Gas Prices!!!

[longlivetheZ]

What the HELL is UP with the GAS PRICES!?!?! Can anyone CLARIFY FOR ME WHY the HELL I have to pay 2.39 A FRIGGIN GALLON for 87 octane!?!?!?!? I'm SERIOUSLY considering selling my car (88 Nissan 300ZX...thank God it's not a Turbo...premium gas is 2.60 here!!!) buying a motorcycle for around town driving...just steal my girlfriend's jeep for long distance driving. ANYONE know what the hell is going on with this bullshit or when it will stop or who I can bitch at...at least I'll feel a little better...lol...

[lazysmurff]

hmmm, allow me to see if i can shed some light on the situation.

the supply of readily available, cheaply accesable oil is fast dwindling. disregarding the complicated political manuvering and military assault in the middle east, its becoming a simple matter of supply and demand.

combine the ever increasing number of cars on american roads (and at least in texas the vast majority of those are gas guzzling V-8's in ridiculously large trucks and SUV's) with the ever increasing cosnumer base in both india and China, and the dwindling supply, and you get rising prices.

if you'd really like to get scared, start researching peak oil. the question is no longer if, but when.

[illegal_eagle187]

yeah its rediculous, its 2.23 for unleaded and like 2.43 for premium here in Tulsa, i dont pay attention to the price, i just put gas in my truck, and dont worry about it

[4trackmixtape]

I think that most of us, certainly our children, will see the day when there's just no more oil. I'm not sure, but I think there's only about 50 years or so left until the reserves dry up.

[flatlander757]

bleh, gas prices dont really bother me(and i drive a V8 lol)... i used to be into nitro rc cars... THAT gas was expensive... $25 for a gallon.

[longlivetheZ]

Those of you who say you don't pay attention obviously have money. lol

I understand how supply and demand works, but I can't help but think there's some political bullshit at work. I HATE politics...I hate politicians...I hate all of it...greedy fuckers. MAKE GAS REASONABLE AGAIN, ASS HOLES!

[flatlander757]

lol i work at sonic for $6 an hour. i have no money

but i agree about politicians sucking.

[Tehvisseeus]

Originally Posted by lazysmurff

cheaply accesable oil is fast dwindling. disregarding the complicated political manuvering and military assault in the middle east, its becoming a simple matter of supply and demand.

Actually its not so much an issue of a shortage of crude as it is a matter or refining enough of it. Its simple, gas refineries have a summer and a winter formula that they use. This year they havn't made enough of their summer formula and from that comes the high gas prices.

What sucks is around me its $2.55 for 87 octane.

[fredjacksonsan]

It's been this way for years, the oil companies ALWAYS jack up the prices in the summer. Other trends to look for: raising prices for whatever "crisis" reason they can come up with (hurricane, flood, tanker stuck on a sandbar, Iraq). But once the crisis goes away, it takes over 6 months for the price to go back down to where it was, oil companies say it takes time to "recover". Yeah, whatever.

I agree that the oil is beginning to run out and the supply/demand concept. There was an excellent article in the National Geographic awhile back about it.

Now I'm waiting for Yogs to come in and say there's no problem with the oil supply and never will be.

[YogsVR4]

If it makes you happy, I'll let you know that there is plenty of oil in the world. Its a question of will to go get it.

[fredjacksonsan]

Welcome, Yogs; wasn't intending to be insulting in any way.

Although there may be quite a bit of oil remaining, you have to admit it's a finite supply. Have you had the opportunity to see the National Geographic article?

Part of that article (and associated graphics) here: http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0406/feature5/

Further, much of the remaining oil is entrapped in some other media (oil sands of Canada a good example) or location that makes it quite difficult and expensive to get to.

China is starting to use a lot of oil, as is India. All the nations of the 3rd world that are becoming industrialized are beginning to use much more oil. Couple the reality of that increased demand with even a level supply, and it's easy to see that the price of oil and all its byproducts is going to continue an upward trend.

[AlmostStock]

Even the oil industry itself admits that a peak in production is inevitable while demand is increasing like crazy. Nobody with any credibility is claiming otherwise. The only thing up for debate is when this peak will be reached not if. Some say we won't really know until after the fact, which makes the most sense to me. The fun really starts then!

[tenguzero]

Kinda makes you wonder why we're even bothering to tap into these supposed reserves in the Alaskan reserves, doesn't it? Seriously, what would it buy us, another few years? The immediate future (and I mean IMMEDIATE, as in the next few years) should belong almost exclusively to alternative fuels -- hell, we should be deep into the stuff now, it's not like various factions in our country haven't been at it for decades already. It's just a result of political BS and corporate BS. Somewhere a group of suits with a lot more power than we have are doing everything they can to stem the advancement of alternative fuels, because it would hurt them in their greedy little pocketbooks.

[longlivetheZ]

Originally Posted by Tehvisseeus

What sucks is around me its $2.55 for 87 octane.

Damn...where are you? Cali?

Originally Posted by flatlander

lol i work at sonic for $6 an hour. i have no money

but i agree about politicians sucking.

lol...nevermind, then... Politicians are, generally speaking, little more than paid liars...fuckin ass holes...

Now...here's what doesn't make sense. Yes, we will run out of oil at some point...possibly relatively soon with all the gas hogs out there. There is no arguing that. What just doesn't make sense is, if we're not out of oil NOW, then why the FUCK is gas so EXPENSIVE NOW?!?! At this time, it comes down to rate of production...not supply. Next question...who controls the rate of production and why the HELL are they dragging their feet with production? THAT, I don't know. Could it be that they're making LUDACRIS AMOUNTS OF MONEY RIGHT NOW!? Hmmm...gee...I wonder...but again, I dunno.

All in all, I'm getting really tired of this bullshit.

[fredjacksonsan]

Originally Posted by longlivetheZ

What just doesn't make sense is, if we're not out of oil NOW, then why the FUCK is gas so EXPENSIVE NOW?!?! At this time, it comes down to rate of production...not supply.

Couple things are contributing. First, there are only so many refineries. That limits the production. You could have an unlimited supply of free oil, and if the refineries couldn't keep up with demand then prices would still rise. I've recently read an article that suggested the oil companies, knowing that the oil will be running out in "X" number of years, don't want to put the money into new refineries to increase production. As you said, they're in it for the money and it wouldn't pay to do that.

Originally Posted by longlivetheZ

Next question...who controls the rate of production and why the HELL are they dragging their feet with production? THAT, I don't know. Could it be that they're making LUDACRIS AMOUNTS OF MONEY RIGHT NOW!? Hmmm...gee...I wonder...but again, I dunno.
All in all, I'm getting really tired of this bullshit.

Again it's linked to the refineries' capacity to produce. 10 or 15 years ago, they could flood the market if they wanted to. Nowadays, that's less likely since the demand for petroleum products has increased so much.