There is plenty of oil, it's the refineries that are not operating, causing the spike and short supply.

 

Same here. I live on the KY/TN border in TN. I go up across the border about 10 miles away to get gas at a Shell station. They shut the station down before Ike even made landfall. When I went there they had yellow police tape around the whole station, and the gas nozzles were wrapped up in bags. I guess they didn't want to take part of the gouging like all of the other gas stations are doing.

 

Yup. Like I've been saying, your wrath should NOT be directed at the retailers - go hammer on the wholesalers for jacking the price up. If I owned a gas station and my supplier wanted $5.06 a gallon I'd probably take a vacation too.

 

If I'm a retailer and I paid 3.25 for my current inventory and I'm selling it for 3.55. I'm told that my next load will cost me 4.25, and I know if I pay 4.25 for that next load, it may drop before I can sell all of it. What am I supposed to do, just to break even?

 

Has anyone found anything in the media yet that makes sense? I'd REALLY like to know exactly WHERE, BY WHOM, and WHY the wholesale prices jumped so drastically. SOMEONE is making a killing at our expense.

Let's see. There's plenty of oil. There's plenty of refined gasoline stocks at the terminals. There's plenty of pipelines to move product around. Yes, I know that there's probably 20 different EPA-mandated regional blends, and certain refineries refine certain blends, but Bush has suspended the regulations temporarily. The ONLY deficiency I see right now is a lot of refineries TEMPORARILY shut down.

Here in Joplin, all our gas comes out of Oklahoma and Kansas. There aren't any refineries over there shut down. Why has OUR gas gone up 30 cents since last week?

 

Because they are allowed to charge whatever the consumer is willing to pay.

Sucks for us, but they're in business to make money and have a highly sought after product. Charge more = more money! Until the government steps in and says that's not ok, it'll continue to happen.

I guess if i were in business and knew I could keep increasing prices with no repercussions, I'd do it too.

 

The consumer doesn't have a choice.

 

The point is that the oil industry has weathered countless storms over the decades without hiking prices. Why, with even the slightest threat of a major storm, do they need to do it now?

 

They don't need to but the consumer is screwed so they do it because they can. One of those, lets fill our pockets while we can deals.

 

We really don't. I buy it at whatever the cost. Gas is kinda like air, I can do without it, but only for so long...

 

north fla is bumping around $3.90/$4.10 gal. what i love is the fact when i get to the pump these people that line up behind me. I've got a 25 gallon tank and three 5-gallons im filling up. its going to be a while before you guys get a turn

 

Got back into town late last night. The Conoco that is holding at 3.55 was already closed, so filled up at the Texaco for 3.69. Most of them are at 3.69, up about 30 cents.

 

The bubble is starting to deflate. Prices are starting to go back down.

http://www.gasbuddy.com/

 

$4.27 in Columbus about a hour out of Atlanta, GA but its starting to go down a bit, but i was total bs

 

JohnWade:

This may turn out to be Urban Legend, but my wife heard on the radio that there is one primary supplier of gasoline products in Georgia (maybe Florida too) and that this supplier has 3 months supply of automotive gasoline.

Prices in my area of Atlanta are all in the $4.15 to $ 4.25 area and have not gone down hardly at all since Friday/Saturday.

What is even more interesting is that every BP and Shell station in about a 10 mile radius have been shut down for gasoline sales for several days now.

Those who live near or work at a refinery or distribution point for fuel products would know more than I but I understand that most all gasoline products come from a single source in a given area. That is to say, you would have fuel trucks from maybe 10 different brands filling up at the same distribution point. I assume the tankers mix their own additives or maybe the distributor can do this in the case where Shell, for example, says their gas is different than BP.

Maybe BP and Shell just decided to wait out the price spike and won't buy gasoline until the wholesale price goes down.

In any case, Sonny Purdue had better trade his white hat for a black hat and go after these guys if gouging can be proven.

Bill