Gas prices in America

$2.79 - DFW area, TX...

Can someone explain to me how come the prices of gas have so little to do with the prises of oil per barrel? Last year the oil was $75/barrel and the gas cost $3.50/g. Now the oil is $100/barrel and the gas is $3.00... It makes no sense! Unless, of course, the oil companies can manipulate the prices the way they feel fit at any moment...?

it'll be back at $3.5 soon enough.. can you be patient? :D supply/demand at the consumer end of things.. refining costs.. gready bastages.. throw in a hurricane or two... a snow storm.... throw in a war or two or some sabre rattling.. blah, blah, blah...

Europeans pay OPEC the same wholesale price Americans do. American gas prices are cheap compared to Europe because of low taxes on gasoline or diesel fuel. Our state goverment tax on gasoline or diesel is used entirely road repair and construction. With the increased delays at airports, it's almost as fast to drive 300 miles than to try to fly.

I live 300 miles (480 km) from Chicago. It's 30 minutes to the airport, get there at least one hour before the flight, one hour flight time, 30 minutes for luggage (if you are lucky), 30 minutes at Rent-a-Wreck, an hour to drive to south Chicago suburbs. In total, 4 to 5 hours, door to door. Driving my own car, five hours.

Its the American government keeping the native gas in Alaska or somewher else on reserve. We buy from all the foreign countries making our gas so expensive. When the gas "runs out" in other places, the US will probably open its storehouses and charge some ridiculous amounts.

As for me, gas is ridiculous, but not as much compared to other places.

russia has more oil then US.. some of the american oil will not (possibly ever) be extracted. besides, canadians have plenty and are pumping it like crazy. :)

US Federal tax is $0.18/gal. Canada's federal tax is $0.107 per liter or about C $0.43 per gal. Thus, Canadians are paying $0.25 per gal than U.S. customers. Ontario and Quebec each have approx. $0.15 per liter or $0.60 per gallon provincial tax vs $0.30 in New York. Thus, Canadian have $0.55 more in federal and state/provincial taxes than the US. I would presume that local Canadian taxes are also higher.

We in the US and Canada, however, have it made compared to Europe where the governments really know how to tax car fuel. See the chart at:

truthinmedia.org/truthinmedia/Bulletins2000/tim2000-9-4.html

This is the reason why NOBODY in the USA takes a bus: the gas and cars are so cheap, that EVERYBODY drives a car, and the only people left riding busses are crackheads, crazies and alcoholics. Here is a video of two environmentally friendly girls who for the first time in their life decide to take a bus! They had a quite an adventure and I'm not sure they'll do it again any time soon:

Keep it Green: Riding the Bus

Us and Canadian dollars are not the same.

At the moment they basically are.


xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi

~$3.25 (regular) NYC Everything is high! Life is expensive. Soon we will have to pay for oxygen. I'm sick of being a human :D If I could, I would turn into a monkey.

Not really pumping.
It's mostly oil sands.

That's not true ;( A LOT of people take public transportation particularly to go to work in Manhattan because there is heavy traffic and it takes like twice as long!! You should come to NYC and take a walk around the Subways and Buses(specially early morning), you'd get surprise to see business people with their suitcases, quite formal, NORMAL, decent!! There is no doubt that there are some others out there with drugs problems, alcoholism, etc. walking like zombies and in some cases irritating passengers on the Subways/Buses and that's sad I must say. It isn't only in USA, It's everywhere that you see people acting in such ways, they may or may not have their reasons for doing this. Who cares!! ;P

True. I knew a whole bunch of people from Great Neck, L.I. The all took train to Manhattan. Hardly any bums among them if about the cheapest house in the village was about $500,000 in late 80's.

ok, fine.. extracting. happy?

Oil in sand aint a problem.
Think of what happens a "Slush puppy" when you suck on the straw.

Speaking of extracting oil... did you know that USA has more oil then the Middle East? The only thing is that it is in form of oil shale - oil inside a rock. The thing is that extracting it is costly,i believe you need a price of about $150/barrel or $5/gallon for it to be commercially valuable (unfortunately it's coming soon).

Oil Shale Video

Mmmm - didnt know that. a few of the older wells are being opened up as the price increase makes extraction more viable. The North Sea is being reappraised similarly and its viability and longevity increased.

Unfortunately the only way is up for the price of Gas at the pump. Paying £1.10 a liter here now.
4.5 litres in a gallon
$2 in £1 gives you. . . . .. . . .

Dice's comment is very true. The U.S. has enough fuel in coal and oil shale to last current needs for 400 years. The problem is, how do you get it out? I'm sure we'll find out when the price of crude hits that magic price. The German's didn't concern themselves with the cost during WW II; they needed the petro (gas).

Don't forget, Szkotja2007, that some 70% of your price is tax, tax and more tax.

1.10*3.8=£4.18/gallon=$8.15/gallon.

3.0/3.8=$0.79/litter=£0.41/litter

In the GB gas (petrol) is £1.10 a liter = $8.15/gallon.
In the U.S. the price of gas is $3.0/gallon = £0.41/litter.

No wonder you guys drive those little funny looking golf carts to work over there :)

No $h!t. Its nearer 80%.
Bad enough if you live in the city but if you live in the Highlands of Scotland and a round trip to the shops over 100 miles it aint funny.

Scotland is the biggest Oil producing country in EU but I have to listen to some w**ker in London ( over 600 miles away ) telling me I should use my car less because the city is getting jammed............. ( rant mode well and truly engaged )...**&**%%$$$****

Thanks Dice - I couldn't do the Math.

We pay a sh!t-load of taxes on gas to. We call it the "Military Budget" lol

Now we have the end of trend on resouces market. It is the same as it was with shares in USA . In 2007 it was clear that USA will be weaker for 2-3 years time and stocks will be cheaper. Trend was trend and even it was irresponsible shares prices increased. Now we slow down (world, Poland as well) but trend is still strong (oil prices trend). I think in upcomming weeks months it will be finished. Now we are going to see (or we see) the most spectacular increase (as it is at the end of every single trend) Maybe it will be finished in one week or 3 months, id don't know. new trend is comming, simple because "we" (world) slow down.

Gas prices are going to decrease (of course we are not going to see 20$ per barrel) What is sure, it will be noticable decrease ;)

In Poland because of strong Zloty increase isn't so strongly noticable.

BTW Ben Bennarke should accept reality and simply agree on 2 years time of troubles.

OIL PRICES AREN'T GOING DOWN ANYTIME SOON. WHEN USA AND OTHERS LEAVE IRQ AND QUIT MEDDLING IN OTHER PLACES THEN AND ONLY THEN WE MAY SEE A SIGNIFICANT RETREAT IN OIL PRICES.

you know in which part of trend we hear statements like : "OIL PRICES AREN'T GOING DOWN ANYTIME SOON" "shares will never decrease" "everybody can become bilionere on stock exchange" "properties are not going to be cheaper in next 20 y time (lol ;) )" very characteristic statements for every trend in last of its parts.

World slow down and prices will decrease, as I said it will not be so cheap as it was in '90s but it will be cheaper. There is very high propability that at the end of trend we are going to see enourmous prices but it is normal in every trend.

We will see.

IN the 90s gas was $.70-$.99 in the USA.. it will never be below $2 again and i highly doubt it will be much below $3 again. inflations isn't helping and there is instability in oil markets and it will be there for forseeble future.

the economy of USA looks decent on paper but the reality isn't all that peachy. i sure hope things recover but it's going to be a while as i haven't seen any kind of solid plan to steer the economy in a positive way so i doubt there will be a drastic turn around any time soon. hell, even not so drastic change for the positive doesn't seem to be there on the horizon. is it going to get worse? most likely for a while still.

Light Crude Oil Future (CL.F)

stooq.com/q/?s=cl.f

of course you slow down, we are discussing here oil prices.

A better illustration is given when you click on the timeline below the graph ( zakres )and change it to show the price inrease over the last 3,5 10 years. Quite scary !

current situation isn't good. esp for US citizens

It looks like the U.S. citizens are doing OK in comprising to the Europeans as far as gas prices go.

In the GB gas (petrol) is £1.10 a liter = $8.15/gallon.
In the U.S. the price of gas is $3.0/gallon = £0.41/litter.

On the other hand, the price of gas here is cheaper, but we drive way more then Europeans do. We drive far distances, almost nobody takes public transportation here, average car makes about 12000 miles/year ~ 19200km. I drive 30 miles=48km to work (which is not much at all) and it takes me about 20-25 min to get there. It would probably be at least an hour or two with the public transportation.

I wonder what would happen here if the gas went up from $3.00 to $8.00/gallon, the price in the UK?
I bet you people would start living closer to work or school, the urban sprawl would probably stop and maybe public transportation would become more popular.