From $2.00 gas to $5.00 gas in 4 years

Ever-Increasing Usage

August may be vacation time for many people, but our reliance on foreign oil didn't take any time off.

In August alone we imported 355 million barrels of oil and sent $25.2 billion overseas, the most spent on foreign oil out of any month this year.

We are digging ourselves deeper into a hole every day and our economy and security are suffering.

T Boone Pickens

Ah, but isn't nice to see Hugo Chavez out and about spending your petro-dollars on new kit.

After he left the Venice film festivial with Mike Mann he flew to Russia to spend $2 billion on anti-aircraft bits, helicopters and submarines, with Putin very happy.

British Petrolium (BP) and British Gas (BG Group) have just found 2 new huge sites in the Mexican Gulf and Brazil. At least that will help pay for some of Bush's wars.

The 'Game' goes on.

It was announced this week on the news that gas prices in the U.S. are expected to blow past $4.00 a gallon and straight to $5.00 by Memorial Day. As a result of that and the banks, I know of about a dozen boat owners who have either sold their boats at a loss or are just walking away. I know only one person planning to buy a boat in the under 50' range, and that's only if he can get a ridiculous deal. I am now charging a mileage fee to my clients, will not work more than 30 miles from my home and am raising my captain fees. Don't care if I work less. Why work just to pay for gas to get there. My plan for next winter is to close off portions of my home so as not to pay to heat them and I'm already using more wood for heat. I've put buying a new car (originally planned for this year) off for at least the next 2 years maybe more. As a retirement plan it's a consideration to have the state pay for my room, board and medical. Might even be fun getting there. I just hate feeling used and abused.

Gasoline

Build more refineries that's the answer, the greens don't want them to and the oil co's are not protesting too loudly as it keeps the price up, also, go off world pricing and lets have real competition.

Building refineries does nothing short term, are not needed and is nothing but another excuse to hike the prices further (have to pay for the refineries). The solution is to not buy anything at all that is not absolutely needed; give nothing to charity, charge up credit cards and take loans then refuse to pay and drive the economy into total chaos. The low can only go down so far, the high have a long way to fall.

gasoline

Idiot...

what would the price of a barrel be if Kuwait was still under Iraqi Control and the Oil hungry west didn't bother ...Invading


I reckon it wouldn't be 110/150 $ per barrel thats for sure .. But all the unrest works in favour of Oil companies . period

Colin,

You say you are in Scotland so you must know where this comes from.

http://oil-price.net/dashboard.php?lang=en#brent_crude_price_large

It is already over your minimum guess if Sodomise em all had come to take over without his undue influence.

Cheap Gasoline

Greetings from Europe. Like the Site and am usually a Lurker but this thread I had to comment on as it seems somewhat bizarre from the European perspective.

Interesting to see your views on fuel prices as to us the price Americans pay for fuel is ridiculously cheep. If you want to know what $250 oil will look like just come to Europe as the fuel duty alone is £0.5895 a litre or $152 a barrel with VAT charged on top of the fuel cost and the duty itself!

World production has flat-lined since 2004 (see pg 8) and yet with the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) developing fast the demand from these counties is increasing and that can only be accommodated by falling demand somewhere else. Also whether you think that the peak production rate is imminent or not there is no way that the world can supply the world with oil in the quantities used in the western world.

The USA uses 22.4 barrels per capita and in the UK we use 10.1. Either way if this was to be replicated on a worldwide level the world would need to produce 372 or 166 million barrels a day compared to the actual production levels of 79.9 in 2009.I can't see anything other than oil getting more expensive as world demand grows and it will need to be above the $200 a barrel mark for alternatives like hydrogen to become economically viable. The world will adapt and as Europe shows high energy prices don't mean Armageddon, one just has to get used to the idea that you will drive smaller cars etc or pay handsomely for the privilege of being able to use copious amounts of fuel. Speaking of which to fill my 40 ft motorboat here in the UK costs £1.66 with the marina mark-up which equates to $2,689.2 for a 1000 litres (264 US gallons). Even so if one fills the boat up 5 times a year that is still less than the marina fees, and for newer boats the annual depreciation. Owning a boat is an expensive business and the price of the fuel is the least of it.

Seems we heard that about the $100 a barrel mark.

That's about 44 hours of cruising a year. I'd consider that a dock queen. Wouldn't you enjoy doing 200+ hours a year? Then again most couldn't afford it. It also accounts for a lot fewer boats making the semi-annual north/south transport cutting off entire boating seasons for many. That doesn't help boat sales nor jobs in the industry.

HMS Dock Queen

44 Hours cruising - Not at 9 Knots !

We had the situation about 7 years ago in the UK that boat fuel was reduced tax and you could buy it for £0.30 a litre compared to £1.66 but this got removed due to politics "Why should rich people get cheap fuel for their yachts while the bloke with a clapped out banger has to pay the higher road price". There were howls of protest that it would decimate the industry but the marinas are still full of new boats. Of course I'd like cheap fuel but although the fuel tax is not a very popular policy it does mean that our economy is much less dependant on the price of oil.

I doubt most people would do 200 hours cruising anyway. Most boats are used for weekend cruising to nearby harbours and the two/three week annual cruise. People often have work commitments that limit the use that they can get. In my case with a slow boat its more a case of how long before you get bored than the price of fuel hence 4-5 hour hops along the coast staying a couple of days in one port then onwards and leave the boat and then pick up again from there another time.

There are plenty of larger planing boats in the Mediterranean and people buy them knowing the price of the fuel. I'm not saying that it won't have any impact at all, but that will mainly be older planing cruisers. Some will choose a smaller boat, some opt to do other things, some will choose a sailing boat and some will carry on regardless whether it is good value or not because no one buys a boat on the basis that it is a financially prudent investment!

BTW the $100 is about right for the embedded cost of electricity in the Hydrogen but of course you then need to build a production and supply infrastructure and no ones going to do that while oil is still cheaper and easier to handle.

I wish I could find the figures now, it will take quite a dig but last year I did some research into the "real" cost of Middle East oil to the American taxpayer and if it were only $100 we would be getting the bargain of our lives.

If you consider the real costs involved, all the military forces, ships, people, fuel, aircraft, all the assets we pay to keep in that area to make sure that our own royal families are well cared for, the cost to an American for a barrel of that oil went well beyond obscene a couple of decades ago.

Garfield On The Oil Crisis

.....just to inject a little humor in this situation for the moment (and granted it is not a funny matter)



GARFIELD ON THE OIL CRISIS

A lot of folks can't understand how we came to have an oil shortage here in our country.
~~~
Well, there's a very simple answer.
~~~
Nobody bothered to check the oil.
~~~
We just didn't know we were getting low.
~~~
The reason for that is purely geographical.
~~~
Our OIL is located in:
~~~
ALASKA
~~~
California
~~~
Coastal Florida
~~~
Coastal Louisiana
~~~
Coastal Alabama
~~~~
Coastal Mississippi
~~~~
Coastal Texas
~~~
North Dakota
~~~
Wyoming
~~~
Colorado
~~~
Kansas
~~~
Oklahoma
~~~
Pennsylvania
~~~
And
~~~
Texas
~~~
Our dipsticks are located in DC
~~~
Any Questions? NO? Didn't think So.

It was announced on the news this morning that the airlines are adding another fuel surcharge. In addition they plan to charge for that little bag of pretzels, and best yet, they plan to charge additional for sittinging close to (but not in) 1st class. You only get to smell the 1st class food, but they figure that's worth $$$. They said that a flight to Europe costs $81. The additional $529 is taxes and surcharges.

Current gas price here in Montreal:

$1.384/L (for 91 octane)

Converted to US that is $5.36/Gal.

Two weeks ago it cost me $80 to fill up my WRX... a compact car!

Today's news estimated that the average American commuter now pays $700 a year more for gas than a year ago. For a $10 an hour wage earner that's 2 weeks take home pay EXTRA they've somehow got to come up with. Better for those in that category to steal it and let the state support them if they get caught. The ironic thing is that since most of the states are broke they can't afford to house petty criminals so there really is no penalty. If we've learned anything these past few years it's that crime does pay, and that "trickle-down economics" works well in that regard as also.

Hi,

Yesterday I got down to a range of 0 on my onboard computer while freewheeling to a gas station. It had dropped from 40 left to 0 in less than 4 km.

I filled it with 65.08 Lt at a cost of Euro 1.429/Lt.

This made it 93 Euro to fill or USD 128.38.

This makes a US Gallon here a staggering $7.48

Two weeks ago it was at least 25 c a litre less.

Luckily I am not in the UK where it would have cost the Pound equivalent of Euro 112 or $154.58 in the USD Equivalent. ($8.99 a US Gal)

Yikes! How often do you have to fill up at that price?

Hi,

As often as I need to and do not normally run it that low but I was waiting in the forlorn hope the price might go down before I needed to charge the tank again, alas this was not to be the case.

Even though I can claim the costs back I do not like to feel I am being taken for a ride with my own or another's money.

I've gotten to the point where I will not fly, drive, take a train or otherwise move off my butt unless someone else pays the freight, plus my time. That's 'trickle-up' economics.