so... whatever happened to the whole demand factor in oil?

[RD]

1) we were fed a line of BS stating that china needs more.. this country needs more.. the demand is huge.. so the price has to go up

2) market has a downturn and the prices crash along with it

3) demand has still not changed one bit

4) a hurricane hits the gulf (same area as katrina) and the gas prices go down?

5) who else thinks the oil companies were just lying their butts off?

I know i am no economics guru.. but.. the demand is still the same as it was before all the non-oil related companies started dying off... the price should still be the same correct?  demand is the same, price should be the same.

I am sorry.. but.. wow.. I actually feel stupid for believing them in the first place.  Now.. I am sorry.. everything they say is a lie in my eyes.  burn me once shame on you, burn me twice shame on me.

your thoughts (not like i will believe them if you are goin to come up with some great economic equation that means nothing to me, but at least i will read them).

[69charger2002]

well my opinion is 2 fold. OPEC sucks, oil companies do make too much and prices are/were higher than they should have been.. the whole "scare" factor was making gas prices spike at times, which is ridiculous. they barely rose with katrina in the gulf, and only after they realized the damage post katrina... did gas prices spike, and even then it was pretty temporary considering the destruction. now if there is a tropical storm off africa that LOOKS like it's headed west.. gas prices spike $.50 and the weather channel talks about oil for 2 weeks straight., HOWEVER.. i DO think demand IS way down from a few months ago. i know that everyone i know, including me, have been driving less than ever since gas spiked to record levels. and if you think about it, just in my industry alone(84 lumber) with the housing business dropping fast, we have lots less deliveries, which means tons less trucks making loads and using diesel/gas. as companies have less sales, and less business, so goes the lessened demand for fuel. that is the main reason i think it's dropping so fast. but you can't help but be pissed that it seems to spike for useless ricidulous reasons at times, especially the last year or 2.. investors were partly to blame for that even after the economy started crashing. they started investing in oil stocks because they were holding up while everything else was starting to fail.. which drove the price up. but finally the bubble burst(thank goodness). that's my $.02 anyway
trav

[bull]

It's called lies, deceit and equivocation among other things. I do think demand is down but I don't think it's down enough to warrant this big of price drop. Yup, we're getting the mushroom treatment alright.

[Old Moparz]

Must be all the hybrid cars.

[SFRT]

oil prices are linked to FUTURE speculation of demand not current. Commodities speculators are selling off the options they where holding for future production, driving the price down.

recession= less future production=less demand for oil.

[Todd Wilson]

oil prices are linked to FUTURE speculation of demand not current. Commodities speculators are selling off the options they where holding for future production, driving the price down.

recession= less future production=less demand for oil.

That is probably the biggest reason why the prices are so high. Those speculators buy zillions of barrels of oil or fuels  and usually never have to pay for them or take delivery of them. Make them guys start paying and taking what the speculate/buy on and we wouldnt have the problem. Its all done on paper.  Buy a zillion barrels of oil today and that creates a shortage (supply and demand BS) and tomorrow the price goes up so they then sell their zillion barrels back to the system for a profit. All done on paper. I think wall street is feeling the pain some in the $ department with the markets being down so a lot of this speculating has slowed created a false supply on paper for the most part. I think America as a whole has cut down on their driving this year as well as business's having slowed sales which would not put delivery vehicles on the street as much.


Todd

[PocketThunder]

Maybe next tuesday has something to due with it? ...?   

[Old Moparz]

Maybe next tuesday has something to due with it? ...?   

And I wouldn't doubt for a second that no matter who wins next week, they'll take credit for the price decrease.

[RECHRGD]

I need someone to explain to me why now that crude is less than half of what it was at the peak, gas prices have not dropped the same percentage.  I'm still paying around $2.65 for regular unleaded.  How much were we paying for gas the last time crude was $68.00?  It seems like the petroleum industry got us used to the high prices and now with the drop in crude they're just increasing their profit margin.  Bob

[Ponch ®]

  Yup, we're getting the mushroom treatment alright.

"feed 'em shit and keep 'em in the dark"

[MichaelRW]

And how about all the other things that went up in price like increased delivery charges, food prices, airline tickets, cruise ship fuel surcharges, etc. They always add these types of costs but they never go back down. 

[RD]

And how about all the other things that went up in price like increased delivery charges, food prices, airline tickets, cruise ship fuel surcharges, etc. They always add these types of costs but they never go back down. 

great point!!! has milk gone down? anything else?  hmmmmmm  I bet they are just ringing in the profits in lieu of another fuel increase that they (we) are sure is going to happen.  A lil' stockpiling of $$ so to say.

[Charger_Fan]

On the "supply & demand" line of bs we've been shoveled, I never did buy into that one.  There's no way in hell that the demand was suddenly rising as fast as those friggin' gas prices were. It was all controlled by the jerks at the top of the system & they just fed us whichever line they thought would work best that time...next time it will be some other excuse.

I'll betcha the prices start climbing again sometime in the next few weeks, along with a freshly manufactured excuse, too...yep, we're definitely getting the mushroom treatment.

[ITSA426]

Four years ago gas prices took a dip, just before the election.  I don't know.  I heard on the radio this morning that if things get much worse for the oil companies they may have to lay off some politicians.  Gotta keep those record profits up!

[moparstuart]

Four years ago gas prices took a dip, just before the election.  I don't know.  I heard on the radio this morning that if things get much worse for the oil companies they may have to lay off some politicians.  Gotta keep those record profits up!

[bull]

  Yup, we're getting the mushroom treatment alright.

"feed 'em shit and keep 'em in the dark"

I was hoping someone would ask what it meant.

[Mike DC]

   

A major oil speculation bubble gets popped + the high price created some real long-term demand for alternative fuels + huge election right around the corner = lower prices. 



Politically speaking, IMHO this is absolulely a perfect storm to expect a freakish price drop.  It happens almost every election with both parties, let alone the situation right now.  The oil industry's much-preferred political party is having their future influence seriously threatened by this election, and it's basically happening in all three branches of the Federal govt at the same time. 

   

[Brock Samson]

  Prices always drop just before a presidential election, i think that would be particularly true with the current admins ties to oil.

I was absolutely shocked to see a reg unleaded price of $2.99.98 last night first time it's been below three bucks here since the last election... 

And as far as the Corporation's specific lies - one reason they give for our San Francisco gas prices being the highest in the nation BTW, (we had prices near to $ 5.00 this past June) is it's supposed distance from a refinery, but infact a huge west coast refinery is 20 miles north of San Fran. proper.
Noone has ever called them out on that B.S. 

anyhow, I'm gonna go out and fill all four tanks..

[bull]

So, if the prices are dropping due to the election then it's as RD says: demand has little to nothing to do with it.

[CharcoalCharger]

I need someone to explain to me why now that crude is less than half of what it was at the peak, gas prices have not dropped the same percentage.  I'm still paying around $2.65 for regular unleaded.  How much were we paying for gas the last time crude was $68.00?  It seems like the petroleum industry got us used to the high prices and now with the drop in crude they're just increasing their profit margin.  Bob

I agree.  I was wondering the same thing.  Everyday a barrel of oil drops by X amount of dollars (now $68), and we see only pennies drop off every few days.  If I'm not mistaken (and I might be) gas was $50+ a barrel at $1.46 a gallon in 2001.  How is it oil went from a high of $147 to $68, and in my area gas has only dropped to about $2.50 a gallon?  Shouldn't it me closer to $1.80-$2.10?   

[J-440]

  How about this conspiracy theory?  Oil prices were high right before the Fannie Mae/Fudgie Pack explosion along with the other banks and loan companies.  Maybe some insiders warned big oil (who may or may not have other investments in Wall Street) that a crash was coming, they jacked up their prices, made huge profits from us schmucks, when the crash came they were unaffected and then lowered the price of crude in our time of need so they could look like the good guys.  Hmmm...

[SeattleCharger]

Four years ago gas prices took a dip, just before the election.  I don't know.  I heard on the radio this morning that if things get much worse for the oil companies they may have to lay off some politicians.  Gotta keep those record profits up!

I agree.  heh  This is what I said in the gas price check in thread:   This is what the deal is IMO.

  "Oil companies trying to buy us off before election, if they are giving up a few hundred million in profits for us to think things aren't that bad from the republican/oil government, they will more than make it up under mccain and palin, hundreds of billions of dollars in profits more under them.     
 
    JUst watch, gas prices will go back up right after the election, which will help prove that the oil companies could have had them low all this time if they had wanted,   600 billion in profits they have made in recent years," 

[SeattleCharger]

bunch a scammers

[SFRT]

theres a lag effect between the options market (todays price of oil) and the pump price. the pump price reflects the oil bought and refined and shipped
previously. I'm actually surprised its gone down so quickly, they are trying to get something out of suddenly low demand 'gas in stock' withjout being upside down for the quarter, month, week etc.

all those companies are paying bills based on the previous high prices, so if they where to suddenly price the gas at 1 dollar a gallon, they would lose
all their money, since they owe more for that batch.

the people that really take it in the ass are the franchise gas station owners, they are forced to pay whatevr the parent company decides, its a harsh business. The dude selling gas for 3 bucks might actually have had to pay 3.50 for it by the terms of his franchise agreement.

[TruckDriver]

JUst watch, gas prices will go back up right after the election

Try there going up like crazy as I type this. They weny up for the last two days straight, and today already, it is up to $69 a barrel after hovering around $62 a barrel on Monday.

When stocks go up, so does oil. That's why I hopeing to stock market would crash to the point they would close it down. When that was happening to stocks, oil was nose diving. I'd like to kick the person who thought oil should be on the stock market.

05:30 - $ 69.04   up-1.54 2.28%