I don't know about that email, but Exxon and Mobil in my area are the cheapest. I'll support the cheapest.

Now Citgo on the other hand... (I won't support them because of politics. - CITGO is owned by PVA America Inc. which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. - the Venezuela government owned oil company. See for yourself.)

 

Geez, I'm so tired of everyone forwarding me this email! If you seriously buy into this hoax, then I have a nigerian uncle who will sell you ***** enlarging pills. Send me your cc #...

For those who do not know economics, gasoline is an inelastic consumable. This is because a raise in the price does not significantly affect the amount of demand. What does this mean? The days of low gas prices are long gone. Demand is increasing at too fast a rate to keep up with supply (china and india growth).



~randy

 

You are correct when you say they only raise their prices when the crude oil prices go up. The problem is they do not raise it in proportion to the increase. The oil companies are in business to make money and have folks staying up at night figuring out how to maximize profits. The oil companies are waaaaay ahead of the poor consumer who is trying to figure out how to stop these price increases.

 

Imagine that, a company trying to make money. This isn't some kind of evil plan, it's business. Yeah, it would be nice if they figured out a way to cut some costs and drop the price. But if you worked for an oil company, would you take a pay cut to help lower the cost of gas? I doubt it so it just seems hypocritical to ask someone else to. I don't want to sound like I am totally on the oil companies side. I am just trying to say that the oil industry is just a business like any other. If they are not making money, then they will not last long. Or in cases like the airline industry, when they cannot stay in business, they just ask for a govt. handout courtesy of us taxpayers.

 

retarded...btw, Exxon and Mobil are the same company...My mother works for them and has for 20 years.

 

There have been many posts here and elsewhere detailing the various reasons *why* gas costs what it does. One thing I would like to point out is the potential effect that various government regulations have on gas(I don't mean taxes).

I can't remember the exact post, but a few months back there was a post on fuel grades and the effects on our engine. Someone submitted a reply with a link to another post on the maxima forums by I believe a chemical engineer that has worked in the oil industries for nearly 30 years(my memory here is sketchy; if I'm wrong I apologize).

In that series of posts, the guy describes a lot of things relating to pre-det and AKI, etc. He also describes how a single refinery will produce X number of variations to satisfy the requirements of local laws/regulations of various municipalities, be they city, county, state, or federal. If all the municipalities could get on the same page(won't ever happen), then the refineries could produce larger volumes of a smaller number of variants. I'm sure this multimix requirement has a not-insigificant effect on the retail gas prices.