Rising Gas Prices

[FLBK7]

You know, I think this entire stimulus check plan is going to backfire. Bush's intention was that we would all go buy big-screen TVs to stimulate the economy. At the rate gas prices are increasing, I'm afraid that the true beneficiaries of this "stimulus package" will be the oil magnates.

[WhatMoney]

At the rate gas prices are increasing, I'm afraid that the true beneficiaries of this "stimulus package" will be the oil magnates.

Well, so this IS going according to Bush's plan. And the banks who will receive increased loan payments from the stimulus will benefit.

Oil and Banking - the Bush family's historic businesses - yes it's all going according to plan.

[robivi3]

South Bay Florida (South Lake Okeechobee in Palm Beach County). $4.06 for premium

[Yankee07]

I still don't see any less traffic at the pumps, And the SUV drivers stand there leaning against the SUV while the pump pumps away. Go figure.

[robivi3]

I don't know how fast 1200 bucks goes in the rest of the Country but down here that's just not much. It does very little. FPL, 270, Directtv 70, ATT house 100, water/sewer/garbage 100, everything is high. I hear people saying I'll do this and that and 1200 just doesn't pay for trips for family, etc... Glad to get it though.

Not much is going to get "stimulated" with 1200 bucks. I mean, now we are dealing with a looming food crisis.

[PaKettle]

Gas went to $5/gallon today in Santa Monica, California. Not sure if anywhere else, but my friend saw the station.

[Yankee07]

It was the 1970s, gas was under a dollar, a so called shortage developed, gas lines developed with waits well over and hour; the odd even plan was developed where you would buy gas based on licensed plate # and day of the week. A mad rush to build the Alaska pipe line and promises every day from the political leaders (both party’s) "no more dependence on foreign oil.” Gas prices surpassed $1.00 a gallon and have continued to climb every since and we are more dependent on foreign oil than ever before.

Just a quick recap

[AngelinaCat]

We were in Daytona today for a high school reunion/100 year anniversary celebration. While there we passed a 7-11 with a sign that regular unleaded was $3.75

[BankruptPinoy]

From Breitbart on Apr 24 03:05 PM US/Eastern:

The price of oil is likely to hit 150 dollars (Canadian, US) a barrel by 2010 and soar to 225 dollars a barrel by 2012 as supply becomes increasingly tight, a Canadian bank said Thursday.

The CIBC report says the International Energy Agency's current oil production estimates overstate supply by about nine percent, since it wrongly counts natural gas liquids -- which are not viable for transportation fuel -- in its numbers.

Analyst Jeff Rubin in his report noted accelerating depletion rates in many of the world's largest and most mature oil fields. He estimates oil production will hardly grow at all, with average daily production between now and 2012 rising by barely a million barrels per day.

"Whether we have already seen the peak in world oil production remains to be seen, but it is increasingly clear that the outlook for oil supply signals a period of unprecedented scarcity," said Rubin.

"Despite the recent record jump in oil prices, oil prices will continue to rise steadily over the next five years, almost doubling from current levels."

The CIBC report also notes that while production increases are at a virtual standstill, global demand continues to grow.

An expected drop in demand in the United States due to higher prices and a weak economy will be more than offset by demand growth in developing nations, it says.

Rubin cites, for example, the recent launch of Tata's 2,500-dollar car that will allow millions of households in India to soon own automobiles.

He also notes that car sales last year were up 60 percent in Russia, up 30 percent in Brazil and up 20 percent in China.

Transport fuel now accounts for half of the world's oil usage.

Although US oil consumption is likely to fall by over two million barrels a day over the next five years as pump prices rise, he says, more drivers on the road in Russia, China and India will surely pick up the slack in demand.

[BankruptPinoy]

Has anyone read "The myth of peak oil" by Paul Joseph Watson or "The Peak Oil Myth" by Dr. Stanley Monteith?

[AMISLANDER]

Caught the bus to work. They do have bathrooms at the station! I am in freaking heaven.....$7.50/week vs. $40/week. Wouldn't you ride, too?

It means a bit more walking (to station & 3/4 mile down rode from where bus turns around, but, benefits: more cardio besides the gym!

I think my SUV will remain parked until further notice.

[BKOnce]

Let's see, by the time $4 per gallon of milk, $600 (stimulus) = 150 gallons X $4. That means one family can made one trip/vacation (by van) from Florida to Newyork on 150 gas gallons?... and no left $$ for McBurgers!??

[robivi3]

South Bay Florida last thursday.

[robivi3]

My Airforce neighbor is buying a bike as in "pedals" and all to go to Motorola (his regular job).

[BankruptPinoy]

Get ready for another economic shock of major proportions — a virtual doubling of prices at the gas pump to as much as $10 a gallon.

That's the message from a couple of analytical energy industry trackers, both of whom, based on the surging oil prices, see considerably more pain at the pump than most drivers realize.

Gasoline nationally is in an accelerated upswing, having jumped to $3.58 a gallon from $3.50 in just the past week. In some parts of the country, including New York City and the West Coast, gas is already sporting a price tag above $4 a gallon. There was a pray-in at a Chevron station in San Francisco on Friday led by a minister asking God for cheaper gas, and an Arco gas station in San Mateo, Calif., has already raised its price to a sky-high $4.62.

In Manhattan, at a Mobil gas station at York Avenue and East 61st Street, premium gas is now $4.03 a gallon. Two days ago, it was $3.96. Why such a high price? "Blame the people at STOPEC (he meant OPEC) and the oil companies," an attendant there told me.

These increases are taking place before the all-important summer driving season, signaling even higher prices ahead.

That's also the outlook of the Automobile Association of America. "As long as the price of crude oil stays above $100 a barrel, drivers will be forced to pay more and more at the gas pump," a AAA spokesman, Troy Green, said.

Oil recently hit an all-time high of nearly $120 a barrel, more than double its early 2007 price of about $50 a barrel. It closed Friday at $118.52.

The forecasts calling for a jump to between $7 and $10 a gallon are based on the view that the price of crude is on its way to $200 in two to three years.

Translating this price into dollars and cents at the gas pump, one of our forecasters, the chairman of Houston-based Dune Energy, Alan Gaines, sees gas rising to $7-$8 a gallon. The other, a commodities tracker at Weiss Research in Jupiter, Fla., Sean Brodrick, projects a range of $8 to $10 a gallon.

While $7-$10 a gallon would be ground-breaking in America, these prices would not be trendsetting internationally. For example, European drivers are already shelling out $9 a gallon (which includes a $2-a-gallon tax).

Canadians are also being hit with rising gas prices. They are paying the American-dollar equivalent of $4.92 a gallon, and they're being told to brace themselves for prices above $5.65 a gallon this summer.

Early last year, with a barrel of oil trading in the low $50s and gasoline nationally selling in a range of $2.30 to $2.50 a gallon, Mr. Gaines — in an impressive display of crystal ball gazing — accurately predicted oil was $100-bound and that gasoline would follow suit by reaching $4 a gallon.

His latest prediction of $200 oil is open to question, since it would undoubtedly create considerable global economic distress. Further, just about every energy expert I talk to cautions me to expect a sizable pullback in oil prices, maybe to between $50 and $70 a barrel, especially if there's a global economic slowdown.

While Mr. Gaines thinks there could be a temporary decline in the oil price, he's convinced an overall uptrend is unstoppable. In fact, he thinks his $200 forecast could be conservative, and that perhaps $250 could be reached. His reasoning: a combination of shrinking supply and increasing demand, especially from China, India, and America.

Mr. Brodrick's $200 oil forecast is largely predicated on a combination of pretty flat supply and rip-roaring demand. Other key catalysts include surging demand in China and India, where auto sales are booming, and major supply disruptions in Nigeria and also in Mexico, our second-largest source of oil imports, where oil production has fallen off a cliff.

More factors include the ever-present danger of additional supply disruptions from volatile countries in the Middle East that are not our allies, and the unwillingness of SUV-loving Americans to trim their unquenchable thirst for foreign oil. Likewise, for the first time, emerging markets this year will use more oil than America.

To Mr. Brodrick, it all adds up to an ongoing energy bull market. His favorite plays are the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund ; United States Natural Gas Fund LP; Apache Corp.; Occidental Petroleum; Anadarko Petroleum, and Schlumberger.

Gasoline May Soon Cost a Sawbuck
by
DAN DORFMAN

From the NY Sun