IS-SV

About 5 cents for something that's a guess.

mmarshall

The irony is that there (still) isn't a real oil shortage on the world oil-market. Even the chaos and crises in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Bahrain have cost the general market an estimated 1 or 2% of the world supply at most.....and the Saudis are stepping up their own production to address that. So these high crude prices are not a classic supply-and-demand problem rooted in capitalism. They are chiefly the result of oil-speculators going into panic over the unrest in the Middle East and bidding the prices way up, based simply on the anticipation of future shortages, not actual shortages at present. Even with the Chinese and Indian economies (unlike those in the West) growing rapidly and increasing ther oil-demand, there still is not (at present) an actual oil shortage. So, in effect, not only we, but oil companies as well, are caught in a squeeze.......those companies, with some exections like Venezuelan-owned Citgo, have to pay the higher crude-prices, too, that the speculators have bid up.

If we could just get rid of this wild speculation (and speculators) and go back to a simple, capitalistic supply-and-demand oil market, prices would be a lot more stable, though eventually we are going to have to find other fuels...we can't continue to use oil forever, because of finite resourses.

KillaIS250

iTrader: (1)

^ YES. This is exactly what is happening and you put it the best way. I find it funny when people blame the rising gas prices on the middle east purely. It's the damn speculators that push gas prices sky high for no reason and using the unrest in the middle east as an excuse. And everyone buys it! It's BS.

Also, i really hope we don't ever see $5 gas. In this economy, i don't think many people will be able to cope with that cost and many will have to make cut backs. I'd think/hope the economy itself would not allow for gas prices to hit that high in the first place though.

IS-SV

I don't disagree with anything you've said on subject of oil prices, it's certainly inline with the usual armchair internet rhetoric shared by many of us with backgrounds far removed from actual oil production business. But many pure capitalists would say that the unregulated elaborate markets (with all that "wild speculation") are just that, capitalism at work. And the shareholders are expecting oil companies to continue to grow profits even more in future quarters, business as usual.

And now back to the topic at hand, gas prices in your neighborhood today.

LexFather

Related to gas prices I've heard the CT is flying off lots, no doubt due to higher gas prices. Also now dealers are anxious for 2011 HS inventory since demand has increased for it.

GFerg

^^ Yea, I was kind of thinking the same thing as I noticed more than expected CT owners in that forum since it went on sale a week ago. It must also be a hit with car enthusiasts as well.

Anyway, paid 3.47 for super this morning in South NJ.

mmarshall

Maybe slightly off-topic, but so much for the oft-repeated notion that wagons and hatchbacks don't sell in the U.S.

I8ABMR

I am thinking of dumping a lot of cash into Gold really soon. I spoke to a friend who is an economist/asset protection attorney and he is freaking out at what the future looks like for the uS. He said this will probably happen inside 2 years. You dont see " we buy gold" sign everywhere for nothing. Many people dont know enough to understand the way the world economy works . We are in deep trouble

IS-SV

Go CT!

btw, even if sales quadruple for the CT, it won't create the notion that wagons and hatchbacks sell well in the US.

But most of us agree, gas price spikes do change car-buying behavior of the masses in the US.

More on topic, Chevron regular locally is $3.96 today, up from $3.89 a few days earlier.

mmarshall

Of course, like you, I'm not in the oil-buisness. The small 1-2% world-supply interruption figure I stated is not my own, but came from PBS News, who interview those in the oil-production buisness and oil-industry analyists regularly now (I watch many of those interviews). PBS news, in its nightly hour-long news show, does a FAR better job than the junk you see each night on the three big networks.

This problem of advance-speculators artificially bidding up prices from perceived, rather than actual, shortages is nothing new....it has been going on for years. And, since you mention shareholders, higher oil prices don't always translate into higher oil-company profits, because those oil companies then have to pay more for the crude they buy, just like you and I have to pay more at the pumps. Whether oil companies can then make higher profits depends on how they get their expenses under control, and how much they can then get away with raising raise their OWN prices to wholesalers.

For name-brand fuel, $3.60-$3.65 for regular. Premium just under $4.00.....last figure I saw was $3.94. I'd guess where you are in CA, it's a little higher than that.... for reasons we've discussed before.

IS-SV

Premium uplift in northern CA of $.18 to $.20, puts Chevron premium at $4.16 this week.

J.P.

They said the same thing 2 years ago and hey, we are all still living

Gold is a bubble just as the tech boom was, housing market, oil the first time it went crazy then crashed and it will again.......

IS-SV

Exactly, long-term investing based on sound fundamentals is still best approach.

mmarshall

Each time the oil market "crashes", though, the base, or bottom-level, it reaches is higher and higher than before. I don't think we'll ever see gas prices in the U.S. below $2.00 again. In fact, IMO, we will be very lucky if we ever see the $2.65 again that we had not long ago. The fact is that, like it or not, for a number of reasons, we're going to have to convert to non-petroleum fuels in the long run if we ever want a reasonably stable economy. If we drill more for our own production, yes, that will help in the short run, but sooner or later oil reserves will run out.

IS-SV

Who cares if we see gas at $2.00/gallon today. It's a unrealistic price ($2.00 in 2011), not the backbone of our economy, encourages poor buying decisions in both vehicles and housing selections. Gas prices will snap back to something most (not all lower income) Americans can get more comfortable with. It's not a news flash, that gas prices will rise over time.