Low Gas Prices..

[Armistead]

Lowest I've seen today 2.69 Ridgeway Va.

[HW3]

It is election time. The oil companies want to keep all the politicians they have bought and paid for in office so, gas prices are coming down. They will go back up after the election is over.

[Wolferz]

Politics aside, the price for a barrel of crude has dropped to $84.00, due to a spike in production by the OPEC cats and all of those little countries that use oil to finance their governments. The prices over the past ten years were most likely artificially inflated when they realized that more fuel efficient cars were on the horizon. So they grabbed as many Benjamins as they could before the demand started to drop.

The petroleum producers are also starting their winter blend fuel production, which is cheaper to make.
Now, if we could get the Feds and the states to ease up on those excise taxes.

[Dread Knot]

Originally Posted by Tribesman

Or is it the Saudis increasing production to push the US shale industry to the point where they can't afford to extract the oil?

Exactly. Officials in Saudi Arabia have signaled that lower prices (say, $80 per barrel or lower) could make some shale-oil producers in the United States unprofitable and force the US to cut back on production. Saudi Arabia would be fine with that, since its type of oil tends to be cheaper to produce than most shale oil projects in the United States. That US cutback, in turn, could help stabilize prices.

The question is how far Saudi Arabia can let prices fall without incurring too much domestic pain. In September, the International Monetary Fund warned that Saudi Arabia would run a deficit of roughly 1.4 percent in 2015. Not least since the country has been ramping up big infrastructure projects and doling out foreign aid around the Middle East of late. That shortfall would force the country to start drawing down its massive foreign-exchange reserves. But considering how massive those reserves are, there is no real putting them over a barrel there.

[Red October1984]

Regular is $2.92

Car *technically* requires Premium but I put in regular usually. Today I was feeling like putting in Plus for $3.02

[Catfish]

I have an old Diesel-driven VW, and use canola instead of Diesel. Cheap and environment-friendly. Unfortunately not possible with modern electronic-regulated injection pumps. Still have to buy grease and motor oil of course.

And the first thing that will not work in case of a power-out, are gasoline pumps (you know, this Zombie apocalypse )

[Jimbuna]

Well I certainly appreciate the 4 pence per litre reduction in the price of petrol here in my area....long may it continue.

[swamprat69er]

Originally Posted by Red October1984

Regular is $2.92

Car *technically* requires Premium but I put in regular usually. Today I was feeling like putting in Plus for $3.02

I run my Jeep exclusively on 'high test', it burns cleaner and NO ethanol. Today $1.47/Litre=$5.56/US gallon

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Tribesman

Or is it the Saudis increasing production to push the US shale industry to the point where they can't afford to extract the oil?

Ooor, the Saudis being leaned on by the US to increase production to undercut a certain nation who the US has not been on good terms with lately which exports a lot of oil to Europe...

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Tribesman

Or do you mean Russia

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Tribesman

Yeah, but I can't see it backfiring.
Localising effect is impossible in a global market.
The effect on US shale gas is already mentioned.
This could be a re-run of their attempts to screw Cuba by wrecking the sugar market. It resulted in the US sugar industry going for a burton and the switch to highly subsidised highly unhealthy HFCS.

Exactly, I mean we're not talking about high grade Machiavellian actors here...