When the oil companies spiked prices a few years ago in response to crude oil prices and “other factors”, and then all of them set record profits at the same time, that’s when we see that prices at the pump are not very related to some idea of “supply and demand” pricing. It’s much more “what are you going to do about it?” pricing.
The gasoline available for sale today was likely refined from crude oil purchased weeks or months ago. The cost of inventory doesn’t drop instantly when the cost of raw materials goes down.
Still going through last months stock more people are starting to travel again and more people on the road with the nicer weather so simple supply and demand.
Gas prices are slower to fall because of the price it was purchased at. Once that gas is sold, new gas will be purchased at a lower cost and then sold at a lower cost.
Additionally, here in Washington state, our new governor, who is trying to fulfill his mandate to cut taxes, has instead increased the gas tax by more than 30 cents a gallon. seattle gets new roads and ferries, us up staters get broken windshields from the gravel in the potholes.
Historically, if there is a significant and sudden rise in oil prices, the prices will increase at the pump almost immediately. However, if the price of oil drops significantly and suddenly, they will delay the reduction and do so much more slowly in coordination (planned or otherwise) with their competitors in the area as there is also a regional component to this.
There are the standard profits you get from gas sales, then there the games they will play where they can extract additional profit and play dumb.
This is not dissimilar to what happened during COVID supply chain issues. There were legitimate supply chain issues that caused prices to skyrocket in certain areas but when the supply chain issues were resolved, they did not reduce price to previous levels. Corporations had a build in excuse to keep prices high to extract additional profit. This also significantly contributed to the high inflation environment we experienced from mid 2021 to mid 2023.
Prices will stay higher for a while so the companies can enjoy the profits. Prices will slowly come down when competitors lower their prices or due to sales slowing up and the need to generate sales. They don’t lower them because they feel sorry for us.
Once pumped from the ground, a barrel of oil takes about 6 months to be transported, refined, transported again, distributed to local wholesalers, sold to gas stations, and then sold to consumers.
Gas price at the pump is the amount consumers are willing to pay. If people continue to consume a lot, that’s the price. If we reach an actual recession and individuals and businesses forego trips, take the bus, etc, the price will drop. Until then, it likely won’t.
Refining capacity is also limited, and doesn’t respond as quickly to market forces as the crude price does.
There is another step between buying crude oil and pumping gas into your car. The price of gas has more to do with the supply of refined gasoline and it’s cost then it does with the crude oil price today.
Oil is usually future delivery prices you are seeing. They usually say when delivery is when reporting on it. Then it has to be refined so some months after that is when you will see the drop. There are also many macro economic factors at play that can affect the price before or after that point.
Partially greed, partially the complexity of the production chain. A refinery can only refine a certain type of oil. There’s light oil and heavy oil, high and low sulpher etc. Most US refineries are set up for really heavy, shitty oil because it’s the hardest to make so you can buy it for very cheap, refine it and make the largest profit. Most of that trash oil comes from the tar sands in Canada where I am. If there’s a supply disruption of the refinery can’t just switch to another oil type, it can take years to reconfigure a refinery. You can see why this would cause supply shocks.
The petroleum industry is profit-driven. Gas prices generally tend to rise, but occasionally they decrease slightly, which can be perceived as a tactic to create a favorable impression of the current administration that supports fossil fuels. This suggests that gas prices are sometimes used as a political tool. However, there is no direct correlation between the price at the pump and the global market price of oil.
Because the oil companies are greedy. They want as much profit as possible (not “a reasonable profit”, “as much as possible”) and they’ll keep prices as high as they can for as long as they can. Oil price is almost irrelevant to the price of gasoline.
If you’ve already shown that you’ll bear the higher price of gas (and you will, because what the fuck else are you going to do?) then why would the gas company lower the price of gas when they could just take the lower price of oil and pocket the greater difference as profit?
Because the u.s. Supreme Court decided that trust between corporations was legal in 2007. Take a look back, you’ll see the inflation issues stared a little before that, then went nuts once they got the green light.
Companies aren’t in competition anymore and engage in price fixing…the issue is, the evidence can’t be brought out in court
Oil companies all collude to keep prices the same between them all and not really compete. They could all agree to jack ip the price 3x. What are we going to do? We need gas
Prices vary so much depending on location. In the plains states, prices adjusted for inflation are comparable to what I was paying in the 1960s. Not high.
There’s no causal-relationship between oil prices and gas prices. If you sold a widget for $100 and your raw materials were $99, and suddenly you could get the materials for $50, you might drop prices, but unless you were facing stiff competition you might also keep them relatively the same. We don’t have much real competition in gas prices, nor a large fluctuation in prices once all other costs are factored in.
Gonna be honest, Americans complaining about gas prices goes to show how greedy and entitled we are. The US average is $3.30, the same as it was in 2008 and lower than what it was 2011-2014. We have the 4th cheapest gas prices in the G20 and the cheapest in the G7. If that’s expensive, what is a “fair” price, or better yet, what would it have to be for everyone to call it “cheap”?
Since I was a teenager gas prices have always spiked and pissed everyone off, and then it gets lowered and everyone thinks they’re getting a deal. I’m convinced they follow this model and over a long period of time you see a slow and steady average increase. As an example:
2005: $2.50 – Everybodys cool with it
2006: $3.00 – Everybodys pissed off
6 months later: $2.75 – Everybodys getting a “deal”
2007: $2.75: The new norm
2008: $3.25 – everybodys pissed off
My rule of thumb is typically this: If an oilfield worker in Saudia Arabia stubs his toe, the price of oil will jump by 25%. If a massive cache of refined oil is discovered, enough to supply the entire world for 10 years, oil prices will decline by 5% over a period of six months. If that.
The demand curve for gasoline is almost flat, especially in places with no or very limited public transport. People are going to buy what they need to commute, do their shopping, etc. If gas prices get REALLY high, eventually people will put off road trip vacations and maybe be more careful about combining shopping trips but even then there’s not a huge reduction in consumption.
Easy. The prices are expected to rise so they increase the cost to pay for the next batch. Or, the oil they did buy was expensive so they have to increase the price to pay for it. It’s a perfect system! /s
Where i live, the government removed a carbon tax of about 20 cents a liter.
A week before the tax was removed, gas went up 20 cents a liter. Once tax was removed, the price dropped about 5 cents.
So now we are paying about the same even though their is no carbon tax and oil is lower.
In addition to the “what are you going to do about it, we are all charging more” posts.
Tariffs.
The price oil went down, but the taxes (tariffs) on the oil, went up.
And no matter how high the tariffs get, the oil REFINERIES in the US can’t refine enough of the needed grade of us oil to supply ourselves. (a large portion of our own oil is not suitable to be made into gasoline).
Because the the price of gas is more a factor of refinery capacity not oil prices. When refineries are running at 100% and supply is short, they can charge as much as they want.
Because what are you going to do, not buy gasoline? Take public transit? Good luck. The US has established a captive market that has to pay whatever the price is.
The raw material cost of oil is only a portion of the cost of gasoline. There are dozens of steps in the value chain including transport, refining, capital expense (debt), labor, last mile transport, storage, RISK… And all of them lag. So an increase in crude oil costs might not be seen in gasoline prices for a month or more..
When I filled up my truck about a week ago, the price was $2.89. Two hours later, as I drove back past the same station, the price had increased to $3.15. Tell me there isn’t some price fixing happening.
Because oil is a commodity and if it is not profitable to drill for the commodity (price of a barrel drops too low) then oil companies stop drilling and supply gets scarce making prices go up.
So you do understand that refining oil is a process right. It doesn’t happen immediately it’s the gas in your car today is not from the cheap oil.
Additionally they don’t really know how long the oil will be down so their current purchases are cheaper but lots of the oil they have what’s more expensive until there’s a sustained drop in the price they are less likely to drastically reduce prices.
Also additionally no prices go down unless demand goes down if everyone still driving as much and has the money to spend as much they aren’t going to reduce the price regardless of their cost
Because people are still willing to pay those prices. Demand is as much of a factor, if not more, as the cost of production. The public’s willingness to change their usage habits is the only thing that’ll do it.
As we roll towards summer and people planning to drive even more, the likelihood of a large price drop gets more remote.
From drilling to the pump, the oil has to go through the petroleum companies for refining. They get to control the prices to the pump. When crude prices drop, something always seems to happen that reduces how much makes the market.
Theoretically its a month or so from crude coming out of the ground to gasoline in your vehicle: transport and refining. However I notice that price rises propagate quickly and declines slowly.
Its a scam, when the prices drop, they only sell the gas for what they paid for it and added profit margin from the past, only when their inventory gets replaced by cheaper product do they lower their prices, but when prices rise, they automatically raise prices on their existing inventory to reflex the new increases. They can have their cake and eat it too. Want to not do business with them, go electric just on princilpe and let the fu%kers pay for past pollution they created.
Gasoline comes from oil. But you still need to have major facilities to turn oil into gasoline. That limits how much gasoline you can make.
Not all oil works with all gasoline production systems. In particular, the oil that the US produces is the wrong kind of oil for most of the US’s gasoline plants. (No, I’ve no idea why.)
In the free market, prices are influenced by demand, not just price of materials. Gas is still in significant demand, so it will command a higher price.
Gas is almost a commodity essential for everyday life in the western developed world, and as a result, prices can be quite high before demand drops off, if ever. People still need to drive, and they therefore need gas, and gas companies know this, so they can raise the price of gas quite a lot knowing people will still pay for it.
Oil price is set by demand, and right now, traders expect that reduced economic factors going on right now will result in significant reductions in travel and trade, which will reduce the demand for oil. In addition, oil prices are also dependent on expectations — oil trading is done by a. type of oil b. delivered to a specific port c. in a specific month.
Oil prices are international; gas prices are domestic, so the price of gas is based on the US alone. Even within the contiguous US right now you will find drastically different gas prices depending on where you are. In the PNW it’s around $4.30/gal, while in the South it’s as low as $2.80/gal.
its called price gouging, you will notice that if there is even a rumor of supply disruption the price goes up immediately, you can thank corporate America for that
An oil contract for May delivery (what CNBC app shows) isn’t going to apply to gas at the retailer today.
That said, gas prices are heading downward too. Wholesale gas prices for May delivery are also down, so expect lower prices at the pump as lower oil prices feed through the system.
The gasoline for sale today was refined from oil that cost a higher price when it was purchased months ago. It takes time for the gas prices to reflect oil prices, and honestly unless one company drops prices none of them will.
Comparing to everything else, gas price is pretty stable and cheap. The peak was in 2008 or so for 6 a gallon at one point. It has been around 2.5-3 in my area for the past 5 years.
Oil prices today are generally delivered in 30 days. So that plus refining time to see those prices reflected at the pump. The gas you’re getting at the stations right now is probably still first batch summer blend, which is more expensive to produce, so that will also impact cost.
Comments
Refiners are switching to summer blend, and demand for gas is up
When the oil companies spiked prices a few years ago in response to crude oil prices and “other factors”, and then all of them set record profits at the same time, that’s when we see that prices at the pump are not very related to some idea of “supply and demand” pricing. It’s much more “what are you going to do about it?” pricing.
The gasoline available for sale today was likely refined from crude oil purchased weeks or months ago. The cost of inventory doesn’t drop instantly when the cost of raw materials goes down.
!!!SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLB pmurT
Still going through last months stock more people are starting to travel again and more people on the road with the nicer weather so simple supply and demand.
Also because, what are you gonna do about it?
They make more profit by charging you more
Gas prices are slower to fall because of the price it was purchased at. Once that gas is sold, new gas will be purchased at a lower cost and then sold at a lower cost.
We have not built refineries in many years. We have to import gasoline even though we export oil
Additionally, here in Washington state, our new governor, who is trying to fulfill his mandate to cut taxes, has instead increased the gas tax by more than 30 cents a gallon. seattle gets new roads and ferries, us up staters get broken windshields from the gravel in the potholes.
Historically, if there is a significant and sudden rise in oil prices, the prices will increase at the pump almost immediately. However, if the price of oil drops significantly and suddenly, they will delay the reduction and do so much more slowly in coordination (planned or otherwise) with their competitors in the area as there is also a regional component to this.
There are the standard profits you get from gas sales, then there the games they will play where they can extract additional profit and play dumb.
This is not dissimilar to what happened during COVID supply chain issues. There were legitimate supply chain issues that caused prices to skyrocket in certain areas but when the supply chain issues were resolved, they did not reduce price to previous levels. Corporations had a build in excuse to keep prices high to extract additional profit. This also significantly contributed to the high inflation environment we experienced from mid 2021 to mid 2023.
TLDR: greed
Prices will stay higher for a while so the companies can enjoy the profits. Prices will slowly come down when competitors lower their prices or due to sales slowing up and the need to generate sales. They don’t lower them because they feel sorry for us.
Gasoline.. so high?
In posts like these
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/s/kwCzuEzPmP
nobody ever lists gasoline. Which tells me, gas prices aren’t high enough.
No other reason than simply because they can. Been that way since the Rockefellers held sway in Washington.
Because theyre two different refining processes
$……..
Once pumped from the ground, a barrel of oil takes about 6 months to be transported, refined, transported again, distributed to local wholesalers, sold to gas stations, and then sold to consumers.
Because basically, what are you going to do about it? It’s not exactly an honest business.
Gas price at the pump is the amount consumers are willing to pay. If people continue to consume a lot, that’s the price. If we reach an actual recession and individuals and businesses forego trips, take the bus, etc, the price will drop. Until then, it likely won’t.
Refining capacity is also limited, and doesn’t respond as quickly to market forces as the crude price does.
Gas companies buy futures which means they already locked in the price
There is another step between buying crude oil and pumping gas into your car. The price of gas has more to do with the supply of refined gasoline and it’s cost then it does with the crude oil price today.
Greed.
But strump said day one!
Oil is usually future delivery prices you are seeing. They usually say when delivery is when reporting on it. Then it has to be refined so some months after that is when you will see the drop. There are also many macro economic factors at play that can affect the price before or after that point.
Partially greed, partially the complexity of the production chain. A refinery can only refine a certain type of oil. There’s light oil and heavy oil, high and low sulpher etc. Most US refineries are set up for really heavy, shitty oil because it’s the hardest to make so you can buy it for very cheap, refine it and make the largest profit. Most of that trash oil comes from the tar sands in Canada where I am. If there’s a supply disruption of the refinery can’t just switch to another oil type, it can take years to reconfigure a refinery. You can see why this would cause supply shocks.
Gasoline taxes are 20x more than company profits. And the government does none of the work and takes none of the risks.
Because the price is rigged to not decrease
Dude, any increase in cost is passed on immediately, any decrease will be forfeited by force. This is “capitalism.” DERP
I’m gonna say TARIFFS. Because it’s the word that’s been thrown around a lot the last few weeks and no one knows what they are
I’m gonna say TARIFFS. Because it’s the word that’s been thrown around a lot the last few weeks and no one knows what they are
Not in Texas! Yeeeehoooo $2.59 gal for regular UL near me.
Think of it as a pipeline, with many intermediate stops along the way, from oil to gas at the pump. It takes time to propagate.
The petroleum industry is profit-driven. Gas prices generally tend to rise, but occasionally they decrease slightly, which can be perceived as a tactic to create a favorable impression of the current administration that supports fossil fuels. This suggests that gas prices are sometimes used as a political tool. However, there is no direct correlation between the price at the pump and the global market price of oil.
Because the oil companies are greedy. They want as much profit as possible (not “a reasonable profit”, “as much as possible”) and they’ll keep prices as high as they can for as long as they can. Oil price is almost irrelevant to the price of gasoline.
Also depends on your area. Seems gas prices rarely drop anything significant in PA.
Weirdly the answer is Biden. Not sure how we got there but that’s the answer. Its not an orange clown screaming tariffs.
Biden.
Switch to summer gas blend
If you’ve already shown that you’ll bear the higher price of gas (and you will, because what the fuck else are you going to do?) then why would the gas company lower the price of gas when they could just take the lower price of oil and pocket the greater difference as profit?
Because the u.s. Supreme Court decided that trust between corporations was legal in 2007. Take a look back, you’ll see the inflation issues stared a little before that, then went nuts once they got the green light.
Companies aren’t in competition anymore and engage in price fixing…the issue is, the evidence can’t be brought out in court
Oil companies all collude to keep prices the same between them all and not really compete. They could all agree to jack ip the price 3x. What are we going to do? We need gas
Because oil is a cartel.
Prices vary so much depending on location. In the plains states, prices adjusted for inflation are comparable to what I was paying in the 1960s. Not high.
because you paid the high prices when they had to raise them.
There’s no causal-relationship between oil prices and gas prices. If you sold a widget for $100 and your raw materials were $99, and suddenly you could get the materials for $50, you might drop prices, but unless you were facing stiff competition you might also keep them relatively the same. We don’t have much real competition in gas prices, nor a large fluctuation in prices once all other costs are factored in.
Capitalism. The benefit of the consumer is never at the forefront of pricing. It’s now all about shareholders.
gas prices have gone down about 35 cents near me recently
Because we’ll pay it.
Because it’s spring and they have to reformulate the blends. It happens every single year.
Corporate greed
Because people are willing to pay it.
Gonna be honest, Americans complaining about gas prices goes to show how greedy and entitled we are. The US average is $3.30, the same as it was in 2008 and lower than what it was 2011-2014. We have the 4th cheapest gas prices in the G20 and the cheapest in the G7. If that’s expensive, what is a “fair” price, or better yet, what would it have to be for everyone to call it “cheap”?
Since I was a teenager gas prices have always spiked and pissed everyone off, and then it gets lowered and everyone thinks they’re getting a deal. I’m convinced they follow this model and over a long period of time you see a slow and steady average increase. As an example:
2005: $2.50 – Everybodys cool with it
2006: $3.00 – Everybodys pissed off
6 months later: $2.75 – Everybodys getting a “deal”
2007: $2.75: The new norm
2008: $3.25 – everybodys pissed off
You get the rest.
My rule of thumb is typically this: If an oilfield worker in Saudia Arabia stubs his toe, the price of oil will jump by 25%. If a massive cache of refined oil is discovered, enough to supply the entire world for 10 years, oil prices will decline by 5% over a period of six months. If that.
The demand curve for gasoline is almost flat, especially in places with no or very limited public transport. People are going to buy what they need to commute, do their shopping, etc. If gas prices get REALLY high, eventually people will put off road trip vacations and maybe be more careful about combining shopping trips but even then there’s not a huge reduction in consumption.
Easy. The prices are expected to rise so they increase the cost to pay for the next batch. Or, the oil they did buy was expensive so they have to increase the price to pay for it. It’s a perfect system! /s
Where i live, the government removed a carbon tax of about 20 cents a liter.
A week before the tax was removed, gas went up 20 cents a liter. Once tax was removed, the price dropped about 5 cents.
So now we are paying about the same even though their is no carbon tax and oil is lower.
I hate oil companies
In addition to the “what are you going to do about it, we are all charging more” posts.
Tariffs.
The price oil went down, but the taxes (tariffs) on the oil, went up.
And no matter how high the tariffs get, the oil REFINERIES in the US can’t refine enough of the needed grade of us oil to supply ourselves. (a large portion of our own oil is not suitable to be made into gasoline).
In India, it is high because the govt is a motherfu**er
Running gas station is getting Costly! Insurance taxes repairs employees. It Sucks!!
Trump
Oil and gas at the pump aren’t the same thing.
Because the the price of gas is more a factor of refinery capacity not oil prices. When refineries are running at 100% and supply is short, they can charge as much as they want.
Because what are you going to do, not buy gasoline? Take public transit? Good luck. The US has established a captive market that has to pay whatever the price is.
First time with End-Stage Capitalism? Yeah, we get that.
Greed. Wild unadulterated greed.
Because republicans voted against limiting big oil’s profiteering
Gas near me is under $3/gallon which these days is cheap. It has been for weeks.
If you’re losing money on the extraction end… make it up on the retail end…
The raw material cost of oil is only a portion of the cost of gasoline. There are dozens of steps in the value chain including transport, refining, capital expense (debt), labor, last mile transport, storage, RISK… And all of them lag. So an increase in crude oil costs might not be seen in gasoline prices for a month or more..
….they’re not high? It’s been around 2.70 a gallon here for the past couple months. It hasn’t gone down yet though, but that’s definitely not high.
When I filled up my truck about a week ago, the price was $2.89. Two hours later, as I drove back past the same station, the price had increased to $3.15. Tell me there isn’t some price fixing happening.
The president hasn’t turned the gas prices switch down yet
The same reason as 6 months ago… the president and his policies
Because oil is a commodity and if it is not profitable to drill for the commodity (price of a barrel drops too low) then oil companies stop drilling and supply gets scarce making prices go up.
Has anyone checked in on the refineries, lately?
If profits don’t go up, share prices don’t go up.
If share prices don’t go up, the company is considered “failing” and shareholders can actually sue the company.
This process is a requirement of capitalism.
This is one of the core reasons why capitalism is bad.
So you do understand that refining oil is a process right. It doesn’t happen immediately it’s the gas in your car today is not from the cheap oil.
Additionally they don’t really know how long the oil will be down so their current purchases are cheaper but lots of the oil they have what’s more expensive until there’s a sustained drop in the price they are less likely to drastically reduce prices.
Also additionally no prices go down unless demand goes down if everyone still driving as much and has the money to spend as much they aren’t going to reduce the price regardless of their cost
They still have to charge what they they paid for when they stocked up.
” Because fuck you, that’s why.” – oil companies
Its kind of like how food quantities are shrinking in the store but prices stay the same.
Gas prices around me have dropped 15 cents a gallon in a week.
I blame Trump. I don’t think the president has much control over the prices but I think that’s the way we play this game.
Because people are still willing to pay those prices. Demand is as much of a factor, if not more, as the cost of production. The public’s willingness to change their usage habits is the only thing that’ll do it.
As we roll towards summer and people planning to drive even more, the likelihood of a large price drop gets more remote.
From drilling to the pump, the oil has to go through the petroleum companies for refining. They get to control the prices to the pump. When crude prices drop, something always seems to happen that reduces how much makes the market.
Theoretically its a month or so from crude coming out of the ground to gasoline in your vehicle: transport and refining. However I notice that price rises propagate quickly and declines slowly.
When a liar gets into office they let him charge whatever he wants.
Gasoline is a global commodity and therefore priced independently of any local abundance (i.e., low price).
They are about $2.36 in SE Texas. Way down from the $3.00 or so under Biden. Remember that 36.3 cents per gallon is a tax.
Profit. Never underestimate greed.
It’s called corporate greed.
But…drill baby drill! LOL
We proved we can pay the higher priced. So they never lowered it after the last spike
Its a scam, when the prices drop, they only sell the gas for what they paid for it and added profit margin from the past, only when their inventory gets replaced by cheaper product do they lower their prices, but when prices rise, they automatically raise prices on their existing inventory to reflex the new increases. They can have their cake and eat it too. Want to not do business with them, go electric just on princilpe and let the fu%kers pay for past pollution they created.
Because there are no competitors to opec
because oil is not gasoline
Hope this helps
Okay okay.
Gasoline comes from oil. But you still need to have major facilities to turn oil into gasoline. That limits how much gasoline you can make.
Not all oil works with all gasoline production systems. In particular, the oil that the US produces is the wrong kind of oil for most of the US’s gasoline plants. (No, I’ve no idea why.)
In the free market, prices are influenced by demand, not just price of materials. Gas is still in significant demand, so it will command a higher price.
Gas is almost a commodity essential for everyday life in the western developed world, and as a result, prices can be quite high before demand drops off, if ever. People still need to drive, and they therefore need gas, and gas companies know this, so they can raise the price of gas quite a lot knowing people will still pay for it.
Oil price is set by demand, and right now, traders expect that reduced economic factors going on right now will result in significant reductions in travel and trade, which will reduce the demand for oil. In addition, oil prices are also dependent on expectations — oil trading is done by a. type of oil b. delivered to a specific port c. in a specific month.
Oil prices are international; gas prices are domestic, so the price of gas is based on the US alone. Even within the contiguous US right now you will find drastically different gas prices depending on where you are. In the PNW it’s around $4.30/gal, while in the South it’s as low as $2.80/gal.
its called price gouging, you will notice that if there is even a rumor of supply disruption the price goes up immediately, you can thank corporate America for that
Greed.
Look at all the terrible answers here. sad
An oil contract for May delivery (what CNBC app shows) isn’t going to apply to gas at the retailer today.
That said, gas prices are heading downward too. Wholesale gas prices for May delivery are also down, so expect lower prices at the pump as lower oil prices feed through the system.
Rocket and feather
Prices go up, and rarely come down once the company sees the profits. Price of oil coming down just means they make more profit
Step 3 – Profits
For the first time that I know of, diesel is cheaper in Canada than it is in USA. It could be a tariff related thing.
What? I’m seeing it for $2.30 a gallon.
The gasoline for sale today was refined from oil that cost a higher price when it was purchased months ago. It takes time for the gas prices to reflect oil prices, and honestly unless one company drops prices none of them will.
I’m sure they find a way to slow play the price drops and expedite the price gouging. It’s all part of the scam.
Because fuck you, that’s why.
greed
Must be dependent on location; ours are reasonably low in Nebraska.
Greed and what else can drivers do?
Takes a week or so to reflect in the pumps. So they say.
It is an oligopoly not a competitive market. The price is set by a few providers. I think about 10 companies own the 132 remaining refineries.
Greed. As the price goes up they will increase the prices.
Comparing to everything else, gas price is pretty stable and cheap. The peak was in 2008 or so for 6 a gallon at one point. It has been around 2.5-3 in my area for the past 5 years.
They are? The average price right now is ~3.20 a gallon
Oil prices today are generally delivered in 30 days. So that plus refining time to see those prices reflected at the pump. The gas you’re getting at the stations right now is probably still first batch summer blend, which is more expensive to produce, so that will also impact cost.
People are still driving big vehicles and driving often. The price of stuff is the price that enough people are will pay.