I just paid 3.03 this morning in Fairfax/Burke.

 

$3.24 posted at most local stations this morning

 

It is over $3 per gallon here in Avon, Indiana (just west of Indianaopolis).

This is the only negative aspect of owning a MINI!

 

By BilboBagins, If we could just get those SUVs off the roads there would be plenty of fuel to go 'round. Maybe we should have the military come home and start blowing up SUVs It could be considered your national duty to dispose of an SUV every day until the scourge of the earth is wiped out.

Soon they won't be able to give them away!


Gee, I can't think of any negative aspects or owning a MINI :smile:

 

Well at lunch today I filled up my MC, gas was $2.699 a gallon. Now we have lines on base and regular is costing $2.599. Outside the gate premium is now over $3.00. I hear that gas supplies for the east coast are going to dwindle because the plants down in the gulf have curtailed production down to 50%. I hope it just doesn't get to crazy. My hearyt really goes out to those down south...


Art

 

Our office manager just sent this around:



The possibility of a major run-up in gas prices might not be the only thing Hampton Roads vehicle owners need to worry about over the next week.

The pipeline that supplies gasoline to Hampton Roads and the rest of the East Coast from the Gulf of Mexico is shut down, and it will only partially reopen by this weekend. Gas stations that get their supplies at one local terminal connected to the Colonial Pipeline are already facing restrictions on how much gas they can buy.

The loss of full access to the Colonial Pipeline is a reprise from Hurricane Isabel, when loss of that supply led to shortages in the region. But instead of a spur of the pipeline from Richmond to Hampton Roads being closed, a huge swath of the area where the pipeline is fed with the region's gas supply was heavily damaged Monday by Hurricane Katrina.

The flooding and loss of power in the Gulf of Mexico area clobbered by the hurricane means the operator of the Colonial Pipeline doesn't know when it will become fully operational again. The pipeline was closed from Houston to Greensboro on Monday.

"We are able to continue our operations north of Greensboro at a reduced rate," said Steve Baker, spokesman for Colonial.

But once the remaining oil and gas in the pipeline north of Greensboro is shipped, terminals supplied by Colonial must ration what they have stored on-site until at least the weekend. As a result of potential shortages, early Tuesday morning the terminal at Chesapeake slapped restrictions on what stations like Miller Mart can buy.

"We're having trouble getting products," said Adam Jones, who manages the Chesapeake terminal operations of Eagle Transport, a gas distribution company. Gas stations' distributors were allowed to get a fraction of what the stations usually buy from suppliers like Exxon from the pipeline.

Jones and Rick Gechter, the director of marketing for Compass Energy, a Virginia Beach-based supplier of natural gas to industrial customers in Hampton Roads, heard it could be a week before the region gets a steady supply back.

"There's a lot of uncertainty out there presently because no one knows when the refineries are going to reopen or the pipeline is going to reopen," said Michael O'Connor, president of the Virginia Petroleum Convenience and Grocery Association.

The Yorktown Refinery, which is owned by Arizona-based Giant Industries, is the only refinery in Virginia. The state is also supplied with gas from the Colonial Pipeline, which feeds terminals in Richmond, Roanoke and three in Hampton Roads.

The Plantation Pipeline also runs from the Gulf Coast through Richmond to Northern Virginia. Both pipelines were down Tuesday. It is not clear how much of a supply is left at the terminals or how long they will last without supply from Colonial, which still is shipping a reduced amount of gas.

Gas prices in Hampton Roads averaged almost $2.57 early Tuesday, a drop of almost a penny from Monday. But the region's prices are still 33 cents higher than a month ago and 77 cents from a year ago at the same time.

While it is unclear how much prices will escalate in Hampton Roads in the near-term, gas retailers nationwide are facing increases of 15 to 30 cents a gallon. The increases, which will be passed to consumers, could get worse in areas supplied by the pipeline if there isn't enough gas coming from elsewhere to replace it.

"Between the run-up in crude and the Colonial being down, a shortage of product generally means an increase in price," said John Stokes, manager of the Yorktown Refinery.

Stokes, who was out of town on vacation, said that when restrictions are put on gas at the terminals, Yorktown gets very busy. Customers who might get two loads of gas a week might ask for two loads a day, so the refinery starts putting on restrictions, too.

"That protects our good customers from our marginal customers," said Stokes.

In the meantime, Gechter's industrial customers are frantically trying to decide if they need to power their facilities with natural gas. But that commodity is also imperiled and reaching record prices because of Hurricane Katrina.

President Bush has said he is considering releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to ensure sufficient crude oil supply. But many analysts said the refineries can still get the oil they need, even with the shutdown of oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Stokes said Yorktown mostly gets its oil shipped in on barges from the North Sea, so it has no problems.

The question is whether there is enough gas on the market coming from the refineries themselves. Many of those refineries in the path of Hurricane Katrina shut down, removing supplies of finished gas from the market.

With the closed pipelines compounding the problem, the East Coast may be in a scramble over the next week to get more supply. Stokes said Northeast refineries and shipments from overseas might pick up the slack as shortages develop.

"If I had a refinery in a place like Trinidad, I would be getting my barge loaded as fast as I can to take advantage of the high prices," said Stokes

 

The highest price I see in here is $3.49 (93) almost $.50 jump in a day.

 

I'm sure the big boys up in Exxon and Shell's corporate offices are just rubbing their greedy grimy little hands together in joy over this sweet opportunity....the media has us expecting $4 a gallon anytime, the stations already have us used to $2.70.....we're sitting ducks. The only limit to the prices we pay, and profit they make, is just how high their imaginations can go. Just think, with all this talk the past few months of low supply and not enough refineries and high price per barrel, Exxon had a 38% increase in income over the same quarter last year.

I truly believe down in the fiery pits, there's a special corner reserved for oil executives.

 

gas here in TN just hit $3.00 for regular....

thats about a 40 to 50 cent jump in 1 day... glad I bought gas monday! Also quick aside on monday I pulled up to the pump and there was nobody infront of be and nobody behind me and there was $20 prepaid! I was like woohoo! filled my tank about 3/4... went to the next station and filled up completely

-Josh

 

As a practicing economics professor, I must protest at the title of this thread--price gouging certainly occurs, but it's extremely rare and is seen primarily in very "thin" markets with few buyers and sellers. Gasoline is not such a market, and while there might be local and regional monopoly power creating higher prices, near-monopolists are not immune to all market forces. The foreseeable increases in gasoline prices are almost certainly the consequence of market forces rather than price gouging.
Lucky we have MINIs and not Hummers, though!

cheers,
philip

 

I am looking for a day to fueling up with hydrogen isn't far away....

 

I see price difference ($.40 difference) between gas stations within 1 miles. That is price gouging.

 

those local gas stations making more profit off of the media is just sick.

 

No it is not gouging it is free market....Supply and demand....Why does everyone like the free market and the way supply and demand works when It gets them cheap goods and services but whenever half the world tries to fill their tanks to the brim on the same day, we get upset?

 

What he said. Further, the news today CLEARLY said if you feel there is price "gouging" at local stations, to report them to your states Attorney General because, for the most part, its against the law.

Further, IGNORE all this alarmist crap. Whenever there is human tragedy, some people just love to go around prediciting doom and gloom.... Oh .... WOE IS ME.

Just ignore them. It don't matter what the price of gas maybe cause you WILL pay it.

Just think back to about 1968 ... could you ever imagine paying $1.64 for gas??????????

 

And you SHOULD report that to your states attorney general because what is the reasoning behind such a jump?

Dont be passive and just complain, go do something about it

 

--I dunno Gandini, I mean it really seems like the barrel of oil they bought last week has only gone up in price in the form of gasoline due to how much the competition is raising their price, NOT by the rate of which next week's oil barrell will cost. I wouldn't say it isn't price gouging, but rather it is legal price gouging. The cost of refining this oil hasn't changed in the past week, nor has the price of oil raised to the point that a $0.50 raise per gallon is neccesary for their survival or even to stay profitable. They are simply taking the opportunity to gouge us while the "perceived" oil crisis is happening.

I think the only market forces at hand is gas stations and oil companies taking advantage of any and all perceived nationwide shortages.

So WHAT if the east coast has an oil shortage? I live in Hawaii where the oil comes from Australia, Indonesia and the Middle East. Why are our gas prices going up because of Katrina? We take virtually NO oil from any of those southern or eastern regions.

Why do we have to pay more suddenly?

It's because there is a "perceived" shortage and this opens an opportunity for the oil companies to exploit us. So they do it. Because the government hasn't stepped in to monitor or regulate this. Because the Bush administration is heavily involved with oil companies. Because they've gotten us "used to" higher gas prices.

Because they CAN.

Sorry everybody but as good gas mileage as the Mini gets you'll still get no sympathy from me for those poor billionaire oil families.

--pyratio

 

I thought politics was taboo. Whatever happened to SUV slamming, thats more fun

 

Those gas stations should be punished!!!

 

We will see $5000 or $10000 rebate from the big 3 soon.

 

Living here on the Gulf Coast, I’m well aware of the shortages the storm we down here just went through may cause. The further away from the source you are more likely you will fill the crunch and of course higher prices.

I paid $2.80 this morning and there was a $20 limit. Those hummers will be filling up every couple hours with the $20 limit – not funny, but it is.

As the waters recede the processing will resume because there are a number of refineries along the coast not just the New Orleans area. The refineries may have shut down because of the storm, but the gulf is calm now and there isn’t a reason fuel can’t be processed. It may not be to the total capacity before the storm, but there’s no reason for the oil companies to gouge prices (though they will) or cause shortage panics.

If you think all oil production comes out of New Orleans in the Gulf area, then you’re buying in to their BS. From Texas to Florida there are many ports to take on tankers to process oil other than New Orleans.

I do expect the prices to go up, but not because they have too, it’s your friendly oil companies seeing another opportunity to suck more money out of your gullible pockets.

 

Ok I did use the wrong word I should have titled this thread Legal Gas Profiteering. I was just annoyed at the sudden escalation of the price of gas.

Art

 

NO ... it really is funny

I got neighbors talking about $90 to fill their tanks

sad .... gotta go down and take out a loan to get some gasolineeeeee

 

$3.16 at my regular place today.

But... Will it continue to go up and up?

 

$4 for 93 octone by 9/5 Labor Day.

then a small drop