Front page article in the Minneapolis StarTribune. Gasolene prices will rise by 20 cents per gallon in the next couple weeks because refineries are making heating fuel. Prices could continue to rise.

What's wrong with this picture? Winter happens happpens every year. Why don't refineries have capacity to make both kinds of fuels? Why have there been no discussions with OPEC of the need to supply more oil for heating fuel in season?

-- John Littmann (littmannj@aol.com), August 25, 2000

Answers

John, I too, have been pondering the recent news that Gasoline prices may be on the rise again. Just after we had been hood-winked into thinking todays prices were great, even though we forget the today prices are 20 cents more than we paid a few months ago. We "think" everything is beautiful. Let the prices rise again, and Let, everyone with Internet capability storm the emails of every politician in office. A Grass Roots Movement, they will not hear us, until we make them uncomfortable, until we beseech them to find out all the details of every bill and legislation that is put on the floor. An awesome task, for those politicians without foundation and fortitude. A wearying task to those, who do. Let the chips fall, where they may. But at least, Stand Up, and be counted.

-- Gotta Stand (up@onthisone.com), August 25, 2000.

Y2K has arrived. Get ready for severe depression next year.

-- Gary Northwest (told@you.so), August 25, 2000.

Excuse me, DUMMIES ,, but you have NO RIGHT TO CHEAP PRICES. There is a system that claims that "the people" do have such a right. It is called Marxism/Socialism/Communism.

Prices are going up because of supply and demand. Demand falls when a price rises above that which people can not or will not pay in an elastic market.

Our dear friends in the Middle East are more than aware of the current prosperity in the USA. They merely reason that if the average income per household is XXXX they can help themselves to 20 cents or 4.00 for 20 gallons and the world will not end for them or for "demand".

However, there are some of their own dear friends in their OPEC who will be willing to take a little less if they can ship MORE than their own OPEC allocations. When those people decide to act, the prices will fall.

I expect that shortly (except in Heating oil which is a dealer/disty inventory situation. Those people were afraid to stockpile as prices rose because they could not afford "high priced inventory". NOW THEY MUST BUY. If you had something to sell and a buyer who **had to buy** WHAT WOULD YOU DO?? LOWER PRICES?? GET REAL.)

Look for gas to settle in between $1.30 -1.65. Higher than last year and slightly higher than 2 years ago but "affordable".

IN SHORT, if you can't afford it, WALK. and btw: T.S.

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), August 26, 2000.

BE GONE HTML

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), August 26, 2000.

CPR, it's starting to sound like your new profession is a shill for the petroleum industry.

-- Troll Detector (td@trolls.are.jerks), August 26, 2000.

Someone named cpr said:

However, there are some of their own dear friends in their OPEC who will be willing to take a little less if they can ship MORE than their own OPEC allocations. When those people decide to act, the prices will fall.

Nice thought, except every nation in OPEC except Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates is already pumping at capacity, so THEY CAN'T SHIP MORE, DICKWEED.

Cripes, where do these idiots come from.

John, to understand what's going on today, you have to go back at least three years and look at return on investment for drilling new wells, price trends, the current economic boom in the United States, the fact that a new ground-up refinery hasn't been built in the US for 25 years, and a bunch of other staff. The bottom line is, at this moment, the global demand for oil has caught up with the oil companies' ability to produce it. Clintoon and every other politician in the world can talk all they want, but it ain't gonna make the wells pump any faster.

There's a lot of new investment in drill rigs and tanker capacity out there right now, and in a year or two, maybe less, we'll have some easing of the situation. An economic slowdown would also go a long way toward reducing demand, temporarily. But don't ever expect to see dollar-a-gallon gasoline again. For all the talk of new discoveries in the Caspian and North Shore and all the happy horse manure from the US Geological Service (a once-proud agency that is the perfect example of what happens when a scientific enterprise is taken over by politically sensitive MBAs), they just aren't finding it as fast as they're burning it anymore.

-- JLB (JLB@heretoday.com), August 26, 2000.

HORSE SHIT. WHO DO YOU WORK FOR ..........SOME "OIL MARKET NEWSLETTER"??

A lot of web newsletters are paying up to $1.00/head for every click through signup.

HOW MUCH DO YOU GET?

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), August 27, 2000.

MANURE: your "capacity figures" nicely ignore how those numbers are "measured". Some claim we are at max: 96%. WHAT ISN'T MENTIONED IS THAT 1 per cent more is HOW MANY MILLIONS OF BBLs./DAY???

NOW.... you have the SHILLS for newsletters, Political organizations (Greenie), ALTERNATE FUELS (solar systems, wind power) and every sort of MAGGOT TRYING TO MAKE A BUCK ****PONTIFICATING**** about things they didn't even know about 3 or 4 months ago.

BOTTOM LINE: where were all the OIL BULLS when OIL was $10-14/bbl??

OH RIGHT,,,,,"....analyzing the possibility of OIL at $5/bbl."...

OIL IS A COMMODITY THAT RISES AND FALLS ON SUPPLY /DEMAND AS MANIPULATED BY OPEC VIA: POLITICAL AND CONTRACTUAL ALLIANCES. TICK OFF the Middle East, and the faucets get turned back. When they need to restore the growth of their BANK BALANCES,,,,,the SPIGOTS GET TURNED TO "OPEN" (1998-99). Then they have some more meetings and "cut back excessive supply".

I saw all this BULL SHIT in the 1970s. The Haaarvard Pros who wrote "ENERGY FUTURES" were WRONG, WRONG, AND MOST WRONG FOR ONLY 20 years and in REAL DOLLARS OIL IS FAR ***FAR*** below what it cost in 1978-1980.

ONLY ***GOLD **** HAS BEEN AS BAD A PERFORMER. Like Silver a lot of the myths came out of GOLD.

OIL NEVER HAD ANY MYTHS EXCEPT THESE **BULL SHIT SPECULATIONS** (usually by some Academic trying to make a name via: PUBLISH OR PERISH).

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), August 27, 2000.

Well, cpr, I see you've set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public. My God, what an astonishing display of hysteria, coupled with an absolute lack of reasoning power. Tell me, cpr, how can I be shilling for anyone at a dollar a click-through when I'm not offering a click-through? And in case you haven't noticed, the 1970s ended a looong time ago. Perhaps you should really stick to the things you know (what ARE those things, by the way?) and save the public displays of ignorance for the Pokemon web sites.

-- JLB (JLB@heretoday.com), August 27, 2000.