High Gasoline Prices Getting to You???????

[slowrev]

As of a month or so ago. Exxon/Mobil's profit was up 40% over one year ago, however they are only selling 3% more product by volume. hmmmm...
Ben

 

[farmerpsv]

When i say "competition", i mean between oil companies, not that there is no alternative fuel source. if oil is coming from the u.s., south america, middle east, russia, why is the barrel price the same? is it because the same companies own/control the oil in all those places? (that wasn't rhetorical, well...maybe a little). yes, oil co. profits are up nicely which would indicate this is not a supply issue. guess we could all become Amish.

 

[ronjhall]

Bought gas Monday for $2.53 Same station today is at $3.19. Plus the alway small number 9/10. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[Highbeam]

If you and a stranger sell widgets that cost 1$ to make, and everybody wants/needs those widgets then the competition between you and the stranger will keep the price low so that you get the sale over the stranger. This is good open market supply/demand pricing. Now if you and that stranger get together and agree to start selling for 10$ apiece, then that's what you get, 10$ apiece so long as people need the widgets. Heck, charge 100$ apiece. So long as neither of you queer the deal by selling for 1$ then life will be good.

Welcome to price fixing.

 

[frank_f15]

I think we are all getting a snow job, and the oil companys are just looking for reasons to raise the price., Seems now that the hurricane caused price to jump, but why did that not happen in previous hurrican seasons? and when hurricane season is over , will the price drop. .50 per/gal in one day? some day soon they will put the whole world in an economic funk.The sad part is, it will have an impact on all aspects of living, prices for every thing are going up, due mostly to high fuel prices, food, heating, electric, so when the price of gasoline goes up.50 your cost of living is going up many times that.. SORRY BUT I AM FEELING cynical today (actually every day) /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif one question that needs to be asked is why? if they are only passing on the added cost of the oil, are their profits going thro the roof? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Highbeam]

Because they can. It is a for-profit business. High volume low price, or low volume high price. Then there is the best option for the oil refineries.... high volume-high price= high profits.

I'm banging my head against the wall. Am I nuts to call this price fixing? Do you all not see how if all the gas stations increase the per gallon price, they all make more money. Why would you give back potential profits? Just gouge away.

 

[slowrev]

Florida and some other states have anti price gouging laws. I'll bet the oil companies are not charged under this law. Hard to tell pessimism from realism now-a-days.

Ben

 

[EastTexFrank]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( <font color="blue"> is it because the same companies own/control the oil in all those places? </font> )</font>

Nope, in every other place in the world the oil in the ground is owned by the governments concerned and they control the price the oil companies pay for it. The U.S. is the only place where the oil companies (or individuals) CAN own oil in the ground and that's what is driving their profits. The same oil they were producing and making a healthy profit on at $18 a barrel, they are making a huge profit on at $65 a barrel. So, it's not the foreign oil that is driving the oil companies record profits, it's domestically produced oil. As long as they are charging a fair world market price for their domestic oil, there's not a thing you can do about it except have the government introduce a two tier pricing system, one price for foreign and one price for domestic oil. They tried that back in the 70's and 80's with Windfall Profit Tax, old/new oil prices, along with other laws and it almost totally destroyed the domestic oil industry.

So, there's not a thing you can do about it except pay up. Regard it as the cost of doing business in the world market.

 

[EastTexFrank]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( <font color="blue"> If you and a stranger sell widgets that cost 1$ to make, and everybody wants/needs those widgets then the competition between you and the stranger will keep the price low so that you get the sale over the stranger. This is good open market supply/demand pricing. Now if you and that stranger get together and agree to start selling for 10$ apiece, then that's what you get, 10$ apiece so long as people need the widgets. Heck, charge 100$ apiece. So long as neither of you queer the deal by selling for 1$ then life will be good.

Welcome to price fixing. </font> )</font>

That's a good analogy .... you just described OPEC. OPEC controls the price the oil companies pay for oil and how much of it will be produced. Strange that we never hear anything about OPEC price gouging or profiteering.

Secondly, the oil compamies do not directly control the price you pay at the pump. They do control the price they supply it to the gas station for. If you gas jumps 60 cents in a day and there has been no new delivery, don't look at the oil companies, look at your local, homeboy gas station owner. That's all his doing. Of course he'll blame the oil companies, they're an easy target and everybody will believe that, but as a general rule oil companies and distributers do not specify what the retailer charges for their product. If you're being gouged, take a long hard look at your next door neighbour, the gas station owner, not the hated and despised oil companies.

 

[slowrev]

My country store gas distributor only raises his price when he is delivered more gas at a higher price. I notice that all the chain outfits charge as much as they can though, whether they got a higher priced delivery or not.
Many of the chain gas stations are owned by the oil companies, think a bit on it.

Ben