Posted on 04/08/2019 5:25:45 PM PDT by John W
A consortium of oil-producing countries has taken more than a million barrels a day off the market and thats the least of the problems plaguing American gasoline prices.
Across the U.S., regular gas averaged $2.77 a gallon, up 7 cents on the week and 29 cents on the month, according to GasBuddy. Last year, gas prices topped out at $2.98 at the outset of Memorial Day weekend.
Oil prices are climbing, but that only accounts for about one-quarter of the recently higher gas prices American drivers have been facing. A bigger issue is that this is around the time of year when many oil refineries plan maintenance as they make their annual switch to summer-blend fuels.
This year, unexpected issues took a higher number of refineries offline, squeezing supplies. This laundry list of refinery issues, both planned and unplanned, is having a dramatic impact on prices, GasBuddy head of petroleum analysis Patrick DeHaan said. Its almost inevitable every year that there will be a refinery issue.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
Especially considering we are no the world’s leader in oil production and for the first time in ever we are energy independent. One would think oil independence wouldn’t mean exorbitant gas prices. Didn’t Saudi Arabia have 10 cent gas for their people when they were the top dog in oil production?
Just a reminder to all. The spike in fuel prices in 2007 and 2008 began the downward spiral leading ultimately to the collapse of real estate in 2008.
When you can Spike fuel prices, you kill car sales. You make every economic activity far more expensive. All kinds of jobs start drying up. Then those people have trouble meeting financial obligations, and it snowballs.
We could be seeing the beginning of them tanking the economy as a method to attack Trump before the 2020 election.
ALMOST AT $4.00 here in San Diego.
$3.91.
The Republican governors in Ohio and Indiana pushed for higher gas taxes.
Its buypartisan.
$3.75 at AMPM in Los Angeles, cheapest I saw, I was in AZ last weekend $2.40
Went up to $2.85 here in my central Hoosierland area last week, but dropped to $2.50 today.
I just did a search of my local area, la/oc counties in California. I know I paid $3.79.9 for diesel on my last fill-up, regular is between $3.96 & $4.06, right now.
cheaper in VT
tie the price to wolfe!
I paid $3.65 for premium today. Southern reaches of Puget Sound.
I forgot to add, ain’t socialism great?
When it goes up it's incentive for the frackers to up their output.
You can only manipulate the market for a little while, unless you're the government.
Every spring gas prices seem to skyrocket to the highest prices of the year. Why does this happen? In explanation, we hear the experts say that many of the refineries are down for maintenance while transitioning from winter-blend to summer-blend gasoline, but what does this mean?The difference between summer- and winter-blend gasoline involves the Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) of the fuel. RVP is a measure of how easily the fuel evaporates at a given temperature. The more volatile a gasoline (higher RVP), the easier it evaporates.
Winter-blend fuel has a higher RVP because the fuel must be able to evaporate at low temperatures for the engine to operate properly, especially when the engine is cold. If the RVP is too low on a frigid day, the vehicle will be hard to start and once started, will run rough.
Summer-blend gasoline has a lower RVP to prevent excessive evaporation when outside temperatures rise. Reducing the volatility of summer gas decreases emissions that can contribute to unhealthy ozone and smog levels. A lower RVP also helps prevent drivability problems such as vapor lock on hot days, especially in older vehicles. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says conventional summer-blend gasoline contains 1.7 percent more energy than winter-blend gas, which is one reason why gas mileage is slightly better in the summer. However, the summer-blend is also more expensive to produce, and that cost is passed on to the motorist.
The switch between the two fuels happens twice a year, once in the fall (to winter-blend) and again in the spring (to summer-blend). The changeover requires significant work at refineries, so oil companies schedule their maintenance for those times when they will already be down for the blend switches.
As a consumer, the main thing to understand is that there are real reasons for the switch from winter- to summer-blend fuel, even if it results in some pain at the pump.
The US was a net exporter of oil until the 1950s.
After the 50s Arab oil became cheaper and it was easier to refine than US oil. US exploration started to fall.
If we produce our own, it adds to the total supply available, but it is the total supply available that drives the price. (Assuming a free commodity market where supply can flow to meet demand.) If the price is too low here, our supplies will be exported until the prices across the board equalize (after adjusting for taxes and transport cost and other indirect issues.)
Apparently there are issues with some refineries, so we aren’t refining as much as we would like. That affects supply which affects price.
NBC=Fake news.
Am I dreaming? Didn’t they once say they were going to have state lotteries and the money was going to help with roads?
Seems like no one should have to raise taxes if we all have lotteries now. Right?
We were doing better prior to attaining Energy Independence. No great benefits to America finally becoming a crude exporter that Ive noticed. Looks as though the rising consumer fuel prices are mitigating (for the oil industry) the oil tankers cost of pushing crude across the ocean. And now our beloved leader Kasick is raising Ohios fuel tax to boot, further damaging those who live paycheck to paycheck. He first made all the Ohio CCW carrying veterans happy by eliminating the license fees, then slapped us all in the face with the fuel tax increase. (Whap! Thank you sir, may I have another?)
Gas is $2.67 or so average in NE Florida now. Part of that is tax, of course, but we still dont pay income tax so we still come out on the (+) side.
We consumers are only money pawns for the oil company profits.
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