Why Is Gasoline So Pricey?

Its politicians fault. People with ethanal ego and connections with relatives and buddies who owns lands where they can make profit from planting corns around the midwest are making a somesort of connections with politicians with bribe money to make more money by letting gas complanies to raise the price of gallons in the US to make their pockets get ever deeper b/c they are politicians and we are the lab rats.

You paint a very dim view of the political system my friend.

supply is low because of difficulties recently in refining (fires as well as political turmoil in Africa) and demand is increasing because of the summer driving season.

Hello there from sunshiny Portugal, EU!

You guys at the US are not so bad... as a matter of fact you're lucky to have medium gas prices.

Here in Portugal 1 Galon (3.785 Litres) of gasoline (plumbless 95 octanes) costs $ 7.12 (€ 5.18)!!!

That's why big engines and big cars are only kept by the luckiest ($$$)!

I have a '86 Mercedes-Benz E-Class 200 D (W124) which has a very reliable and economic 121.86ci 4-cylinder Diesel engine - I make an average fuel consumption of 49 mpg.

Here in Portugal we have a (theoretical) liberalized gas market, in which the gas companies compete with each other to give the best gas prices to the final customers.

I whish I was in the US, riding a big engine Muscle Car!

Thanks,
CARLOS ;-D

Prices fluctuate according to supply and demand as in the case of all commodities. However, I have noticed that prices are always quick to rise on the weakest excuse and are very slow to recover once the excuse has disappeared. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that something devious is going on. The question is: who do you blame?

...Other than that, gas has no reason to be expensive."

That isn't really true. Development costs for new fields are progressively increasing simply because of increased infrastructure needs due to more remote locations and increased utilization of high-technology solutions to reduce risk and increase productivity. In addition, increased refining must be made available for the increasingly heavier crudes that are being produced.

A single well in the Gulf of Mexico can cost $100 million.

In addition, I don't know where you are getting your information, but they are completely full of it. In fact 2 orders of magnitude off. There are around depending upon who you talk to 2.2 trillion BBLs of conventional oil in the world [Total]. At the present rates consumption per decade is 310 billion BBL [likely to increase]. Of course this excludes non-conventional sources such as tar sands and oil shale, which are significant, but not yet developed to the point of efficient extraction of their heavy oils.

...and when they talk about "reserves" they DO NOT mean extracted oil, i.e. BBLs at surface. They mean oil in the ground. This applies to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as a whole as well. The oil is contained within washed out salt domes.

Yes - it is about supply and demand, plus some gouging that goes on.

In today's high prices, the problem is with REFINING. Usage has fallen, and production has been constant.

Just watch a little CNBC for a change folks.

There are a lot of factors, but we the consumer are most to blame. Instead of driving cars averaging 30-35 mpg, half of Americans drive idiotmobiles averaging 12-18 mpg. Facing facts, the SUV orgie does have a price--and higher fuel costs are just a part of it.

...

idiotmobiles. a PERFECTLY APT description! LOL!

one of my friends once said he wished gas cost $10 a gallon. that would knock some sense into the idiotcarandtruck buyers! (and he was a contractor himself.)

i supplemented my 25 - 31 mpg TRUCK myself 7 years ago, with a 30 - 34 mpg car. itself replaced by a 33- 40 mpg car.

And what about those of us who DO drive smaller cars? Some of us cannot afford $100 fill-ups just to persyade SUV owners to join the rest of us. Unless you have an idea for a job for everyone which pays $40 an hour, or some way to convince our city to make a reliable bus system...

Almost half of what we pay for gas is used to cover all the imposed taxes. Refining cost goes up as well do to the ridiculous amount of gasoline blends the refineries need to produce every few months.

If tax is almost half the cost of gas, why were we paying almost half the price not too long ago with no gas tax increase in the interim?

Refining costs jackass.

OPEC gouging + oil company's refining gouging + whole/distribution gouging + retail gouging + high taxes = EXPENSIVE GAS.

But I'm fine with it. This gouging crap that's going on just helps natural market pressures raise the price of gas which encourages R&D for more efficient engines and renewable sources.

In the mean time, buy some stock in "big oil". I put a 5 grand a big oil mutual fund and the growth in this has paid for all of my gas for the next 3 years or more.

You're dating yourself, 1995e45.