Oil goes up: "We must immediately increase gas prices at the pumps as the market price of a barrel of crude has gone up!"
Oil goes down: "Well, there's always going to be a lag between oil prices going down and gas prices going down in response..."
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News/talk ratings skyrocketing due to high gas prices
- Thread starter wastedtalent23
- Start date
Oil goes down: "Well, there's always going to be a lag between oil prices going down and gas prices going down in response..."
Remember, a significant portion of oil is bought on future prices and price guarantees. If a refiner or retailer has guaranteed a price for a million barrels or so for July at a certain rate, their pricing is going to be based on the future cost as well as past cost because the current sales are financing the future purchase of raw materials.
The gasoline they are selling right now is mostly priced based on purchases agreed on months ago or more. They don't just steer a tanker ship up to a dock in Saudi Arabia or wherever, connect some pipes and say, "fill 'er up".
And, if they are supplementing with spot prices, that cost is also part of the pricing formula just as estimates of shipping costs, distribution costs, labor and the like factor in.
Even when they have some really smart people and sophisticated computer models, things happen. Exxon lost $20 billion two years ago, and not until this year have they made up for it.
I saw one article which doesn't relate to specific trends in oil, which can tie higher gas prices to Biden.
It says that if electric vehicles are being encouraged, it makes no sense to increase refinery capacity.
apnews.com
It says that if electric vehicles are being encouraged, it makes no sense to increase refinery capacity.
Several factors are converging to push gas prices higher
Gas prices are hitting $5 a gallon, and they're showing no signs of letting up. Auto club AAA said Saturday that the nationwide average broke the $5 barrier for the first time.
apnews.com
The petroleum industry isn't going anywhere any time soon.
Aircraft and long-haul trains, buses and trucks will never run on batteries. Neither will commercial or major military ships. Electric peaking plants will continue to use petroleum products. And that is just accounting for major carriers and does not count all the other uses for petroleum.
The most immediate answer would be to build a nuclear infrastructure similar to France (dozens of small generating stations spread out across the nation) but that won't happen due to the mentality of the general population regarding nuclear power. There are some test plants using different forms of radioactive fuel being tested now which consume their own waste which might provide solutions but those are still decades away from prime time.
Aircraft and long-haul trains, buses and trucks will never run on batteries. Neither will commercial or major military ships. Electric peaking plants will continue to use petroleum products. And that is just accounting for major carriers and does not count all the other uses for petroleum.
The most immediate answer would be to build a nuclear infrastructure similar to France (dozens of small generating stations spread out across the nation) but that won't happen due to the mentality of the general population regarding nuclear power. There are some test plants using different forms of radioactive fuel being tested now which consume their own waste which might provide solutions but those are still decades away from prime time.
Exactly. The last thing we need is to pay for starting up conventional nuclear power plants. The used fuel rods stay with the plant in what's called the 'fuel pools' for the life of the plant. Someday we need to figure out what to do with all that nasty waste.
Northern CA gas station manager fired after 69 cents-a-gallon mistake
The manager says he's worried about getting sued by the station owners, so his family has started a GoFundMe to help re-pay the lost revenue.
RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif. -- The manager who misplaced a decimal point at a Northern California gas station pricing premium gas for just 69 cents a gallon has now been fired.
The manager at the Shell gas station in Rancho Cordova, Calif., accidentally moved the decimal point to the wrong spot.
Hundreds of drivers ended up getting the cheap gas for several hours before the mistake was discovered costing the gas station $16,000.
Bad article. "Oil" or petroleum is used for generation of electricity, home heating in winter, most all trains, ships and planes as well as plastics and even many medical products.
Look around your room and see all the things that use petroleum as an "ingredient"... from your mouse, keyboard and monitor to synthetic carpeting, water and drink bottles, your cellphone, packaging, light switches, your thermostat casing, furniture artificial finishes, paint, insulation, and lots more.
I could go on and describe personal products, starting with condoms, but I think I made my point.
There was a station a few years ago that made a similar mistake. In that case, there was no attendant overnight, but if it was a "pay at the pump" credit card sale, you could still fill up (which I'm not sure is legal; I figured that, for safety if no other reason, there'd need to be an employee on-site). Anyway, once a few people saw how cheap the gas was due to the mistake, word traveled quickly and many people filled their tanks at a fraction of the regular price. The station owner was angry when he looked through the system and saw that some people he'd considered his closest friends took the opportunity to fill their tanks without even alerting him to the mistake.
Most gas stations the price is set from their HQ, not an individual station. That's why you can literally watch the price change on the sign while driving past the station.
Northern CA gas station manager fired after 69 cents-a-gallon mistake
The manager says he's worried about getting sued by the station owners, so his family has started a GoFundMe to help re-pay the lost revenue.abc30.com
Hundreds of drivers ended up getting the cheap gas for several hours before the mistake was discovered costing the gas station $16,000.
During that time period, not a single customer paid with cash and came into the store to prepay? No one in the store noticed
the transactions?
There is also a moral aspect involved that no one, none of the customers, questioned the pricing?
Another question, if these customers paid with a credit card, can the merchant run a revised billing against the customers' cards with an adjusted but more correct billing amount?
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Despite all the hype, EVs won't be a key player for more than a decade. We don't have the electricity available to switch over from gas and diesel to EVs.I saw one article which doesn't relate to specific trends in oil, which can tie higher gas prices to Biden.
It says that if electric vehicles are being encouraged, it makes no sense to increase refinery capacity.
Several factors are converging to push gas prices higher
Gas prices are hitting $5 a gallon, and they're showing no signs of letting up. Auto club AAA said Saturday that the nationwide average broke the $5 barrier for the first time.
Although the Grid itself, in most of the US, can handle the extra electrical capacity needed, the electrical infrastructure in the US has produced the same amount of electricity since 2005. In other words, we are presently producing the same amount of electricity that we did 17 years ago. The graph at the US EIA isn't increasing, either. It's flattened after about 2005.
So, it's obvious. Refinery capacity and natural gas production, need to increase, as well as electricity production. Once electricity production increases enough to support a massive fleet of EVs, the refinery production can drop. That will take new electrical plants, at a time that coal fired plants are being shut down and they hydro system in the West is threatened by drought.
This all makes sense. Now if the oil companies would just go along.
I heard gas prices came down last week, and I did see lower prices going home than I did earlier in the week. But the place I stopped on the way there was $4.50, the lowest I had seen all day. Other places charged less for cash and I went to what I thought was a branch of one of my banks. I don't know why after waiting in line I didn't ask if I could cash a check there but they told me where my bank's branch was. It was too complicated to go there so I waited until I got back to the other place. Oh, I did ask and no, the places that charged less for paying cash meant CASH. No one would take checks. No, I don't know how to use an ATM and if it wasn't my bank they'd charge a few more than likely, defeating the whole purpose.
And the place that was $4.50 was $4.53. And soon after that, I saw numerous places BELOW $4.50 where I could have stopped.
Here in WA -- at least in the Seattle-Tacoma metro, the average price for gas is around $5.30 or so a gallon, and I saw diesel for $6.05 a gallon over the weekend.
One thing to remember is not only transportation depends on the fuel prices -- a lot of materials used in industry, as well as commerce, are made from petroleum as well, including plastics and chemicals. So the oil prices affect a lot of different sectors of the economy.
One thing to remember is not only transportation depends on the fuel prices -- a lot of materials used in industry, as well as commerce, are made from petroleum as well, including plastics and chemicals. So the oil prices affect a lot of different sectors of the economy.
You'd do yourself a favor by learning to use an ATM if you must get cash, and open an account at a bank where they allow you to use ATMs from any brand name bank to make withdrawals if need be, without being charged an extra fee. Lots of places don't accept checks, and at least one country in Europe now charges a service charge if you try and pay with one. They're a pain for stores and merchants to deal with, it's more "paperwork" for them, depending on the circumstances they need to wait for the check to clear before they get paid, and if someone writes a check with insufficient funds to cover it, that merchant is assuming some level of risk. Grocery stores used to have the little shelf at the checkout where you could write a check. The ones in my area were removed years ago.
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Most sports and concert venues no longer accept cash. They either want a credit card with a chip, or ApplePay.
We were talking in another thread about the demise of waiters and waitresses. You get to your table, take a picture of a QR code at your table, order off a menu in your phone, and pay immediately before your food arrives.
Yeah, many businesses and merchants were moving in a cashless direction, anyway pre-covid (except for some smaller businesses that didn't like the credit card fees they'd have to pay), and I think the pandemic helped hurry that along. With things like Apple Pay and the "contactless credit cards" and readers, you don't even need to swipe or insert a card, so during the pandemic there was less chance of germ or bacteria spread. Personally I'm OK with the QR codes rather than a printed and bound menu, too. I'm not sure about Android, but they're a snap to scan and access using an iPhone, restaurants like them as they can update their menus in real time as they run out of certain items or want to add daily or weekly specials, and as folks get older, they can make the menu as large as they'd like so they can read it. QR codes can allow you to peruse their menu, or if they want to set it up, restaurants can have a QR code specific to every table and booth in the place, so you can order using your phone and then pay using your phone when you're ready to leave as well. While not as "personal" it certainly can be faster and more convenient.
Total BS. Refineries are intentionally trying to make up for 2020-21 during the lock-down when demand went way low. They're using Ukraine and Russia, along with renewed demand, to stick it to consumers and business. So far refineries are up over $30B in profits, and expect to do an $80B stock buy-back in Q4.
Stick that in your Wikipedia and smoke it.
The other place I encountered a QR code was at the parking garage. No more cheerful attendant to take your money.
How long before QR codes replace toll takers or even EasyPay?
Saw the other day, where 'hackers' are hacking websites, ads, and phone apps that use QR codes, changing them to a link which downloads and installs malware or ransomware on the device.
This is going to leave an awful lot of people who either can't afford a smart phone or don't want to take the privacy risks involved with owning one -- or, in Chimp's apparent case, technophobes who are uneasy with ATMs, let alone smart phones -- increasingly unable to function in the modern world. I resisted the smart phone until last year, my excuse being that my job did not require me to be instantly available nor did I want to be distracted from my leisure activities except in the case of an emergency, and a plain old dumb wireless phone worked fine for the latter. But that dumb phone was a 3G model from 2010, and 3G service everywhere was going to be sundowned in 2022, so I gave in. I still hardly use it, but at least I'm ready for this future that many Americans still don't want.
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