With Crude at $145...

[barneyrb]

A barrell JUST BEFORE one of our major holidays in the year, DO YA THINK THE OIL COMPANIES PLANNED IT THAT WAY? Yes I meant to be yelling because I'm fed up with this!!!! Yea, it didn't go up but about $20 bucks in June.

[swines]

Originally Posted by barneyrb

A barrell JUST BEFORE one of our major holidays in the year, DO YA THINK THE OIL COMPANIES PLANNED IT THAT WAY? Yes I meant to be yelling because I'm fed up with this!!!! Yea, it didn't go up but about $20 bucks in June.

No. You obviously have zero understanding of the oil market. The oil companies don't set the price of a barrel of oil. The current oil prices are being caused by oil trading, specifically there are a number of investment fund managers buying oil and treating it like a stock instead of a commodity. They're buying the oil futures and holding them instead of reselling. This causes short falls in the market as the oil is not available, but being held. Less oil available causes the price to go up.

At some point, somebody will yell "Sell!" and if the fund managers and traders are holding oil above the sell point they're toast...which is okay by me.

[unreconstructed]

Other factors also--Congress' wild spending has sent the dollar cellar bound. More third world demand.

This suits the greens. Gets us off our tractors and out of our cars.

There's opinions all over the board as to which factors are the prime drivers in the price runup. Some folks think without the trading oil would still be at 50 bucks. I don't think that personally.

Oil was 9 bucks 10 years ago. Domestically, the oil service sector nearly vanished and all the roughnecks moved back north. Don't think they came back this time--the bust in the mid eighties and the bust 10 years ago was enough for them.

Is hard to see how it will happen again, but we figure another bust is on the way. Ya'll will be happy again.

[RobS]

And I just read this morning a prediction on $200/barrel at the end of the year. That will translate to $6/gallon for gasoline! Factors cited were weak dollar, increasing worldwide demand (esp in developing countries) and reduced production.

[unreconstructed]

Be interesting to see how the predictions play. At the beginning of the early 80's boom, oil was to go to 100 bucks and stay there. By '86 the FDIC owned nearly everything in Midland and this was to be a ghost town in 10 years. Now oil is to go to 200 bucks. Of course the world was a different place in '86 than it is now. I still believe NO ONE really knows what will happen to the price of oil.

[Runner]

Regardless of what the price of crude oil does in the future, now that we as a nation have proven that we can and will pay $4/gallon for gas, why would they lower the price?

If I owned an oil company, and knew I could get that much, I sure wouldn't discount the product unless forced to do so, by say, competetion or some such thing.

[Iowachild]

Originally Posted by Runner

Regardless of what the price of crude oil does in the future, now that we as a nation have proven that we can and will pay $4/gallon for gas, why would they lower the price?

If I owned an oil company, and knew I could get that much, I sure wouldn't discount the product unless forced to do so, by say, competetion or some such thing.

If you divide $145 per barrel by the 43 gallons in a barrel, that comes to $3.45 per gallon just to buy the crude oil. Then there are the refining costs, transportation, taxes, etc.......Drill Here, Drill Now!

[59ih340]

Originally Posted by barneyrb

A barrell JUST BEFORE one of our major holidays in the year, DO YA THINK THE OIL COMPANIES PLANNED IT THAT WAY? Yes I meant to be yelling because I'm fed up with this!!!! Yea, it didn't go up but about $20 bucks in June.

HMMMM???? I really hadn't thought of it,but it is Down almost $10 a barrell just this week,and it's only Tuesday

[MarkLeininger]

My friend travels all over the world for work, says gas has been $9-10/gallon in Europe and other countries for a long time. He says we have cheap gas at $5/gallon. Doesn't feel cheap to me, but fortunately I ride my bicycle to work and the wife works out of the house. That leaves plenty of money to buy important things like fuel for the tractor, new attachments, more tools to work on the new attachments, and larger buildings to store all of the above.

[bob_wood]

and how the fuel prices are helping to drive up the price of Everything else is whats scaring Me ! Food, building materials, etc etc