Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion IT's RIP OFF TIME AGAIN!!!!!!

Dick,

Who needs to buy gas when you have a flying pig to ride?

Wes

Wes...good one!
If I had a flying pig I know everybody would want to see it. Then I sure wouldn't worry about the price of gas.
this worked for that pigtailed girl when she was in OZ
I wish for cheap gas
I wish for cheap gas
I wish for cheap gas
was I suppose to close my eyes and click my heels?

Paddy
I want cheap gas!!!!!

[This message has been edited by texaspelican (edited 05-23-2007).]

Cushing, OK tank farm that Seth speaks of: should increase it's capacity by 50% by 2010 (it is one of the largest in the US). I have a customer that has a contract to build 50 tanks, five of which are mega tanks 500ft in diameter the others are the std 250ft. in diameter. The reason, DEMAND. The oil co.
's do price gouge and participate in collusion but the underlying principal to allow all of this is demand.

I agree 100% that demand is ever-increasing and that helps drive higher prices, BUT, I have a problem with that theory in this instance and here it is in terms we can all understand.

Let's say you buy 10 Wayne 60's during a time in which they are plentiful, for $750/ea. and you sell them all for $1500/ea.
That means you made $7500 gross profit.

Then, you go out looking for 10 more, but since supply is tight, you only find 5, but now they cost you $1000/ea. The profit margin you made before was 100%, so to make that margin you sell these 5 for $2000/ea for a gross profit of $5000.

Here's my question: If gasoline supply is so tight, how are the oil companies recording record profits?? Shouldn't they AT BEST be making around the same profit as before?? I don't get it I guess. If you have less of something to sell, but you sell it for more than before, how are you that much money-ahead than when you had a lot and sold for a little?

[This message has been edited by Seth Robbins (edited 05-23-2007).]

The Government already looked into this, it's all on the up and up. Trust them.

yeah right...

Was $3.219 here today. $2.999 Diesel. High here is $3.299.

I am lucky/glad I only live 10 minutes from work.

The Hemi isn't terrible on gas 14/15 town and 18/19 highway, but if I had a long commute it would be gone.

Nice show about 1-2 hours away this weekend. Not going. We were going to travel this summer, not happening. Like someone else said, I'll stay home and work on the house, its cheaper!

Something's gotta give.

What do you guys drive?
And what kind of mileage do you get?
How does $3.50 or more a gallon for gas change your driving habits?

F250 extended cab 460 auto, BIG tool boxes, always hauling a load. Its a pig. 5-6 MPG. W/O the boxes and runnin without a load it got about 10 MPG.
F250 5.4, auto. 14+ empty, 10 pulling a loaded trailer.
Lincoln Continental, 4.6, about 21 mpg highway.

At $3.50 a gallon I'll still travel to the races every weekend. I wouldn't skip a petro show because of it either. When (not if) it hits $4 I might change my mind and stay closer to home.

The old truck is going to be retired this year. When I replace it, fuel mileage will be a consideration, but won't be the determining factor in what I buy.

When fuel prices go up the cost of all goods go up. That concerns me more than what it costs me to drive somewhere.

I have a crude oil trucking business in the oilfields of North Dakota/Montana. When there is a boom in the industry, all services capitalize, including drilling rigs on down to transportation, not to mention the exploration companies. There is no difference than any other industry. What I have a problem with is the fact that there are wells being shut in up here because the pipelines are full and the refineries are at full capacity, maybe if we had not got rid of most of our refineries in the U.S. we wouildn't be in this shape.

Comparisons to yesteryear and today aren't totally right either. 30 years ago my mother and most of the friends mothers didn't work.......no daily work commute. My father and my friends fathers generally worked within a ten mile radius of home. Much shorter commutes. Today I drive 50 miles round trip in a four cylinder and my wife works as well. Health insurance is the largest deduction from my paycheck leaving less for other expenses. My parents 30 years ago didn't pay for health care. If you take the expenses the average American has today vs. what their parents had, you'll find that people on the whole in relative terms actually have less...thus the almost necessity of 2 income households(don't forget those huge child care expenses). In short, we feel the crunch more today because rises in energy expenses are not as easily absorbed as they were 30 years ago. Unfortunately it will only get worse. Food for thought.

I would like to run My Home Like Walmart All I have to do is report an estimated income of One million and when I only make 50,000 I could right off 950,000 on my taxs one year of this and I could retire.

Just retired my old '94 Taurus at 250,000 miles. Used as a work car. with the small V-6 it got 30 mpg all day long, 34 if you set it on cruise at 65 on the Interstate. Replaced it with a 2007 Mustang GT 5spd. Gets 24-25 mpg. Since I'm retired I don't care about gas mileage as much. Got a '69 Mach 1 that thankfully I don't have to drive it much....it is a real gas hog. Our Escape w/ a V-6, 4WD, gets around 24.

I think since this is a non-election year they are really going to put the screws to us. Next year it will 'drop' back to what, $2.99/ gallon, and we'll all be,,, happy.

That's the thing, the masses will be happy with 2.999, becuase it was at $3.50. I think we are about $1 over where we were here last year this time. If gets below $2, then I'll be happy, but I do not think we will ever see that again.

Demand, plain and simple.

Seth, nice observations.

What do you think of the laws of supply and demand? Competition levels the field of capitalistic greed. Because the environmental groups and the government (Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency) have not allowed an oil refinery to be built in the U.S. in about 20 years, there is no longer any refining competition and the existing refineries can sell everything they make. There is no competitive pressure to push prices down. Crude oil supplies are good in Cushing, Oklahoma and western North Dakota. In fact, because there is not enough refining or crude oil pipeline competition in the Rocky Mountain or Midwest regions with the abundance of imported Canadian crude, crude prices for oil produced in North Dakota are about 50% of west Texas crude. You won't see that benefit because there is no competition. In place of printing your own money, just buy refineries as the Canadians did in Denver....There won't be any competition because you know no one will build one beside you.......thanks to the environmentalists and the EPA....Keep up the good work! I think I'll go buy some Exxon or Chevron stock!

Maybe we should have an election EVERY YEAR and take back some of the power the elected.

I don't pretend to be an expert whatsoever on this, but my feeling is that the biggest reason for the high prices is refining capacity. Close behind is not being able to drill in Alaska and in the restricted areas of the Gulf.

I don't like paying the high price for gasoline anymore than anyone else, I drive a Suburban and my wife drives a Yukon. BUT, if a company is in business to make their shareholders a profit, they should make every dime they can. I really don't have a problem with oil companies making record profits.
High oil prices put many people to work, I think every old well in the East Texas field is being worked on to pump even a few barrels a day. That's a lot of service companies and people with a job. I assume it's the same everywhere in the country.

Also, I don't remember anyone trying to help out the oil companies and small oil businesses in the 1980's when everyone in the oil business was going broke because of LOW oil prices...