Brace Yourself for Gas Prices...

[motordavid]

Fasten your seatbelts and dig in your wallets; it's headed up,
just in time for those idyllic summer road trips.
BR,mD

COMMODITIES
Gasoline Contracts Spring Up

Shortage Concerns Ahead of Summer Drive Sharp Gains
By MASOOD FARIVAR
April 13, 2007; Page C6

Gasoline stockpiles are racing against time.
Given low inventories and the rising number of refinery outages, fear of a summer supply crunch would seem well-founded and justify futures prices in excess of $2 a gallon. But with Memorial Day, the unofficial start of the summer, almost two months off, analysts say refiners have enough time to rebuild inventories. The wild card, however, will be imports.
Yesterday, the May reformulated-gasoline blendstock futures contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange climbed to an eight-month high on news of trouble at several U.S. refineries before settling at $2.1918, up 3.31 cents. That rise helped boost front-month crude oil, which settled $1.84 higher at $63.85 a barrel.
"It's too early to panic," said Doug MacIntyre, an analyst at the Energy Information Administration, the Department of Energy's statistics and analysis arm. "There is plenty of time to rebuild inventories, but it depends on when imports start increasing again."
Since late January, gasoline futures have soared 60% as stockpiles of gasoline have slumped by more than 27 million barrels, nearly three times their seasonal rate of decline.
With gasoline demand running near a record 9.5 million barrels a day, the drawdowns have stoked fears that refiners won't have enough inventory on hand this summer to meet a supply shortfall in the event of an unexpected outage. But while inventories have never been this low relative to demand, refiners have a proven record of replenishing stocks during this time of year through a combination of imports and production.
Refiners, wholesalers, and terminal operators keep a certain amount of inventory on hand. To give refiners a cushion against a supply snag during the peak driving season of summer, gasoline inventories -- currently at about 200 million barrels and below their historic range -- need to climb to about 210 million barrels by mid-May and to between 213 million and 214 million barrels by the end of the month, Mr. MacIntyre said.
In other commodity markets:
COPPER: Prices on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell as traders took profits after a two-month rally in the metal. Scott Meyers, senior trading analyst with Pioneer Futures, said the overall trend is still up but the rally may have been overdone. "So a correction of a larger magnitude is certainly warranted," he said. Nearby April copper fell 8.25 cents to $3.4930 a pound.
CATTLE: Live cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange dropped sharply. The nearby April contract fell 2.57 cents to 97.35 cents a pound, amid selling as its April 30 expiration nears.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1176...N=wsjie/6month

[kirkX5m]

very sick! im glad i have a 2nd car to drive to alleviate the butt rape on gas bills!!!!!!!!!

[Michelle]

Just paid $3.15/gallon this morning.

[PersonaNonGrata]

Originally Posted by Michelle

Just paid $3.15/gallon this morning.

If that's for premium then you're lucky. That's what it costs us for regular (87) here in Cali. . Californians get robbed big time.

When I drove to Arizona a few weeks ago, driving 7 miles from the last CA gas station to the next AZ gas station resulted in something like a $0.30/gallon price difference. I don't remember exactly but it was significant.

[Wagner]

Let the lies begin

I like watching the stations compete to see who has the berries to raise the price over a certain mark. It use to be 3/gallon so now I'm guessing it will be 4/gallon...next year 5 then an election and it should change.

[B&DCalgary]

Whine, whine, whine.... the U.S. has the cheapest gas prices in the world by far. I wish I could find it for $3 a gallon.

I just gassed up with premium today, and the price was $4.95/gallon CAD (which converts to about $4.42 USD). In Europe the prices are about double that. How would you like to be paying around $8 to $9 per gallon like most other countries? Consider yourselves blessed to have such low prices.

[JV]

Originally Posted by B&DCalgary

Whine, whine, whine.... the U.S. has the cheapest gas prices in the world by far. I wish I could find it for $3 a gallon.

I just gassed up with premium today, and the price was $4.95/gallon CAD (which converts to about $4.42 USD). In Europe the prices are about double that. How would you like to be paying around $8 to $9 per gallon like most other countries? Consider yourselves blessed to have such low prices.

It's all relative, man.

[Wagner]

Originally Posted by B&DCalgary

Whine, whine, whine.... the U.S. has the cheapest gas prices in the world by far. I wish I could find it for $3 a gallon.

I just gassed up with premium today, and the price was $4.95/gallon CAD (which converts to about $4.42 USD). In Europe the prices are about double that. How would you like to be paying around $8 to $9 per gallon like most other countries? Consider yourselves blessed to have such low prices.

Please...always get this whining from other countries because they fail to get their prices down....

It's 3000 miles across the US, how many is it to cross Germany, or Spain, or France, or most Euro countries

[Thunder22]

4 of my friends in London, and 2 in Germany have their gas paid for by their employer.... and their car payments.

[motordavid]

My orig post with the C&P was for info and to peruse...
I personally wasn't whining.

If gas gets to 5 bucks plus here in the good ol'US of A,
I will probably drive less, but the economy of scale will not
impact my life one iota.

It will impact the masses, many of whom are upside down in
their fiscal lives; their fault, by the bye, imo.

As for all the rest of the civilized world, paying $4, $5, $6 +
bucks, well...it's your country, your "system", your tax/benefits
programs, etc. I was not crying the blues or comparing us in the
US to what someone pays in another country.

Here's a list for all to wince or chortle over...I've been to
Caracas a dozen times on Biz, but I'm not moving there tomorrow
for its cheap gas.

http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lis...bal_gasprices/

Edit, that's why I don't watch or read CNN: 2005 data.
I could not find any links more recent, even GOOG'ng the topic. What a system, lol!