Gas+oil+momopoly+greed=US oil companies

[UncleBuck01]

Made the mistake of filling up the 3 vehicles the family owns in one day, "SURPRISE" #1, Gas JUMPED $0.26, in 8 days, $2.51 to $2.77, regular 87 octane
"SURPRISE" #2, took 50 gals. and not one of them was on empty,
"SURPRISE"#3 Thats $13.00 extra a week that I will never see again, and what has changed in last 8 days? Lets see, there was a nuclear war in the middle east, NO
There was a hurricane that led to a temporary shut down of 10 percent of our refining capacity, NO
Summer Driving season came early, like April 1(fools day) instead of May 29, NO
Shortage Of OIL, NO , I just read somewhere that our oil reserves have risen "again" this month
I could go on all day with the excuse's that US oil has used over the years. So I'll get right to the point, The Oil Companies have raised prices because THEY COULD
and nobody can stop them.

Buck
P.S. misspell in the title, but can not edit the title, momopoly should be monopoly

 

[JoeR]

Reminds me of the power shortage out West, where for some reason there wasn't enough power plants?? Electricity skyrocketed, and companies started leaving California. What ever happened to that shortage? No new power plants, but the shortage dissapeared! I think one day this will happen to fuel too. (I hope).

Joe

 

[snoboy]

Can you say oil futures? Can you say China?

 

[UncleBuck01]

</font><font color="blueclass=small">( Can you say oil futures? Can you say China? )</font>
Snoboy
can you get into a little more detail than those 9 words,
but first Let me try saying,,,, O I L ---- F U T U R E S, /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
is that where the oil people "think" that oil will be more expensive in the "future" and jack up the price "today" , and I guess it doesn't matter that our oil reserves are up even though that big bad , let me try saying it, C H I N A , /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif is still out there.

Buck

 

[deereman64]

Hate to be pedantic but the oil companies are not a monopoly but an oligopoly. This term refers to a limited number of companies that control the market as against just one controller. This impacts the way that they operate in themarket place.

Also in the papers today many commodity markets are at very high prices. Currently gold is just under $600.00. I remember trading that out at $800.00 so I think there is a way to go on all commodity prices.

 

[cp1969]

None of what we think of as the normal market forces that affect fuel prices have changed dramatically over the last year. The world's supply of oil is about the same. The world's demand is up a little. If the oil companies 'could' charge anything they want, why did they wait so long to do it, and why settle for $2.75? Why not $5.75?

So why is fuel so high? I think the reason can be found at the mercantile markets, i.e., speculators.

Speculators need a commodity that moves. Oil seems to be the commodity of choice right now, as any little bit of news causes people, even us, to think of the impact it will have on oil prices. Not that we can do anything about it, but there are people who can and do speculate on oil futures. Sometimes they make LOTS of money--sometimes they don't.

Anyone who thinks oil prices are on a one-way trip up can ride these guys' coattails by buying oil (crude, gasoline, and diesel) futures.

All it takes is money. I think $5 grand used to be the minimum (but that was a long time ago--it's probably much more now), but you have to be willing to kiss it goodbye. And if you want to sell short, you've got to be willing to kiss a whole lot more than that goodbye.

I decided a long time ago that I couldn't afford free money.

 

[UncleBuck01]

"If the oil companies 'could' charge anything they want, why did they wait so long to do it, and why settle for $2.75? Why not $5.75?"


They don't want to over reach like they did in Sept 05(not such a long wait!!!) with Katrina, the rise was too fast and too much and brought numerous congressional hearings and states attorney generals started to prosecute for price gouging, all under pressure from the voters, the politicians had to do something. Now the outrage from Sept 05 has settled down, its a good time to start raising prices again, this time not as fast. its the old frog story- throw a frog in a pot of hot/boiling water and he'll jump out, throw the frog in a pot of cool water and gradually bring it too a boil and he'll stay in the pot, Guess who's the frog?
Us consumers /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
cp1969
Thats the whole point, not much has changed so why the jump in price, BECAUSE THEY CAN !!!!. they are not going to "settle" for $2.75, looks like we are headed well over $3 + a gallon by the summer. Give it a couple of years and it might just be $5.75
Buck

 

[Bates]

Our lifestyle is the problem. We live in huge houses. We like to commute an hour to work from the suburbs; driving huge V8 vehicles when small micro cars will do.
We'd rather market 500 hp. pickup trucks than develop public transportation.

We are a wasteful society. We are around 2% of the worlds population, yet we consume 30% of the planet's resources.
We're addicted to cheap petroleum like crack cocaine.

We need to learn to do with less or this learning curve that we're on is going to get quite painful.

 

[MikePA]

<font color="blue"> We need to learn to do with less or this learning curve that we're on is going to get quite painful. </font>
$3.00/gallon, or better yet, $5.00/gallon fuel is a great way to learn. Much better than the government mandating what kind of vehicles we can buy.

 

[Charlie_in_TX]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( None of what we think of as the normal market forces that affect fuel prices have changed dramatically over the last year. The world's supply of oil is about the same. The world's demand is up a little. If the oil companies 'could' charge anything they want, why did they wait so long to do it, and why settle for $2.75? Why not $5.75?

So why is fuel so high? I think the reason can be found at the mercantile markets, i.e., speculators.

Speculators need a commodity that moves. Oil seems to be the commodity of choice right now, as any little bit of news causes people, even us, to think of the impact it will have on oil prices. Not that we can do anything about it, but there are people who can and do speculate on oil futures. Sometimes they make LOTS of money--sometimes they don't.

Anyone who thinks oil prices are on a one-way trip up can ride these guys' coattails by buying oil (crude, gasoline, and diesel) futures.

All it takes is money. I think $5 grand used to be the minimum (but that was a long time ago--it's probably much more now), but you have to be willing to kiss it goodbye. And if you want to sell short, you've got to be willing to kiss a whole lot more than that goodbye.

I decided a long time ago that I couldn't afford free money. )</font>
We have one person (besides me) that gets it. Exxon/Mobil nor any other oil company sets the price for crud or refined oils. They pay what the merc says they will pay and get what the merc says they will get.

[conspiracy theory on]
Enron was responsible for the power outages in California referred to earlier. That is part of what lead to their bankruptcy. They (Enron) were not only in the futures trading market, they had a market here in Houston. There were about 20 people (from my understanding) that were responsible for all these outages. They were never prosecuted. They are still in the energy futures market on the merc.
[conspiracy theory off]