AppleFrank
PR Addict
Just filled up my fuel tanks cost me $1865.00,that should last about a month.
at what point does gas prices prevent u from racing?
- Thread starter GeorgiePorgie
- Start date
John250
PR Founding Father
If the government wants to get the economy rolling again.....get fuel prices down to about $2.50 a gallon. Put more disposable income in the tax payers pockets and they will spend it, and the economy will begin rolling.......Seems so simple. Start a massive drilling effort immediately in the US, and the middle east will drop the cost of a barrel of oil simply because of the efforts happening in the US to drill here.
The cost of fuel affects everything we buy......wait about another couple weeks for the food prices to start jumping. Having been in the food business for 18 years, your going to see a big jump in prices at the grocery as they start adjusting for the fuel. Food distributors work on very small margins, when fuel jumps at all they must adjust pricing to cover the additional cost.
The cost of fuel affects everything we buy......wait about another couple weeks for the food prices to start jumping. Having been in the food business for 18 years, your going to see a big jump in prices at the grocery as they start adjusting for the fuel. Food distributors work on very small margins, when fuel jumps at all they must adjust pricing to cover the additional cost.
TimSr90
PR Addict
What burns me is that it is so unecessary. Politicians engineer supply shortages for the sole purpose of driving up price to discourage people from using it, because they believe its "destroying the planet". Then they get let off the hook completely by the public for destroying economies by simply pointing at "greedy big oil" whom they pretned to be battling for political posture. Increased oil supply is guarenteed to lower the price. Increased domestic supply is guarenteed to reduce foreign dependancy. Increased oil production is a guarentee of more high paying oil company jobs, and anything connected to them. Cheap gasoline is a guarenteed national economic stimulus.
Scotty810
PR Addict
People talk about oil prices like they are just floating around with no rhyme or reason. It's almost like they think oil companies finally thought, "Hey, let's charge more so we can make more money!" So what happened in the fall of 2008 when gas prices fell? Did oil companies say, "Well, we've made enough money, so lets charge less."? Hardly.....
Drilling in the U.S. would have some effect on short term cost since you loosen up the supply, but most experts agree that would be short lived. The real problem is huge demand increases from China and India. Our rioting friends in the Middle East are causing speculation to bump the price a little as well, but world demand is the main issue. Our government can't just say they are going to bring gas prices to $2.50. And even if they could, doesn't that go against the free market system/limited goverment you seem to side with elsewhere?
Drilling in the U.S. would have some effect on short term cost since you loosen up the supply, but most experts agree that would be short lived. The real problem is huge demand increases from China and India. Our rioting friends in the Middle East are causing speculation to bump the price a little as well, but world demand is the main issue. Our government can't just say they are going to bring gas prices to $2.50. And even if they could, doesn't that go against the free market system/limited goverment you seem to side with elsewhere?
John250
PR Founding Father
I agree with you Tim. Scotty, while you are correct on some points, drilling in the US would drop oil prices, period. We have Billions in untapped oil right here domestically. The USA is and will always be the largest consumer of oil. If we drill domestically, the arabs would drop prices........trust me.
hershey
PR Elite
If what you say is true then why are the oil companies still posting RECORD profits ??????
yamadogyz
PR Addict
I may have said the other day, its at least $4.11 for a gal of 97 unleaded and I have been paying $5.99 a gal of CAM2 110 leaded race fuel since I started track. Back then gas was moderate to cheap, over all the years race fuel has never once gone up. $6 forever, and it will remain that way. Just goes to show, riders are awesome people...
NQ1965
PR Elite
Applause to you my fellow moto-head for your dedication.
Unfortunately I think this is part of the problem. Oil producers, distributors and the market speculators "KNOW" what our behaviors are. They "KNOW" we will buy the gas anyway. They "KNOW" that we can't and won't try and get by without it. Just this week oil prices slipped back down on fears because they saw demand dropping off "slightly". But it will take a large demand drop-off to get the prices back to real values.
GM is posting profits again from fuel efficient car sales and if we can flood our roads with these instead of guzzling SUV's and monster trucks that should help.
The American general public has to decide that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH AND WERE NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!
Scotty810
PR Addict
They are making record profits because the price of a barrel of oil is going up. I don't dispute that. What I do dispute is the reason for the price increase. It is not the oil companies suddenly deciding to bump prices! There is more to it then that. The oil companies just happen to benefit from the price increases.
Look at it this way. Lets say today, it is announced that not a single house will be built in northern OH in the future. What happens to the value of your home? If it goes up, is it because you have decided you want to charge more? Or is it because other factors in the supply and demand chain caused the value of your home to change?
TimSr90
PR Addict
While they are posting "record profits", the percentage of profit or profit margin has not changed. Its still around 16%. The "record profits" is something politicians like to toss around to make you look at someone besides those who are responsible. If you produce a product for $100 and sell it for $116, and the cost goes up to $200 to produce it, and you have to invest twice as much, to maintain your 16% margin youll sell it for $232 and have "record profits".
Does that mean you are ripping off the consumer? I hope not, because every business operates on a profit margin percentage of investment. The first investment in producing gasoline is the cost of crude which is determined by the world market - supply and demand. Changes in demand will temporarily affect price but he who controls supply, CONTROLS the price. OPEC is a gathering of oil producing nations who collaberate to decide how much supply they will make available to mainatian their targeted price for crude.
C Hudak
PR Addict
I don't follow you tim, you are saying the profit margin hasn't changed(still 16%), but then cost to produce has gone up. Thats why the company's are having record profits. Obviously the profit margin has gone up in the past couple years, that's what determines the profits.
The oil company's aren't posting record Gross income.
Just my thought.
The oil company's aren't posting record Gross income.
Just my thought.
C Hudak
PR Addict
hershey
PR Elite
What both of you are missing is this. The normal supply and demand are no longer driving oil prices. The speculation and future markets drive pricing. Why do you think the price jumps .20 and .30 per gal in one day ? Then it SLOWLY goes down ?
1foxracing
PR Addict
Another thing you have to remember is that oil is traded in U.S. Dollars on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Have you seen the value of the U.S. dollar lately in the world market? ( Tell Uncle sam to keep printing more money!)
Remember when you use to be able to go up to Canada and buy good beer on the cheap with U.S. Dollars? Try it today...
Don't forget the 40 to 70 cents tax per gallon the feds & state pocket as well.
Remember when you use to be able to go up to Canada and buy good beer on the cheap with U.S. Dollars? Try it today...
Don't forget the 40 to 70 cents tax per gallon the feds & state pocket as well.
TimSr90
PR Addict
Here's the confusion. People seem to think that BP Oil extracts the oil from the ground, loads in into its tanker, takes it to a refinery, turns it into gasoline, then calls up its distribution fleet, to take it to its gas stations to be sold to you. These are all separate corporations. The BP gas station has nothing to do with BP that drills for oil. Drilling companies operate all over the world. They have to purchase leases from whatever government is jurisdiction, and operate under whatever terms they have negotiated. They then sell the oil on the open world market. Price is determined by supply and demand. So the BP Refinery then must purchase crude oil from the world market in order to make gasoline. They purchase it at the current price. It might be from the BP corp that extracts, but it could be from anybody. They go through the expense of coverting it into gasoline, and they sell it to wholesaler distributers, who could be anybody, who then sell it for retail and truck it to gas stations. There are some company owned gas stations, but most are owned by a neighborhood merchant who buys into the franchise to sell a companie's product. You'll see BP trucks delivering to BP stations, and then dropping another load at the competitor across the street.
If there are any kinks in any of the operations between Saudi Arabia and the pump, gas spikes. Right now crude is way up. If the refinery spent 30 million before, and now spends 60 million for a load of crude, that 16% profit margin is twice the "profits".
I dont know all the exact numbers or the inner workings of the entire line but this should give you an idea why boycotting BP gas stations hurt local merchants and did not affect the corporation. You simply bought BP gasoline made from Arab oil at a station across the street a differnet name on the sign.
NQ1965
PR Elite
Oil dropped almost $10/barrell today (dropping it back under $100) due to reduced demand.
Supply isn't an issue anymore, they have been saying that for quite some time. It's being driven by demand and speculation. A bunch of commodities took the hit today because of the oil drop.
A sad note is that we are letting them control us instead of us controlling them.
If a gas station offered fuel at $3 a gal. tomorrow, they would have a line a mile long and their tanks would go empty.
But two years ago we were yelling about gas at $2.50/gallon.
We're conditioned to $3 a gallon now and they know we'll pay it without griping and are happy because it's not $4.00.
We are major consumers and we neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed their gasoline.
Supply isn't an issue anymore, they have been saying that for quite some time. It's being driven by demand and speculation. A bunch of commodities took the hit today because of the oil drop.
A sad note is that we are letting them control us instead of us controlling them.
If a gas station offered fuel at $3 a gal. tomorrow, they would have a line a mile long and their tanks would go empty.
But two years ago we were yelling about gas at $2.50/gallon.
We're conditioned to $3 a gallon now and they know we'll pay it without griping and are happy because it's not $4.00.
We are major consumers and we neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed their gasoline.
TimSr90
PR Addict
Demand only temporarily affects price. Supply will always be the issue. Two weeks ago the Saudis cut production by 800,000,000 barrels per day. When demand begins to drop from overpricing as it has, and supply begins to exceed demand, they will simply reduce production again. The more you conserve and reduce demand, the more they reduce output to maintain the market price they want. That is the purpose of OPEC. That is why they exist.