Why is...

[3Hummer]

oil trading at right this moment $100.80 way less than it has been in previous weeks, yet the national average gas price overnight went up 7 cents and in the past couple days has been going up? this is rediculous, even when it should be 3.50 and going down t hey raise the prices

[RubHer Yellow Ducky]

Good Old AMERICAN CAPITALISM !

[mikejr]

at two of the local gas stations....fuel went from 3.49 to 3.69 in one day...all from the hurricane....now that gas was in those tanks long before ole IKE made land fall.....disgusting...i wish i could raise my fee at a whim like that.

[05h2sut]

I'm seeing .30 a gallon differences where I usually see a few pennies difference. Seems some didn't get the gouge memo....

And heating oil? Some I know signed contracts at $5.10 a gallon for this winter. Instead of the price dropping over the summer, it increased by at least $1.00... Cheapest at the moment is about $4.85/gallon.

"They" have every excuse to raise the price, not a single reason to lower it.

I'm just going to buy more sweaters.

[3Hummer]

rediculous, defintly price guaging, fuel actually dropped 7 cents a barrel today, not a big amount, but shows that the hurricane didnt cause oil prices to go up. By me gas prices went from 3.65 to 3.85

[DRTYFN]

It's blatant gouging. Last I heard that was illegal.

[KenP]

I talked with a station owner today who said he was going to run out by this evening and the terminal didn't know when he'd get fuel.

[mdoyle]

1 out of every 4 gallons of gas consumed in the U.S. is refined in Houston, right now the power is out to most of that area and it's underwater.

So in this situation the price of a barrel isn't as important as being able to refine it.

Frankly I'm surprised gas hasn't gone higher now that the extent of the damage is known.

[RubHer Yellow Ducky]

Filled up at COSTCO about 2 hours ago @ $3.73 9/10th...last week on Wednesday was $3.61 9/10th

Guess I'm lucky, only 12 cents in 1 week increase

[3Hummer]

Originally Posted by mdoyle

1 out of every 4 gallons of gas consumed in the U.S. is refined in Houston, right now the power is out to most of that area and it's underwater.

So in this situation the price of a barrel isn't as important as being able to refine it.

Frankly I'm surprised gas hasn't gone higher now that the extent of the damage is known.

wouldnt the price per barrel go up if this was the case?

[mdoyle]

Originally Posted by 3Hummer

wouldnt the price per barrel go up if this was the case?

Not initially in fact taken to the extreme example if refining capacity declines to the point that there is a glut of oil awaiting processing, then the price of oil can actually decline as it becomes heavy on the supply side.

Refinery capacity is one of the keys to low cost oil products, additional drilling and exploration need to match up with refinery capacity to prevent a supply chain bottleneck and hence higher refinery output prices.