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Gas at $4/gallon?


Snowguy716

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Gas prices will always swing up and down, even as the price over time gradually increases (which it has). They control us by dropping the price every few months by a few cents, because it keeps just enough in their pockets, and does just enough to prevent an uprising.

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As I understand it (and I may be wrong, on some of this), the price that gas stations pay for their gasoline, and the price that refiners pay for oil is dictated by trading markets, not the companies themselves. It's those freakin' speculators trading on fear and uncertainty that jack the price up, not the oil companies.

The only part of it that's not controlled by a trading market is what you actually pay at the pump, but most gas stations make only a few cents per gallon anyway, in other words, they have a very small profit margin on gasoline to begin with and little to no margin to play with, unless you get some collusion going on. Gas stations more or less survive on the success of the snack store inside.

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As I understand it (and I may be wrong, on some of this), the price that gas stations pay for their gasoline, and the price that refiners pay for oil is dictated by trading markets, not the companies themselves. It's those freakin' speculators trading on fear and uncertainty that jack the price up, not the oil companies.

The only part of it that's not controlled by a trading market is what you actually pay at the pump, but most gas stations make only a few cents per gallon anyway, in other words, they have a very small profit margin on gasoline to begin with and little to no margin to play with, unless you get some collusion going on. Gas stations more or less survive on the success of the snack store inside.

i think you're correct for the most part... although i do think the gas companies dictate some of the pricing. the gas stations literally make pennies on the gallon.

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It's just a game. Let's drop it a few cents to make them feel things are getting better... what's that? The Saudi royal family has the sniffles? Raise the prices, $50 more a barrel!

And I like Jay Leno's joke about the new oil field... just when things were looking down for the oil companies... my bad take on it...

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I remember in 1999 when it was $.94/gallon. And I remember it being $1.29/gallon on September 11th.. and going up in the few weeks after to $1.39 and freaking out about it. It stayed around $1.40 for most of 2002/03... but it didn't really start rising until 2004. I remember being in Alaska in May of 2004 and seeing $2.00/gallon for the first time.. by the time I returned to MN two weeks later, it was $2.00/gallon.

Then it stayed around $1.70-$1.90/gallon. Then it reached $3.00/gallon after Katrina and then settled in the $2.50 range.. then this summer it was $3.09 for much of the time... considering there were no major oil disruptions... and now the prices are dropping through the floor...

I'm so sick of this. Luckily I don't have to drive now much more than, say, 40 miles/week.

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$2.25 here...

Amazing. These are the lowest prices on gas that we've seen in over a year and a half.. at a time when crude oil is still much higher than it was last time we saw prices at $2.25/gallon.

Labor day rolls around.. and gas prices drop 75 cents in 2 weeks. It's funny that all this is happening before an important election.

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no idea what it is at my station in providence. i spent the weekend in new hampshire. some interesting price ranges...

in derry (just over the MA border) there were 4 or 5 stations near each other right off I-93... 3 stations were $2.45 and 2 were $2.25. guess which ones had lines and which ones were cmopletely empty... taht was today.

in wolfeboro (on the north side of lake winnipesauke (sort of middle of nowhere)), it was $2.54. north of that (farther into the middle of nowhere) in tamworth (i think), it was $2.39.

i live in RI and grew up in CT... in the more out of the way areas, gas is usually not that much cheaper than places where there's more people. i just found that all interesting.

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