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fuel prices

people blame the oil companies for the high fuel prices but fail to note that oil is very expenisive right now. Also they fail to note that the nation consustion of oil is around 95% of production capiblilities. That means there is only a 5% of free production sitting around. Katrina and Rita really hurt stock piles of fuel and that going to shoot prices up. Katrina hurt because the nation was worried over fuel and everyone bought some so prices went up. Top it off several plants where damage and those take time to repair and get back in running. So prices are going to jump.
Right after that you have Rita come though and a lot of the plants shut down. Namely all of them around houston and that I believe is 15% of the production right there. They got out undamamaged then. If Rita had hit houston prices would of gone sky high because a lot of plants would of been damage. The shut down cost about 2-3 weeks worth of production bettween the ammount of time it takes to shut down and then again the amount of time it takes to start up.

Also the oil companies are making quite a bit of money right now but they know full well that it goes full circle and soon they will be loosing money. They make money during booms to be able to go though the low times. For example when gas price where around a buck gallon several years ago. It was costing them money to produce the fuel.

Another huge part of the reason they are making money is the supply to make gas is just not there any more and even if they started to build a new plant today that still takes 2-3 years to get one operiational. It is supply and demand. Right now supply is maxed out so demand keep pushing prices up. Oddly enough even as prices go up the strain on supply has not changed.
 
French Riviera gas prices

Here on the Cote d'Azur, prices are around 1.30 Euros /litre for 95 octane, 1.35 for 98 octane (at normal outlets like Esso, Total, BP, etc., cheaper at markets like Carrefour and Casino). If you're on the autoroutes, add about 5 cents/litre at least. So, doing some math, let's see here, that ends up being:

1.30 Euros/litre x 3.79 litres/gallon x 1.202 $/Euro = $5.92 per gallon!

Holy crap, I've never done the math before. Get me back to San Francisco, where gas is cheap :rolleyes:
 
Simple solution, try getting public transport, i know, not always an option but it is there.

I'm a driver and drive all the time and I think it's right to tax people on petrol, it's a comodity that wll run out!

I'm personally looking at changing my car to a Smart For Four this year 1.5ltr CDI / 95bhp

Urban = 44.8 to 51.4mpg
Extra-Urban = 68.9 - 74.3mpg
Combined = 58.8 - 64.2mpg

And they are now in the lower tax brackets.... gotta love city diesel :)
 
gauchogolfer said:
Here on the Cote d'Azur, prices are around 1.30 Euros /litre for 95 octane, 1.35 for 98 octane (at normal outlets like Esso, Total, BP, etc., cheaper at markets like Carrefour and Casino). If you're on the autoroutes, add about 5 cents/litre at least. So, doing some math, let's see here, that ends up being:

1.30 Euros/litre x 3.79 litres/gallon x 1.202 $/Euro = $5.92 per gallon!

Holy crap, I've never done the math before. Get me back to San Francisco, where gas is cheap :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Shame you're not further along the coast. I have a mate who lives just south of Perpignan who nips across the Spanish border to fill up. It's about €0.30 a litre cheaper there.
 
$2.69 is the cheapest I can find around here in California for regular unleaded. I'm probably the only American who thinks gas prices should be higher. All taxes concerning roads and cars should be applied to usage. Why should people too poor to even afford cars have to pay for my driving? I wouldn't mind $5/gallon. But it would cause a riot here. Californians think it's their right to drive as much as they want, just like it's their right to tell anyone within their sights to stop smoking. Hypocrites, all of them. er, us.
 
Here in Denmark it is right around 9.5dkk ($1.53) per liter.

Wow, I feel dumb, but I had no idea there were two different "gallons". I always thought that a gallon was a gallon. Who uses the imperial version?

BTW 1US gallon = .8327 Imperial Gallons. This means that the Imperial Gallon is bigger and that the UK prices aren't as much higher than the US as they appear.
 
My fuel bill is somewhere around £55 / £60 per week, which to be honest seems plenty. More than I spend on food / drink a week !

Madness.
 
itcheroni said:
I'm probably the only American who thinks gas prices should be higher.
Click to expand...

Actually, I'm the other American that agrees with you. :) However, the problem with adding a tax to gas prices is that our genius-filled government takes that money and applies it to other non-transportation related programs.
 
Timepass said:
people blame the oil companies for the high fuel prices but fail to note that oil is very expenisive right now. Also they fail to note that the nation consustion of oil is around 95% of production capiblilities. That means there is only a 5% of free production sitting around. Katrina and Rita really hurt stock piles of fuel and that going to shoot prices up. Katrina hurt because the nation was worried over fuel and everyone bought some so prices went up. Top it off several plants where damage and those take time to repair and get back in running. So prices are going to jump.
Right after that you have Rita come though and a lot of the plants shut down. Namely all of them around houston and that I believe is 15% of the production right there. They got out undamamaged then. If Rita had hit houston prices would of gone sky high because a lot of plants would of been damage. The shut down cost about 2-3 weeks worth of production bettween the ammount of time it takes to shut down and then again the amount of time it takes to start up.

Also the oil companies are making quite a bit of money right now but they know full well that it goes full circle and soon they will be loosing money. They make money during booms to be able to go though the low times. For example when gas price where around a buck gallon several years ago. It was costing them money to produce the fuel.

Another huge part of the reason they are making money is the supply to make gas is just not there any more and even if they started to build a new plant today that still takes 2-3 years to get one operiational. It is supply and demand. Right now supply is maxed out so demand keep pushing prices up. Oddly enough even as prices go up the strain on supply has not changed.
Click to expand...

And another reason is that our media here in America loves to get people whipped up into a frenzy about things, thereby creating a big "to do" about nothing.
 
SharksFan22 said:
Actually, I'm the other American that agrees with you. :) However, the problem with adding a tax to gas prices is that our genius-filled government takes that money and applies it to other non-transportation related programs.
Click to expand...

another problem is that it hurts the poor moreso than the rich (who are the ones able to choose to get a new gas guzzling car or not)... but yes, in general i'd agree they should be higher if it's a tax, and not the "struggling oil companies" making record profits...
 
it's $2.55 per gallon and rising. :rolleyes: but i have no room to complain, i feel for the rest of the world* who are paying even more than we are for it.


* the UK, australia, and canada for instance
 
I think its around $2.50 or more here in the bay, at least that's where I've seen it cheapest (I use low-grade) It wouldn't bother me so much if my car got mileage like it was supposed to. I calculated the most it gets is about 20mpg which is pretty ****** for a low end Taurus wagon. Thing's got a gas leak or something. I'm dying for something small and cheap like a Geo Metro right now, 45mpg and finding better places to park would be quite an improvement now that I have to take BART to my morning job which adds an extra expense to my commute.
 
Northwest of Boston, MA we're paying around $2.39 per gallon (USD per US gallon, naturally).

Here's an awesome price per volume conversion trick: use Google! For example, type "2.39 USD per gallon in AUD per litre" and you get the result:
2.39 (U.S. dollars per US gallon) = 0.893913638 Australian dollars per litre
Click to expand...
:cool: It takes care of both unit conversion and current currency exchange rates.

So my price is equivalent to:
0.89 AUD per litre
1.64 GBP per imperial gallon
0.74 CAD per liter (or is it litre?)
 
itcheroni said:
$2.69 is the cheapest I can find around here in California for regular unleaded. I'm probably the only American who thinks gas prices should be higher. All taxes concerning roads and cars should be applied to usage. Why should people too poor to even afford cars have to pay for my driving? I wouldn't mind $5/gallon. But it would cause a riot here. Californians think it's their right to drive as much as they want, just like it's their right to tell anyone within their sights to stop smoking. Hypocrites, all of them. er, us.
Click to expand...

Making gas prices higher would put the squeeze on for a bit, but then, when people went to get their next car, they'd think about it for a bit, rather than just getting another Suburban.

It'd be tough for a while, but we'd have the country driving Civics and Priuses before long. :D
 
vniow said:
I think its around $2.50 or more here in the bay
Click to expand...

Sorry, which bay? I know most heavy readers probably know this, but I'm curious, especially if you mean SF Bay area, in which case I'd be shocked that it's only about a dime more than in MA.

(They like to call greater Boston the "bay state area".)
 
sushi said:
I think you might have that backward.

An Imperial gallon is bigger than a US gallon.
Click to expand...

Yes I'm now completely confused:

1 US gallon = 0.8327 Imperial gallon.
I was taking to mean that 1 Imperial gallon is 83% of a US gallon.

1.0 Imperial Gallon = 1.2009499 US Gallon .
I was taking this to mean there are 1.2/1 Imperial gallons in a US gallon.


I think I understand how i've read it wrong. Now I remember why I hated maths.
 
Before we left for vacation gas I got gas for $2.21/gal. While we were on vacation, gas was $2.25/gal (average). Now that we are back from vacation (a mere week), gas is now around $2.50-2.60/gal. What gives???
 
Just spent $2.95/gal here in the Bay Area (California) for supreme unleaded. Unfortunately, by MY CHOICE, one of my cars gets about 17mpg the other about 14. They're both high-performance vehicles and require higher octane fuel but good grief are they FAST!! :D

On a side note -- I'm sure that when America went to the 55 mph speed limit in the 1970s, the average American car was most efficient at or about 55 mph. However, both of my cars get substantially better mileage around 80-90mph during long freeway cruising than they do at 55-65 mph. Anyone have a theory?
 
1.069 cad/Litre in Victoria, Canada.

Can't be bother with the conversion so you guys can just figure that out yourself.:eek:
 
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