$5 gas is here
 

http://www.theksbwchannel.com/news/14536489/detail.html

Granted these are a few isolated "rip-off" gas stations, but it's coming soon to a corner KwikMart near you. . .

Yippie! Let's pay more. :)

I paid $5.59 the other day. for 102 racing gas. That wonderful smell is worth the extra 2 bucks every once in a while.

A couple of days ago I commented I had to pay $3.50 for diesel. Yesterday morning I had to fill & it had already risen to $3.60. Gasoline is right behind it. Maybe we'll even see $5 prices before oil reaches $100 per barrel.

$3.22 for regular here. The wife is paying $3.65 for prem.

I'll need a loan to take the boat out. :(

I already posted this, but $3.69 for premium in San Marino, CA (an old, exclusive, affluent suburb here)

It's funny how race gas has appeared to stay the same price. Once premium unleaded reaches the cost of 100 octane, I may just put that (100 octane) in my car.

2.75 South of Houston today.

What's AvGas going for anyway? It's been a while since I've looked.

Don't know. But Long Beach airport is near you, right? You can check out the prices.

BTW: just for entertainment's sake: can AV gas run in our Porsches?

I must say, for those who are not from California, that the station referred to in the article is in Big Sur, one of the prettiest and most remote spots in CA. It goes to show you how the media will spin anything to make a point.

That station is on Hwy 1, on the coast, and hours from the closest freeway. The road is treacherous, and I cannot imagine how hard it must be to deliver fuel there. While gas prices are bad, they aint that bad!

There is no advantage to running av gas in your street car. If your engine is built so that it can't run on pump gas, then a higher octane like av gas would be required, but that isn't the case unless you have 12 to 1 CR or have the boost cranked up too far.
Pure av gas is too dry for a car engine anyway, it would have to be blended with pump gas or racing gas to keep the engine happy.

Now, back to gas prices. There have been several serious problems at refineries recently that have reduced supply. Some are at reforming units that make high octane blending stocks, that hits the gasoline market hard. It isn't just west coast either, gulf coast has been hit by production problems too (VLO port aurthur fire for example).
That means that we aren't making as much as we are using. the imported gas and fuel has to make up the difference, that's a big part of why the prices are shooting up. The refineries are scrambling to repair the units and get them back up to speed but it takes time.

The ironic thing is, having these refineries cut back results in lower crude consumption, which should make crude price fall but it's still going up. Prolly due to speculators and uninformed investors who play a game they don't fully understand but who knows.

The fuel market is much too volatile because the demand has surpassed domestic supply. it doesn't take much more than a rumor to make it move. I don't know of anyone doing any funny business with the crude or fuel markets but I will be surprised if we don't have a scandal in the next year or so regarding manipulation of the crude market. I don't expect it to be an oil company, instead i expect a very large investor group to get nailed. Like i said, I don't know if it's happening, just that it is ripe and would be easy to do so and human nature being what it is .......

I'd be surprised if the SEC and DOE aren't already watching intently, the market is moving in ways that don't make sense to me.

If a trading/maniplulation scandal does happen the speculators and investors would run like rats off a sinking ship and that would cause crude oil futures to fall like a rock. The only ones left would be the foolish and the brave, but there would be serious money to be made in shorting futures. Fortunes.
I don't know if I have the appendages to play that short game but it is tempting, betting that people are screw-ups and if tempted will do the wrong thing.

I expect gasoline prices to keep going up for a month or so, then fall for a few months, and then go back up significanty in late spring 2008.
No bets on crude prices. I don't think they should be anywhere near as high as they are. The fundamentals don't support $100 right now, more like $70.

If anyone has the guts to short it big time and make lots O'money, make sure you let us know so we can live vicariously. safer to be a spectator.

We have been hearing this same old story for the past half-dozen years. Is this intentional or are the companies that own these refineries just incompetent? Or are we going to hear how it's all the fault of regulations?

The phrase "Pay at the pump" is so appropriate. :eek:


edit: Geopolitics accounts for how much of the price of a barrel of oil, nowadays? Thank goodness we have such a well thought out and executed foreign policy. ;)

I think your analysis is spot-on. I think there is some activity by traders (whether it be criminal or just the herd-mentality--I'm not sure). I also think that Russia is doing all it can to destabilize the Middle East to keep prices high.

Yea, I just haven't flown in quite some time so I don't know what 100LL is even going for these days. Maybe I'll swing by Signature and look later, just for edification.

No question gas is going to $5 or higher here in the very near future. It's a possibility even before end of 2007, given that producers are going to want to pad their profits during the holiday travel season.

100LL is $5.93 a gallon at Signature in LGB

Jet A is $6.60 a gallon at the same place

We have the fuel prices on our flight releases, last I looked our airline was paying around $2.50 a gallon for Jet A but I'll take a look today and post back here.

100LL at TEB is closing in on $7.50 a gallon but I don't think they like anyone burning 100LL there, they only want to see those kerosene burners.

Good to know. Signature is typically on the slightly-expensive side, but based on that I'm willing to bet it's hard to find 100LL for less than $5 and Jet-A for less than $6 - retail price.

G.A. is probably taking a beating from these fuel costs - hadn't really thought about it too much, but if the wet rate for an hour in a C172 is up over $100, that's not terribly helpful for the industry.

Yeah I think the cheapest at LGB is still over $5. You can check it out at 100LL.com

I honestly don't think I could afford to fly GA anymore. The 182 I used to fly had 78 gallon long range tanks. With an average fillup of 50 gallons your talking almost $300!

As in...deregulation?

I don't know if any of you have been watching the spot market but prices are unusually high for this time of year...with no rest in sight. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) does NOT show much of a break up-stream either...

Get ready for some EXPENSIVE gas next summer.