and I have to pay $3 a gallon for gas?

seems like most people here dont realize that oil resources are LIMITED, and there is no right for cheap petrol. if we continue to burn so much oil like today then there is nothing left in only 20 years. and belive me, prices for petrol will always go up.
also china and india has a growing demand of cars (and petrol), so less oil and higher prices for all the others. and i would be happy to pay 3$/gallon, because its arround 7$/gallon at home. at the moment i dont really need a car: move into the city and you have everything you want (friends, markets, bars, restaurants etc.) in walking distance. i only need the car if have to transport something heavy, filled it up 2 weeks ago and still enought petrol for 1 or 2 weeks!

(wonder how long it takes to get red rep. for this....)

 

Haven't you heard? People aren't so quick to red rep someone out of spite anymore since Shawn instituted the, "If you red rep someone, you lose a rep point yourself" system yesterday.

 

someone said it wasn't the petrol companies but the NYMEX that controls the price. how does the NYMEX control a 36 BILLION 2005 profit for Exxon? Remember, this is profit after cost of sale... and this is where the scrutiny lies. the most profitable year in history for some but costing many.

 

Just think, if Kerry were president, it would be, um, $3.50/gal... Food for thought.

Why not try and be part of the solution. High demand/low supply = higher prices. High school economics. I've been getting 45mpg all week. I like to think I am doing my part. Earth day is April 22nd, try walking, riding a bike, or a MOTORCYCLE.... Car pool.

It always amazes me how those driving the biggest fuel hogs, are the biggest complainers.

Lower demand, supply/surplus will be the result and the end result will be lower prices. Don't see anyone bitching about the ever increasing taxes and prices on other legal items.. cigarettes, booze, drugs (the legal ones), insurance!!!

 

It was me.

The price of oil is set by the market. Last I checked, selling oil is how exxon makes money.

The fact of the matter is the oil companies dont need you. I dont care how important you think you are in their eyes because at this point you dont matter. There will always be another market to sell their product, whether its you who buys it or not that doesnt matter. China would be happy to take it.

People whine and complain about record earnings for oil companies but during the early 90s when oil was dirt cheap no one complained they were making nearly nothing.

Welcome to the world of capitialism, where something is sold for what its worth, not what you think it should cost.

 

But that number has no meaning. Exxon had REVENUES of 332 Billion dollars in 2005. Ack - That is about a 10% profit margin! That is below average for a company. Compare that to Microsoft - they have a 31% profit margin. Yikes.

Funny. I didn't hear anyone willing to help oil companies when crude was $10 a barrel and they were losing money hand over fist...

 

YAY another trader.

Thats the point. So many people want to screw the oil companies over with extra taxes but didnt care to help when oil was dirt cheap.

 

Not to mention the fact that a large percentage of what you pay at the pump is boosted by local, state and federal taxes.

Gas, when you consider inflation, is about the same price as it was back in the 80's. Here is an experiment -> figure out how much you spent on gas in 2005 and divide it by your income. Now, do the same for 1985. I bet you anything the numbers will be very close to each other.

 

My God, what's happening? DP's "Politics" thread is suddenly full of people with common sense!

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

 

My Bad! I was allowing my judgement to be clouded by the facts

 

This is actually in the General Chat area. The stupidity hasn't left the Politics forum yet.

 

Just thought I would let you all know I pay 1.10 a litre and theres 4.4 litres to a gallon!

so that sucks!

 

It was bound to happen some day. We've not seen any input from CR yet, so there is hope yet that it will take a turn for the worse.

 

I dont understand why people are whining so much about high oil prices. If anyone is so much bothered about high oil prices he should stop using it... or atleast reduce the usage.

There are many reasons why oil prices are going up.

1. The average energy used by an individual keeps going up everyday as the world economy booms. People want more electricity and faster transport.

2. A new demand surge has been seen in the Asian region in the last decade. The demand for fuel from countries like China and India is increasing day by day. I remember there were hardly any cars in my neighbourhood in the 90s . Now there is a shortage of parking space. Those who were riding cycles have upgraded to bikes, bikers to cars and car owners want bigger cars now.

3. Prices of many commodoties are going up and making new highs everyday and this is how it is meant to be. COMMODITY PRICES ALWAYS GO UP iN THE LONG RUN DUE TO INFLATION FACTOR.

4. The exploration costs are going through the roof. There are always costs involved in oil exploration. If prices of commodites like steel and salaries of employees increase and success rate of explorations decrease, exploration companies want a bigger incentive for continuing explorations. In Indian stock markets , oil exploration companies have outperformed the oil producing and oil refining company stocks because of the emergence of an urgent need for oil explorations.

5. We have had little success with alternative fuels. In India , people are trying to use ethanol as an alternative fuel, but the problem is the energy required to produce and convert ethanol to usable form exceeds the energy given by ethanol. A country like Brazil where there is a large production of sugarcane can run its economy on a ethanol - a biproduct of sugar industries, but to grow sugarcane for ethanol doesnt seem to be economically viable right now.

6. There is not only a problem of oil production.. there is a bottleneck existing in the refining and oil transportation industry as well- hardly any refining or oil transportation facilities have been added in last one or two decades. This has made prices very sensitive to disruptions in supply.

 

That explains it! LOL. My bad.

 

You guys think $3 / gallon is a lot ?

Try living in the UK, we pay the equivalent of over $6/US gallon


(mind you, most of that goes to our government, not the Exxon boss!)

 

Understood, but do keep in mind you can drive the length of your country in a day.

 

Excellent first point and the rest of you post is spot on.

 

Urgh, it takes a day and a half just to get out of Texas.

 

Not if you are an illegal