Community Chat

[MaRina]

Not just the fire but also switching from winter to summer blend. It's always something, up over $3 a gallon now!

[Marp2]

This is good news and back news at the same time:

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. has so much crude that it is running out of places to put it, and that could drive oil and gasoline prices even lower in the coming months.

For the past seven weeks, the United States has been producing and importing an average of 1 million more barrels of oil every day than it is consuming. That extra crude is flowing into storage tanks, especially at the country's main trading hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, pushing U.S. supplies to their highest point in at least 80 years, the Energy Department reported last week.

If this keeps up, storage tanks could approach their operational limits, known in the industry as "tank tops," by mid-April and send the price of crude — and probably gasoline, too — plummeting.

"The fact of the matter is we are running out of storage capacity in the U.S.," Ed Morse, head of commodities research at Citibank, said at a recent symposium at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Morse has suggested oil could fall all the way to $20 a barrel from the current $50. At that rock-bottom price, oil companies, faced with mounting losses, would stop pumping oil until the glut eased. Gasoline prices would fall along with crude, though lower refinery production, because of seasonal factors and unexpected outages, could prevent a sharp decline.

The national average price of gasoline is $2.44 a gallon. That's $1.02 cheaper than last year at this time, but up 37 cents over the past month.

Other analysts agree that crude is poised to fall sharply — if not all the way to $20 — because it continues to flood into storage for a number of reasons:

More: http://apnews.myway.com//article/20150303/us--oil_glut-full_tanks-0a79bd0803.html

[Lotus]

Gas went up $0.20/gallon last week on the North Shore of Long Island.

[Shorty2U]

Our gas was $1.15 a gallon last week because we grocery shop @ Giant and you get gas points. We do it all the time and never pay a lot for gas. (Plus we live 5 miles from my husbands job which is also in the country not far from our home).

[Chalcedony]

It is absolutely false to say that the recent explosion at the Torrance, CA refinery "destroyed" it. One piece of equipment in one process unit experienced an explosion - the remainder of the refinery remains in operation. The other refinery was shut down for safety purposes when its USW workers went out on strike. The primary sticking point for striking workers is refineries' and chemical plants' use of non-union contractors, not safety.

[Lucky Charm]

The market is running on speculation because of the striking United Steel Workers (USW) union. The speculation that if the workers never come to an agreement, refineries will start shutting down.

The refinery workers are not on strike for better safety.

The union is striking for a 6% increase in pay this year, a 6% increase next year (2016) and a 6% percent pay increase in 2017. Good luck with that.

The USW also want to control all the maintenance done inside of all refineries, not allowing other contractors (other unions) to do any of the work. They want all work done inside all refineries to be USW represented employees. So that all dues paid will be to USW exclusively. The USW president makes $350,000 a year. I don't know if the striking union members are making anything right now. If they are, it ain't much.

[emmysmom]

On 3/3/2015 deepwaterdotter said:

I call my Charger "Charlene".

Love that! My dad always named our cars too! I had an orange corvette, and my bf named it Blossom..!

[Kati]

On 3/3/2015 emmysmom said:

Wish I'd gotten gas yesterday..its .10 more a gallon..why the raise?? Thought we were getting a break. Wish I had my VW bug!! Miss my bright yellow Bee..yes, I name my cars, all girls, of course!

Me too! Of course, all girls....Sadie, Sophie and now Stella!

Love my little cars!