Gas Question.... (Cheyenne, Laramie, Rock Springs: credit card, to buy, college)

[Kristynwy]

I have been wondering this for some time now so I thought I would ask...

We used to live in Oregon and moved out here to Sheridan.

Well Oregon has always been one of the most expensive places to buy gas for several years now. They are very environmental, no refineries or anything...

Well the gas there right now has been for the past few months up to 20-25 cents cheaper????? than here??

I am really puzzled by this? Wyoming is one of the energy capitals of this nation, with refineries and all kinds of other things.. so why are we higher?

Is it because of tourism??

I was told before I moved from my dad that has a friend that lived in Cheyenne that there were some price gougers (hope that's spelled right?) anyways, that were coming in and jacking up gas prices in some areas.

I am still new and learning.. Maybe it has always been this way? but I remember coming here a year before we moved and it was considerably cheaper for gas than in Oregon or Washington ect.

What do you think????????

[dwilke]

When I lived in Wyoming it was always my experience that gas prices dropped well after they had dropped in other states. And, vice versa, the price in Wyoming rose well after they had risen in other states. Why? I don't know.

[Earniefan]

I wish I could answer that question, I've been wondering the same thing for a while now. Come on Sunsprit fill us in, I'm sure you have some knowledge about this....

[ElkHunter]

They say the most expensive place to buy gas is across the street from the refinery. They're not far off.

[sunsprit]

I suspect that Wyoming's domestic gasoline market is under much less pricing pressure from retail competition than other regional states.

The local based population is rather small and there aren't a lot of stations selling fuel except along the interstates where they can hope to capture some of the transient market. Look at Cheyenne, for example ... one of the two biggest towns in the state and you'll see the gas stations located almost exclusively on a grid around town ... Lincolnway, College, Dell Range, and Yellowstone. Not a lot of places to buy fuel, in my opinion, not a lot of competition, even just off the highway ... say if you get off I-80 at Hwy 85, two stations right there and none for quite a ways down South at the Safeway and quik stop across the street. I-25 gets three truck stops/stations at College ave ... all generally within a penny or so of each other. Flying J usually higher because they advertise a "cash pump price" that's equal to the others, but you pay more to use your credit card ... they've got a discount frequent fueler program which brings the price back down, but you've got to buy stuff in their store/restaurant to take full advantage of it (I just don't have a need to buy their required store stuff each month to qualify).

Laramie, same thing. A couple of stations just off the highway in the center of town, then a couple of truck stops on the West side, and a few stations on the South side of I-80 on the roads to the South to capture the travelers to the mountains ....

Traveling along from Cheyenne to SLC this last year, many times Cheyenne's price is among the highest, with Laramie somewhat less, and Evanston being the least expensive. The price has varied by 10 cents per gallon or more on some of my trips.

There's been some lower price exceptions along the way, without any rhyme or reason ... one stop a few miles East of Little America in Western Wyoming, a dumpy little truck stop a few miles West of there, Rock Springs on the South Side by the Sam's club, and so forth. Traveling from SLC to Cheyenne, I'll usually stop at Little America just because it's convenient for breakfast there ... even if the fuel is a few cents higher.

I've recently seen gas prices in NE Colorado matching Wyoming's ... but that was lower quality ethanol blended (6-8%?) fuel, which represents less BTU per gallon (or per pound, if you want to calculate it that way) and less fuel mileage in the car. Effectively, a higher fuel cost per mile traveled in my cars, so the Colorado price is no bargain ....

I generally check fuel prices on the internet before heading out and plan my fuel stops accordingly ... sometimes leave Cheyenne with a full tank, sometimes not .... My Subaru has a 400 mile range before I get real nervous about fuel, and my MB diesel can carry 50 gals (if I use the saddle tank in the trunk) at 28-29 mpg.

[Kristynwy]

Thanks for your answers.. I was really curious as to why so that helps..

The reason I asked was because my hubby is originally from Louisiana and there are a ton of refineries down there and oil rigs ect... and they were always in the cheapest gas category and still are I think, I could be wrong cause it may have changed since Katrina..
So I figured it should be the same in Wyoming.. However Louisiana has more population than Wyoming.

[shadowwalker]

Traveling in the oilfield for over 20 years and all over the western u.s. mostly. I have never understood why towns with one to four refineries. Had gas much higher that towns hundreds of miles away from them. Also I don't understand why gas prices now rise so fast and lower so slow. Over the gas in the ground tanks of it. That may sit there for weeks to months. I do know that this gas is at least one to two months old when it is put in the sellers tanks, maybe older. Alot of people make money(many times) off the origional selling price of that barrel. Before you put that in your tank.
About the only thing you can do is to buy your gas in the morning, before the heat swells the volume of the gas. I know that is a small thing. But if you do own a small vehicle or have one that gets good miliage. This could add as much as 2 to 5% to your miliage out of that fill up. Over a year that is alot. I have never seen the 10% that some say you will get. I know this because for years we had to keep precise miliage on our company trucks or pay for excess use of them for our personal miliage. Before that was changed.

[jazzlover]

Here's some more food for thought. A lot of Wyoming refinery output doesn't stay in Wyoming--and much that does isn't even for autos and trucks. For example, a good chunk of the production out the refinery at Newcastle, so I'm told, is jet fuel for the Air Force Base in Rapid City. The refinery in Sinclair (near Rawlins) is one of two or three producers of asphalt for the mountain and plains states, and a good percentage of its remaining production is diesel fuel used by the Union Pacific Railroad at Rawlins. I was told that Rawlins is the largest single fueling point on the extensive Union Pacific Railroad system. I also have been told that most all of the production out of the Frontier Refinery in Cheyenne actually goes to the Colorado Front Range. I find that interesting because a couple of station owners in Cheyenne have told me that they get their fuel out of Valero in Denver. Go figure. Evanston, as mentioned earlier, is often one of the cheapest places in Wyoming to buy fuel. Most of their fuel comes out of Salt Lake City where local prices are usually higher than Evanston. Weird. Of course, the varying levels of state and local fuel taxes also make a difference at the pump.

[ElkHunter]

All of the fuel in Sheridan comes out of Laurel Montana.

[Kristynwy]

Very interesting points... I didn't realize so much was going out of Wyoming either...

I heard on the news about the heat and volume of gas. Since that I have always tried to buy in the evening when it cools or in the morning..

Jgussler I had a feeling our gas came from Montana. The price in Billings last time I was there is the same as Sheridan I think too...