Oil Is Plentiful, Demand Weak. Why Are Gas Prices Going Up?

Boy, I wish it was so simple as to stop driving. These guys are right, though. When demand falls, prices fall as well, but only to a point. At some level prices reverse course when the seller determines that demand will continue to be down for a long period of time.

As for abiotic theory, well, it hasn't been proven or seen in action yet, so it is just a theory. The situation on the ground that we as consumers are facing is that it is a limited and finite resource. Pragmatics rule here. The oil CARTELS (there I said it, let em get me... ) don't really care about how much Americans will pay. Hell we get the cheapest gas in the world for the most part.

I for one would love to go off grid and gas free. I even seriously considered bicycles and public transportation for a time, but when it takes 4 hours to go 17 miles on a bus and there are no bicycle safe routes between home and work -- only major highways -- then it makes it challenging. I am thinking about buying a small motorcycle or scooter, though. My little 91 Mazda 323 runabout gets fantastic mileage (35 or so), but it is becoming less mechanically sound as the days go by and Texas has already told me that the car will not pass air quality standards anymore.

Its funny that my car gets better mileage than some of the new ones but can't pass an emissions test.

reply to post by pieman


I am not sure why I gave you a star, probably because I was feeling generous.

I did not say anywhere in my posts that I do not take responsibility and don't lead from example. I find your post a little disrespectful, you couldn't be more wrong infact, not only are my partner and I turning our house in to a completely green eco friendly sustainable abode, we have also stopped our jaunts out to the country by care and we now concentrate more on our gardens. On top of all that we are in the middle of installign a self irrigation system aswell. Its all good.

Our weekly spend on fuel was $100 and now its down to $35.

We choose to fight the system, the system is all about money and debts if we can get out of the debt cycle then we have a chance. Its hard but we (my partner and I) will strive to succeed and we urge others to do the same.



[edit on 29-5-2009 by franspeakfree]

reply to post by franspeakfree


sorry, didn't mean to sound disrespectful, i just typed it real quick and posted but looking back i see how i could seem short. i really didn't mean it that way.

if you've bought your fuel bill down from $100 to $35 then you're a pretty good example of the possibilities. well done, that's a nice chunk. if everyone did the same then gas prices would have to drop because demand would drop by 50 or 60%. i think you've answered your own question.

There are certain things we cannot live without, and are willing to pay ultimate prices for. Oil, bread, water being some of the main things. In bad times, we are expected to pay for more, because they I guess pay more for them too. Its not your local petrol station, but more your local big huge company selling the stuff at inflated prices that is your problem.

The local petrol stations have almost no real control over prices apart from a few cents. Theres taxation, theres the all needed markup of the price in order to make a profit and etc.

If there are alternative forms of fuel out there, they have been bought out.. Thats why the only semi-free alternative source is solar which for the most part is expensive and pretty much sucks.

The big fuel companies own the money to dish around in order to stay in business and when your threatened with buyout and maybe even even a second option... Being killed, would you take the buy out? I most certainly would.

Its just like how life insurance companies are so successful... I mean honestly the only way you get money back is if you have an accident AND get killed, or maimed in a bad way in the process. Humans are designed to be anti-pain/main/death.

If you know of one single human who is so looking forward to dying, and has life insurance... And is still alive then id be surprised. Unfortunately the truth, and unfortunately I blah blah on ALOT ;9

This sounds like the restuarant in my old office building here in the UK.

The food was great to begin with, then they put up the price a little due to 'tax rises' , a few people stopped buying, so they put up the price a little more to conterbalance the people who weren't buying.
Then a few more people stopped, so up went the prices again.
More people stopped buying then the prices upped again, soon the restuarant went out of business.

The oil companies are the same, the economies are up sh*tcreek and people aren't buying unless they need to, as they are saving their money and not sure which way the economies will go. The petrol prices go up, and the people that are buying , have to spend a bit more to counterbalance the books to maintain the petrol companies absurd profit margins.
More people stop buying or look around where its cheaper, companies up their prices forcing more people to stop.
its called 'cutting off your nose to spite your face'


[edit on 29/5/09 by DataWraith]

Not that long back up to 70 oil tankers worldwide were anchored off coasts waiting on the oil prices to rise again before the docked.

Here is a link to the thread on ATS:

ATS Thread on Oil Tankers Anchored Off Coasts

reply to post by GreenBicMan


biotic theory violates the second law of thermodynamics , \

also you post BS , there was a very famous article in Wall Journal in 1999 about eugene oil field IN MEXICO , WHICH REFILLED , AND IT FOXED SCIENTISTS , ALSO THE OIL WAS OF A DIFFERENT GEOLOGICAL AGE .

However, several cracks have started to appear in the fossil fuel (and hence, the peak oil) theory: some oil fields seem to be re-filling almost as fast as they are being drained. The Wall Street Journal reported the case of Eugene Island 330, an oil field in the Gulf of Mexico, which hit peak production of 15,000 bpd, slowing to 4,000 a day by 1989.
"Then suddenly -- some say almost inexplicably -- Eugene Island's fortunes reversed. The field... is now producing 13,000 bpd, and probable reserves have rocketed to more than 400 mm barrels from 60 mm. Stranger still, scientists studying the field say the crude coming out of the pipe is of a geological age quite different from the oil that gushed 10 years ago."

Scientists observing the phenomenon say the oil field was being topped up from below, through a complex system of fissures and geological faults. According to Dave McGowan of the Centre for an Informed America, this is not news to Russian and Ukrainian scientists, who have published hundreds of academic papers on the abiotic origins of oil.
Western scientists have attempted to leap the evidentiary gulf by claiming that oil can be both organic and abiotic in origin, but not according to J.F. Kenney, an American who studied with the Russians and replicated in a laboratory the chemical processes occurring within the Earth's upper mantle.

Kenney says there are more than 80 oil and gas fields in the Caspian district alone, which were explored and developed using the abiotic oil theory. This supposedly helped Russia overtake Saudi Arabia as the world's largest producer of crude oil in 2004. Though evidence is hard to come by, Russian oil producers have reportedly struck oil at extreme depths, as much 40,000 feet below the Earth's surface. Western oil companies limit their exploration to a depth of six miles.
According to the abiotic theory, oil is present in abundance in the rocks below the Earth's surface, one just has to drill deep enough.

Some political commentators have invoked Campbell's hypothesis in an effort to explain the US foreign policy agenda in the Middle East and Venezuela, one of the world's leading oil producers. Once largely self-sufficient in oil, US production peaked in about 1970 and has been increasingly reliant on imports since then. Though the US denies the war in Iraq is about oil, the invasion script called for a quick victory, a friendly reception from Iraqis and a deluge of Iraqi oil on the world market. The Iraqi resistance blighted all of these prognostications.
McGowan imputes sinister motives to the oil companies' denial of the abiotic origins of oil: the creation of an artificial scarcity intended to boost prices and profits.
www.gasandoil.com...

next time get your facts straight

reply to post by marg6043


BINGO...

The SAME crooks and criminals that caused the EARLIER grotesque spiking of oil and gas prices are back at it again!

The same thugs that should have at the very least been reigned in and told how what they were doing was destroying the economy and people's ability to navigate (and in some cases run their businesses) are able to literally profiteer off of others strife.

This cycle of greed and control just keeps repeating itself over and over, with no oversight and accountability, and it will continue to do so until people either stand up en-masse against these greed-mongers, or until they are successful in destroying the entire system as we have known it.

Disgusting beyond words.

It is the shell game again. They burn people, then let them forget about being burned, then go right back to burning them. We have seen it in Wall Street, We see it in the Oil industry, we see it every where. Especially in politics.

People have a short memory.

If people wish to discuss the abiotic theory of oil there are plenty of threads in the oil forum to add to or even start a new one if you want.

Please get back to the topic.

Speaking of which, it's amazing to me how many Americans forget that there is a whole other world beyond their borders (and not just places to bomb either).

Demand for oil and gas has fallen in the US but it is still rising (only slower) in places like China and India. Hence the reason the price of a barrel has risen in recent weeks.
.

[edit on 29 May 09 by Gools]

Originally posted by DataWraith
This sounds like the restuarant in my old office building here in the UK.

The food was great to begin with, then they put up the price a little due to 'tax rises' , a few people stopped buying, so they put up the price a little more to conterbalance the people who weren't buying.
Then a few more people stopped, so up went the prices again.
More people stopped buying then the prices upped again, soon the restuarant went out of business.

Oh goody so by your logic the oil CARTEL will soon be out of business

Seriously it's all greed. Greed on the part of the oil producers. Demand goes up in the summer months. There as stated above is an increase do to population expansion and of course speculation.

So in a nutshell unless we all purchase bicycles this trend will continue and now that China and India have an increasing middle class expect this to only get worse in the very near future.

So demand may go down in the west while demand may be high elsewhere. Gone are the days of a lawnmowers and summer vacations boosting demand.



Time to start thinking globally.

The reason the fuel prices are so high is partly down to our government continuing to rob us with stupidly high tax lvls on fuel, and the fuel companies themselves gouging on price, the oil price per barrel is below half of last years highs and yet the price at the pump in the UK is nearly the same, even if you take and increase in fuel duty we had a month or two ago it seems to indicate that the fuel companies themselves are still gouging heavily now they have the chance.

reply to post by Kombatt98


Ok, so you are relating your whole theory on one article in the WSJ?

To answer your question, I dont know.. and I doubt you do either. Who knows what could have happened etc. all the variables involved with what you are referring to.

Why do you say Im posting BS?

Yours is just a theory until proven a law..

Mine is based on the last x amt. of years of trading

I will be totally civil about it though.

But answer my question please from my previous post.

With the population growing at a certain %, and oil demand growing exponentially in regards, even if oil could magically reproduce itself over and over again, according to the RULE OF 72 there is NO MATHEMATICAL SOLUTION OR PROBABILITY TO HAVE ENOUGH OIL TO LAST

So, lets just say oil does reproduce (which is certainly debatable) and since I am guessing you are not a geologist or scientist of any sort, how can you say that we will have enough oil to last us even 200 years?

**This of course stating that we have not found a new renewable resource to take the place of oil of course ****

reply to post by franspeakfree"Oil Is Plentiful, Demand Weak. Why Are Gas Prices Going Up?"

Greed! Plain and simple. There are greedy men running the oil business and it is greed and only greed that is making the price of gas go up.

reply to post by Kombatt98


Also, I would like to add:

Why do you think they need to continuously drill new locations if one location (or several for volume) is all you need?

Is it because it doesnt work this way everytime? I would suppose it would be, which makes this theory even more suspicious.

If you think companies would put in hundreds of millions of dollars into researching and drilling new wells, why wouldnt they just drill one and have it be worth xxxx amt. of millions of dollars and just sit on it and reap the benefits?

Like climbing mount Everest. Because "they" can.

reply to post by ReelView


Thats a terrible argument brother lol

2nd line

My dad got gas today and they put the decimal in the wrong place at the pump, so he only got charged 27 cents per gallon!

reply to post by GreenBicMan
Hi Honey

I knew I'd find you somewhere

You should ALWAYS listen to marg...she is wise beyond words! (see her awards!)

This is yet another attempt to drain us dry before the bottom of the "Titanic" gives out...

Geez...and like no one in their right mind can't see this...

BTW: My "Pool" of gold...it now has Nelly's, TI's, and Usher's Security's watching it

BTW: Rule numbers? What...you a Fergani???

[edit on 5/30/2009 by Hx3_1963]

The rise in oil prices may be related to a rise in the threat potential of a limited nuclear exchange. Recent science describes climate changes (nuclear winter) possibilities due to even a limited exchange due to the amount of soot generated and lofted into the stratosphere. LINK to Congressional report