The thing that amazes me most about gas prices shooting up overnight is this...the gas that's is in the ground at the gas station today is the same freaking gas that was in the ground at the gas station yesterday. They didn't have to pay more for the gas they sell today than the gas that they sold yesterday. If they're going to raise the price, it seems like they would wait until the delivery truck comes with the "more expensive" gas, then raise it to the new price. I will say that I am glad that diesel is still at $2.69 a gallon here. I filled my 27 gallon tank yesterday for $70.00.

 

Just heard on the radio that a BP refinery in Whitting IN had a 3/4" crack in a pipe and it started to leak finally causing the shutdown. They say the refinery will be back online this weekend and running at full power next week. Right now I am happy to live in the burbs. A BP in Chicago had prices 4.39-87, 4.49-89, and 4.59-93. If the man sees people are going to pay $5 a gallon I would not be suprised to see it next time a hurricane hits the gulf.

How high can prices go before we stop buying? I think most people would pay up to $10.

 

If it gets to $10 then it will be cost effecient to use other means.
Canada has billions of gallons of oil, but it is in sand. The cost to extract it from the sand then refine it is outrageous, but would be less than $10 a gallon. If it becomes profitable to start getting it, then canada will benefit, we can start relying on canada to supply us, it would be cheaper shipping, and canada has been our allies for years so they will be happy to take care of us intern making themselfs rich.

If it gets that high though, there are several alternative fuels that will also become cost effective. So essentialy the price does have a cap, oil companies don't want to risk hitting that mark where anything else will be cost effective, giving ground for thier competition to arise.

Your right, I think we as society would give $10 per galllon and deminish our quality of life in order to afford to buy it. No way I could afford to keep my boat, well I could keep it, just couldn't afford to use it! I'd have to convert it to ethanol and build my own still.

 

Theres plenty other sources of oil up here than just the sands. The cost to extract the oil is still high, but this is still a relatively new process that is far from perfected, as they figure out more efficent ways to do it the cost will come down dramatically. The oil sands to have advantages over off shore rigs as well, they can have as many staff on site as needed, no real threat from weather. As well no security risks as in Nigeria.

There are huge oil deposits in the Arctic and off the East coast, I think I read somewhere (dotn quote me on this) that there is more oil in North American territory than in the Middle East and Africa. Its just a matter of ignoring the tree hugging morons and extracting it. Plus if they would reopen the refineries they shut down and moved overseas there would be no problem supplying ourselves and telling OPEC to go f*ck themselves. If you look into it there is enough oil in Canada and the USA to last, well pretty much for as long as we need it.

Right now I have no choice but to pay what they want, and many others are in the same situation. And in reality, with what I save on insurance and payments with my truck it wouldnt make financial sense to buy a new small car/hybrid till it hits around $7 a gallon.

 

I think our goal is to drain the middle east, give them enough money to become a wealthy area in the process then they too will be addicted to petroleum. Then when they are dry, they will be forced to rely on us and thier own greed will have forced the prices up astronomical. We'll get our money back plus interest. Unfrortunatly it may not be in our lifetime though.

 

I figure just tell them to f off and stop buying theirs. Let them supply Russia, India, North Korea and China etc. When they run out then they will all be screwed.

 

just filled up... $89 exactly

 

Well, gas here (Omaha) has spiked to the 2nd highest in the nation, behind Hawaii. Since I run premium (I may drop back to the 87 perf tune) it's 3.49/gal. All from a refinery in Kansas that supplies 1% of the nations gas, but 14% of the gas in my area. If the US gets a hurricane in the gulf, whether it hits or not, I'm betting it will hit $4 easy.

Screw the tree huggers, and start drilling already!

 

Well, if that were the case, then workers being killed in Nigera, politcal situations in Iran, Iraq, Venezula, China's growing appetite, would have lots less impact on our gas prices.