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Post by farmboy on Mar 16, 2006 8:50:31 GMT -5
GOUGE TIME AGAIN!! I filled up on Monday @ $2.15......48 hours later it jumps up to $2.39....and I haven't read any word about increases in the crude oil prices going up!! Apparently the domestic FAT CATS want to see if they can beat the profit records they set last Fall!! Is this what's happening in your neck-of-the-woods too?
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Post by Mike on Mar 16, 2006 9:18:24 GMT -5
GOUGE TIME AGAIN!! I filled up on Monday @ $2.15......48 hours later it jumps up to $2.39....and I haven't read any word about increases in the crude oil prices going up!! Apparently the domestic FAT CATS want to see if they can beat the profit records they set last Fall!! Is this what's happening in your neck-of-the-woods too? They're getting an early start on Hurricane season! $2.49 here in DFW. I keep wondering at what point they will be able to afford to refine more fuel? Aforementioned "Fat Cat":
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Post by featphoto on Mar 16, 2006 9:41:41 GMT -5
GOUGE TIME AGAIN!! I filled up on Monday @ $2.15......48 hours later it jumps up to $2.39....and I haven't read any word about increases in the crude oil prices going up!! Apparently the domestic FAT CATS want to see if they can beat the profit records they set last Fall!! Is this what's happening in your neck-of-the-woods too? yep ... price at the station at the bottom of my hill (West Warwick, RI) was $2.23 a couple of days ago ... saw it last night and it had jumped to $2.45. I guess the oil companies didn't make enough on our heating oil 'cause of the warm Winter ...
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Post by Scott Hays on Mar 16, 2006 11:14:29 GMT -5
... But the top executives of the major oil companies all sat in front of an "angry" Senate panel yesterday ... mostly with smiles on their faces ... and patiently explained that their record profits ($36 billion for Exxon Mobil, alone)were not the result of price gouging, collusion, or monopolistic practices. No! (emphasis on a long drawn out "nooooooo" with a sharp bold faced exclamation mark at the end) ... in this modern world of dwindling resources in harder and harder to get places, it takes a very large, very rich, very centralized group of companies to do the work because ma and pa just can't get the expensive equipment and high tech trained guys out there (down there, under there, up there ... take your pick; they're all very far away and inaccessible) to find the black gold. And as if that isn't enough, the price of wholesale gasoline may be $1.66 -- the price before distribution and retailing are added -- at least $1.43 of that is accounted for by the price of crude oil. This leaves just $.23 per gallon to cover the risky costs of refining. Obviously, these good men patiently explained, this leaves only a "few cents" that can be accounted for by the concentration of refiners.
Okay ... so they explained why monopolies were "good", and why distribution and retailing (marketing/advertising) adds $1.00 per gallon (at least)
But they never answered the question(s) about the bloated profits ... if the difference between all costs to acquire, produce and distribute the stuff from the ultimate price at the pump results in a $36 billion profit (not exactly chump change, I might add), then maybe someone is doing something to add just a few pennies here and there to the final cost.
At least that's the way it looks to me.
But not to our "tough" Senate panel, who asked "tough" questions, actually swore the suits in this time, and were not as deferential as they were the last time they asked basically the same questions.
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Post by Mike on Mar 16, 2006 12:23:34 GMT -5
Drilling activity here around Texas is such that there is a loooong waiting list to contract a drilling rig. The world's largest gas field has recently been discovered running north and south through the middle of Tejas! It looks like the 80's during the last "oil boom" (before Reagan did his "Wall Street" thing with American independent crude oil). Since 1974 there has been ONE "attempt" to build another refinery in the entire country. I say "attempt" because the majors threatened to ruin the banking institutions that were going to finance it...and they pulled their support! Do you think they might be manipulating the market?!?
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Post by chadgumbo on Mar 16, 2006 17:32:57 GMT -5
I left the country for a week on March 4th. The price was $2.23 at that time. When I returned on the 11th it was $2.33, and yesterday it went to $2.45 here in Rochester. Here we go again.
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Post by Mike on Mar 16, 2006 19:28:56 GMT -5
I left the country for a week on March 4th. Hey..the gangs all here! I even noticed Jashley logged in as I type this.
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