BP's disaster and current gas prices

[RD]

maybe its just me, and hopefully you all can chime into this to bring some clarity if i am missing somethign, but gas is cheaper this time of year than what it usually is/should be.  I mean, gas went down in price before memorial day weekend!  that is unheard of.

Am i mistaken, or is the lower gas prices a marketing strategy aimed at the U.S. buyers because the oil companies do not want to get anymore negative press like BP is getting?

y'alls thoughts?

[MoparManJim]

You should be happy the gas price is down AND not up.

[A383Wing]

I'm really surprised that prices have not shot up because of the "issue" in the Gulf

[Tilar]

I think it's a matter of supply and demand. There is a lot more supply than people are willing to spend what little money they have left on.

[Manfred318]

I figgured prices would skyrocket. They havent here, but they have went up $.20 in the last two days. I think they probably will before its all said and done tho. They will probably pass the cost of their screw-up on to us.

[Silver R/T]

http://www.csmonitor.com/Money/2010/0528/This-Memorial-Day-weekend-prices-at-the-gas-pump-are-going-down

[TruckDriver]

Be careful as to what you expect of gas prices. You may get what you dont want. It's still $2.65 average per gallon here.

[RD]

http://www.csmonitor.com/Money/2010/0528/This-Memorial-Day-weekend-prices-at-the-gas-pump-are-going-down

good article, thanks silver

You should be happy the gas price is down AND not up.

never said i thought it was a bad thing that prices were down, just was making an observation.. silver's article answered it.

[Todd Wilson]

Its still about $1.50 more then it should be!


Todd

[Mike DC]

Its still about $1.50 more then it should be!

There is no point at which gas is cheap enough to make people happy.  

If $1/gal was the highest price it had ever reached before now, then people would be pissed off about paying $1/gal.

[Silver R/T]

Its still about $1.50 more then it should be!


Todd

I remember paying over $4 for regular here when GW was in the office...

[bull]

All I know is back when gas was over $4/gal. the oil companies were using every lame excuse in the book to justify the prices. But now that they've wasted more than 18 million gallons of crude in the Gulf prices have never been this stable in years. Does this make any sense at all?

[RD]

All I know is back when gas was over $4/gal. the oil companies were using every lame excuse in the book to justify the prices. But now that they've wasted more than 18 million gallons of crude in the Gulf prices have never been this stable in years. Does this make any sense at all?

not a damn bit of sense if you ask me.... but hey, the state of confusion is where i have my residence status.

[derailed]

I think it's a matter of supply and demand. There is a lot more supply than people are willing to spend what little money they have left on.

[hemi68charger]

I truly think it's still following the law of supply and demand. Due to the economic downturn, people aren't traveling as much or expected to. I think there's a global surplus of grude, thus prices stay low. As tragic and visually impressive (in a negative way), one production rig doesn't make or break total global production.

We need to enjoy it while we can..........

[1BAD68]

Just wait until the government applies all their fines to BP, who do you think will actually be paying them?

[GPULLER]

That's been my theory since this oil spill started and the gas prices have been dropping.  The oil company's are dropping the prices to take heat off them.  Remember this winter they were already conditioning us for $3 gas by summer.
Think most people really don't realize how bad this spill is until they see it first hand. Now with dead birds and tar balls washing up on the shores of states from Texas to Florida, some shits gonna really start hitting the fan now. 

[ITSA426]

There's apparently so much oil available you don't even have to drill for it.  Soon every Gulf coast resident can have his/her own backyard refinery.

Actually I think the prices are being held down intentionally to avoid more political ramifications, but I understand that oil industry congressional lobby donations have risen dramatically since April, and Exxon is still pulling in about $32 million profit daily.

[Old Moparz]

When I am given a reason, or an explanation, or an excuse, by either a big corporation or the government, I reach for the steel plate I keep handy to shove down the back of my pants to protect my asshole. I don't believe a word of it, it's just plain & simple GREED.

[RECHRGD]

When gas prices peaked around here a couple of years ago, it was blamed on the increased price of crude oil.  As I recall regular unleaded was around $3.80 a gallon or so.  At that time crude had peaked at $145.00 per barrel.  Today crude is selling at $71.34 per barrel, but regular unleaded is right at $3.00 a gallon in beautiful Washington state.  Based upon the low price of crude shouldn't I be paying around $1.90 a gallon?  That sure looks like gouging to me.  Bob

[Mike DC]

               
                                           
The spill technically has no reason to affect prices, at least not in the short term.  

What are the numbers now, 18 million gallons?  On the worldwide scale (where the prices are set) that would last about 4 hours.  Take a good look at that spill on the satellite photos - that's about how much oil our country uses PER DAY.  



I agree that BP & the rest of the industry are probably selling their stuff below demand right now for the sake of their public image.


BP doesn't set the price of oil.  They are one of many oil sellers on the market.  They might need another $500 million bucks right now but that doesn't mean they can just raise the going rate for oil by whatever they need to get it.  They can have some effect on prices but not that much that fast.  

 

[bull]

That's not really the point. The point is they used every little hiccup in the system as an excuse to justify the prices when they shot up beyond $4/gal. This is more than a little hiccup and yet prices remain stable. And it's been more than a month which in this business is "long term" compared to what they were doing a couple years ago.

[Ponch ®]

I truly think it's still following the law of supply and demand. Due to the economic downturn, people aren't traveling as much or expected to. I think there's a global surplus of grude, thus prices stay low. As tragic and visually impressive (in a negative way), one production rig doesn't make or break total global production.

We need to enjoy it while we can..........

that's the most plausible explanation, IMHO (never been a big fan of conspiracy theories).

Even with the spill (and considering MikeDC's numbers), there is still a huge surplus - enough to keep the prices fairly stable. As far as "at the pump" prices, here in L.A. it's been months since theres been a major spike or dip in prices. I fuel up with 91 octane, so that's my point of reference, but since the beginning of the year its been fluctuating between 3.10-3.30/ gallon. Lower grade gas (87) has been 2.79-2.99/gallon.

[Todd Wilson]

All I know is back when gas was over $4/gal. the oil companies were using every lame excuse in the book to justify the prices. But now that they've wasted more than 18 million gallons of crude in the Gulf prices have never been this stable in years. Does this make any sense at all?

Kinda funny how that works isnt it!   Dont worry though   they will break it off in us again really soon!


Todd

[Tilar]

Its still about $1.50 more then it should be!

There is no point at which gas is cheap enough to make people happy.  

If $1/gal was the highest price it had ever reached before now, then people would be pissed off about paying $1/gal.

I can vouch for that, I bitched about it when it got to 40 cents a gallon.    It was 29 cents a gallon when I started driving and a pack of smokes cost me 39 cents. I think I was making $1.65 an hour at the time.