How are gas prices in your area?

foreverfree | 8/23/03 | foreverfree

[foreverfree]

They are on the rise again.

Chestertown, MD: an independent convenience store (don't know where they buy their gas) sold regular unleaded for $1.529/gallon as of Tuesday 8/19/03. As of today (Saturday 8/23) that same store charges $1.729/gallon.

How much of this is attributable to the imminent Labor Day weekend, and how much is attributable to the leaky pipeline in AZ?

[Aeronaut]

$1.81/9 in St. Paul suburbs.

[The Coopster]

$1.64 - Central IN

[Glenn]

Here in western PA the prices went up 10 cents from dawn to dusk yesterday and another 8 cents overnight. What a crock.

[LibKill]

$2.09?

That's really bad.

[LOC1]

Seven Oil Refineries were reported shut down during the power blackout. It takes several days to restart a refinery, longer if there were damage during the shutdown (which often happens in an emergency shutdown). Of course, the refinery shutdowns occured in the upper east coast and mid west, which supply many of the areas now experiencing the higher prices.

The AZ problem is unrelated and supposedly being fixed with a bypass around the section of pipeline that is leaking.

The Energy Information Agency of the Department of Energy has a web page which contains much information on prices, supply interruptions, etc. You may find it here: http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/twip/twip.asp

That web page has a rather complete discussion of the current supply situation and the impact on prices.

[Spyder]

Paid $1.92 at the "cheap" station yesterday in Mililani (Oahu) (usually only 1 cent higher than that on post). This was for regular.

[Brian S]

Mid-Michigan $1.76 unleaded regular

[bullseye1911]

Lansing, Mich.---Tuesday, I filled up for $1.54. thursday, $1.75. It's come down $.02 since.

[Gabz]

I paid $1.49 at a convenience store about 2 miles from the highway on Thursday.

You're right about it being higher once you cross the MD line, and it goes even higher once you cross the line from MD into DE.

[FourPeas]

Weekly U.S. Retail Gasoline Prices, Regular Grade

[norraad]

$1.39~1.59 reg. unleaded in South Jersey (up .10~.20 since last week) & we're awash with refinery's with access to plenty of cheap crude contracts(refinery's specialized to refine low grade crap that sells for pennys on the dollar of that fake $26~$32/bar. figure the talking heads read to us on TV).

Even with that inflated fake crude sticker price, there are all kinds of discount tricks played back & forth like card games between those who suck it from "mother earth" & those who cook it up for us.

Somebody's making lot's of dough peddling the second most plentiful fluid on earth(that we'll never run out of, never, not even close, it's like the Debeers & the diamond industry, the trick is to occlude the enormous supply)!

ps..The news story(read lie) of price hike due in part to blackout hurting production, puleeeeze, maybe a few tankers worth, nothing more.

Besides, most refinery's produce all their own electricity anyway, by design, so they don't depend on anyone but themselves.

[luv2lurkhere]

Here in the central coast of Kalifornia, I saw a posted price yesterday of an outrageous $2.20 per gallon!

[Dane]

Here in western PA the prices went up 10 cents from dawn to dusk yesterday and another 8 cents overnight. What a crock

Yep the futures price for gasoline jumped as much on the futures market.

Of course the demo's filabustering drilling in ANWR and their going nuts over any new refineries being built( a refinery hasn't been built in the US since 1976), is also a factor.

Just wait until this winter when natural gas jumps sky high due to Clinton era policies of telling electric plants to use natural gas, while Clinton put off limits clean burning coal in Utah to satisfy one of his(Clinton's) biggest contributors, James Riady.

[norraad]

btw- I work at a refinery, if it took more than 12~24 hours to restart it even if an atom bomb hit us, we'd all be fired & they'd hire all new guys who could(some even from Mexico, really).

[MatthewViti]

actually gas in some parts of MA are much lower than in RI. I've seen prices lately that were 20-25 cents lower in MA.

[deport]

Pick your state and see the prices....

EIA gasoline

[Mark17]

Near Edwards AFB

I am near Travis AFB. I thought Susanville, because they call the joint there, High Desert State pen.

[Tyrith]

Ya, It's around $2.00 a gallon of unleaded. The highest price for unleaded I have seen is $2.15 at a small gas station on the way to school.

[LOC1]

There are about 150 refineries in the US, over my 30 year career, I've worked for extended periods of time in management positions in five of them and been in about half of them as a consultant.

Very small refineries are sometimes self-sufficient for electrical power, but larger, fully-integrated refineries in the US generally are not. The same applies to Canada, where I've also consulted with about half of the refineries.

As for down time, the power interruption itself lasted a minimum of 24 hours in some areas and as long as three days in others. Start-up of a small refinery could take only 12 to 24 hours, and should following a controlled shut down. However, an emergency shutdown in which cooling water is lost at the same time the plant is coming down, with probable temperature spikes in at least the cooling water system, is a realy different animal, particularly in a large facility. I had weekend duty running a large refinery in Louisiana during a huricane, when we were forced down suddenly by loss of power from the utility company (it was really a small storm and we could safely ride it out otherwise). It did in fact take several days to get back up and lined out, so I speak from some experience on that issue.

As for "a few tankers of gasoline," let's see. A gasoline tanker is about 250,000 Bbls. Those 7 refineries probable produced about 3 cargoes per day of gasoline between them. Lets assume that it took three or four days from initial loss of power to get back up and lined out....that is about 10 cargos.

The shortest delivery time for a tanker from a new supply source to the east coast, say from Venezuela, would be about 3 days to produce and blend the cargo, plus 7 days transportation, plus 3 days distribution through the supply systems. Say about two weeks total for the first cargo, as a really optimistic guess. Perhaps a cargo already on the water could be diverted in about half that time, but then it would have to be replaced by new supplies. All told, it takes two to three weeks to begin seeing offshore supples really make up for supplies lost to domestic refinery upsets, longer by several weeks if the interruption happens in a landlocked area like the mid west.

The EIA testified before the US Senate in July 2000 about gasoline price spikes that summer. As a historical perspective on how long it takes to recover from a supply disruption, you might find this interesting. It is located at http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/FTPROOT/features/risegas2.pdf

The specific event which caused the supply interruption in the mid west was a fire at the CITGO refinery in Lemont. It was aggravated by pipeline problems and changing gasoline specifications, but the price charts on that web page will give you an idea of the length of the event. That refinery produced about one cargo of gasoline per day.

[Eva]

$2/gal in Bellingham, WA. We have two refineries and two more just south of here, that supply most of the west coast and yet we pay the highest prices. The pipeline south is controlled by BP who took over after the pipeline explosion. There is no justifialbe reason for the prices to be this high. Whoever controls the pipeline controls the prices.