posted on Apr, 25 2005 @ 02:07 PM
Lets face it, we (in the US) are getting taken by the oil refinery Company(s), the cost to produce oil, to gas has not changed. The price charged for
that same gas has. The base cost per barrell to the refineries has not changed dramatically. As they have contract agreements for millions of barrells
of oil over an extended period. What you see in price flux is the speculative trading on what the "future" cost of oil is going to be, resulting in
the majors in placing big contract orders, which in turn, reduces the total number of barrells of oil for other traders to sell to other refineries,
this generates the price increase as a speculation of the future demand. When OPEC sees that more barrell are sitting then being shipped, they
discount the contract amounts in a effort for the major to move up their shipments and sometimes to take shipments on time instead of delaying them,
when the forecasted consumption is more then the actual consumption. For the big majors it is better for them to hold off shipping more oil already
waiting to be sent to the US and raise the local cost of gas then to bring in excess oil, which taps out their storage capabilities and prompts the
oil/gas salemen to try and deliver more gas to the actual stations, this influx of extra gas and its immediate availability results in the price
discount offered to each individual gas station change for purchasing more volume then what they actually expect to need. Such as when their tanks are
only half empty and given the current consumption they could wait another week or two to get gas, if the majors are trying to push gas, then they can
ask for an additional discount, this lowers the at the pump price.
The other factor is that state and local tax excises on the consumption of gas per gallon to support infrastructure repair and any other number of
local propositions that may have been passed. This can add .38 or more cents per gallon of you money just going to the Goverment as a subsidy.
If the price per gallon gets way out of hand it is our Federal Goverments duty to not only investigate possible price fixing and price guaging but to
set some fair standard in regards to margin gained on retail sales. There are many instances where a station my charge a much higher price per gallon
based soley on having the lock on the local market. Such as a gas station in one stretch of Malibu that can and has charged over $3.00 per gallon,
when driving about 10 miles away you can get gas for $2.40.
This excessive price "robbery" has resulted in huge profits for the oil Companies will misrepresenting to the American public the actual state of
affairs in returns to the cost of gas.