Gas prices after Ike

[emeleel]

What are gas prices in your areas of the country? Post-Ike prices are really hitting us hard here - everywhere I went today was either $4.25 or $4.29. That was the expensive places AND the cheap places. (Which tells me something - if the expensive places, which are always 20 cents higher than the cheap places, are suddenly the exact same price, then either the cheap places are gouging now or the expensive places are overpriced on a regular basis.)

I know I'm in a Gulf distribution area, so we're getting hit the hardest. Some places are actually over $5. Our prices weren't even this high at the very, very worst of gas prices earlier this year!

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

I bought at $3.60 last week, it's $4something now.

[lynnzop[$]]

Let's see. I think I'll create a timeline:
Thurs 9/11 $3.36 I think about filling up but don't
Fri 9/12 $3.45 I think harder about filling up and do
Sat 9/13 $3.59 jumped nearly .25 in TWO DAYS

And today I noticed it's $3.69.

Scalpers.

[drmomentum[$]]

I'm running my car on smiles and sunshine, so I don't need to buy gas anymore.

[jgibson2[$]]

I saw gas at 3.59 one day last week -- and 14 cents cheaper at the next station over -- so I filled my tank. That was last week. This week the cheap places are 3.58. More expensive ones are 3.79 in my area. There are bound to be stations in MD with higher prices, though.

[thinkerlady[$]]

$3.55 on Sunday at Wawa.

[mtomm[$]]

$3.79, our prices have not got up because of the hurricanes and continue to drop almost every other day.

Melanie, I think you are getting ripped off. But then we've had this discussion before. Those station owners are setting those prices high. Have no doubt.

[lynnzop[$]]

Back down to $3.49 this a.m.

[taurusmoon]

drmomentum said

I'm running my car on smiles and sunshine, so I don't need to buy gas anymore.

I'll have what he's having.

[magenta321]

Our governor warned gas stations that they were watching for gouging, and set up a hotline. It's been flooded with calls. Cumberland Farms was the worst offender, from the way the nightly news makes it sound.

Prices went from $3.59 before Ike to $3.79 the day of Ike, and have stayed there, for the gas stations I see daily. I'm not sure if they are gouged or not.

I thought our gas came from refineries in NJ. Not positive, however.

[lynnzop[$]]

lynnzop said

Back down to $3.49 this a.m.

So the same station (I drive by it on the way to and from work) was at $3.59 last night when I drove by at 5:00.

This morning it's back down to $3.49.

I feel like I'm on a string or something.

[eris esoteric]

Actually, it's quite simple. The folks running the convenience store all figured out that the job was a lot more fun when they just admitted that they hated all the customers.

(Or... *cough* ...so I've heard...)

[Prepoia[$]]

4.09-4.29

[JonSmith]

The hurricane was just an excuse to gouge the public even more on gas prices. It has very little actual responsibility for the prices. Someone is making a lot of money over the fraudulent 'speculation' game.

[aggiebrett]

Price spikes this week are the natural and inevitable result of a huge percentage of US gas refinery capacity taken offline as a precaution against catastrophic damage from Ike. Now, in the aftermath, there are huge problems getting consistent power working again, both to the refineries and for the thousands of workers required to man the facilities.

Due to the laws and regs re: specific blends of gasolines mandated for specific regions and atmospheric conditions, the issue is not as simple as "what does a gallon of regular unleaded cost?" In simple terms, there is no such thing as a standard universally usable "gallon of regular unleaded."

(see: WILLisms.com: Boutique Fuel Nonsense)

Was that gallon we're pricing refined for use in SoCal? If so, then that's one specific blend which might come from only one or two specific refineries and which very possibly CANNOT be sold in other parts of the country. It's that a blend for metro Atlanta? Harris County TX? Common grade acceptable for use in rural areas and sold on the open market? El Paso? Phoenix? Minnesota? All different formulas requiring different refining recipes, and often coming from just a few specific refineries.

If your area requires a specialty blend, and the one refinery USUALLY tasked with refining that blend goes offline, that creates a temporary shortage for that blend, and the need cannot be filled simply by redirecting a truck of unleaded which had been headed for Moline, Lexington, Biloxi, or Omaha.

Here in Houston, where a large portion of the area is still suffering with no electricity in the aftermath of the storm, the issue is less a shortage of gas than a shortage of working pumps to deliver it. There are hundreds -- maybe thousands -- of stations with tanks filled with gasoline, but without electricity that gas can't be pumped into vehicles, placing triple and quadruple demand on those stations which DO have working pumps.

Meanwhile, if you check the price of unrefined crude in the last week, you'll see it's been DROPPING, which might seem counterintuitive until you realize that this reflects a short-term glut at the docks as tankers are arriving loaded with crude which now has fewer refineries able to accept it! In order to offload their cargo and start back for the NEXT load, these transporters -- many of whom are independent of the refineries and distributors -- are having to accept lower and lower prices as the refineries still operating have the luxury of taking the lowest offers from an inflated number of loaded tankers.

Those companies who have the resources right now are loading up their reserves while the short term bargains are available, which likely (maybe... unless it doesn't... ;-) will result in lower and more stable at the pump prices in the coming months.

The gasoline business is wild and complicated, and the day to day week to week price fluctuations at the pump are seldom so simple as any one company or set of companies just conspiring to screw consumers. Yeah, that makes for a far more entertaining and easy to blog about scenario (smoky rooms with evil fat cats twirling their mustaches and cackling maniacally...), but it's just not the way the actual business operates.
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[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Wow. Cool analysis, thanks!

[emeleel]

Yeah, I don't believe it's quite gouging, because I know the refineries being offline plus the distribution getting messed up is going to hurt us for the moment. I just wish it didn't jump SO much! I think it was ridiculous for it to start jumping *before* Ike, though - that was pure speculation and resultant greed, IMO.

Sam's was at #3.95 today and that's the lowest I saw.

[aggiebrett]

Well, the refineries had to be shut down before the 100 mph winds-- a full day's shift went to locking down the facilities, so teh shortage was already being felt. Plus, also reember that local distributors and resellers buy from wholesalers who set prices based on both anticipated supply and demand, so when they know gas is going to be hard to come by for the next week, they can afford to ask more for what stock they still have.

[mtomm[$]]

$3.77 -- dropped another 2 cents.

[emeleel]

Some big drops here, finally, thankfully. One station down the street was at $4.29 earlier this week. Yesterday afternoon it was $4.24 or .25, I forget which. When I passed it at 8:30 this morning, it was $4.07. When I passed it at 12:30, it was $3.99.

[magenta321]

We are within 2 cents of our pre-Ike price.

[emeleel]

W00t! Just filled up at $3.27 at Sam's.

Another dollar and I'll be closer to true happiness.

[taurusmoon]

I was on the phone a little while ago with a friend who was commuting home to NJ. She was filling up for $2.99 while we spoke. And, since it's NJ, it was Full Serve.

I'm going to be driving through there next week. I'm holding out hope that I don't need to fill up before I get there.