It is not "political" it is just what is happening.

So, you believe the gas you buy at the pump today was refined from oil bought on the open market today at $73...not earlier? Amazing!


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1673203962.JPG

Do you think maybe the prices of crude are down this week a bit because the announced purchase of oil to start refiling the Strategic Reserves fell through.

We are not talking about buying barrels of oil at the pump, we are talking about supplies of gasoline/diesel (and shortages/competition for it). Imports of diesel and gasoil from the United States to Europe are on track to reach a two-year high this month. It is expected to increase dramatically.

"In December, Europe’s U.S. loadings for diesel and gasoil reached 660,000t, according to Vortexa data cited by Argus. It was the highest amount headed to Europe in any month since September 2020—and a strikingly high 70% increase over cargos loaded in November. The rush for Europe to stock up on diesel and gasoil comes just a couple of months ahead of the European Union’s full ban on crude oil products set to begin on February 5.

For the United States, which is already battling falling diesel supplies that are 14% below their five-year average, the increasing European imports have collided with refinery outages over the Christmas holidays due to cold weather, further depressing U.S. distillate and gasoline inventories. Phillips 66 predicted earlier this week that the gasoline and diesel markets will be tight this summer, with refiners running at or near full capacity for months."

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Europe-Imports-Of-US-Diesel-Gasoline-To-Hit-2-Year-High.html

That has always been the way gas stations here have justified prices ... their replacement costs ... not what they paid for what they have in their tanks already, and historically it has typically tracked the price of oil. It always skyrockets and floats back down too. Last year my goto Sheetz station raised their price by .50 and .30 overnight.... when oil did not budge. Back when gas hit 4 bucks in '08, one local chain was having their stations call in every 6 hours to see if an inceease was appropriate based upon replacement cost. Sheetz here has gone from being the least expensive to being more expensive than many these past 10 days also.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve releases of 1 million bbl per day were small compared to daily production/consumption amounts and had little influence ... way less than 10% despite your assertations. And it's not very strategic either imo ..... refinery shutdowns or pipeline disruptions make it unavailable for use. The already refined tank farms are where the fuels will come from in an emergency .... not oil that can't be refined or delivered for over 3 weeks.

If the release of 1M bbl per day "had little influence", why were they released putting us in a poor strategic position?

I am pretty sure that any expected emergency would be due to a reduction in worldwide oil supply where crude normally transported to the United States on ships is unavailable, not short-term supplies of gasoline in tank farms. Especially since we stopped the new Keystone XL pipeline from Canada and impaired U.S. production so that we really need those tankers. It was designed as an emergency supply of crude oil that can be used to offset a severe oil supply shortage like in the early 70s (due to war or embargo) ...not to help reduce prices before elections. "Strategic" and "short-term" are largely obverse terms. "Short-term is more a "tactical" viewpoint (as is a 3-week time frame).

About a half million a day release in December, 15 million barrels.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-awards-emergency-reserve-oil-contracts-six-cos-including-phillips-66-shell-2022-11-03/
WASHINGTON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Energy on Thursday said it sold 15 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to six companies, completing the last batch of the largest-ever release from the stockpile announced by President Joe Biden in March.

The contracts were awarded to Phillips 66, Marathon Petroleum Supply and Trading LLC, Shell Trading (US), Valero Marketing and Supply, Macquarie Commodities Trading US, and Equinor Marketing and Trading, the Energy Department said in a statement. Deliveries will take place from Dec. 1 to Dec. 31.

Overall, the release was expected to amount to about 40 cents per gallon.
https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-announces-final-contract-awards-president-bidens-emergency-release-strategic-petroleum#:~:text=Crude%20oil%20deliveries%20will% 20take,sites%20in%20Texas%20and%20Louisiana.

The drawdowns have been a stabilizing force in the volatile energy market, and a recent analysis from the Department of the Treasury estimates that SPR releases this year, along with coordinated releases from international partners, have reduced gasoline prices by up to about 40 cents per gallon compared to what they would have been absent these drawdowns.

https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCRFPUS2&f=M
The release was to allow time for crude production to increase during the 6 month period. The release took nearly 9 months to release the 180 million barrels. US production has increased by about 600,000 barrels a day since March which is very close to the average daily strategic release.

Thanks SOL ... your last two posts explain a lot about the gas price fluctuations seen here in recent weeks.... and my goto Sheetz has dropped their price .12 to 3.17 ... but that's still .20 higher than stations they used to beat by .15-.20 :(. I'm done with them .... they are now my wentto station ;).

Yep. As noted, the President cannot drain the Strategic Reserves anymore. The reserves are at 1983 levels, we are essentially on war footing in Europe, and inflation is still runaway high. Prices are rising as predicted. They will continue to do so unless demand decreases more, inflation subsides, or there are policy changes to increase supplies.

Sheetz is more here now as well. I guess the ran out of cheap Premium.

Methinks the reserve is going to continue selling just like they've been doing for years on previous contracts. Selling and buying back at the same time .... it must be a Shell game :D.

Gas will drop back down to Christmas levels or thereabouts too. Sheetz pricing mid and premium below regular is history too .... and still inexplicable to me.

Reduced energy consumption and France going back nuclear is helpful in reducing demand as is Germany burning more coal.

As far as I know, Presidents have only ordered a release three other times due to supply disruptions. Operation Desert Storm (1991), Hurricane Katrina (2005), and the Arab Spring (2011) when oil stopped flowing from various countries in the ME.

The new House leadership has indicated they will be restricting SPR drawdowns. It is pretty low now (lowest levels since 1983). We will see.

The administration says they will buy 3M bbl now to start to refill supplies and the announcement put a floor on the prices...but so far, contracts have been rejected.

No fint .... the drawdown has been happening for years by bi-partisan legislation and will continue. Yes it was drawn down a lot last year .... it expidites what was planned out over the next several years... it's by a design that will still meet the "import protection" requirements that the SPR was intended for. Your political take is just that ..... and BOTH parties are in on the deal .... seriously.

I did not realize that Greensboro was the terminal point from Houston and the origination for the rest of the east coast either.
I have always known the tank farm/line here was critical if the shtf .... it feeds everything else including airports, military, etc. That could be bad or good .... and I'll just get outta Dodge.

Seriously .... when 9/11 happened and I was in Winston and saw the 2nd Tower hit.... I left work and headed home.... the G'boro tank farm was one of the reasons why. Who knew what was going down.... a jet into that tank farm would be :(.

Can you show me where a President ordered an emergency drawdown of the SPR outside of the ones I noted? DOE says just the ones I listed:

https://www.energy.gov/ceser/history-spr-releases#:~:text=Federal%20Budget%20Deficit-,Emergency%20Drawdowns,the%20history%20of%20the%20 SPR.

Bought 93 at Sams today for $3.46.

No I can't because that's not what I've posted. Take your politics to PARF ... the SPR stuff I posted is well documented on the .gov sites fwiw.

Meanwhile gas at the Sheetz station I used to use is down to 2.99 .... still not the low cost station they've been for years, but not gouging as much. Prem is still .60 more there ... still back in line with historical patterns too.

Paid $4.259 for diesel yesterday at Ingles . Filled my truck because today the 30 cents a gallon tax that has been suspended for a year now goes back in place . I have to assume all gas/diesel will go up accordingly .

It is what I posted that you indicated was incorrect...and I just proved you wrong (again). You just posted something else entirely and pretended that was what we were discussing. An emergency sale (what the country did last year) is totally different than a test of the system or an exchange where the oil is returned (not a sale per se).

I really cannot understand why everything is politics with you...and you keep bringing them up. Refusing to discuss any bad thing that happens because it might make those you politically support look bad really limits one's view. You cannot discuss gas prices or the stock market or the economy without looking at inflation, regulations, and actions that drive them. The fact that we sold off so much of the reserve is not political...it is a simple fact. We did it and it affected prices (whether you admit it or not). That was the intent. Emergency sales are not normal or common (hence the term emergency). When draw it down, it increases supplies. When we stop drawing it down, it reduces the supply. If we don't refill it, we no longer have it as a tool for a real emergency. If we do buy more to refill it, we pay more for it and drive prices up.

Ignoring every bad thing that happens because you are afraid it reflects badly on the political party in power reduces any discussion to pretending that there is no cause and effect, and everything just happens by magic.

Discussing what is happening in the oil market (or stock market/economy) is not necessarily political. Especially when it seems that you only make that claim when you think it makes a certain party look bad. It is simply what is happening, and you see everything as political. A drawdown of the SPR is a drawdown of the SPR. Simple as that. The S&P was down about 20% last year. It was simply what happened. Pretending otherwise or that things don't happen for a reason simply belies reason. That is why most are predictable. If you do certain things (regardless of which party is in power) certain things can be expected to happen. Take your politics to PARF where they belong. You cannot change facts with spin to make things look better across the country where people are suffering. The facts are the facts.

Anything that happens that you do not like to hear/have discussed is not necessarily political, but you can make them such. Are the naked women threads political because some folks want more folks that are not apparently cisgender posted? Are less people getting tattoos because they are more socially conservative or because they cost more, and the price of food is up? What about the rising price of an old 911 (or a new Tesla)? Is that political because of inflation?? What can we discus honestly that you do not find political?

Pretty soon, you will be calling the moderators about recipe threads because people are cooking cheaper foods because of double digit increases in food prices. When eggs are near $10 a dozen, a lot of folks have to eat beans versus quiche (and need different recipes). It is not politics, it is fact/hunger.

I guess we should only talk about when gas prices go down...as that could not possibly be political or make a particular party look bad.

This can't hurt.

https://wtvbam.com/2023/01/13/exclusive-exxon-prepares-to-start-up-1-2-billion-texas-oil-refinery-expansion-sources/

Exxon Mobil Corp in coming days will sharply boost gasoline and diesel production at its Beaumont, Texas, refinery, people familiar with the matter said, completing a $1.2 billion expansion first considered nine years ago.

Initial startup of a 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) crude distillation unit (CDU) at the 369,000 bpd refinery is expected by Jan. 31, the sources said, making the Beaumont refinery the second largest in the United States.

It is the first major expansion to U.S. oil processing in nearly a decade,

I just saw fint's blah, blah, blah post above but read about 2 seconds worth... PARF on fint .... it's who you are and always have been here on Pelican .... not I.

It's your own personal religion and Amway .... go sell it in PARF .... where it belongs.

Blah blah blah!

https://youtu.be/tKMC8NnD4e8

87 was up to $3.19 at Sams today.

Maybe you should stop trying to turn every thread into something political. Better yet, actually read the post instead of commenting on it after saying you didn't read it. Maybe then you would not be guilty of misrepresenting posts so often and you would not be so wrong so often.

Your penchant for including some sort of personal attack and political spin as you have here doesn't help. Neither does the fact that almost every time you are incorrect and pretty much just make up the facts to try to support your little diatribe. Then after being corrected, you whine that the thread or someone else (couldn't be you) is political when you made the thread that way. Perhaps you ought to just make sure your posts are a bit more accurate and a bit less combative.

Did you ever wonder why threads you start get sent to PARF? The one on Ft Bragg was a gem. You have worked very hard to send this one the same direction. If you want to debate politics, improve your argument, learn the facts...and take it to PARF, not here.

$3.09 here...almost every station. Crude is back to almost $80 again and rising. Hopefully it will stay around there as it did for much of December.

It appears that easing sanctions on Venezuela is starting to bring crude to the US for refining. Iran's oil production has been strong as well (despite sanctions) ...as the oil generally goes to China. I am not sure OPEC will play along and will likely adjust production to keep prices higher than $80.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1673770945.JPG