Fuel costs

[pggg]

Pat, H2O's free from the sky. This guy says he's happy to divulge all for just a few cents per litre as royalties. Shouldn't cost us mugs more than 15 cents per litre. Reckons Gates' income is gonna be just a minnows bite compared to his!

[cueball]

Don't know if the octane ratings are different down here, suspect not, do not care how the dollar is rated, paying close to $6 for a gallon hurts.

[John]

Hey Y'all...check out the cost of gas from different countries.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/...ar/P125777.asp

[xs650mike]

That's interesting John, I wonder how old this page is. It says US fuel cost is $2.30/gal. I haven't seen gas that cheap here since last January, and I buy at the cheapest price I can find. I was just looking over my gas receipts and there was a 25% price spike just between April and May. Does the government's inflation index take into account fuel costs? I don't see how it could. Fuel costs directly affect the cost of everything else. I'm really starting to feel a budget pinch in my personal finances. Apparently our so-called leaders are not feeling any pinch, they keep spending more and plan to cut taxes again on the theory that it will stimulate the economy. Maybe we should all help stimulate the economy by taking pay cuts and spending more money. I'm beginning to wonder what planet the Congress and President live on. Actually I suppose that DC is another planet. After all FEMA didn't even hear about the Superdome and the N. O. Convention center until after we had been watching TV coverage of it for several days. I guess it must have been sunspots that kept them from getting the news way up there on planet DC. My parents used to talk of the country going to hell in a handbasket, now it's going to hell in a jet.

[BLUEJEEPLAB]

Here in Southwest Ohio, we have crept back down to 2.33 a gallon (2.50 for 91) from a high of 3.09 for regular. It still hurts to fill the cages for the drive to work.

[xs650mike]

Filled up the Chrysler today on the north side of the lake at the Valero station for $2.739 (87) cheapest I've seen around here since early August. 89 was $2.839, 91 was $2.939 and diesel $3.039, by far the cheapest price for diesel in a long time. On the west shore at Valero it was 5 cents more. I'm can't figure out why gasoline costs 10 cents more here on the south side of the lake except that it is slightly more affluent here. Strange too how the different grades are exactly 10 cents a gallon different in price, sort of like they kind of rounded things up to a nice even number. I saw on the news that Valero's refinery was wrecked by Katrina but since then they've consistently got the lowest gasoline price in my county, they didn't before Katrina. How can that be?

[BLUEJEEPLAB]

What evil lurks in the heart of the Oil Companies? The Shadow knows... I was always amazed at how before the Hurricane crisises increases always happened on the Thursday before a big holiday...

[xs650mike]

Well I know that the gas sold at Valero stations here doesn't come from Louisiana, it comes from one of the 6 San Francisco Bay Area refineries and was most likely refined from California crude. I'm glad they're not trying to pay for the repairs to their refinery on the backs of the public but I have a feeling that they're being "helped" in their "hour of need"...er..."greed" by the federal government out of the vast disaster funds (our money too!) that have been voted by Congress. This is the sort of "corporate welfare" that we saw right after 9/11 when money was given to the airlines so they wouldn't go bankrupt and leave us without an airline industry. Funny how the so-called "free market capitalists" that now rule Washington don't really believe in a free market. If the airlines had gone bankrupt (which they're now again about to do) we'd still have had an airline industry. Someone would have immediately bought all those planes and maintenance facilities at fire sale prices, hired those flight crews and mechanics, sold tickets and flown passengers just like before. Air fares would probably even have gone down! That's real free market capitalism.

I'm not an economist so maybe I'm missing something here but I don't think so. I've never understood why oil companies get an "oil depletion allowance" which is a tax break because once they've pumped and sold the oil they then have less oil to pump and sell. Say what? I recently sold my boat. I sure wish Infernal Revenue would give me a break on my taxes because I no longer have a boat to sell. I sold a car and a bike, they should give me money off my taxes for that too, instead they're charging me more because it's income. I mean what's good for the goose should be good for the gander, right? But logic will never penetrate the minds of those in Washington be they Republicrat or Demmican. They live in a world where they get a life pension even after only one term, free medical care for life and a high paying non-job after they're out of office courtesy of the lobbyists whose bills they voted for. As a Congressman once said, "A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you're talking real money." Now it's a trillion here, a trillion there...

[BLUEJEEPLAB]

I hear ya Mike. Wouldn't it be nice if it could go back to the way the Founding Fathers evisioned it and Congress was composed of Farmers and businessmen who came to DC for a term or two, did the best they could for their neighbors and then went home?

[sixtysix]

Well after a trip down south I can tell you what the fuel costs are for regular:

PA 2.29-2.59
GA 2.49-2.59
VA 2.49-2.59
NY 2.69-2.89

I can't beleve it but we paid $2.29 in southern PA for regular unleaded. NY sucks, welcome to my world.

[Glarusguy]

I like the recent story about an A&P gas station owner that is in court with his fuel wholesaler that tried to shut his pumps down because he refused to add 40cents/gallon on the fuel that was currently in his tank. They also didn't appreciate that he was showing his customers his price matrix.
"Oh noooo. We're not gouging the American people!" Apparently we don't work hard enough for our money. Maybe I should go into work and say that they will pay me 40cents more an hour even though it is not review time.

[xs650mike]

Just heard on the radio this morning that Exxon/Mobil posted a 75% profit this last quarter. This is an all time record for a quarterly profit! Draw your own conclusions.

[Pat Kelly]

I see that here in Central California, premium is under $3.00 a gallon. Some stations at $2.93.
Reg. unleaded as low as $2.69.

[Jerry]

In central Colorado the price for regular unleaded (85 octane) is running $2.74 - $2.76 per gallon. Thats down for the high of $3.26 around Labor Day.

I don't expect prices to fall much more than that, and in fact I think they will go up again before the summer season starts next May.

A couple statistics from energy company profits statements this quarter:

Shell: net ncome up 42 percent to 6.67 billion
Marathon Oil: net income up 22 percent
Exxon-Mobile: net income up 44 percent to 7.86 billion
Unocal: net income 454 million, up from 269 million same quarter last year.

Remember, these are quarterly (3 month) numbers.

[CWilliamson]

In Colorado Sprigs the price is sitting at $2.55 at the cheap stations and that is for 85 octane.