I paid $6.29 / gallon for Premium/92 the other day, and only expect it to get worse, given that Washington State is one of the most expensive states for fuel...even Costco around here is in the mid-$5 range.

"Gas stations in Washington are resetting their price boards to accommodate double digits in preparation for fuel prices potentially reaching $10 a gallon."
https://mynorthwest.com/348144...-washington-drivers/

Shell station down the street in N.E. Tucson posted $4.64 a gallon for RUG. Diesel is .90 cents a gallon more.

City traffic during the day is still heavy. Streets are near bare on weekends.

Filled up with diesel over the weekend at 4.79 per gallon. First time in several fill-ups where the price was under $5 per gallon.
Ugh.
This was at the local Kroger in cypress, tx.
And I got an extra .03 off with the loyalty card.
Living large.

quote:

Originally posted by Russ59:
Can Tatortodd or other oil and gas (refinery) guys explain retail gas prices vs. oil prices? In my view, oil has slowly trended up over $100/brl, while retail gas prices have jumped at a much higher pace not in keeping with the cost of oil. It is my understanding that retailers price today's gas at want the expect it will cost them to replenish their tanks.

I'd like to see oil prices graphed along side the national average ($/gal) for 87 octane.

Best I can give you is RBOB vs WTI with limited explanation of underlying costs.

WTI (West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil) displayed price per barrel without transportation costs, storage costs, and taxes.

RBOB (reformulated gasoline) displayed price is per gallon without transportation costs, storage costs, and taxes. Adding in those 3 would get you to the "rack price" at the distribution terminal (nobody is going to tell the average Joe that price). Adding in transportation and taxes would get you to the pump price, and anybody with modest Googlefu can find their state tax price in under 30 seconds. Most retailers price it at the replacement cost, but it's not that black and white due to factors such as states with laws for making a profit (i.e. no loss leader of using gasoline to get you in the parking lot in hopes you'll come inside and really experience mark-ups).

Here is RBOB (green) vs WTI (brownish red) since Biden's inauguration. As you noted, since the Ukraine invasion the gasoline price increase is larger than the crude oil price increase.

Now $5.19 in MQT.

Thanks Tatortodd for the graph. I work tangentially with oil producers in CA and NM on the electrical utility side of things. I haven't had much exposure to the downstream side of the business.

As a retailer (gas station), you really can't afford not to have a constant supply of fuel in the tanks (otherwise, your customers aren't coming to the station). You make a little bit of profit on the gas, but you're hoping customers come in the store to buys snacks and buy the $10 car wash.

My understanding is refining capacity (particularly in the energy starved west coast states) is fixed or easily predicted, it would seem supply is limited or, at the very least, sensitive (price elasticity) to increases (or decreases) in demand - hence quick jumps in price. Just thinking out loud here.

More crude oil from non-Russian sources, including domestic production, isn't likely to have much immediate affect on retail gas prices. WTI prices would have to drop significantly in order to see a drop in retail gas prices.

Another cool graph would be daily crude oil production and consumption.

Ok, now I'm rambling.

$4.69 here today. 91 octane non ethanol $5.45 a gallon. Reading reports they are looking at the idea of monthly gas relief checks being issued from our benevolent government of $100 month for each adult and each dependent living in the household.

quote:

Originally posted by Russ59:
Another cool graph would be daily crude oil production and consumption.

You should be able to get weekly from EIA since pretty much everything is downloadable in Excel. For example weekly supply.

Just spotted $5.19 a gallon around here. One week ago it was $4.75

God help us all

There is no way our economy can absorb five plus dollar gas and six plus dollar diesel for long

Hold on to your butts, a doozy of a recession is coming

$5.59 for reg 87; didn’t look at the 92 I bought. Just filled it up.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
Gone up over $.40 since I've been on the ship.

Same station, three days later.



As PASig said, this is not sustainable. No question in my mind I'll see $6 gas before summer's end.

I was sitting at a stoplight early this morning as one of the local gas station reset their LED price sign. It changed from 4.29 to 4.49 a gallon. Up from 1.62 a gallon the day president potato was inaugurated.

Ethanol free 87 at the local station is 4.69 cash or 5.09 credit card. Raw price is bad enough but 8.5% credit card surcharge??!!

Approaching $7 a gal out west.

Sure would like some of that $3.39 gas in the OP.

Only $5.97 on the lake. That’s a win.

Just filled up at Costco, was $4.99/regular. The other Costco, I also fill up at is at $5.07/regular.

quote:

Originally posted by taguin:
Approaching $7 a gal out west.

I keep hearing that but I'm not seeing it.

Just came back from a roadtrip to CO and most of the gas was ran across was $4.70/gal. Local Costco regular is running $5.49/gal

Seeing > $6.50 around here. I think we'll see $7 by the weekend. I think diesel is already $7, if I remember correctly.

quote:

Originally posted by SIGnified:
$5.59 for reg 87; didn’t look at the 92 I bought. Just filled it up.

Yeah, I haven't been looking at the total the last few fill ups. I stopped wanting to know what I was paying when I saw $120 to fill the truck. That was at $4.89 a gallon. I filled up my wife's car yesterday and it was $5.10. I think I'm going to start topping off daily, or as close as I can to it.

Scary tidbit in the linked article posted by at-home-daddy:

quote:

Gas stations in Washington are resetting their price boards to accommodate double digits in preparation for fuel prices potentially reaching $10 a gallon.

I kinda had the thought today that if any other world event breaks loose, we'll see ten plus dollars a gallon right around the time I'm driving the family to Arizona.

quote:

The move comes as several gas stations in the state have already run out of fuel.

This is slightly more concerning news, I think. The idea of the gas lines of the 70's coming back in the midst of the move kind of scares me a bit. I wasn't around for that stuff, I don't know what it was like, and I don't know what it would be like today. The idea of running out of fuel on the road with the whole family in one vehicle coming into the hottest part of the year heading into the hottest part of the country....