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What happened to gas prices?


Chester86

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It's unbelievable what the margin is around here. I bought gas at a Exxon station in Conroe on highway 105 for $1.639 last week. I get back to Sour Lake and see $1.899 & today $1.999. The jobbers are really putting it on Southeast Texans with the huge markups. I worked for a jobber and know what goes on and this is getting out of hand. Profit is great and I understand that but sometimes it seems we are just flat getting taken advantage of.
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I don't see how plant workers and their salaries are bothered at all by current crude oil prices no matter what they are. I had a friend in the business that just retired after about 35 years at a local plant and he said that when his unit was running at full capacity, in 2-3 days they ran enough product to pay all of the operators on that unit for a year. 

 

Prices are currently around $50 a barrel. That is $50 for 42 gallons of crude or about $1.19 a gallon.

 

That is when it leaves the ground. It has to be shipped, processed, had additives added to it, shipped again to a gas station and they get their final product. TX adds a 20 cent a gallon tax and the federal government adds another 18.4 cents. So we are paying a bit over 38 cents a gallon just for tax. 

 

That means you have a gallon of unrefined crude at $1.19 and 38¢ added by government or a total of $1.57 a gallon..... before you add in shipping at least twice, refining, additives, profit for the oil company and profit for the end seller. At $1.90 a gallon that least about 33¢ a gallon to ship, refine, ship, sell. 

 

How is a union worker (which I am not) adding much to the cost of a gallon of gasoline? I am guessing that maybe 5-10¢ a gallon goes to paying workers. If they worked for nothing, that would mean that a $1.90 a gallon of gasoline would go down to $1.85. 

 

I am just not seeing a strike or salaries as an issue. I might put a "scare" or a claim that a strike is out there to try and justify it in a public relations move but in reality worker's salaries have little to do with oil prices. When you consider that oil in crude form and taxes makes it $1.57 or so to start, that doesn't leave much to the shipping companies, workers, wholesalers, private stations, etc. Oil makes their money on volume. 

 

As a nation from all uses of oil, we consume almost a billion gallons a day. If I only make 10¢ per gallon profit, that is $100,000,000 a day profit or $30 billion a month. If I could sell that many cans of Campbell's Soup at Walmart a day (1 billion), I could make only 1¢ a can profit and still have almost $40 billion at the end of a year..... again, at 1¢ per can. 

 

Explain to me how hourly workers have anything to do with price other than a convenient blame game which is a fallacy? 

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I don't see how plant workers and their salaries are bothered at all by current crude oil prices no matter what they are. I had a friend in the business that just retired after about 35 years at a local plant and he said that when his unit was running at full capacity, in 2-3 days they ran enough product to pay all of the operators on that unit for a year. 

 

Prices are currently around $50 a barrel. That is $50 for 42 gallons of crude or about $1.19 a gallon.

 

That is when it leaves the ground. It has to be shipped, processed, had additives added to it, shipped again to a gas station and they get their final product. TX adds a 20 cent a gallon tax and the federal government adds another 18.4 cents. So we are paying a bit over 38 cents a gallon just for tax. 

 

That means you have a gallon of unrefined crude at $1.19 and 38¢ added by government or a total of $1.57 a gallon..... before you add in shipping at least twice, refining, additives, profit for the oil company and profit for the end seller. At $1.90 a gallon that least about 33¢ a gallon to ship, refine, ship, sell. 

 

How is a union worker (which I am not) adding much to the cost of a gallon of gasoline? I am guessing that maybe 5-10¢ a gallon goes to paying workers. If they worked for nothing, that would mean that a $1.90 a gallon of gasoline would go down to $1.85. 

 

I am just not seeing a strike or salaries as an issue. I might put a "scare" or a claim that a strike is out there to try and justify it in a public relations move but in reality worker's salaries have little to do with oil prices. When you consider that oil in crude form and taxes makes it $1.57 or so to start, that doesn't leave much to the shipping companies, workers, wholesalers, private stations, etc. Oil makes their money on volume. 

 

As a nation from all uses of oil, we consume almost a billion gallons a day. If I only make 10¢ per gallon profit, that is $100,000,000 a day profit or $30 billion a month. If I could sell that many cans of Campbell's Soup at Walmart a day (1 billion), I could make only 1¢ a can profit and still have almost $40 billion at the end of a year..... again, at 1¢ per can. 

 

Explain to me how hourly workers have anything to do with price other than a convenient blame game which is a fallacy? 

 

Good post...100% correct.

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I don't see how plant workers and their salaries are bothered at all by current crude oil prices no matter what they are. I had a friend in the business that just retired after about 35 years at a local plant and he said that when his unit was running at full capacity, in 2-3 days they ran enough product to pay all of the operators on that unit for a year.

Prices are currently around $50 a barrel. That is $50 for 42 gallons of crude or about $1.19 a gallon.

That is when it leaves the ground. It has to be shipped, processed, had additives added to it, shipped again to a gas station and they get their final product. TX adds a 20 cent a gallon tax and the federal government adds another 18.4 cents. So we are paying a bit over 38 cents a gallon just for tax.

That means you have a gallon of unrefined crude at $1.19 and 38¢ added by government or a total of $1.57 a gallon..... before you add in shipping at least twice, refining, additives, profit for the oil company and profit for the end seller. At $1.90 a gallon that least about 33¢ a gallon to ship, refine, ship, sell.

How is a union worker (which I am not) adding much to the cost of a gallon of gasoline? I am guessing that maybe 5-10¢ a gallon goes to paying workers. If they worked for nothing, that would mean that a $1.90 a gallon of gasoline would go down to $1.85.

I am just not seeing a strike or salaries as an issue. I might put a "scare" or a claim that a strike is out there to try and justify it in a public relations move but in reality worker's salaries have little to do with oil prices. When you consider that oil in crude form and taxes makes it $1.57 or so to start, that doesn't leave much to the shipping companies, workers, wholesalers, private stations, etc. Oil makes their money on volume.

As a nation from all uses of oil, we consume almost a billion gallons a day. If I only make 10¢ per gallon profit, that is $100,000,000 a day profit or $30 billion a month. If I could sell that many cans of Campbell's Soup at Walmart a day (1 billion), I could make only 1¢ a can profit and still have almost $40 billion at the end of a year..... again, at 1¢ per can.

Explain to me how hourly workers have anything to do with price other than a convenient blame game which is a fallacy?


https://www.editorsguild.com/LaborNews.cfm?LaborNewsid=15081
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I don't see how plant workers and their salaries are bothered at all by current crude oil prices no matter what they are. I had a friend in the business that just retired after about 35 years at a local plant and he said that when his unit was running at full capacity, in 2-3 days they ran enough product to pay all of the operators on that unit for a year. 
 
Prices are currently around $50 a barrel. That is $50 for 42 gallons of crude or about $1.19 a gallon.
 
That is when it leaves the ground. It has to be shipped, processed, had additives added to it, shipped again to a gas station and they get their final product. TX adds a 20 cent a gallon tax and the federal government adds another 18.4 cents. So we are paying a bit over 38 cents a gallon just for tax. 
 
That means you have a gallon of unrefined crude at $1.19 and 38¢ added by government or a total of $1.57 a gallon..... before you add in shipping at least twice, refining, additives, profit for the oil company and profit for the end seller. At $1.90 a gallon that least about 33¢ a gallon to ship, refine, ship, sell. 
 
How is a union worker (which I am not) adding much to the cost of a gallon of gasoline? I am guessing that maybe 5-10¢ a gallon goes to paying workers. If they worked for nothing, that would mean that a $1.90 a gallon of gasoline would go down to $1.85. 
 
I am just not seeing a strike or salaries as an issue. I might put a "scare" or a claim that a strike is out there to try and justify it in a public relations move but in reality worker's salaries have little to do with oil prices. When you consider that oil in crude form and taxes makes it $1.57 or so to start, that doesn't leave much to the shipping companies, workers, wholesalers, private stations, etc. Oil makes their money on volume. 
 
As a nation from all uses of oil, we consume almost a billion gallons a day. If I only make 10¢ per gallon profit, that is $100,000,000 a day profit or $30 billion a month. If I could sell that many cans of Campbell's Soup at Walmart a day (1 billion), I could make only 1¢ a can profit and still have almost $40 billion at the end of a year..... again, at 1¢ per can. 
 
Explain to me how hourly workers have anything to do with price other than a convenient blame game which is a fallacy?


https://www.editorsguild.com/LaborNews.cfm?LaborNewsid=15081
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I don't see how plant workers and their salaries are bothered at all by current crude oil prices no matter what they are. I had a friend in the business that just retired after about 35 years at a local plant and he said that when his unit was running at full capacity, in 2-3 days they ran enough product to pay all of the operators on that unit for a year. 
 
Prices are currently around $50 a barrel. That is $50 for 42 gallons of crude or about $1.19 a gallon.
 
That is when it leaves the ground. It has to be shipped, processed, had additives added to it, shipped again to a gas station and they get their final product. TX adds a 20 cent a gallon tax and the federal government adds another 18.4 cents. So we are paying a bit over 38 cents a gallon just for tax. 
 
That means you have a gallon of unrefined crude at $1.19 and 38¢ added by government or a total of $1.57 a gallon..... before you add in shipping at least twice, refining, additives, profit for the oil company and profit for the end seller. At $1.90 a gallon that least about 33¢ a gallon to ship, refine, ship, sell. 
 
How is a union worker (which I am not) adding much to the cost of a gallon of gasoline? I am guessing that maybe 5-10¢ a gallon goes to paying workers. If they worked for nothing, that would mean that a $1.90 a gallon of gasoline would go down to $1.85. 
 
I am just not seeing a strike or salaries as an issue. I might put a "scare" or a claim that a strike is out there to try and justify it in a public relations move but in reality worker's salaries have little to do with oil prices. When you consider that oil in crude form and taxes makes it $1.57 or so to start, that doesn't leave much to the shipping companies, workers, wholesalers, private stations, etc. Oil makes their money on volume. 
 
As a nation from all uses of oil, we consume almost a billion gallons a day. If I only make 10¢ per gallon profit, that is $100,000,000 a day profit or $30 billion a month. If I could sell that many cans of Campbell's Soup at Walmart a day (1 billion), I could make only 1¢ a can profit and still have almost $40 billion at the end of a year..... again, at 1¢ per can. 
 
Explain to me how hourly workers have anything to do with price other than a convenient blame game which is a fallacy?


When gas speculation uses things like strikes, natural disasters, wars in other countries, terrorist attacks, economy, etc. to try and guess the availability of oil in the future, prices are often driven up needlessly. Because oil MAY become tougher to come by due to this strike, we're paying an extra $0.30 a gallon NOW. Of course, if the strike doesn't play out, it will take much longer than 3 days for the price of gas to drop, if it even does.
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No, he is correct  and so are you.  Russia , Venezuela, and Iran are the most heavily hit by the oil price drop.

 

I know they're the three countries which take the worst hits. What I'm saying is that Iran and Venezuela are probably just lagniappe. I'd be willing to bet the primary target here was Russia. There have been a lot of policy articles lately citing rumors that the US convinced the Saudis to increase production with the aim of sending the ruble into the ground.

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When gas speculation uses things like strikes, natural disasters, wars in other countries, terrorist attacks, economy, etc. to try and guess the availability of oil in the future, prices are often driven up needlessly. Because oil MAY become tougher to come by due to this strike, we're paying an extra $0.30 a gallon NOW. Of course, if the strike doesn't play out, it will take much longer than 3 days for the price of gas to drop, if it even does.


Yes, that is commodity speculation. It is almost like day trading and trying to guess future prices.

Worker's salary and benefits have very little to do with the cost of gasoline at th pump.

That was my only point.
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I know they're the three countries which take the worst hits. What I'm saying is that Iran and Venezuela are probably just lagniappe. I'd be willing to bet the primary target here was Russia. There have been a lot of policy articles lately citing rumors that the US convinced the Saudis to increase production with the aim of sending the ruble into the ground.

 

I'm sure the Saudi's don't mind sticking it to the Iranians either.

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I'm sure the Saudi's don't mind sticking it to the Iranians either.

China has pretty much anchored Russia's economy, it won't be collapsing anytime soon, they won't let it. But Venezuala was teetering on economic disaster, this short plummet of oil prices pushed them over the edge. And as soon as it did prices go back up, that's not a coincidence.
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