Fuel

[Foghorn]

Have a fishing buddy who is the hospital at Mercy South so we drove the 60 miles to the city for a visit. Evidently the price of fuel isn't affecting the folks as Highway 67 and 55 were pretty busy. Maybe just Sunday afternoon drivers?

[jdmidwest]

I have not seen any drop in traffic or congestion at the gas pump.  Just like crack, they will find money for it somehow.

They have been busting robber gangs around here this month.  2 tractor trailer loads of stolen stuff in Dexter from local area.  High speed chase from Jackson to South County on bunch of teens that were breaking into cars in an apartment complex.  Car was stolen and guns inside were all from St. Louis, drove 100 miles burning fuel like a mother to steal stuff.

Street beggars all over the place.  One came onto a jobsite with a big sob story Friday, wanting a $20 bill from each of us.  We just laughed at him.  Started to offer him some money for some of his nice clothes he was wearing, but they just were not my style.

Interest rates went up last week.  Big world adjustment coming for the ole USA.

[bfishn]

Gas Prices 3/22/22 US Gallon U.S. Dollar
Venezuela	0.095
Libya	0.122
Iran	0.194
Syria	1.195
Algeria*	1.218
Kuwait*	1.308
Angola	1.328
Nigeria	1.515
Kazakhstan	1.547
Turkmenistan	1.621
Russia*	1.831
Malaysia*	1.845
Iraq	1.944
Egypt*	1.974
Bahrain	2.008
Bolivia*	2.057
Qatar*	2.183
Azerbaijan	2.227
Oman*	2.35
Saudi Arabia*	2.351
Ethiopia	2.36
Colombia*	2.362
Haiti	2.382
Kyrgyzstan*	2.447
Belarus*	2.524
Ecuador*	2.55
Tunisia*	2.848
Pakistan*	3.13
Uzbekistan	3.191
Trinidad & Tobago	3.21
United Arab Emirates*	3.215
Togo*	3.221
Chad	3.297
Afghanistan	3.355
Lebanon*	3.399
Indonesia*	3.403
Dominica	3.476
Guyana*	3.498
Suriname*	3.515
Maldives	3.576
Sudan	3.599
Yemen	3.731
Mongolia	3.784
Sri Lanka*	3.826
Benin*	3.827
Gabon	3.851
Madagascar*	3.866
Sierra Leone*	3.873
Bangladesh	3.917
Burkina Faso*	3.923
Argentina*	3.938
DR Congo	3.953
Cameroon*	4.01
Ivory Coast*	4.05
Mozambique*	4.094
Swaziland	4.112
Botswana	4.14
Tanzania*	4.148
Puerto Rico*	4.157
Guinea	4.253
Mali	4.28
Bhutan	4.28
Mexico*	4.298
Saint Lucia*	4.3
Namibia*	4.34
Taiwan*	4.382
Panama*	4.412
Ukraine*	4.442
Kenya*	4.447
Ghana*	4.5
Georgia*	4.525
Grenada*	4.622
USA*	4.637
Turkey*	4.647
El Salvador*	4.65
Rwanda*	4.65
Liberia	4.685
Lesotho*	4.694
Zambia*	4.696
Honduras*	4.747
Cuba	4.77
Burma*	4.795
Paraguay	4.808
Nepal*	4.822
Costa Rica*	4.83
Nicaragua*	4.847
Vietnam*	4.923
Guatemala*	4.934
Fiji*	4.942
Senegal	4.943
Burundi	5.077
India*	5.103
Curacao	5.199
Mauritius*	5.241
Chile*	5.272
Bahamas	5.28
Uganda	5.28
Malawi*	5.325
Peru*	5.332
Dominican Republic*	5.333
Northern Macedonia*	5.355
Hungary*	5.359
South Africa*	5.364
Thailand*	5.396
Japan*	5.421
Cambodia*	5.435
Aruba*	5.487
Cayman Islands*	5.498
Philippines*	5.51
China*	5.531
Morocco	5.533
Brazil*	5.572
Jamaica*	5.573
Malta*	5.589
Moldova*	5.622
Canada*	5.705
Jordan*	5.793
Seychelles	5.832
Cyprus*	5.877
Australia*	5.95
Bulgaria*	6.006
Cape Verde*	6.008
Poland*	6.035
Laos*	6.116
Serbia*	6.239
Slovenia*	6.269
Belize*	6.318
Bosnia & Herz.*	6.319
South Korea*	6.342
Andorra*	6.515
Romania*	6.542
Uruguay*	6.648
Wallis and Futuna	6.961
Luxembourg*	7.066
Slovakia*	7.079
Albania	7.196
Austria*	7.25
Lithuania*	7.254
Mayotte*	7.258
Montenegro*	7.258
Belgium*	7.3
New Zealand*	7.416
Czech Republic*	7.43
Spain*	7.459
Latvia*	7.612
Central African Rep.	7.639
Croatia*	7.698
San Marino	7.733
Barbados*	7.746
Ireland*	7.838
Estonia*	7.921
Portugal*	8.038
France*	8.096
Switzerland*	8.11
Singapore*	8.134
United Kingdom*	8.304
Greece*	8.518
Israel*	8.544
Iceland*	8.545
Sweden*	8.549
Liechtenstein	8.628
Germany*	8.705
Italy*	8.749
Finland*	8.81
Denmark*	8.838
Zimbabwe*	8.907
Monaco	9.439
Norway*	9.454
Netherlands*	9.782
Hong Kong*	10.904

[jdmidwest]

I hear Venezuela is nice.  Wonder if Conce is still around?  Foreign exchange student from High School, taught me to cuss in Spanish.

[fishinwrench]

Nobody appears to be effected by fuel costs in the areas that I move about within.   I mean yeah they'll all whine about it if you mention it.....but it sure isn't keeping anybody from going anywhere that they want to, all day, every day.   

I honestly believe that even if gas was 20.00/gal. the roads would still be ultra-congested with folks driving around willy-nilly just cuz.  

Hell, as long as this many people are willing to pay 5-6 bucks per gallon and still spend 6-10 hours a day driving around.......then what incentive is anyone in the industry gonna have to LOWER the cost of gas ?

[fshndoug]

My brother just spent $560 for 10 pieces of sheet rock and 20 10 ft 2x4x10 #1 studs and 3 2x4x10 ft cca boards 2 2x10x10 ft treated boards and he didn't even get kissed

 

[Al Agnew]

Who gets oil out of the ground in the U.S.?  The oil companies.  The oil companies are multi-national.  They are in it to make as much profit as possible.  They get their oil from wherever they can make the most profit.  Like it or not, U.S. oil is not cheap oil.  Not only do the oil companies have to adhere to environmental regulations that some other countries don't bother with, they have to get the oil by fracking, or drilling in cold seas, or in the Arctic.  Was the U.S. oil independent?  Nope.  The U.S., on average the last decade or so, produces something like 18% of the world's oil.  But not all that oil goes to U.S. refineries.  And here's what people don't seem to realize...during 2020, the last year of Trump's administration and the first Covid year, there was less oil produced in the U.S. that there will be this year, and about as much as there was in 2021.  2020 saw a big drop in oil extraction in the U.S.  And yet during 2020 gasoline prices were not much over $2 a gallon.  Why?  Because DEMAND had dropped precipitously with Covid.   And why did U.S. production drop so much in 2020?  Because with low demand and very low price at the pump, it was no longer profitable for the oil companies to extract and sell U.S. oil, so they shut down a lot of operations, preferring to get their oil from cheaper places and ship it to the U.S.

So in 2021, demand started to rise with the easing of Covid restrictions.  And so did prices of gas.  Yup, Biden did a few things that were unfriendly to the oil companies...BUT, none of them were responsible for reducing U.S. oil production NOW.  And most of them are not even in effect now because they are wending their way through the courts.  

So why aren't the oil companies getting a whole lot of oil from U.S. sources NOW?  Because once you shut down production at a site, it takes a while to get things back up and running.  But again, by the end of this year, U.S. oil production will probably be back up to somewhere around 2019 levels, before Covid.  But do you think that gasoline prices will be at 2019 levels?  Dream on.  The oil companies are milking this for all it's worth, and it doesn't help that things are pretty tense right now with the Russia thing, and everybody is afraid of what the future holds, so will continue to make as much money as they can right now.

Fact is, the policies of any presidential administration have far less impact on oil prices than world affairs in general do...because those oil companies are multi-national, and really are more or less monopolies, or at least they completely collude with each other to keep the prices at levels where they can maximize profit.  Gasoline prices dropped like a rock at the end of the Bush administration, skewing what was a very high average gas price during most of his administration.  Why?  The Great Recession.  They rose during the Obama administration.  Why?  Coming out of the Great Recession.  They dropped near the end of the Obama administration because there was a glut of oil, which remained the case during the Trump administration...until Covid.  Then there was still more oil being produced than the demand supported, even with drops in production, so oil remained cheap.

Electric vehicles?  The auto companies are reading the handwriting on the wall.  In 10 years EVs will make up a significant percentage of all new vehicles.  If battery technology continues to advance, it might come sooner than that.  And THAT will reduce demand for oil.  But how much will it affect price?  Who knows?  Maybe the holdouts who continue to buy and use gasoline powered cars will be willing to pay high prices for that gas.  The oil companies will do everything they can to keep their profits up.

It's a changing world, folks.  Things are weird right now for a multitude of reasons, and it sucks.  And things are going to get weirder in the next 10 years.  Doesn't matter who is in power.  Vote for whoever you want, but don't expect miracles if your guys win.  If you can't afford the gas to play now, don't expect it to automatically go down when the other party is in power.  Start planning for a future of high gasoline prices, and figure out how to afford your fun.

And by the way, if it costs you $50 to drive to the lake now, it still cost you $25-30 in 2020.  The question is not whether you can afford the $50, it's whether you can afford the $20-25 MORE it cost you than it did in 2020.

[Jerry Rapp]

.

[Devan S.]

6 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

  Because once you shut down production at a site, it takes a while to get things back up and running.  But again, by the end of this year, U.S. oil production will probably be back up to somewhere around 2019 levels, before Covid.  But do you think that gasoline prices will be at 2019 levels?  Dream on.  The oil companies are milking this for all it's worth, and it doesn't help that things are pretty tense right now with the Russia thing, and everybody is afraid of what the future holds, so will continue to make as much money as they can right now.

 

EIA monthly data already indicates domestic production is at Jan/Feb 2019 levels. 

Dallas Fed did a survey with oil execs and 60% said Investor pressure is slowing them down. 

Only 11% cited environmental, social, governance issues and 6% cited government regulations. 

Haven't we been natural gas independent for years? Why did it double or more in costs? 

[tjm]

Money is worth less, so anything that did cost $1 now costs more. Remember when journeyman wages were ~$2/hr? What's that worth now?