But that gas station needs to make enough of a profit to cover the cost for next week's purchase. There are far more factors than just the price of crude. With as little of a margin as one sees in gas, they have to 'speculate' on the high side (on the downstream end), just like the upstream speculators have to bid (speculate) high enough to make sure they can buy that barrel versus let another bidder get it. Frankly, when we get down to the real world, I am surprised how cheap gas is. You have a commodity that is purchased a half a world away (OK, most is from Canada), shipped over there in big tankers or in multi billion dollar pipelines, goes through billion dollar refining processes that are highly regulated by Federal, State and Local governments, then to be shipped to each gas station so they can take a few pennies in profit, all for only about $3.50/gallon. Oh, and that oil that is the raw commodity of gas, guess what, gas refineries are not the only ones trying to buy it. There are also petrochemical companies who make everything from plastics, to chemicals, to food coloring and preservatives from it.
Now, with all that said, $3.50/gallon isn't all that bad. Heck, walk inside that gas station and buy a bottle of water and you are paying the equivalent of $21/Gallon for that water. Or run across the street to Starbucks and you will pay the equivalent of around $40/Gallon for your Venti Skinny Cappicino.
Ping, thought you would get a kick out of it.
You don't think that a couple billion of Big Oil's recent record profits aren't redirected quarterly to off shore hedge funds that inject money in the 'future' commodity they produce?
Since a fund like that is 'manged' offshore and not held to US laws, seems like a nice setup in assuring record profit achievements.