Paid $66 to fill up last night, but that's with a relatively small tank. Anybody top $90 yet?
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Paid $66 to fill up last night, but that's with a relatively small tank. Anybody top $90 yet?
$3.90 in Naples.
How many days will you be able to drive on the $66?Quote:
Originally Posted by Joemailman
It dont count when you use the postal service gas card!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Joemailman
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/mai...2/ccoil122.xml
Oil's perfect storm may blow over
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Last Updated: 9:44am BST 23/05/2008
The perfect storm that has swept oil prices to $132 a barrel may subside over the coming months as rising crude supply from unexpected corners of the world finally comes on stream, just as the global economic downturn begins to bite.
The forces behind the meteoric price rise this spring are slowly receding. Nigeria has boosted output by 200,000 barrels a day (BPD) this month, making up most of the shortfall caused by rebel attacks on pipelines in April.
Why oil could soon come barrelling down
Keep the motors running: increased oil production from countries such as Brazil, Sudan and Azerbaijan is helping satisfy rising global demand for the fossil fuel
The Geneva consultancy PetroLogistics says Iraq has added 300,000 bpd to a total of 2.57m as security is beefed up in the northern Kirkuk region.
"There is a strong rebound in supply," said the group's president Conrad Gerber.
Saudi Arabia is adding 300,000 bpd to the market in response to a personal plea from President George Bush, and to placate angry Democrats on Capitol Hill - even though Riyadh insists that there are abundant supplies for sale.
Non-OPEC oil production growth
Like the rest of Opec, the Saudis blame "speculators" for running amok, pushing paper contracts into the stratosphere.
The ever-diminishing reserves of oil in the earth's crust will doubtless drive crude prices to much higher levels over time - provided no new technology such as nuclear fusion abruptly changes the picture - but that will not stop cyclical ups and downs along the way.
The world's finely balanced market for crude has been creeping into surplus for several weeks. Opec's monthly report says that demand this quarter will average 85.75m bpd. Supply was 86.8m bpd in April. The fresh output from Nigeria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia may push it significantly further into surplus.
The signs are already surfacing in global inventories. Opec says that stocks held by the OECD club of rich countries are above their five-year average, with "comfortable" cover for 53 days' use. US stocks have edged up for the last four months, though they fell last week.
While it is widely reported that output from the non-Opec trio of Norway, Britain, and Mexico has relentlessly fallen, it is less well known that a clutch of other countries are gradually filling the breach.
The US Energy Information Agency says non-Opec supply will edge up by 600,000 bpd over coming months as Brazil, Azerbaijan and the Sudan raise production. By next year, the US itself will be producing enough extra oil to shave its import needs.
OPEC surplus crude oil production
None of this has been enough to curb the buying frenzy this spring. Goldman Sachs has warned that prices could reach $200 in a final spike, and even the bears at Lehman Brothers say there may be enough momentum to keep the boom going until Christmas.
It is unclear whether hedge funds and investors piling into futures contracts have now become the driving force in a speculative bubble. The Bank of England said yesterday that they were not a factor.
Lehman's latest report - Is it a Bubble? - says commodity index funds have exploded from $70bn (£36bn) to $235bn since early 2006. This includes $90bn of fresh money. Energy takes the lion's share. Every $100m flow of investment money into oil lifts crude prices by 1.6pc, it said.
"We see many of the ingredients for a classic asset bubble," said Edward Morse, Lehman's oil expert.
This week has seen a dramatic surge in oil contracts dated as far forward as 2016. Futures have moved higher than the spot price, a rare event known as "contango". This can cut both ways: either as a sign of an impending supply crunch years hence; or that the futures market has become unhinged from reality.
What we know is that the International Monetary Fund has cut its forecast for world growth for 2008 three times since last autumn to 3.7pc, and the United Nations is predicting just 1.8pc - technically, a global recession. The major oil forecasters have halved their estimates for crude demand growth to 1.2m bpd.
The bulls say that the US housing crash and spreading contagion in Britain, Spain and Japan do not matter much for oil in the changed world of rising Asia.
The US added just 7pc of crude demand growth from 2004 to 2007, compared with 34pc for China, 25pc for the Middle East and 17pc for emerging Asia.
Goldman Sachs argues that fuel prices in most of these countries are held down by state controls, insulating demand from the effect of any global downturn.
But this could change. Egypt - the most populous Arab country - has just raised petrol prices by 40pc. Rumours swept China yesterday that Beijing was preparing to lift fuel prices. While the Chinese government is unlikely to risk protests in the lead up to the Olympics, the jitters are a reminder that Asian states will have to take action sooner or later to wean their societies from subsidies.
Almost all emerging nations have to slam on the brakes in coming months to curb inflation before it starts spiralling out of control. Inflation has hit 30pc in Ukraine, 22pc in Vietnam, 8.5pc in China, and double digits across most of the Gulf.
The countries that account for the most of the growth in oil demand over the last two years are almost all nearing the limits of easy economic growth.
I filled up my SUV and commuter car for $3.59/gallon last night. I feel pretty lucky. Highest i've seen is $3.79
3.97 in Wausau. Anybody know what I'll be paying in Ontario when I go there next weekend?
Riding my bike.
weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
4.19 here this morning
4.27 in iron mountain
SUCK MY ASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
5/31/2008 - $7.09 a gallon for diesel.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiwon
its costing me a fortune to mow my grass!
Smoke it!Quote:
Originally Posted by Little Whiskey
Buy a goat.Quote:
Originally Posted by Freak Out
The high cost of gas is now affecting the folks of Janesville, Wis., as GM is shutting down the plant there that makes trucks.
I personally love trucks and have owned a couple, but with the way gas prices are I will not buy one anymore. I would love to buy an oldie though just to drive on weekends. Some want to drive a Harley for a Sunday drive, I want a classic truck from the 50's or 60's (or maybe older).
http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/03/news...ion=2008060309
McClatchy Washington Bureau
Posted on Tue, Jun. 03, 2008
Speculation helping to drive oil price skyward, Senate panel hears
Les Blumenthal | McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: June 03, 2008 07:08:22 PM
WASHINGTON — One is a billionaire financier and the other operates seven gas stations and convenience stores in a farming community of 7,000 in eastern Washington state.
But George Soros and Gerry Ramm delivered the same message Tuesday to the Senate Commerce Committee: Rampant speculation has helped spur out-of-control crude oil prices.
In the measured tones of high finance, Soros, whose hedge fund by some accounts made $3 billion last year, talked about a "speculative excess" and warned that the run-up in oil prices could drag the United States into a recession.
"There is a strong prima facie case against institutional investors pursuing a commodity index-buying strategy," he said. "It is intellectually dishonest, potentially destabilizing and distinctly harmful in its economic consequences."
Ramm, the president of the Inland Oil Co. of Ephrata, Wash., was a bit more plainspoken.
"Excessive speculation on energy trading facilities is the fuel that is driving this runaway train in crude oil prices," he said.
Others testifying at the hearing said that speculation by investment banks, hedge funds, institutional investors and others may be responsible for more than half of the skyrocketing price of crude oil. The Federal Trade Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, they said, have failed to investigate.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and others at the hearing said they welcomed the news last week that the CTFC, for the past six months, has been investigating the trading of contracts for future deliveries of oil, commonly called futures contracts. But they said the investigation was too limited in scope and fell far short of the tougher probes required.
Cantwell, who chaired the hearing, was especially critical of the CFTC for deciding that regulators in London and Dubai should patrol international crude oil markets rather than doing so itself.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who chaired the hearing, was especially critical of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for deciding that regulators in London and Dubai should patrol international crude-oil markets rather than doing so itself.
The International Petroleum Exchange is in London but is owned by an Atlanta exchange; the oil trading exchange in Dubai is connected with the New York Mercantile Exchange. In addition, West Texas Intermediate Crude is the benchmark used on most international oil markets.
Cantwell said that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission had oversight authority over international exchanges but so far had refused to act. Speculators are taking advantage of the situation, she said.
"This is no different than when U.S. businesses take out a post office box in the Cayman Islands to avoid U.S. business laws," Cantwell said. The commission, so far, has proved to be a "toothless tiger" which has "abdicated its oversight responsibility," she said.
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said he thought that there had been an "orgy" of speculation when it came to the oil markets.
"The law of bubbles is that all bubbles burst," Dorgan said.
Even as speculators and others are getting rich, the retail side of the industry is getting squeezed, Ramm said.
"Last year, gasoline dealers and heating oil retailers saw profit margins from fuel sales fall to their lowest point in decades as oil prices surged," he said, adding that most station owners make their profits by selling drinks and snacks.
Ramm, representing the Petroleum Marketers of America, said retailers were near the limits on their lines of credit because of the high petroleum prices.
"This creates a credit crisis with marketers' banks, which creates liquidity problems and may force petroleum marketers and station owners to close up shop," he said.
Michael Greenberger, a University of Maryland law professor, said that not only were speculators playing the markets, they also were starting to take delivery of the petroleum products. As they drive prices higher, they then can sell their products for even more. Greenberger said that one investment company was currently the largest owner of heating oil in New England, where oil heats 80 percent of homes.
If speculation were reined in and trading rules tightened, Greenberger said, the cost of crude oil could drop 25 percent.
McClatchy Newspapers 2008
In some part of CT, 35 miles from me, it's $4.09.............down the street, it's $4.49.
and who should we be blaming??
ANWR Exploration
House Republicans: 91% Supported
House Democrats: 86% Opposed
Coal-to-Liquid
House Republicans: 97% Supported
House Democrats: 78% Opposed
Oil Shale Exploration
House Republicans: 90% Supported
House Democrats: 86% Opposed
Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Exploration
House Republicans: 81% Supported
House Democrats: 83% Opposed
Refinery Increased Capacity
House Republicans: 97% Supported
House Democrats: 96% Opposed
????? This is permitted.Quote:
Originally Posted by sheepshead
Not at the moment--unbelievable isnt it?Quote:
Originally Posted by Freak Out
Quote:
Originally Posted by packinpatland
It's a little spendy to live out by you.