest heating oil market. You put the two together and you come to the conclusion that heating oil hasn't been a hot commodity recently. Also, air travel (and subsequent fuel consumption) is still below normal because of the post-9/11 market realities.

A refiner will take crude and make multiple products from it: heating oil, airplane fuel, automotive fuel, industrial oils, etc. So with slackening heating oil and airplane fuel demand, refiners could direct their efforts into the production of more automotive fuels. But gasoline prices have shot up at a ridiculous rate over the last month. Where is all the oil going? If we had a very cold winter in the northeast and used a ton more heating oil, would that mean that gasoline prices would be much, much higher than they are now? Something just doesn't seem right.

 

[PlatinumGold]

i think OPEC realized that 9/11 didnt hurt us as bad as most economist were predicting. they lowered prices to keep us buying, but we bought more than they anticipated. so they are increasing the prices again. damn opec.

 

[Parrotheader]

They're using a lot of the recent events in Israel and Afghanistan to justify price spikes according to what I heard on the radio this morning. Gasonline prices for automobiles always tend to rise some as the weather warms (people are out and about more when the weather's nice taking vacations and doing more shopping.) But usually that increase isn't quite so dramatic this early in the year.

 

[Ausm]

It's all BS they are artificailly inflated-by greedy Arabs


Ausm

 

[Shaftatplanetquake]

Its a bitch!

And I bet it will continue to rise!

Damn Middle-eastern sh!ts!

 

[911paramedic]

Because of the looming attack on Iraq that is probably going to happen. The other oil producers (including Kuwait, those ungrateful sons-a-biatches) are not supporting it this time around.

 

[shiner]

A lot of the reason why prices have spiked in the last few weeks is that refineries are switching over to their summer blend of gas right now. The switchover has caused the refineries to go offline for a while thus not as much gasoline is in the available market. Here in Tulsa, Ok where we have refineries the price for a gallon of gas went up 30 cents in one day. It fell back down 11 cents over the next few days after that but it's still much higher than it was.

You can thank the EPA for the stupid rules governing what blend of gasoline is made when and where it is sent. For example most of that gas being refined here in Tulsa is being sent to the NE part of the country. Why? Who the hell knows, but you damn Yankees are making it cost more to fill up my Durango.

 

[LadyJessica]

You people complain too much.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Speculators are concerned about the Mid-East situation.

Also, preparing for the summer gouge

 

[mithrandir2001]

What I think is ingratiating is that a local service station will raise the price by a few pennies every day...even if the gas in their tanks is the same they had the week before. It seems they are always ready to raise the price on the basis of future expectations, but it doesn't seem to work the other way around: say the Isreal/Palestine and Iraq issues were mitigated. Would prices drop overnight? Yeah, right.

 

[Rent]

<< You people complain too much. >>



Why do you think people come to ATOT?

 

[insdav3]

<< You people complain too much. >>




I'm on a tight budget... income and business for the people (catering) I work for is bad and I'm barely bringing in any money because of it. It's hard for me to pay $1.43 for gas (today) and pay rent ....hopefully things will pick up.


-Dave

 

[Parrotheader]

This is yet another reason why one of my next vehicles will probably end up being another car instead of a 4-door pickup like I was originally leaning toward. I love having a small car and pulling up to the pump without even really caring what the price is. I do think it sucks when they gouge of speculative events though.