Gas and diesel has been pretty stable (neither up nor down) in the past week here.

What upsets me is all the made up reasons for price spikes. When oil prices go up, all the "experts" say "Well, the cost of gas is 75% the cost of oil". Then when oil doesn't go up, they say "Well the other other factors in the cost can cause price spikes". Well, the can, but only in relation to their overall percentage of the cost. And this Ike business is CRAP. No production has stopped yet, so why did the price go up? And who is truly profiting? The refiners or the local stations? It ain't Big Oil. Their money comes the from the crude prices, which are not rising like the gas did, over lunch yesterday.

I am not in a position to refute or validate such an assertion, being ignorant of refinery operations.

For all I know, they keep right on brewing gas and other petroleum distillates right up until the high winds blow a stack over.

Also, for all I know, they have stringent safety measures that demand curtailing volatile operations in the face of a significant chance of a Hurricane landfall.

I am sure most will guess my point is that many times we make assumptions based upon incomplete information and treat those assumptions as fact.

There's still gas at every station in this country that wants it, isn't there?

Fill up now...



From Gulf Gasoline Soars Most in 35 Years as Hurricane Approaches

These are not the only refineries but I would suspect we'll all see an increase today or tomorrow.

Billy,

You completely miss my point.

No I didn't. Until someone publishes real data of a gasoline shortage, there can be no legal, rational explanation of falling crude oil prices in relation to rising gas prices. Demand is down country wide (I think worldwide too, since we are most of the demand), and has been for a while. Nope this storm is just the latest excuse for some people to gouge. Plain and simple.

I have no problem with the huge profits posted by Exxon, et al, when the price was so high. But as I have stated, someone else is artificially keeping the gas prices high. Now is the time for an investigation.

And WHO do you wish to do said investigation?

Congress??

Of course not them. How about the FBI? They at least have the word "Investigation" in their title, right?!

Oh Boy, You need to do some research and learn some stuff.

I KNOW you're in a position to help us get started, Mark. Let the lessons BEGIN!

(serious invitation, here...)

I've just concluded that the golden rule has changed a bit...

He Who Has The Gold Makes The Rules.
He Who Has The Oil Has All The Gold.

Other than that...

Yep, me too Mark. Teach us how the prices are set. I've seen you reference before how Big Oil sets most of the price, but not the refiners. So far that had seemed to be the case. But now the wholesalers are raising the prices ahead of "possible" refinery damage, that hasn't happened yet. So who is making the profits these last two weeks? I'll read the numbers, if you have them.

Bill, may I suggest you do some research on the relationship (or lack thereof) between commodity futures prices and cash prices.

I think your giving too much credit (or blame) to futures prices.

Billy,

Not to side track things, but your reply tells me that you have in fact missed my point entirely.



This was in response to your assertion...



Would you have been willing to bet your life on that statement being true?

Did you actually know that was a definite fact or were you making an assumption based on preconceived notions which were themselves based upon limited observations and incomplete data?

Stated another way, you made an assumption and treated it as fact. Whether or not you ended up being correct is irrelevant.

Your reply ignored the point I was attempting to make and just continued on with assumptions based upon incomplete data.

Of course, I am just assuming that you do not have direct detailed knowledge of petroleum refinery operations.

To see the point, you must take all this out of the context of the topic at hand.


For the record:

I live in a glass house.