Ot: Gas Prices

[Jeff Williams]

Hi all,
have you seen this.
jeff

[RoLoo]

...well, we'll just have to wait for Carlton's version of this one...

[VetteRacer]

Have we seen it?
Been FEELing it for awhile... Not as bad as in LA area though, have that to be thankful for I guess...

[JonyRR]

we have still got it bettah tha the gyro-peanz, what with essance going for what, 6USD a litre, or something like that.

what the world has in oil in the ground VS what the various oil companies' stated reserves are is unknown, but believed to be (by some) to be the wildest fiction.

I DO hope Mike Ruppert (author of 'Crossing the Rubicon, the decline of the american empire at the end of the age of oil) is wrong. I really do. My kids can deal with the social upheaval.
BUT. his timeline prediction (some 2.5 years ago when first published) of 'peak oil' starting to really pinch as the reality of scarcity starts hitting the oil industries' hype of stated reserves is disturbingly on-the-money.

One reason someone else owns my lovely boat now. I just didn't get enough pleasure out of it anymore to justify $200.00 in fuel costs for 5 hours. (you'd be amazed how much fuel a 383 chebby pushing a 5000LB boat at 60MPH consumes).

I wonder if it's too late to start riding a horse....

[hawkeyejohn14]

Yeah, I felt that way yesterday when I filled the Suburban. I have owned the beast for 5 years and 64K miles, I can't afford a new or even a decent used car for the value of the Chevy, but people keep buying new ones and the gas mileage is better by 1 or 2 gallons and they're probably lieing about that.

Not me I am done and the Prius is looking better and better.

[on2wheels52]

Glad I still have that Exxon stock I bought ten years ago.
Jim

[bitingmosaurus]

Premium is @ $3.98 / per gallon in my neck of the woods today..................

Thats what I get for living in a tourism hotspot............

[SergioK]

All I have to say is that I'm glad my S gets a crappy 40mpg.

[Tirebiter]

Originally posted by JonyRR


what the world has in oil in the ground VS what the various oil companies' stated reserves are is unknown, but believed to be (by some) to be the wildest fiction.

Oil in the ground really isn't the problem right now, and don't take me wrong, I believe that we may be at the peak of reserves as we speak and that we probably will see them declining in the near future and the necessity to find alternate energy sources, but that is another discussion...

The price of gas today boils down to simple supply and demand. In the US, there certainly has been an effort to build more fuel efficient vehicles.....trouble is there are more of them. World wide energy usage in up....just look at China; once a nation of peasants that traveled mainly by foot, bicycle or if really fortunate, by moped. Explosive growth there has spawned a clamor for cages as the peasants move from rural areas to the cities to find a better life (sound at all familiar?). Where once we in the US had pretty much a monopoly on "the good life" that oil provided we are now find that we must compete for that oil due to global economies. Prices are gonna rise when there is competition for limited resources.

Speaking of supply and demand, here is a trivia question that might help put gas pricing here in the good ole US a bit more into perspective.....as we all know, oil is not used directly to fuel our cars, R1100S's and such, gasoline does....and gasoline is produced from oil in a refinery. Can anyone tell us when the last major refinery was built in the US? One that would help meet the demand and help keep prices down?

Give up? Then look here.....http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/ntn12966.htm
Alexander's Gas & Oil Connections - US appears to have built its last refinery

Brock

[BSnyder]

Originally posted by on2wheels52
Glad I still have that Exxon stock I bought ten years ago.
Jim

Go XOM!!

Why is it that nobody complains when they pay $1 for a 16oz bottle of water? Considering the complete process it takes for a gallon of gasoline to be made I'd say its a relative bargain.

[Sideshow_S]

Actually the recent rise in prices has a lot more to do with the reduction in the value of the US Dollar against the rest of the world's currency.

[feds27]

Exchange rate or not, there is no excuse for them setting revenue records for a single quarter of $99.7B and profits records for a single quarter of $10.7B. That's not a typo, that's BILLION.

Revenue records set link....4Q05
http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/30/news/companies/exxon_earns/

Profit records set link.....2Q06
http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/27/news/companies/exxon/

[SergioK]

I hate to say this, but that's 'only' at 10% net profit margin... most U.S. corporations try to operate at a 15% net profit margin. It just so happens that their gross sales are, well, almost $100B!

[Tirebiter]

Originally posted by SergioK
I hate to say this, but that's 'only' at 10% net profit margin... most U.S. corporations try to operate at a 15% net profit margin. It just so happens that their gross sales are, well, almost $100B!

Add to that the costs for finding new reserves cuz all of the easy stuff has been found. One of the more exciting finds of late was discovered in deep ocean ....I dont recall the exact figures, but imagine trying to drill in water that is on the order of a mile or so deep and then punching hole to a total depth of over 20,000 feet. I can't even imagine the metallurgy/technical wizardry involved to make drill steel strong enough to support almost four miles of drill steel. The cost for the ship capable of such a feat was on the order of $500,000 per day........there have been many expensive "dry" holes drilled that yielded nothing......oil exploration has always been a risky business.

[wswartzwel]

Years ago gas was .30 a gallon, and a car was about $4 grand...
everything goes up...
My CJ7 (wife traded in my Avalanche for a Honda accord a couple weeks ago ) gets 15mpg... I guess that is about .20/mile. I still consider that a bargain for the amount of work accomplished. I sure wouldn't push it down the road for .20cents.

[BSnyder]

Originally posted by feds27
Exchange rate or not, there is no excuse for them setting revenue records for a single quarter of $99.7B and profits records for a single quarter of $10.7B. That's not a typo, that's BILLION.

Revenue records set link....4Q05
http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/30/news/companies/exxon_earns/

Profit records set link.....2Q06
http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/27/news/companies/exxon/

As a shareholder I DEMAND that the companies I have invested in are making every effort possible to maximize the return on my investment.

I enjoy the benefits of our (mostly) free market society and wouldn't want it any other way.

[DanGreene]

Originally posted by wswartzwel
Years ago gas was .30 a gallon, and a car was about $4 grand...
everything goes up...
My CJ7 (wife traded in my Avalanche for a Honda accord a couple weeks ago ) gets 15mpg... I guess that is about .20/mile. I still consider that a bargain for the amount of work accomplished. I sure wouldn't push it down the road for .20cents.

That's a good one my friend The lawn mower I bought last month was $500. I thought that was kind of high, even with the features it had. But then I got it home and was looking at it and it occurred to me that I couldn't build it for that myself.

I don't want to pay anymore than I have to for gas, but I believe Americans have been rather spoiled with low cost energy for a long time now. Higher energy costs are one of many adjustments we will have to make as our place at the top of the nation totem pole becomes less and less guaranteed.

[on2wheels52]

I'll know when gas gets too expensive when they board up all the drive-up windows.
Jim

[lightfighter]

gas will be expensive enough when my nieghbor stops taking his ford f350 to get a sack of groceries. he actually moves a honda civic out of the way to do this.

he isnt alone. and i dont dispute his right to do so, i just find it oddly wasteful

[Guest24]

It's always great to get to SC where the gas is .11 less than GA and .20 less than NC. If people realized how much tax is added on the fuel itself they would revolt. The same goes for the auto witholding for state and fed tax. If they had towrite a check every quarter we'd see some action in the legislatures for a fair tax.