Fuel Prices!

Wow tough guy hiding behind your key board. Sorry I missed you when I drove to Miami.
 
Four Suns said:
So let's put this in a context that even Cornpop can understand.

Let's say it snows 24"... and that... oh.. I don't know... some small skinny dude named "Scooter" who owns a snow plow shows up on a street with 6 houses. Scooter only has time to plow 3 of the driveways. At the end of the driveways, 3 of the homeowners are offering $1000 to clear their driveways. The other 3 will only pay $50. What does Scooter do?

Now if it was Pack, he would plow one of the driveways for $50 because that's "union rules." He would then go home and write his congressman to take away the $1000 the other homeowners have so he can go back and plow the two cheap ones.
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Ok, now I understand what you are saying. I even understand the fun in the mudslinging. Really, I do.

But what on EARTH does this example have to do with the topic we are discussing? This isn't a case of limited supply. Change your example to THREE plowguys, each of whom can do three driveways. There is more than enough gasoline at the consumer level. There is a gas station down the street near the interstate that charges $0.15 more than everywhere else. Never see any cars there. They have changed owners once or twice.


Four Suns said:
Last time I checked, the oil companies employ a lot of people and operate at something like a 3-5% profit margin. Is that bad?
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I have no idea. There is sufficent shuffling and mergers, I can't make sense of the profit margin. The last game I saw being played was splitting the refining and exploration arms and doing a whole new dance of "hide the expenses".

Four Suns said:
Also, oil companies and refiners don't set the price of oil and gas... if you think that, you've been watching too much MSNBC.
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Well . . . I am pretty sure the CONSUMERS are not setting prices. The Government isn't setting prices. So if the oil companies and refiners are not setting it. . . who does that leave? It isn't the producers. . .the gas price always rises days / weeks BEFORE the oil price hikes affect oil actually in the refineries.
 
sfergson727 said:
Come and visit any time, we'll leave the lights on for you. I do travel for a living, btw, so once I get back to work, maybe we can arrange a visit in Calgary.
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Sure come here anytime, that way you can see first hand how the millions of people in Alberta benefit when the price of oil goes up.
 
And you won't pay any provincal sales tax on that beer, since oil royalties keep our taxes down. Also keeps our unemployment rate lower than anywhere else in the country even with all the people moving here to take the high paying jobs in the oil patch. When the price of oil was up at $150 a barrel even burger flippers were making good money and places had to offer bus passes and Scholarships to get high school students to work there.
Right now the comercial contrusction industry in Calgary is booming due to the oil industry.

And there is a great local brewery here in Calgary, some of the best beer you'll find anywhere.
 
comsnark said:
Well . . . I am pretty sure the CONSUMERS are not setting prices. The Government isn't setting prices. So if the oil companies and refiners are not setting it. . . who does that leave? It isn't the producers. . .the gas price always rises days / weeks BEFORE the oil price hikes affect oil actually in the refineries.
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Consumers do have an affect on gas prices. I know a guy who sets the prices for a specific region for a nationally known company. He constantly monitors the gallons sold per hour, competitor pricing, and combines that with data indicating what the company is paying on the futures market. If there is a run on a certain station up it goes, if sales are slow they go down all balanced with aquisition costs. I have seen stations he controls that are 10 minutes apart be 15 cents different on gas.

Oil is a commodity as is gas by definition what you paid for a comodity has NO bearing on its current value. Are you suggesting that a station owner should only be able to charge based on what was paid not what the commodity is worth when it is sold?

MM
 
Westie said:
And you won't pay any provincal sales tax on that beer, since oil royalties keep our taxes down. Also keeps our unemployment rate lower than anywhere else in the country even with all the people moving here to take the high paying jobs in the oil patch. When the price of oil was up at $150 a barrel even burger flippers were making good money and places had to offer bus passes and Scholarships to get high school students to work there.
Right now the comercial contrusction industry in Calgary is booming due to the oil industry.

And there is a great local brewery here in Calgary, some of the best beer you'll find anywhere.
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Westie you make my point completely. Though your gas prices are high your cost of living has been lightened due to the oil industry. In our country we are taxes to death and yet gas prices continue to rise higher than our normal levels.
 
Haven't the oil corporations, that have a "home office" in the U.S., benefited exponentially, to put it modestly, from the last 3 wars (going back to the "Gulf") this country has financed?

If pressed, what better rational, for even engaging in these "wars", if not for the sake of oil?

Haven't the U.S. taxpayers earned premium, oil related benefits, from not only "housing" these companies, in the most secure place on earth, but, also providing armies to secure the Middle East?

We pay alot, indirectly, for oil, I have to question why, we should be competing, as ordinary consumers, with countries who haven't paid a dime toward that security.
 
MonacoMike said:
Consumers do have an affect on gas prices. I know a guy who sets the prices for a specific region for a nationally known company. He constantly monitors the gallons sold per hour, competitor pricing, and combines that with data indicating what the company is paying on the futures market. If there is a run on a certain station up it goes, if sales are slow they go down all balanced with aquisition costs. I have seen stations he controls that are 10 minutes apart be 15 cents different on gas.

Oil is a commodity as is gas by definition what you paid for a comodity has NO bearing on its current value. Are you suggesting that a station owner should only be able to charge based on what was paid not what the commodity is worth when it is sold?
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*affecting a price* and *setting a price* are two entirely different things.

The only thing I was suggesting was that Gary needed to rethink, or perhaps better explain, his statement on how gas pricing was set.

D-Sill-D said:
Haven't the oil corporations, that have a "home office" in the U.S., benefited exponentially, to put it modestly, from the last 3 wars (going back to the "Gulf") this country has financed?

If pressed, what better rational, for even engaging in these "wars", if not for the sake of oil?
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You are going to have to explain that one to me. I don't see how American oil companies have preferentially benefited (beyond crony capitalism effects of getting government contracts) from Iraq.

My personal view was that there were lots of drivers for the Iraq thing. . .but "war for oil" was probably not in the top five. Did it affect oil and gas prices by (paradoxically) taking Iraqi oil off the world market? Sure. But only tangentially.

As for Afganistan: Certainly, who the heck cares about Afganistan in terms of resources (other than Poppy)?
 
And not mentioned already....there is Gas Taxes.....In Michigan our Wonderful (Sarcasm) REPUBLICAN Governor wants to RAISE gas taxes in a state that has one of the highest taxes on gasoline in the nation now.....see chart. Also wants to rasise taxes on cars, boats and ORV....some increases as much as 115% increase.

http://www.commonsensejunction.com/notes/gas-tax-rate.html
 
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Everybody just buy a sailboat or one of these. I sure wouldn't want to race Scott (sfergson727) in one!
 

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Bridog said:
Everybody just buy a sailboat or one of these. I sure wouldn't want to race Scott (sfergson727) in one!
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Good exercise but I would soon need a knee replacement!...Mike.
 
Gas prices climbing here....$3.86 today. FOX just said it will be higher tomorrow (Tuesday). Claming $5 to $6 in June. Watch the demand drop at those prices and food prices go up more, Mike.
 
Westie said:
Wow tough guy hiding behind your key board. Sorry I missed you when I drove to Miami.
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Uh Anyone who has lost 100lbs, rides a bike daily and can ride 40-70 miles on the road without even thinking about it... is in very good shape and probably could be called a tough guy!
 
Scott - Sorry, I couldn't get through that article after looking at the 2012 Best Conservative Women from that page.
 
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comsnark said:
*affecting a price* and *setting a price* are two entirely different things.

The only thing I was suggesting was that Gary needed to rethink, or perhaps better explain, his statement on how gas pricing was set.



You are going to have to explain that one to me. I don't see how American oil companies have preferentially benefited (beyond crony capitalism effects of getting government contracts) from Iraq.

I may be wrong, I am, admittedly, shooting from the hip, for sure, but I can't help wondering, how much oil, would be coming from the Middle East, and where it would be going, if we had not have had, a few, aircraft carriers, etc, etc...in the immediate region, for the last couple of decades.....

My personal view was that there were lots of drivers for the Iraq thing. . .but "war for oil" was probably not in the top five. Did it affect oil and gas prices by (paradoxically) taking Iraqi oil off the world market? Sure. But only tangentially.

No disrespect intended, to you Com, or anyone else, but, besides the people who live or have family, or close friends, in the Middle East, do you really believe that anyone would care alot about the Middle East, if there was nothing but more sand under all of that sand?????

As for Afganistan: Certainly, who the heck cares about Afganistan in terms of resources (other than Poppy)?
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Again, I am far from, even moderately knowledgeable about what we are talking about, but, I have a vague understanding that Afghanistan, and all of the surrounding, "stans" are filthy with, you guessed it, oil....they either have it or they are part of an integral route to get it to market whenever it is mined......it's all about oil....I think...
 
D-Sill-D said:
Again, I am far from, even moderately knowledgeable about what we are talking about, but, I have a vague understanding that Afghanistan, and all of the surrounding, "stans" are filthy with, you guessed it, oil....they either have it or they are part of an integral route to get it to market whenever it is mined......it's all about oil....I think...
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Did you ever hear of a Google search?

Afghanistan Oil Production: Oil - production: 0 bbl/day (2010 est.)

http://www.indexmundi.com/energy.aspx?country=af&product=oil&graph=production

Also, Iraq: http://www.indexmundi.com/energy.aspx?country=iq&product=oil&graph=production

Saudia Arabia: http://www.indexmundi.com/energy.aspx?country=sa&product=oil&graph=production

United States: http://www.indexmundi.com/energy.aspx?country=us&product=oil&graph=production
 
And you guys made fun of me when I started buying scooters.

Guess who is laughing at who now ??. :lol: . I can go all month on $10 worth of gas. :smt001



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