Gas prices, Traffic, and Speeding

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by pavulon

We still love profit, right?

Certainly... within reason, and without collusion involved. It happens all the time, but don't try to also say that the station is only making .02 per gallon too... nope ...not buying it.

[pavulon]

Okay! Just making sure because a few sound like they're all about it until it doesn't work for them.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

surprised to see gas so low in CT today. These are high MA prices, CT is usually 30 cents/gallon higher.

$3.75
$4.15
$4.35

[stevej37]

Went for a drive this am....$3.59 for reg.

[cabmandone]

Going for a drive this afternoon with my nephew to NW PA. He said he's paying for the gas for the "pig" to pull his boat out there to have a new Merc installed with controls tomorrow.

[yellowline]

Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6

surprised to see gas so low in CT today. These are high MA prices, CT is usually 30 cents/gallon higher.

$3.75
$4.15
$4.35

CT suspended 25c worth of gas tax from 4/1 through June. Sugar high

[Racerbvd]

[cabmandone]

Originally Posted by yellowline

CT suspended 25c worth of gas tax from 4/1 through June. Sugar high

Some genius: "Hey, I have an idea! Let's suspend the tax that is supposed to pay for road repairs! That'll fix things!!" (SMH)

Oh and I saw today where "next level" stupid is on display. They're waving the summertime ethanol rule for 15% ethanol. Woo hoo! Let's get worse fuel mileage that'll save us! Holy sh.t!! MAKE IT STOP.

[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by cabmando

Some genius: "Hey, I have an idea! Let's suspend the tax that is supposed to pay for road repairs! That'll fix things!!" (SMH)

Oh and I saw today where "next level" stupid is on display. They're waving the summertime ethanol rule for 15% ethanol. Woo hoo! Let's get worse fuel mileage that'll save us! Holy sh.t!! MAKE IT STOP.

It's like they actually use that money for the intended purpose.

[stevej37]

Took the Prelude out today. It had a full tank from last fall...felt weird burning $2.30 gas.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by KC911

Certainly... within reason, and without collusion involved. It happens all the time, but don't try to also say that the station is only making .02 per gallon too... nope ...not buying it.

My goto station (generally, a high volume, lowest price) jacked their prices from 3.37 to 3.89 yesterday... now all of the others have seemed to agree ... and I need some gas... dang

[VINMAN]

Prices flying backup again!



.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

At this point it's profiteering

Why are gas prices so high? These obscure traders are partly to blame

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Exxon Mobil and Chevron report big jump in profits because of higher oil and gas prices.

April 29, 2022Updated 10:49 a.m. ET

Exxon Mobil and Chevron, the largest U.S. oil companies, on Friday reported a second consecutive quarter of robust earnings as oil and natural gas prices continued to rise after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The two companies said they were increasing their production in the Permian Basin, the giant shale oil field straddling Texas and New Mexico, but were not seeking to ramp up oil and natural gas production overall despite pressure from the Biden administration, which is seeking to tamp down high energy prices.

In the past, Chevron, Exxon Mobil and other energy companies invested heavily when prices were high, only to see losses when prices fell as the industry flooded the market with supply. Now, they are enjoying higher profits without significantly increasing their output.

The two companies reported weaker results in international refining, due partially to higher costs and lower profitability of refined products.

Exxon reported doubling quarterly earnings from a year ago, even after a write-down of $3.4 billion from abandoning its operations in Russia.

Largely because of soaring oil prices, which rose in the quarter from to well over $100 a barrel from $76, the company made $5.5 billion in the first three months of the year — an increase of more than $6 billion from the same quarter in 2021. The company made an $8.9 billion profit in the last three months of 2021.

Exxon, which is based in Texas, announced it would buy back more of its own shares, now aiming to spend $30 billion through 2023, up from $10 billion.

“The quarter illustrated the strength of our underlying business,” said Darren Woods, Exxon’s chief executive. “Earnings increased modestly, as strong margin improvement and underlying growth was offset by weather” and other factors, he added.

Exxon reported that its oil and gas production was 4 percent lower in the quarter from the previous three months because of bad weather, divestments and planned maintenance.Kathryn Mikells, Exxon’s chief financial officer, said the company was being cautious about the future given the dramatic drop in energy demand and oil prices during the pandemic. “We are going to be a little bit more conservative in the short term,” she said, despite the “positive momentum” the company was enjoying.

Exxon’s chemical business was particularly strong, with a profit of $2.1 billion, consistent with records set a year ago. Executives expressed optimism about exploration and production operations in Guyana and Brazil.

“This was a mixed quarter for Exxon Mobil,” said Faisal A. Hersi, an Edward Jones energy analyst. He said the solid chemicals performance was offset by “weaker results in upstream exploration and production and international downstream refining and marketing.”

Chevron reported a $6.3 billion profit, up from $1.37 billion in the same quarter in 2021. Its revenues jumped to $54.37 billion from $32 billion last year.

The company, which is based in California, pledged to continue increasing domestic production, although its total oil and gas production fell modestly. While domestic production increased by 10 percent in the quarter over last year, global oil and natural production declined by 8 percent.

The company’s capital expenditures were only 10 percent higher than last year, a reflection of industrywide caution about future oil and gas prices.

“Chevron is doing its part to grow domestic supply,” Michael Wirth, Chevron’s chief executive said.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Why U.S. Oil Companies Aren’t Riding to Europe’s Rescu

American energy production has only inched up because executives fear that oil and gas prices won’t stay high.

Published April 26, 2022Updated April 27, 2022

HOUSTON — Oil and gasoline prices are climbing. Energy company profits are surging. President Biden, who came into office promising to reduce the use of fossil fuels, has effectively joined the “drill, baby, drill” chorus. Europe would love to end its dependence on Russia.

Yet most U.S. oil businesses are not eager to capitalize on this moment by pumping more oil.

Production of oil by U.S. energy companies is essentially flat and unlikely to increase substantially for at least another year or two. If Europe stops buying Russian oil and natural gas as some of its leaders have promised, they won’t be able to replace that energy with fuels from the United States anytime soon.

U.S. oil production is up less than 2 percent, to 11.8 million barrels a day, since December and remains well below the record 13.1 million barrels a day set in March 2020 just before the pandemic paralyzed the global economy. Government forecasters predict that American oil production will average just 12 million barrels a day in 2022, and increase by roughly another million in 2023. That increase would be well short of the nearly four million barrels of oil that Europe imports from Russia every day.

“You had this bombastic, chest-pounding industry touting itself as the reincarnation of the American innovative spirit,” said Jim Krane, an energy expert at Rice University. “And now that they could be leaping into action to pitch in to bring much-needed oil to the world, they are being uncharacteristically cautious.”

The biggest reason oil production isn’t increasing is that U.S. energy companies and Wall Street investors are not sure that prices will stay high long enough for them to make a profit from drilling lots of new wells. Many remember how abruptly and sharply oil prices crashed two years ago, forcing companies to lay off thousands of employees, shut down wells and even seek bankruptcy protection.

Executives at 141 oil companies surveyed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas in mid-March offered several reasons that they weren’t pumping more oil. They said they were short of workers and sand, which is used to fracture shale fields to coax oil out of rock. But the most salient reason — the one offered by 60 percent of respondents — was that investors don’t want companies to produce a lot more oil, fearing that it will hasten the end of high oil prices.

The Dallas Fed survey found that U.S. companies need oil prices to average just $56 a barrel to break even, a little more than half the current price. But some are worried that the price could fall to as little as $50 by the end of the year.

[golfnutjtl]

Shaun,

If you think ExxonMobil is going to make a killing, you should buy some ExxonMobil stock. In other words, put your money where your mouth is. Their earnings as a percentage of revenue is much lower than the tech companies because they are much more capital intensive.

When COVID hit, oil prices went south and ExxonMobil laid off about 30 percent of their employees.

Oil prices and the related gasoline prices are very sensitive to supply/demand and nobody wants to do without.

[VINMAN]

Diesel here jumped up 30 cents today, from yesterday. Few stations around hitting $6

.

[gregpark]

Chevron napa,CA
Regular 6.
Premium 6.30
Diesel 6.59
Second highest prices in the country I've been told.
Crazy prices with too many taxes tacked on and probably going higher

[flatbutt]

Gas prices were going down for a bit. Regular here was 3.99 last month now it's up to 4.50-ish again. Diesel was over $6 in one place.

[stevej37]

$4.15 here today.
Still haven't noticed any less cars on the road.