Walkers of the world better unite:
Walkers of the world better unite:
Fears over issues in Iran are driving prices up.
Just last week, as I was driving through the People's Republic of Boulder, I saw a bumber sticker that read "No War for Oil" ... on the back of a Ford Explorer. Some people just don't get it.
CO-Runner wrote:
Fears over issues in Iran are driving prices up.
Partly correct. The biggest fundamental driving prices is good old supply and demand. The world's oil market essentally has no spare capacity, production wise, no matter how much oil remains in the ground to eventually be extracted. ANY interruption in production, no matter how small, has a big impact on cost.
I agree, but I don't think it's the oil company's fear. It's the fact that they know that the consumer fears this and will accept it as an excuse for higher prices.......a little too much conspiracy theory, I'll freel admit. However, the quarter after Katrina, oil companies had record profits.*sigh*.....and I too don't help the cause much. I don't drive an SUV, but I do drive WAY too far to work and back. Hoping to correct this in the near future.
CO-Runner wrote:
Fears over issues in Iran are driving prices up.
Just last week, as I was driving through the People's Republic of Boulder, I saw a bumber sticker that read "No War for Oil" ... on the back of a Ford Explorer. Some people just don't get it.
i think most oil companies were also achieving record profits in the quarters before katrina.
chuck d wrote:
i think most oil companies were also achieving record profits in the quarters before katrina.
Yes, but only after 20 BEARISH years.
CO-Runner wrote:
Just last week, as I was driving through the People's Republic of Boulder, I saw a bumber sticker that read "No War for Oil" ... on the back of a Ford Explorer. Some people just don't get it.
Classic.
[quote]BarryP wrote:
*sigh*.....and I too don't help the cause much. I don't drive an SUV, but I do drive WAY too far to work and back. Hoping to correct this in the near future.
As much as the price of oil and gasoline have risen since 2002, they are still not expensive enough to make the majority of people change their driving habits (owning SUVs, driving far distances, not carpooling, not using public transit). We would need to see even higher gas prices (maybe $3.00/gallon+ nationwide) and see them sustained for a year or two before people would really start to change their habits.
I suggest everyone do some research on E85 & highly consider it.
BarryP wrote:
......a little too much conspiracy theory, I'll freel admit. However, the quarter after Katrina, oil companies had record profits.
The price of a barrel of oil is driven by the spot market at Rotterdam. If a buyer is willing to pay $67/barrel, why should any company sell their oil for less? Should American companies be forced to sell their oil for $40/barrel just to keep American consumers happy? It might only cost them $20/barrel to get the oil out, so yeah, they're making money hand over fist..
If you want to see oil prices decline, try driving less and encouraging everyone you know to conserve. When the demand decreases, so will the price.
Thomas Friedman in the Times goes on about this all the time. We need a gasoline tax to keep gas at about $4.00 all the time and then people will surely change their lifestyles to use less oil and gas. Additionally the price at the pump would not fluctuate depending on global events as the tax could be raised or lowered depending on the price of crude oil. Remember Americans pay far less at the pump than do most Western countries.
The standard rebuttal to this is that it easy for people in NYC to harp on about using mass transit but that it is not feasible in 95% of the country.
A tax on SUV's seems obvious, but then again obvious things never get passed in Congress (REP or DEM - before this post gets removed for violating the no REP Bashing rules)
I'd rather see a "true cost" of gasoline price - accounting for the cost of environmental damage and the need to maintain supply from the middle east (iraq war etc.) as well as removing any subsidies. I remember seeing one "true cost" figure that was around $7-8 per gallon. That would get some people out walking.
Bottom line is only a major price increase is going to have any effect (in the region of doubling or tripling current prices). Fortunately this is going to happen naturally when oil production hits its peak in a few years and begins to decline - as demand contines to inrease.
CO-Runner wrote:
Just last week, as I was driving through the People's Republic of Boulder, I saw a bumber sticker that read "No War for Oil" ... on the back of a Ford Explorer. Some people just don't get it.
Maybe that person commutes to work everyday on his bicycle and only uses his Explorer to get groceries once per week, racking up a total of 5 miles in his car. He uses the Explorer twice per year to go camping and his wife has a Prius and they use that for all their other commuting.
Then you have Mr. Enviroman, that is commuting 20 miles to work and home each day in his Honda Civic. He drives a ton more mileage, and creates more pollution than the guy in the Explorer.
that's a ridiculous scenario.
no more suv's wrote:
CO-Runner wrote:Just last week, as I was driving through the People's Republic of Boulder, I saw a bumber sticker that read "No War for Oil" ... on the back of a Ford Explorer. Some people just don't get it.
Classic.
this is no different than our elected public officials who send our young off to war yet would never think of sending their own children there....and when confronted with this state that the two issues have nothing todo with each other
a miler wrote:
I'd rather see a "true cost" of gasoline price - accounting for the cost of environmental damage and the need to maintain supply from the middle east (iraq war etc.) as well as removing any subsidies. I remember seeing one "true cost" figure that was around $7-8 per gallon. That would get some people out walking.
Bottom line is only a major price increase is going to have any effect (in the region of doubling or tripling current prices). Fortunately this is going to happen naturally when oil production hits its peak in a few years and begins to decline - as demand contines to inrease.
In two years, looking back, we will realize that peak single day production plateaued in the winter of 2005. There might be a couple trillion barrels in the ground left to extract, but only at a rate of approx 85 million barrels a day, even with water injection. From here on out existing fields, especially the old elephants in Saudi Arabia, will be in depletion. The price of oil has NOTHING to do with oil company fixing, and everthing to do with supply/demand fundamentals. Globalisim's cheerleader, Friedman, and his gas tax won't be needed at all. The production freefall will do the trick just fine.
reality really wrote:
In two years, looking back, we will realize that peak single day production plateaued in the winter of 2005.
Why winter 2005? Where did you come up with that time?
Two years ago gas prices rose and we were told it was due to the "terror premium".
Last year prices rose and initially we were told it was demand in China and India - which apparently, like to Power Crisis of 2000 - suddenly became an overnight problem. Then Katrina hit. Now here in the PAcific Northwest we are told our gas prices are higher than say Kansas becuase we are further from the major refineries on the Gulf Coast. OK, I'll buy that, except that when Katrina hit our prices rose too.
Now we hear that demand is driving the price up along with fears about a showdown over Iran.
It seems to me that the excuse changes each year and the prices go up because we have hedge funds and brokerage houses opening trading desks and then bidding up the price so that can garner returns and manipulate the market similiar to Enron and Dynergy doing the same thing with power supplies.
Is it coincedence that three of the Top 10 in Forbes list are Oil Companies....I think not....The last colum is in Millions of Dollars. Exxon had a 25 BILLION dollar profit. Chevron had a 13 BILLION dollar profit and Conoco had a 8 BILLION dollar profit.....
2005
Rank Company Revenue Profits (last two in US Dollar millions)
1 Wal-Mart Stores 288,189.0 10,267.0
2 Exxon Mobil 270,772.0 25,330.0
3 General Motors 193,517.0 2,805.0
4 Ford Motor 172,233.0 3,487.0
5 General Electric 152,363.0 16,593.0
6 ChevronTexaco 147,967.0 13,328.0
7 ConocoPhillips 121,663.0 8,129.0
8 Citigroup 108,276.0 17,046.0
9 American Intl. Group 98,610.0 11,050.0
10 Intl. Business Machines 96,293.0 8,430.0
Oil man and geologist: