Have gas prices affected you?

[Cyclefrance]

All the news from an energy market info provider on post-Katrina developments in this market- access may only work for a short time, but good while it lasts (one of the bonuses of working in the bulk liquids/petroleum freight markets)

[Griff]

Thanks for the linky. Anything in particular we should look at?

I'm gonna try to ride the bike to work at least once this week to save fuel, but things are gonna be complicated with school starting.

[russotto]

87 octane in the Collegeville area is 3.24 (Wawa), 3.25 (Getty) to 3.35 for the majors. No shortages, though, I presume because there's a lot of refining capacity reasonably local. Finally, a reason to be thankful for Southwest Philadelphia.

Be nice if I could ride my bike to work, but I think 13+ miles across the Mt. Misery area would probably result in medical bills (knee, hip) higher than the gas savings.

[LCanal]

I’m in China for a few weeks here gas is 4 RMB or 50 cents a litre or $1.89 a gallon.

They have many ways of trying to save. Not all make sense to foreigners, things like coasting down hills on the freeway, having wipers on intermittent even in a down pour.

Some shut the engine off at traffic lights but VW toyed with that some years ago with the engine shutting off if at standstill and idle for more than 6 secs, I believe, and the starter linked to the gas pedal so restarts were done automatically. So that is not new.

I was thinking about the coasting bit and some European cars in the 50’s and 60’s had a selectable coasting feature built in Rover and Saab come to mind. So it follows that Chinese cars should have that feature. But of course they have copied later American, Japanese or European designs and not added that feature.

Where I am there are not many cars and mostly I see people on 50 to 90cc scooters and of course on bicycles.

Buick is big here apparently because at some time in the past and Emperor or someone in a similar position had his picture taken next to his favourite car which was a Buick.
Mostly I see lots of Audi’s , VW Passats and little Suzuki Karimuns (spelling)

That’s the gas report from China.

[Cyclefrance]

Originally Posted by Griff

Thanks for the linky. Anything in particular we should look at?

The main thing about the market info providers is that they take a lot of the hype out of news and just concentrate on facts that have the power to affect or are actually affecting the oil price. They are therefore a bit cold as reading material (you won't find information here about the human aspect of this terrible disaster), but if you follow the latest stories you will get a feel as to how the situation is progressing purely from an oil and energy perspective, nothing more, hence the reason for putting it here rather than any other thread. If something either positive or negative happens regarding supply and its ability to move the price one way or another, you will get the lowdown here first.

As the providers make their money from giving this service to the market I don't expect it to last that long. With the markets shut at weekends, news tends to slow down then and pick up during the working days.

I'll repeat the news link from time to time for ease of reference, and in case not bookmarked.

Katrina: oil market news link

[capnhowdy]

good news for Georgians.......

.ATLANTA – Governor Sonny Perdue announced today that Georgia consumers will be exempt from the state motor fuel tax through the end of September. The Governor signed an Executive Order calling for a temporary moratorium on state collection of all motor fuel taxes, which will go into effect at midnight tonight.

excerpted from www.gov.state.ga.us
We should see a 15 cents/gal decrease in prices at the pump this morning, which will make our average price in my town $2.85 - $2.89 per gallon.

Maybe other states' governors will follow suit. If he runs for re-election he's probably got his ground work done for a shoo-in. But that's another thread.

[Cyclefrance]

Thought a comparison might be interesting

Vehicle: VW Passat 1.9 GT estate - 1989 - approx 184,000 miles on clock
Trip this morning (12 miles): mainly country roads but some commuter traffic
UK MPG as per on board computer: 44.8
UK gallons/USGallon: 0.83267
Equivalent miles/per USG:37.3
Price of UK fuel today:£0.91 per litre
Litres/USGallon:3.786
Equivalent price £ per USG:£3.45
$/£ exchange rate (interbank):1.8344
Equivalent $/US Gallon:$6.32
Equivalent $/mile:$0.17 (17 cents/mile)

How does that compare with $/mile for US vehicles given higher consumption and relatively lower fuel cost?

Fuel at $3.00. USGallon and consumption of 18 MPG (US) gives 17 cents/mile - no difference(!) but think what you could be saving if you paid US price but achieved 37.3 MPG (US) - i.e. 8 cents/mile!

Katrina news link

[itsjulie]

I just paid $3.19 yesterday - $40 to fill my tank.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

It does make me glad I drive a four-banger sedan -- though we still pay California prices for gasoline. In its wisdom, Sacramento has banned the sale, in-state, of diesel passenger cars, seeking to forestall pollution. I keep looking harder at hybrids...

[Cyclefrance]

Prices starting to ease:

Signs of life at US Gulf refineries
FLARES have been lit above five of eight refineries along the US Gulf Coast that were closed by Hurricane Katrina - indicating the facilities are preparing to restart. And industry sources say at least four of the facilities will be back online this week. Marathon Petroleum began restart procedures yesterday at its 245,000 bpd refinery in Garyville, Louisiana. Electrical power has been restored at Valero Energy's 185,000 bpd St Charles facility and hopes are to resume production tomorrow. Several other refineries are struggling with repairs and some leaks, but managers are optimistic about an early restart. Chevron said yesterday that damage to its 325,000 bpd Pascagoula, Mississippi refinery "was not catastrophic." But company executives will not make predictions on reopening as they are still trying to locate employees evacuated during the storm. Meanwhile oil and gasoline prices are dropping today on world markets as the energy industry continues to stabilise. Light sweet crude oil for October delivery fell $0.79 by midday in Europe to $66.78 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, which was closed yesterday for the Labor Day holiday. It closed Friday at $67.57 a barrel. Unleaded gas was down just over four cents to $2.14 a gallon, while heating oil was down nearly three cents to $2.063 a gallon.

[Elspode]

Transportation and distribution issues will keep this from lowering pump prices very much. Result? More profit for the oil companies.

This will be the result of pretty much anything that happens, in fact. Laws of supply and demand do not apply to energy prices anymore. That is to say, things that push prices *downward* for everything else affected by Supply and Demand don't apply to energy. Anything that pushes prices upward does, however.

[capnhowdy]

even with the state tax lifted our gas hasn't went down but maybe 5-6 cents per gal. The other 10 cents is going somewhere... my guess is the oil companies. Oh well.

[russotto]

Originally Posted by Elspode

Laws of supply and demand do not apply to energy prices anymore. That is to say, things that push prices *downward* for everything else affected by Supply and Demand don't apply to energy. Anything that pushes prices upward does, however.

The word for that situation is "bubble". However, I don't expect this one to burst until 2008.

[Kitsune]

$4.50/gal by this weekend. Here we go!

[plthijinx]

if you can find it here. places are selling out left and right. i filled up last night and today i took my g/f's car to work to top it off but couldn't find a station with fuel.