[sluday]

Associated press reports that China has raised gas prices 18% and may raise again next month. This dropped the barrel price almost $5 today. The rumor is that we may see gas in the $2 range again by August. Now if India does the same we will be in good shape. So don't skimp on cheap fuel use premium for your babies.

[AlexM105]

I call BS. :bs:

[Oregon]

Don't hold your breath.

[Swift135]

Originally Posted by sluday

Associated press reports that China has raised gas prices 18% and may raise again next month. This dropped the barrel price almost $5 today. The rumor is that we may see gas in the $2 range again by August. Now if India does the same we will be in good shape. So don't skimp on cheap fuel use premium for your babies.

Back to $2 !!! We are paying about $1.60 per liter for premium in Australia.

[Vidge]

WELL BOO CHUFFING HOO, in the uk our fuel price is give or take £1.20 (petrol, its £1.35 for diesel) a litre, making it about $2.40 US, and one fuel station was charging £1.99.99litre (granted due to a tanker strike), thats near as make no odds $4 a litre, which is $14.8 per US Gallon (thinks that a US gallon is 3.7 litres, is that right??)

rant over, all i will say is i hate fuel companies, and thats why i bought a diesel that way i give as little of my money to them and the sodding UK government as possible! (the goverment take about 70% of that fuel price straight away as well, and they put a tax on a tax!!!! they tax the fuel at the refinary and then they add 17.5%VAT to that total amount! theifing scummy Ba***rds!

Ok now my rant is over (for now!):wink:

[CAMike]

It will never happen...nice thought though

[Mad Dragon]

FWD: FW: FWD: RE: Every time this message is posted, Bill Gates will donate 0.02 cents to AIDS research to save little Jimmy Norden.

[CAMike]

Originally Posted by Mad Dragon

FWD: FW: FWD: RE: Every time this message is posted, Bill Gates will donate 0.02 cents to AIDS research to save little Jimmy Norden.

So, 1ers...Please help little Jimmy

[PA135i]

You'll never see $2.00 a gallon petrol in the USA again. But, I could see it sliding back to around $3.50 for the good stuff.

[BMW Dreamer]

Never $2.00 a gallon EVER. Maybe ??? $3.00. ???

[CAMike]

I don't see the gas companies giving up the HUGE profits they continue to make through all of this. I'm not against them making money but when gas is at an all time high and their profits quarter after quarter are also at an all time high something is wrong. The consumer gets screwed as we have no other choice really. I know the environmentalists will flame me for this but if we have domestic oil available that would truly lower the price (ar at this point even just stablize the price) and reduce our need for foreign oil and the issues that go with it, we need to work to start using our resources. The economy is getting weaker and weaker and gas prices are starting to play a major role in the downward movement of the economy (airlines cutting routes, charging for baggage, food prices increasing, tourist destinations losing money as people are staying closer to home,money that used to be spent for movies-eating out-vacations-etc are now having to cover fuel bills...). Something has to be done...Sorry if that means the pink legged yellow billed striped winged fluffy bird has to build it's nest on an oil pipeline...just my opinion and I'm no expert on any of this...just my take.

[EODGUY]

You know what really cracks me up about the oil pipeline crap, is that the tree huggers were screaming about how it would wipe out the local wildlife. Yet, because they now have a warm place to mate, their numbers have gone crazy.

Just watched a good segment on the O'Reilly (sp?) show about how a few European countries that drill their own coastlines for oil aren't seeing any negative enviromental factors at all. We need to drill our own oil. Badly.

[ModlessG]

Prices are already up $2.00 this morning. Its hard to say where its going could be $150 a barrel. That means $5.00 a gal in the us.

[zbladejr]

Originally Posted by CAMike

I don't see the gas companies giving up the HUGE profits they continue to make through all of this. I'm not against them making money but when gas is at an all time high and their profits quarter after quarter are also at an all time high something is wrong. The consumer gets screwed as we have no other choice really. I know the environmentalists will flame me for this but if we have domestic oil available that would truly lower the price (ar at this point even just stablize the price) and reduce our need for foreign oil and the issues that go with it, we need to work to start using our resources. The economy is getting weaker and weaker and gas prices are starting to play a major role in the downward movement of the economy (airlines cutting routes, charging for baggage, food prices increasing, tourist destinations losing money as people are staying closer to home,money that used to be spent for movies-eating out-vacations-etc are now having to cover fuel bills...). Something has to be done...Sorry if that means the pink legged yellow billed striped winged fluffy bird has to build it's nest on an oil pipeline...just my opinion and I'm no expert on any of this...just my take.

Why not just buy dividend paying 'fuel company' stock? That way you benefit from their profits to offset the tax revenue you pay to the government on the gas you buy (post paying taxes on the money you earned to buy that gas with).

All I'm saying is that the profit margin (as percent of sales) for gas companies is lower than that for BMW. Why hate on the gas companies? It's the taxes our government (and wait until a good socialist gets in there....like our friends across the ponds have) makes us pay that makes gas very expensive (combined with the on/off supply switch the major oil producers like to turn).

Finally, I feel the 135i owner really has no right to moan about cost of gas. If gas cost was a concern, I've got a great Civic that will get you 50 miles to gallon at 60% of the price of a 135i.

Not to start too much chaos, but seriously folks, gas price to the 1er is like the cost of the glass bottle for the 6 pack of beer.

[dma550]

there's a guy on a lotus forum I'm on that with a boat with two 600 gallon tanks. Imagine the $6000 fillup!

[ARES45]

Originally Posted by Vidge

WELL BOO CHUFFING HOO, in the uk our fuel price is give or take £1.20 (petrol, its £1.35 for diesel) a litre, making it about $2.40 US, and one fuel station was charging £1.99.99litre (granted due to a tanker strike), thats near as make no odds $4 a litre, which is $14.8 per US Gallon (thinks that a US gallon is 3.7 litres, is that right??)

rant over, all i will say is i hate fuel companies, and thats why i bought a diesel that way i give as little of my money to them and the sodding UK government as possible! (the goverment take about 70% of that fuel price straight away as well, and they put a tax on a tax!!!! they tax the fuel at the refinary and then they add 17.5%VAT to that total amount! theifing scummy Ba***rds!


Ok now my rant is over (for now!):wink:

We are Americans, it is our right to bitch about anything and everything.

God I hope we dont do free health care for everyone, especially the lazy (I mean unfortunate).

[CAMike]

BMW's profit margin is around 7% while the average profit margin for the S&P Energy Sector is 9.7% (Last quarter Exxon had about 9.9%). We could go back and forth with this and never agree. I do agree that if we were all so concerned about MPG that we wouldn't have made the purchase we did. However, that doesn't mean that we can't complain about gas prices or that we should be doing more to offset our reliance upon others when we have a hefty supply of our own. My biggest concern is when companies are making record profits at the demise of the economy. I felt the same way several years ago when there were the "black outs" in California because of the "energy crisis". The energy companies were making HUGE profits during the time people's rate tripled. That is wrong. I'm not advocating for a Socialist approach but things need some sort of checks and balances and right now there are none in the energy sector. Again...just my opinion

[Purgatory]

Originally Posted by CAMike

I don't see the gas companies giving up the HUGE profits they continue to make through all of this. I'm not against them making money but when gas is at an all time high and their profits quarter after quarter are also at an all time high something is wrong. The consumer gets screwed as we have no other choice really. I know the environmentalists will flame me for this but if we have domestic oil available that would truly lower the price (ar at this point even just stablize the price) and reduce our need for foreign oil and the issues that go with it, we need to work to start using our resources. The economy is getting weaker and weaker and gas prices are starting to play a major role in the downward movement of the economy (airlines cutting routes, charging for baggage, food prices increasing, tourist destinations losing money as people are staying closer to home,money that used to be spent for movies-eating out-vacations-etc are now having to cover fuel bills...). Something has to be done...Sorry if that means the pink legged yellow billed striped winged fluffy bird has to build it's nest on an oil pipeline...just my opinion and I'm no expert on any of this...just my take.

I have to admit that this thread shows almost a total lack of understanding of how gas (as in gasoline) prices are determined. I work as a oil trader for a large multinational O&G company here in Calgary, AB. For those who don't know Alberta has enough oil in the ground today to supply the current WORLDs demand for oil for 50 years, (that's right I said 50!). Gettting it out of the ground is another story but we have access to about 65% of this currently.

Yes, it is true that high oil prices generally trend with higher gasoline prices, but they are not the direct contributing factor. In simple terms, there are two factors that impact gasoline prices the most, they are TAXES & REFINING CAPACITY.

Want to lower the price of domestic oil? The US needs more refining capacity, and in europe the US needs to stop blocking the flow of oil from Iran to countries that can refine it (Turkey, Turkmenistan etc.). It would also be great if China and India would adopt a higher gas tax, which would also serve to reduce demand.

Second, I am looking a research today that shows US gasoline demand is decreasing. Which of course isn't a big shock given falling housing prices, increased gas prices, decreased appetite for big SUVs, and a general weakening of the USD and economy as a whole. In the next few months I would actually predict a decrease in the overall US gasoline price but I am thinking more like .50-.75.

Please note that I am seperating out the political problems of allowing Iran to do whatever it wants. for instance allowing a pipeline from Iran to Pakistan would be in violation of current US sanctions etc. Even though it is badly needed.

Second, don't be upset with O&G companies, as we make almost nothing from downstream operations (putting gasoline in the pumps). Most of our money is made though marketing refining of petroleum products (midstream), and upstream operations which is getting the oil & natural gas products out of the ground.

If you read this post all the way through, I am impressed. Although, if anyone has any questions on how these things work let me know as I do this for a living.

[Nixon]

Originally Posted by Purgatory

if anyone has any questions on how these things work let me know as I do this for a living.

I've got one big question. There is a lot of talk about making the US oil-independent (and somehow insulating the US from the rest of the global oil market) by increasing US production to a level that would provide for all of the United States' oil needs.

In a global oil trading market, could this ever be possible? I would think that if US companies could sell US oil overseas for more money, they would sell it there instead of in the US for less money. Wouldn't that mean the US oil market would still be tied directly to middle east oil production, and the rapid increases predicted in the Chinese/Indian/third world oil consumption?

Is there any way to insulate the US oil market from the global oil market -- short of installing Communist/Socialist style controls over US oil production that would ban US oil companies from selling their oil in the global oil market? Wouldn't the US gov't have to somehow force oil companies to keep their production high enough to meet demand in the US market in order to keep the price lower than the rest of the global market?

Short of the US gov't taking strict control of the US oil industry to force separation from the global market and ensure enough productions to 100% supply the US market, is there any other way for the US to gain true energy independence besides greatly reducing consumption?

[RobLS]

Originally Posted by Purgatory

I have to admit that this thread shows almost a total lack of understanding of how gas (as in gasoline) prices are determined. I work as a oil trader for a large multinational O&G company here in Calgary, AB. For those who don't know Alberta has enough oil in the ground today to supply the current WORLDs demand for oil for 50 years, (that's right I said 50!). Gettting it out of the ground is another story but we have access to about 65% of this currently.

Yes, it is true that high oil prices generally trend with higher gasoline prices, but they are not the direct contributing factor. In simple terms, there are two factors that impact gasoline prices the most, they are TAXES & REFINING CAPACITY.

Want to lower the price of domestic oil? The US needs more refining capacity, and in europe the US needs to stop blocking the flow of oil from Iran to countries that can refine it (Turkey, Turkmenistan etc.). It would also be great if China and India would adopt a higher gas tax, which would also serve to reduce demand.

Second, I am looking a research today that shows US gasoline demand is decreasing. Which of course isn't a big shock given falling housing prices, increased gas prices, decreased appetite for big SUVs, and a general weakening of the USD and economy as a whole. In the next few months I would actually predict a decrease in the overall US gasoline price but I am thinking more like .50-.75.

Please note that I am seperating out the political problems of allowing Iran to do whatever it wants. for instance allowing a pipeline from Iran to Pakistan would be in violation of current US sanctions etc. Even though it is badly needed.

Second, don't be upset with O&G companies, as we make almost nothing from downstream operations (putting gasoline in the pumps). Most of our money is made though marketing refining of petroleum products (midstream), and upstream operations which is getting the oil & natural gas products out of the ground.

If you read this post all the way through, I am impressed. Although, if anyone has any questions on how these things work let me know as I do this for a living.

At least we have a worker chiming in. And yes, the lack of refining on our part is part of the prob. We seem to have our hands tied by our government though, and it seems it may be getting worse on our front soon. Its been proprosed to drill more again, but its also been said that it will not help soon enough by the opposing side. Sounds stupid, it is, but its just really frustrating for all of us.

[CAMike]

I will admit fault for not addressing the refining capability (or lack there of) when discussing gas prices and the role taxes play in pricing. My point was not why prices were high but rather the profit being made and the negative effect upon the economy because of the prices. Looking long term it seems to me like reducing profit margins to increase sales would result in overall increased return as oppossed to the current model of reduced demand because of higher prices...I am WAY out of my league in this area and I'm sure my lack of true understanding is WAY behind the thoughts I am sharing. Do we need to lessen our dependence on foreign oil-yes, do we have the natural resources to do so-yes, do we need to deperately increase our refining capacity-YES, will politicians ever let these things happen---my guess is maybe...in a limited capacity but no where near what is really needed. There are too many interests involved that are not willing to cut into their current profit margins for longterm prospects (in my opinion). Again I am outside my element here.

Purgatory, I did read your post to the end, more than once even. Thanks for sharing your knowledge as I always look to learn more about things I am less familiar with.

[Sherifftruman]

Originally Posted by dma550

there's a guy on a lotus forum I'm on that with a boat with two 600 gallon tanks. Imagine the $6000 fillup!

Well, like they say, If you can afford a boat with 1200 gallons of fuel capacity....


:wink: