Uh-Oh! Gas prices on the rise again.

[florige]

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/0...er-gas-prices/


Get ready for higher gas prices
Barbara Bartlein
Mar 26th 2009 at 3:30PMText SizeAAAFiled under: Debt, Transportation, Recession

I filled up my car today for $2.05 a gallon and thought it was too much. Now I read that much higher gas prices are expected in the near future.


The world is "risking a second e in oil prices," according to a new study by consulting firm McKinsey & Co. More than 90% of the growth in demand for oil over the next decade will come from countries with developing economies such as China and India, McKinsey found.

Well, I don't get it. This is one part of the economy I just don't understand. A few months ago, I was paying close to $4.50 a gallon and then it dropped, presumably because demand dropped. But I have seen the price change 10 cents per day at times or e dramatically because there is a problem with a pipeline somewhere. Are the oil prices really this sensitive or are prices simply increased whenever there seems like an excuse to do so. After all, they already have reserves that they bought at a set price, how can the price increase immediately just because of a pending hurricane?

All this may explain why the oil companies had record profits last year. Exxon reported the highest quarterly and annual profits ever for a U.S. company in 2008, boosted in large part by soaring crude prices. Supposedly, problems at several refineries also led to higher prices.

These kinds of problems are not going away. We are just having a break from soaring prices. Our plan is simple, any future cars we buy must get at least 50 miles to the gallon. We are also looking at going down to one car for the family. It would be cheaper to rent an extra car when we need it than to have two cars draining our pocketbook. I don't want to spend my discretionary money making the oil companies rich.

[peewee's lovechild]

ing gas!!

[ChumpDumper]

I blame Obama.

[florige]

Man if gas goes up to $4.50 a gallon again..... And they think people aren't buying things now.

[RandomGuy]

Oil is traded in dollars.

Weak dollar=expensive oil.

There is a general consensus that the world has either reached its maximum production of oil or will within a few years, followed by an ever increasing decline in production as the resource is scrounged away.

At the same time total demand for oil will be rising.

Lower supply + higher demand = higher prices.

If we experience any really large drop in the value of the dollar, you can expect an immediate jump in oil prices.

some/ a lot of the price increases in gasoline come from refining bottlenecks, but they have to pass on the price of crude to the rest of us.