Oil is below $85 a barrel but gas prices don’t seem to budge.

For weeks now oil has been below $100 a barrel yet gas prices have hardly dropped at all in recent weeks. I keep expecting it to go down but nope.

Here's some statistics based on the gas prices here in Florida.

A few months ago, when gas prices where at there highest, a gallon of gas here on average was $3.95 a gallon. At that time a barrel of light crude was $110.

Yesterday light crude was at $86 and today it closed around $83 however the cheapest I can find gas here is $3.45 a gallon. Way too much if you ask me, so I did some math to see where current prices should be based on the prices we were paying when oil was $110 a barrel and gas was $3.95 a gallon.

This is simple algebra.

$3.95 / $110 = X / $85

X being the price gas should be based on what we were paying only months ago and $85 being an approximation of the current price of a barrel of light crude oil.

You get,

(3.95 / 110) * 85 = 3.05 or $3.05 a gallon and at today’s oil price of $83 you would get $2.98 a gallon.

So yeah gas needs to get down to at least $3 a gallon soon or people need to start speaking out.

Personally I think gas prices should be at or below $2.50 a gallon and people in this country should be taking measures to ensure that. It would be one of the best things we could do for our struggling economy. Damn you big oil, peak oil, and people who live solely on maximizing profits while the rest of us get bent over a barrel. Yeah, F—K You A—holes.

I know what you mean, I remember gas being at or lower the price it is now about a month ago. It was closer to $100 a barrel then.

It's the markets and the rampant speculation keeping these prices artificially high. I remember reading somewhere (sorry cannot recall where) that if you removed Wall Street speculation out of the mix that gas would be well under $2/gallon. I think your math proves this to be true.

Another wild stat is as of a few weeks ago the USA was a net "exporter" of gasoline. (Mind you this is different from oil as this is the finished product, but in addition to the math you provided it still paints a messed up picture.)

It just ain't right is it?

Just don't ever forget that the financiers and speculators on Wall Street are good old-fashioned Americans, complete with the little flag pin in the lapel. They want what is best for this country and nothing less.

Of course they are going to keep charging more than they should. How else do you think they keep making record profits for decades.

Ethanol production has an effect on gas prices as well. Also, the dollar is losing value, gotta remember that.

reply to post by IndieA


I'm sure some "very smart" people have figured out that the change in demand for oil/gas is not greatly influenced by changes in price. Rather, there is likely a system of equations that they have used to find the balance between the number of consumers able to continue to afford the product and the price of the product that maximizes profit.

Meaning that they do not have to be slaves to the price of a barrel of oil since they can essentially charge whatever people will pay.

reply to post by IndieA


I checked yesterday but I could not find a chart that showed crude prices vs gas at the pump but I did find seperate graphs for each. Last time oil was this low was only January of last year and January of last year had gas prices just around 4.00 per gallon.
I am getting gas for $3.47 per gallon in Hampton Virginia.

It also has to do with the season. Schools are out or letting out soon, and tourism is at one of it's bigger peak times. Therefore gas prices in the US inflate because there is more demand.

reply to post by IndieA


You want to try living over here in the UK , £6.37 a gallon (about $9 ) .... We also have to pay tax on the petrol tax imposed by the government

www.dailymail.co.uk...

Don't expect these crude prices to stay low, because it costs around $92 per barrel for oil companies to break even.

Also, gas prices at gas stations are related to how much they paid for the gas. When the tank runs low at the gas station, and it is filled up again, it should be priced at the new rate (whether it be high or low).

That is how it is supposed to work. Now, whether gas stations play fair or not is another issue entirely. I notice that, often when the crude prices drop, the gas stations won't really drop their prices for weeks and weeks, and you know they have gotten deliveries of new gas since then.

After summer/closer to the election, all things being equal or as they are now, the prices will:

d
r
o
p

Don't let a good crisis go to waste...

Originally posted by FissionSurplus
Don't expect these crude prices to stay low, because it costs around $92 per barrel for oil companies to break even.

Also, gas prices at gas stations are related to how much they paid for the gas. When the tank runs low at the gas station, and it is filled up again, it should be priced at the new rate (whether it be high or low).

That is how it is supposed to work. Now, whether gas stations play fair or not is another issue entirely. I notice that, often when the crude prices drop, the gas stations won't really drop their prices for weeks and weeks, and you know they have gotten deliveries of new gas since then.

Can you provide proof for that $92 figure? Because I thinks that's an untruth.

reply to post by IndieA

Can you provide proof for that $92 figure? Because I thinks that's an untruth.

Search and you will find .
www.edmontonjournal.com...

Originally posted by gortex
reply to post by IndieA

 

Can you provide proof for that $92 figure? Because I thinks that's an untruth.

Search and you will find .
www.edmontonjournal.com...

No. I'm not searching for it, because I doubt it’s true, and I shouldn't have too. Plus you know how much propaganda is put out there by people profiting from oil? There are countless untruths out there about how hard the oil companies or how an issue is not really their fault but someone else’s. Yeah, yeah, I hear that crap on talk radio every time gas prices spike. Bortz is always the first to defend the oil companies with his, they only make 1% profit nonsense.

Oh, and I could care less how much gas cost in the UK. The UK elite Bankers are a poison to the people of the US and are very likely part of the reason are gas prices are high here. (UK speculators) Not to mention the whole BP spill thing. If you are upset about gas prices there, do something about it besides tell us how worst it could be.

reply to post by IndieA

No. I'm not searching for it, because I doubt it’s true, and I shouldn't have too.

So you don't believe something but can't be bothered to do a simple search to find for yourself whether its true or not ....pathetic

Oh, and I could care less how much gas cost in the UK.

Of course you couldn't , your American therefore the only thing that bothers you is what happens in your country , screw the fact that others in the world have it worse than you and yours .
But that shouldn't surprise me given you need to be spoon fed your information and would rather accuse someone of telling an untruth (lie) rather than look for yourself ... again pathetic .

reply to post by gortex


Whatever, I do care about others but not when they mean to do me harm. Like when a class of people means to enslave the rest of us though debt and other control mechanisms

I'm trying to do something about high gas prices here. The people in the UK should be doing the same. We all need to change things for the better at home first then we are better off to help are neighbors.

I don't believe oil companies need to get $92 a barrel to break even and I'm not going to go searching for what I think is an untruth on a website I don't trust. If it's true, PROVE IT. Otherwise stop deceiving people and piss off.

Oh and you're not even the person who originally posted that $92 figure. Or are you? So why are you so sure it's true?

Why I think that $92 figure is an untruth.

1. I doubt oil companies would release that info or be honest about.

2. It would make sense that an oil companies "break even" price would vary from oil company to company.

3. The number would not be fixed. It would fluctuate based on other factors. One of the factors is the current cost of gas and diesel fuel due to logistics. So if the current cost of gas and diesel were to drop so would an oil companies "break even" price.
4. People always stick up for the oil companies when I complain about high gas prices here on ATS and elsewhere probably because they have either been programmed to due so, are profiting from oil, or are paid to do so.

reply to post by gortex


Its amazing isnt it? Just this morning while driving me into work my husband was behind someone in a pick up truck. He said, I wish there were not so many trucks on the road and I said Yeah, gas keeps getting higher and higher and the vehicles we are driving are getting bigger and bigger. I added that you dont see big vehicles like that in Europe and that most folks there drive much smaller cars then we do. I do not own a truck or even an SUV but I drive an 8 cylinder Lincoln Towne Car which is big and gets terrible milage .
We plan our trips out to shop and such so that we dont have to do any excessive driving.

reply to post by FissionSurplus


Well thats a good theory but my own experience shows me that as soon as barrel prices go up so do the pump prices while when barrel prices drop the pump is much much slower at catching up. The pump is not waiting for a refill before upping their prices and its not lowering them based on current prices either.
They boarder on price gauging but shy away just enough to stay legal.