$#$!!! BP refinery

[Cygnus]

There was no explosion.
That footage has been used several times over for events like this.
The location was a crisis refinery.
Wurd.

 

[aclark]

Glad I have 2 diesel cars, filled up for $2.22 and get nearly 40mpg combined city/hwy.

Where'd you find $2.22? I've been paying $2.39-2.59 depending on where exactly I am. But it's been in this range for about the past 8 months.

 

[churchmouse]

Seems quite coincidental that whenever prices seem to get reasonably low, some crisis occurs that jacks the price up about $.80 / gal.

Amazing, huh?

No, not really.

 

[yote hunter]

Today when I went to work gas was $2.21 a gal and just got off work and it was $2.99.... WTF , same gas that was in the underground tanks when I left for work... So just don't get it ??? I think they like to stick it to us every chance they get...

 

[bwframe]

This seems to be a fairly regular occurrence.

 

[SSGSAD]

Prices in Lafayette were $2.59 p/gal at 8:00am today. By 5:00pm the same station had $2.99 on the signage.
"Never let a crisis go to waste..."
-Eric Holder

Marathon, and everyone else raised their prices, as it is not fair, for BP, to "have" to sell their gas, for 2.99, and everyone else, 2.49 .....

 

[wtburnette]

Greed, pure and simple...

 

[IndyDave1776]

Perfect storm. There are not enough refineries, the EPA needs at minimum to be removed from dictating such things as essentially custom fuel blends by specific location, the oil companies will simultaneously argue that a drop in oil prices does not necessarily make a big difference but a rise in oil prices does, and will also raise prices over the 'crisis' if the drunk who lives two blocks from the refinery pisses his pants.

On the other hand, I can excuse the increase that effective raises the price of the fuel in the tank at that station. That is on the station owner and he is going to get hit with a serious loss when he reloads if he doesn't raise prices immediately.

What I do have a problem with there is that given the nationality of most station owners, it is not possible for any of us to compete with someone who doesn't pay income tax like the rest of us, can run out his exemption, transfer the station to another incoming relative who can then run out his exemption, the business can go indefinitely without paying taxes and without a taxpaying citizen able to compete.

 

[chef larry]

Perfect storm. There are not enough refineries, the EPA needs at minimum to be removed from dictating such things as essentially custom fuel blends by specific location, the oil companies will simultaneously argue that a drop in oil prices does not necessarily make a big difference but a rise in oil prices does, and will also raise prices over the 'crisis' if the drunk who lives two blocks from the refinery pisses his pants.

On the other hand, I can excuse the increase that effective raises the price of the fuel in the tank at that station. That is on the station owner and he is going to get hit with a serious loss when he reloads if he doesn't raise prices immediately.

What I do have a problem with there is that given the nationality of most station owners, it is not possible for any of us to compete with someone who doesn't pay income tax like the rest of us, can run out his exemption, transfer the station to another incoming relative who can then run out his exemption, the business can go indefinitely without paying taxes and without a taxpaying citizen able to compete.

Sad but true.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

It's been a while since I've checked but a couple of years ago, we were a net gasoline exporter. In other words, we made more gasoline than we used in the USA. If that's still true and we're still at the mercy of single refineries keeping gas prices at "reasonable" levels, something doesn't smell right. If it's the boutique fuel excuse, there cannot be that much difference in the blend required for central/southern Indiana and say, Memphis.

**** happens. Things break down unexpectedly. When they do, most organizations in the private sector I've been associated with have contingency plans. If the refinery that makes the special blend for the midwest goes down, I'd have to be convinced that the public's health and safety would be in immediate and certain peril if Memphis or Atlanta (if they're different) blends were not allowed to be substituted. I bet nobody, even with the most sophisticated testing equipment could tell the difference if one blend of gas were substituted for another--even permanently...but for the sake of argument, I bet they could detect no changes in the time it takes to repair whatever is broken down. No. This is an artificial, government induced, market distortion, and we, as consumers, get to pay for it.

End the EPA.

 

[KLB]

Gas Stations do not really set prices in most cases. This explains it all pretty well.
Who Decides The Price At The Pump? Gas Prices Are About More Than Just Oil - HAR.com

A wholesaler like BP or Gulf each has its own formula for setting the rack price. In an attempt to smooth out the spikes and dips of the market, a wholesaler usually buys some of his fuel through long-term contracts. The rest is bought on the so-called spot market, priced at a given moment by a benchmark like the New York Harbor gasoline price.

Every day at 5 p.m., BP tells Ricker what the rack price will be starting at 6 p.m. That price is good for 24 hours.

 

[miguel]

Glad I filled the boat last week, 230gals @ $2.24

Jesus, how big is that boat?

 

[KittySlayer]

Well go figure... a price increase right before Labor Day weekend.

Perhaps the EPA should just manage abandoned mines rather that boutique gasoline blends. Seems like they have their hands full.

 

[t-squared]

Who's up for some good old fashioned rioting and looting over this? I call first dibs on the Hostess rack!!

 

[findingZzero]

Losers! I live on a hill. It's all downhill from. Here.

p.s. When oil hit $145/barrel several years ago, that weekend I had to move my daughter to college. I paid $4.20/gallon (premium). By my reckoning, with oil at $45/barrel premium should be about $1.25/gallon. Now, granted, in my world all things are simpler. By some weird coincidence, yesterday I rented a UHaul cargo van to move daughter #2. I had to fill up with $2.99 gas.

 

[CountryBoy19]

Better yet the gas already in the underground tank since the weekend or longer suddenly cost 40 cents more to pump up into your tank.

Besides price gouging I can't understand how gas that has already been purchased by gas stations can jump . $ 0.30 a gallon.
Pure profiteering.

What both of you fail to understand is that isn't the way commodity markets work. The cost at the pump is NOT the price the station owner paid last week, it's the price he would have to pay today to replace the fuel you're taking from his tank. It's the price (plus markup) that gas is selling for on the open market. Consider for a moment that things are going the opposite way and gas dropped from $2.99 to $2.29. The station owner would have paid last weeks high price and he would now be expected to sell that product at this weeks low price (or not sell any at all). So certainly it seems reasonable to allow him to sell at the current market price. No? Have either of you ever bought and sold commodities? Do you understand how commodities markets work? If you don't the way the system works you're welcome to change it. You can start small and buy your fuel straight from the distributor, of course you'll find out that the distributor prices his fuel the same way, except he has hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel and the "value" of it fluctuates daily. Of course, if you're buying from the distributor you'll have to buy quite a bit, probably at least 5,000 gallons. You'll have to buy a storage tank. Oh, and that way, when you buy your gas at $2.29 and the price goes up to $2.99 you can sell some of the gas you paid your own money to buy, and your own money to store, to strangers off the street for $2.29 (your stock-pile of gas will be gone in a couple hours). Or, if you think they're gouging why not start an anti-gouging service station. Look at the volume of product you could sell when the price goes up and you keep yours low. You could move 20,000 gal of gas in a matter of hours and you could profit very nicely from it. Nevermind that you wouldn't have the capital to refill your tanks because the market price is now higher. Nevermind the fact that you'll lose your business when you buy gas high and sell it at a loss or don't sell it at all...

All that being said, there are certainly gouger, profiteers, and other unscrupulous people out there...

Losers! I live on a hill. It's all downhill from. Here.

p.s. When oil hit $145/barrel several years ago, that weekend I had to move my daughter to college. I paid $4.20/gallon (premium). By my reckoning, with oil at $45/barrel premium should be about $1.25/gallon. Now, granted, in my world all things are simpler. By some weird coincidence, yesterday I rented a UHaul cargo van to move daughter #2. I had to fill up with $2.99 gas.

You're neglecting the value added to the fuel in the refining process, the taxes, and transportation.

If you consider that the actual cost of the oil content is say only $1.50 when oil is $145, then it would be ~$.50 when oil is $50, netting a $1 price drop, not a $3 price drop...

 

[miguel]

Losers! I live on a hill. It's all downhill from. Here.

p.s. When oil hit $145/barrel several years ago, that weekend I had to move my daughter to college. I paid $4.20/gallon (premium). By my reckoning, with oil at $45/barrel premium should be about $1.25/gallon. Now, granted, in my world all things are simpler. By some weird coincidence, yesterday I rented a UHaul cargo van to move daughter #2. I had to fill up with $2.99 gas.

May I respectfully ask that any other kids you have take up a trade or join the military...please don't send them to college. I can't afford it.

 

[AngryRooster]

Price of gas sucks all the way around, but what pisses me off is the price of kerosene. We get most of our heat with it in the winter. Last winter it was $4.49 a gallon. Since then gas has dropped at least a dollar, kerosene has not moved, and it won't move either. Once it gets cold it will go up as it always does. I'd like to star topping off the empty cans so they are all full and ready before then. Not everyone uses kerosene so it's easy for those of us who do to get screwed.

 

[Alamo]

Your anger is MISDIRECTED. Blame the EPA.

The local BP refinery produces the Chicago/Milwaukee/Northwest Indiana 'boutique' blend of fuel that is MANDATED by the gubmint for clean air standards. Unfortunately we cannot use fuel that is blended for St Louis or Detroit or Cincinnati or Louisville. So our local area prices are going to skyrocket for the next week or two while the BP refinery is under repair.

The EPA has different blends for each major metro area. Its illegal to ship a blend to a different area to make up for a shortage. Not sure what buereaucrat came up with the scheme that has every area using a differnent fuel, but clearly it was someone who specializes in inefficiency and redundancy.

When I was still in the military in the early 2000s, the unit I was with at Brooks AFB in San Antonio had a laboratory that did a lot of environmental testing. They were approached by one of the other federal agencies to see if the military lab had to capacity and interest to test automotive and truck fuels -- that's when I found out what melensdad was talking about. It turned out (at that time) there were more than 50 types of gasoline in the US: fuels specially formulated and mandated for specific areas of the country, and it was illegal to use them anywhere else. So there were testers roaming the country, checking gas stations and fuel haulers to make sure they had the correct fuel for a given area. They needed another lab to handle all the tests that they were doing. (Our lab turned them down).

Add to this that (again in the early 2000) the US had not opened a new refinery since the 1970s, and all the existing ones were running at capacity. Any small burp at any one of them would cause a major problem (price spike) in the market served by that refinery, and even if another refinery elsewhere had extra, it was illegal to use it. That refinery would have to change their formulation to be able to ship to a different market. So the unlucky market served by the malfunction refinery would have a gas shortage and resulting price spikes.

And as someone else pointed out, on top of that the commodities market has its own logic, which drives price shifts in nonobvious (to Joe on the street) ways.

In spite of all that, we still have relatively cheap gas prices. Our European cousins have been paying through the nose for decades, and a great many on our political left would love to do the same to us. Mr. Obama once said that with his plans, energy costs were "necessarily going to skyrocket" -- and that was not only OK with him, that was the goal. Happily, along with major gun control efforts, he failed at that part; he's had to content himself with killing coal plants and creating the conditions for an electrical energy crisis in the future.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Remember when gas stations had "price wars" to see who could sell it the most cheaply and thus take business from their competitors? Now it seems like it's price wars in reverse. It seems like when one station raises it's prices (say, Speedway or BP), the others immediately raise theirs too. They used to call that price fixing. Now it is called, "business as usual".