Gas Prices Tip $2 A Gallon As Oil Prices Rise

HOUSTON -- The five-month slide in gasoline prices has come to an abrupt halt, with gasoline rising by several cents in recent days amid indicators that the national average could jump to $2 a gallon or higher this spring.

A broad shift in the psychology of the oil market seems to be under way. Oil prices are up more than 40 percent since they bottomed out just below $33 a barrel on Dec. 19. The reversal, after months of declines, suggests that production cuts by the OPEC cartel may be having an effect, along with growing tensions in the Middle East and the sentiment by traders that the precipitous drop in prices went too far.

For six days in a row, drivers have been paying a few more cents a gallon than they did before Christmas. The change has been almost imperceptible for drivers who remember prices soaring above $4 a gallon last summer.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[mediamarv]

Car sales are down, Toyota halts production, so logically, there should be gas reductions cause less will be sold... yet somehow, like in a fairytale land, prices go up, based in part to the Gaza episodes.
Who knew that oil production went on there?!

[KillTheMessenger]

So, in your world, when you buy a car you drive it to work. And you also keep your old car and drive that to work simultaneously. Sounds like a great stunt... one foot in one car, the other in the other... steering moved to the right side in one of the cars and god knows how you wire the breaks and the accelerator...

:-)

[Americanium]

Didn't take these crooks long to raise the price at the pump. however when oil prices were going doing they dropped prices by a penny every 2 days.
The American business man is the worst thing on 2 feet ..

[Luvnumber9]

Gas is already $2 a gallon is my area...it jump 30 cents in a week.

[vippy]

We could save 30% of our oil imports if we would only drive the SPEED LIMIT. People need to get
smart and not throw money after those bums! Let us do it, let us show them who is in charge!

[SwingingFromCenter]

That's a lie, and one that I'm surprised more people haven't tested.

I tested it. BMW M3. You know what the difference was between me driving 55 (the speed limit in this state) and 70 (what I normally drive)? Just under 2 miles per gallon. I monitored my test for 5 tanks for each scenario. So in a 15 gallon tank, I'm getting approximately 30 miles farther by driving 55, or just over 1 gallon of fuel. Let's say that 1 gallon of fuel is worth 2 dollars.

However, by driving 70 instead of 55 (and keep in mind most of my driving is highway driving, not city driving), given my average trip is about 20 miles (WARNING: Math content ahead)

20 mile trip=105,600 feet
Feet per minute traveling 55 mph=4840
Feet per minute traveling 70 mph=6160

Which means

Total travel time @ 55 mph=21.8 minutes
Total travel time @ 70 mph=17.1 minutes

Which means I save 4 minutes for every 20 mile trip I make, or 8 minutes for every 40 mile round trip I make. In my car, I get 25.2 mpg @ 55 mph and 24 mpg even @ 70 mph. At 15 gallons that means I get 40 mile round trips @ 70 mph. Meaning over the course of a tank of fuel, I save 72 minutes in drive time by going 70 instead of going 55.

72 minutes of my time is worth far, FAR more than $2.

[KillTheMessenger]

Your BMW is obviously poorly designed if it does not get significantly better efficiency at 50mph than at 70mph.

:-)

[SwingingFromCenter]

And one other thing, in order for me to be saving 30% on my fuel efficiency by slowing down to 55, I would need to be realizing an increase of 7.2 miles per gallon. The actuality isn't even CLOSE to that.

[cayuse]

Of course, why did we give the banksters all this money for:

To buy stock to get richer so the would have more money to buy barrels of oil. So the oil will go up and they can get richer every day. It the American Way

[themodernleader]

In the new order of international finance, there is unlimited opportunity to manipulate and speculate. There is no stability and predictability for the ordinary folk. Such a system needs to be replaced.

[getoffmedz]

Gas prices are on the rise. The election is over and there has been more than sufficient time to decouple the speculators in oil with the fact at least in the minds of the public the highly questionable methods employed by this speculation actually was the trigger that caused the global economy to falter, initially.

$5/gallon this time.

[Ramirez]

Headline is both untrue and contradicted by the article.

[ErnestineBass]

Can anybody name another commodity market where a decline in demand combined with a supply glut would lead to higher prices????

Oil and the oil "market speculators" have got to go.

[KillTheMessenger]

"Can anybody name another commodity market where a decline in demand combined with a supply glut would lead to higher prices????"

Any market will do that if there is no more demand decline (Americans seem to be going back to their old habits, yet, again, and the economic downturn is not expected to get any worse) and the supply glut is dampened by producers limiting supply. There are no surprises here, really. If you really think that oil is supposed to be dirt cheap and it's your birthright to burn as much of it on the bonfires of your vanity as you like, you are in for a nasty surprise. The calender shows that we are now living in the 21st century and the party you are used to is over.

[ErnestineBass]

Newsflash, KTM, the economic "downturn" in this country is only going to get worse.

And, FYI, I've probably owned a Prius longer than you have.

[Ramirez]

When adjusted for inflation the average price of gas today is lower than it was on Jan 20, 2001.

[ILibertine]

Those saying $2/gal. have no more clue than those saying $1/gal. The ones who are doubtlessly correct are those saying $4-5 gas will be back as soon as it is psychologically feasible.

All that's happening now, I believe, is testing the market and some boom-boom scares in the absence of rain and thunder to set off the alarms. So long as oil has become a hysteria commodity, the slightest change in the winds will trigger disproportionate changes in its spot value. Thus the message, as you know, is that concentrated effort toward alternatives must be made, then developed and brought to market with Manhattan project speed. To do otherwise is to idolize a sitting duck - that may become our new national emblem if we dither, Dagwood.

[SwingingFromCenter]

Boy, the market manipulators sure didn't wait long this year to get started again.

[mediamarv]

Most of US oil does not come from OPEC anyway.

Proof once again that the price of gasoline is based on fear and fantasy. One reason the barrel price dropped was that in May the Bush criminals were forced to stop buying the most expensive oil available to put in the Naval strategic reserve... now would be a good time to start selling it back to the world, to make up for the puny 2mil gallons a day the Saudis are proposing.

All is farce.
Nationalize the oil companies, share the profits with the auto industry and get the economy moving.

[KillTheMessenger]

"Most of US oil does not come from OPEC anyway. "

Canada and Mexico are not going to charge any less than market prices just because we live next door. This is business, you know.

"All is farce."

Reality sure must look like one if you fail to analyze it properly.

:-)

[GhostNyc]

Opec is attempting to manipulate the supply in efforts to get us to ONCE again be delusionally addicted to their oil. But the hardships that Americans faced paying upwards of $4 per gallon with no real relief from our gov't cannot be so easily forgotten.

We collectivily showed our strength this summer when for the first time in many years Americans drove LESS. We can do it again this year, if the price of gas goes up too much we cut back again.

Car pool with friends and neighbors, keep your car properly maintained for maximum fuel efficiency and simply drive less.

It is also worthy to note that for the first time in since the Federal Reserves began tracking this in 1952 Americans actually cut down the personal debt and managed to save more than they spend.

The power to change starts with us, the people. Stop spending money your don't have on things you do not need. Do what you have to do to protect your families well being and secure their future.

[Moderatenation]

We cannot afford oil at any price. Would we be in Iraq if they didn't have oil? Would the unstable Middle East enjoy the influence it does if it wasn't for oil? Would we even be there? (Where we are not wanted). Bring on the high gas prices, because that is the only way the United States will ever seriously pursue a sustainable energy policy. Besides GM needs a market for the Chevy Volt.

[redhot200822]

Chevy Volt is dead on arrival. Too much money. Do they teach marketing in Detroit?

[ErnestineBass]

GM should call it The Jolt (a combo of Joke and Volt).

[TimmySlagle]

How come it's only news, when the gas prices go UP?

[KillTheMessenger]

I believe they call it "Blood sells!" in "the media biz".

[ErnestineBass]

The exact phrase is "If it bl eeds, it leads."