CONSPRACY THEORY?

[E7]

Conspiracy Theory?

I had to drive about 20 miles to the nearest Chevrolet dealer to pick up some parts for my truck. As I approached the dealership I noticed the price of gasoline at a local convenience mart was $2.63.9 per gallon. Holy Cow! When I filled up near home on 10/30 regular was $2.99.9!

I checked gas at the local super market where I where i had last fueled up, and it was $2.78.9 per gallon. Not as good as 20 miles South, but still a nice drop.

Interesting that this would happen right after the election!

Any of you notice this kind of thing were you live? (I am in PA)

[MYmoo]

Conspiracy Theory?

I had to drive about 20 miles to the nearest Chevrolet dealer to pick up some parts for my truck. As I approached the dealership I noticed the price of gasoline at a local convenience mart was $2.63.9 per gallon. Holy Cow! When I filled up on 10/30 regular was $2.99.9!

I checked gas at the local super market where I where i had last fueled up, and it was $2.78.9 per gallon. Not as good as 20 miles South, but still a nice drop.

Interesting that this would happen right after the election!

Any of you notice this kind of thing were you live? (I am in PA)

YES!... in MI. and CA., and everywhere else in between.

AFIK, It 's been happening for many years. across the country.
I'm a little suprised you haven't noticed it until now.
I used to drive across the country (toy train conventions, off -roading, sightseeing, visit kin,)...

It seems like gas prices will drop s--l--o--w--l--y for 2-3 weeks and then one day,
they're suddenly 30-35 cents (or more) per gallon higher.
Repeat.
Time varies between ups and downs.

Location has a lot to do with prices as you've noticed.
Some brands are consistently higher, but when prices raise, ALL go up proportionally.

If I see lots of cars waiting to fill up, it was the last station to raise prices.
It varies which brand is the first to increase prices.

Catch as many as you can.....

[E7]

Most of the big swings I've seen have been upward, lower is usually a penny or two at a time.

[chuck]

Gasoline is a commodity. The price fluctuates with the supply. The supply of crude to refineries and the supply of gasoline literally in the pipeline or in storage that is accessible to the consumer.

There are seasonal changes in the supplies from refineries switching over their blends to reflect winter or summer conditions. There are changes in the supply reflected in how many refineries are operating and at what capacity. Routine maintenance, accidents, and severe weather can make large changes in refinement capacity on short notice.

Driving habits affect the supply. We see spikes and dips based on holiday driving behavior. We also see shifts on how much fuel people purchase based on what kind of vehicles they chose to drive and how they feel about spending money on fuel.

Location, location, location. The more fuel stations there in an area and their closeness to each other has a tremendous affect on spot pricing. If there are three to four stations in close proximity (or better yet on the same corner) you are more likely to see price parity. The fewer the stations and the farther apart they are the more likely that the prices will be higher. When driving a vehicle cross country to deliver to one of my kids I saw the most extreme example of this I have ever run across, Needles, CA. You are at the border of California and Arizona in the middle of a dessert with NOTHING around you. The gas was around five dollars a gallon at all four or five stations because there was NO other sources of fuel for 50+ miles in any direction and very limited access for 100+ miles in any direction. Pay up or park it (or plan your trip better).

Global political/economic situations can have an impact on the actual supply/demand and they certainly can affect how consumers perceive the situation. Back when oil was over $100 a barrel there was no legitimate reason for it to be so. Speculators purchased huge quantities of raw and refined fuel and had it sitting in tankers off the coast to drive up prices. You could consider this part of a "conspiracy" except the information was publicly available. Consumers could have backed off on their buying habits and shut down the price gouging but they didn't. Part of the current rise in price is a reflection of the situation with Iran. Re-imposition of sanctions affects U.S. access to Iranian oil.

BTW, ALL of this information is available for public consumption on a daily basis in a nice concise publication called the Lundberg Survey. It's often cited in the economic news sections of radio and television programs starting with the actual price of spot crude. The report includes a breakdown of what is driving those prices. The later part is often dropped by "news" sources with an agenda (possibly the second closest thing to a conspiracy) or sources that consider their airtime to be too valuable for such "boring" minutia.

[Mitch]

Chuck did a fine job of explaining that one. One more thing is that the world price of oil has been falling. Last week, it dropped $3.78 a barrel. Apparently, since the price was going down, the Saudis and Opec wanted to encourage use, and the Saudis said they were gonna pump at maximum capacity. Bigger supply, lower price.

[v8vega]

Here a station across the street from another will be 10 cents more and have a steady supply of customers, I'll never understand it.
This last election really bummed me out, there is no tax increase Californians won't vote for.
Calif. Democrats rammed through without any input from the voters a gas tax increase and car registration increase.
The people got enough signatures to get a initiative on the ballot repealing these increases.
The Democrats went into full attack, this is forever and a lot of money, they spent 10's of millions, and they changed the title of the so it didn't say that it repealed the tax increases and confused people.
So the repeal of these taxes failed, I can't believe so many people could be so dumb.

[aterry11]

What's an educated voter called..?
Dangerous!!!!!

What do you call a Republican on welfare...??
Farmer or a Business man..... Since we seem to subsidize their profits exponentially!!!!!

[E7]

Global political/economic situations can have an impact on the actual supply/demand and they certainly can affect how consumers perceive the situation. Back when oil was over $100 a barrel there was no legitimate reason for it to be so. Speculators purchased huge quantities of raw and refined fuel and had it sitting in tankers off the coast to drive up prices. You could consider this part of a "conspiracy" except the information was publicly available. Consumers could have backed off on their buying habits and shut down the price gouging but they didn't. Part of the current rise in price is a reflection of the situation with Iran. Re-imposition of sanctions affects U.S. access to Iranian oil.

What I derived the conspiracy thing from was not so much the price, but the timing being right after the recent election. I also was referring to a pretty dramatic price DROP, not an increase. I buy my share of gasoline because I'm not into walking, and I can't recall a price drop of that magnitude (22 cents a gallon) anytime in the last 10 years, maybe longer! I've seen plenty of price jumps, but large price DROPS are on the order of hippopotamus sightings in central PA!

We also have fuel oil prices which are higher than gasoline, even though gasoline takes more processing. I'm hoping those pries have dropped so I can load up for winter!

As far as the $5.00 a gallon stations that is PRICE GOUGING and they should shut those b*stards down.

Rich

Are we having fun yet?

[chuck]

We've had 20 cent price swings. I've seen it shoot up as much as 30-45 cents in a two week period. If there is a seasonal cutover of the refinery in Ohio and a shutdown from an accident at the Chicago refinery the price can jump up that much. If there is a surplus and the refineries need space to store product they may cut the price to move it. It's about supply and demand. The election has nothing to do with it.

[Roy]

It's about supply and demand. The election has nothing to do with it.

Well, the President can make certain reserves available, which can effect the market price. I think Mr. Obama did that.

[chuck]

Three times the presidents dipped into the reserves. Bush 1 for First Gulf War, Bush 2 for Katrina, Obama after Libyan disruptions in 2011. The last one was coordinated with several other countries in the IEA with US contributing about 1/2 of the total sales/release. None of these were around the time of US elections and all of them were to prevent disruptions of supplies and the possible effects on markets and economies from such a disruption.

[Roy]

Right - I didn't mean to suggest anyone tried to manipulate politics by manipulating oil prices. However, many things can be effected, by changes in oil prices.

[E7]

Chuck,

A serious question, I'm not trying to mess with you:

Do you have an eidetic memory? Wondering how you are able to pull some of this stuff out of the hat so quickly? How do you verify all this stuff?

Rich

[robert.]

In pa. we pay 58 cents a gallon gas tax. Plus 18.4 cents federal tax a gallon. Don't just blame OPEC for high prices. Our taxmen make as much as OPEC does.

[rogruth]

Thanks for all of your above comments, Chuck.