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Yes, I know there is political unrest in the Middle East; however, that region of the world was never known for being peaceful. Are we really that concerned that the uprising "might" spread to other countries, or is this purely speculation rising the prices? If it spread to other countries and affected their oil output, I would understand completely. While protests have spread, oil is churning out of the region as usual. Saudi Arabia says it will ramp up production to make up for Libya's problems. So in reality oil production has not been affected enough (or at all) to warrant the rise in gas prices.
If I recall, gas was not this high when BP had it's fiasco in the Gulf of Mexico, yet I'm sure more oil that affects us (Libya exports a negligible amount of oil to America), in that situation than this. What's really going on?
Because it can. Because someone decided it should go up and down. Because months ago someone speculated that it would go up, or down, or whatever causes it to change. Because the people who own the oil that gas comes from know they can get what they want. Etc., etc., etc....
You'll notice that none of these reasons have anything to do with the actual cost of producing gas.
"Analysts" have said gas will likely top out at $4/gal. I'm sure there are plenty of analysts who said otherwise, but for whatever reason they received no attention. And how can "analysts" predict an event, when the supposed history of that event is based on nothing more than speculation and manipulation? This isn't the weather. There are no computer models for defining what a few people will decide to do.
So that Wall St speculators can clean up at the expense of the public. Same as always.
Once again... futures is a zero-sum game. In every futures contract there is a winner on one side of the ledger and a loser on the other. That does not change whether the spot price for oil is $10 a barrel or $1,000 a barrel. For every speculator who just made a fortune, another is about to lose everything he has. What's more, fortunes can be made in futures speculation whether you bet higher or bet lower. So "speculators" as a group don't just sit around hoping the the price of a given commodity goes up. Only half of them do. The other half hopes the price goes down.
Yes, I know there is political unrest in the Middle East; however, that region of the world was never known for being peaceful. Are we really that concerned that the uprising "might" spread to other countries, or is this purely speculation rising the prices? If it spread to other countries and affected their oil output, I would understand completely. While protests have spread, oil is churning out of the region as usual. Saudi Arabia says it will ramp up production to make up for Libya's problems. So in reality oil production has not been affected enough (or at all) to warrant the rise in gas prices.
If I recall, gas was not this high when BP had it's fiasco in the Gulf of Mexico, yet I'm sure more oil that affects us (Libya exports a negligible amount of oil to America), in that situation than this. What's really going on?
Libya is a massive exporter of high grade oil, suitable for the production of gasoline, diesel and so forth, Saudi Arabias crude oil doesn't hold anywhere near the same standard, and can't replace the oil supplied from Libya.
That reduction in supply of high grade "crude" causes a "fear" in the market of impeding fuel shortage, which drives up the prices roughly 10%.
Once the situation stabilize somewhat there will probably be a slow decline back to a lover level, but I'd expect it to remain at least a little over $3 /gallon for a year or so.
I also doubt it'll go much, if any above $4 /gallon.
Taking avg driving distance into account and a pretty avg car (25-30mpg) we talking $60-80 more a month, not exactly the biggest expense in the world, most people can knock that out of their budget by not buying fastfood and Starbucks.
Taking avg driving distance into account and a pretty avg car (25-30mpg) we talking $60-80 more a month, not exactly the biggest expense in the world, most people can knock that out of their budget by not buying fastfood and Starbucks.
What it does not take into account is how the fuel price increase permeates EVERYTHING that we buy. The price of fuel to fill one's automobile is the least of our problems when fuel prices explode--it's just the one that's directly visible to our feckless public. The real increase in energy costs is buried in everything else we buy--and that is the bite that is really going to hurt us.
The major worry now is if thsi ubrest will spend to other middle easter ****ries that produce alot more than the 2% of Libya like the sauidi's. Thinkigthat the 70's embargo and its shortages was caused by a 15% reduction says what could happen .If it does we are also unlikely to see domestic production rise as it did then also for several reasons learned that time.One always has to remember whether a filling sattio the rpice rise on what it cost to replace the gasoline itheir tanks not hwat the new price will be.It also goes down that way which is hard o nstatons deali gi gasoline.
The major worry now is if thsi ubrest will spend to other middle easter ****ries that produce alot more than the 2% of Libya like the sauidi's. Thinkigthat the 70's embargo and its shortages was caused by a 15% reduction says what could happen .If it does we are also unlikely to see domestic production rise as it did then also for several reasons learned that time.One always has to remember whether a filling sattio the rpice rise on what it cost to replace the gasoline itheir tanks not hwat the new price will be.It also goes down that way which is hard o nstatons deali gi gasoline.
LOL @ auto-censor blotting out comical misspelling of "countries"
And why does Chicago have the highest gas prices in the country? ($3.65 a week ago.) It's not like gasoline has to be trucked over high mountains along narrow two-lane roads to get here.
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Why are gas prices going up now?
