posted by worksoftplayhard
How these "oil companies" act like the government and think we don’t know they are screwing us . . we can read . . surf the internet . . have
access to other gas prices . . I will not keep my mouth shut . . its all there for all to see . . this is not right . . in general the farther east
you live the less you pay. Westerners are being gouged . . where to I complain about stuff like this? What do ya all think??? [Edited by Don W]
1) The price of crude oil is set on the commodities market. Privately owned, operated as they will, we are subject to the vicissitudes of those buyers
and sellers. Since everyone is buying at the same price, it is not hard to imagine how everyone is selling at the same price, especially keeping in
mind the refining process and delivery system is also the same.
2) Crude oil is fungible, despite some being of higher quality than other. Brent and Nigerian sweet are two crude’s that will produce 80-90%
gasoline out of a 42 gallon barrel. Heavy crude oil may produce as little as 40-50% gasoline. The price of most of the world’s crude oil is pegged
to Brent. That is, Venezuelan crude may be 83.3% of Brent. Nigerian may be 105% of Brent, and etc. if you know the price of Brent, you can get the
price of any crude anywhere.
3) Despite my inclination to set or fix prices, and my disdain for monopolies, I am convinced we are getting retail gasoline at the lowest prices
commercially feasible. Also conceding the major producers do set prices so they can reap record profits in what may well be the last 2 decades of
freely available crude oil.
3.5) I suspect prices are directly proportional to the distance from the Persian Gulf, at least in the Western Hemisphere.
We may be paying 50 cents more a gallon that we’d pay if there were 20 free and independent oil companies instead of 5 or 6. We cannot change that,
they own the world and the world’s governments. But that is an open fact, not something that is secretly managed and operated by the Illuminati or
the CFR.
When it becomes apparent we have passed Peak Oil, that is, production will begin its inevitable decline just as consumption continues its inexorable
spiral upward, all the remaining crude will be nationalized.
[edit on 8/19/2006 by donwhite]