What are you paying for gas right now?

[*Anya*]

Originally Posted by DapperButch

Hey, Anya. I'm lost. What is the point you are trying to get across by having the below article and is it somehow in response to dee's comment? I am totally missing the boat on what the article is saying, I suppose.

Yes, I understand that. Rather than being direct, I was indirectly but clumsily responding to Dee's post about decreasing gas prices causing oil rig workers to lose their jobs.

Production continues here in California, despite the drop in prices. However, what happens in the south may indeed be different than what happens in the west.

When I started to research why gas prices go up and down in California and how it ultimately affects us, the consumer; I realized it is a far bigger issue than on the surface of what we pay for gas.

I do apologize for deviating from the intent of the thread, which is "What are you paying for gas right now"!

It is a great thread!

[firegal]

It dropped .13cents over night now at $2.44.... Love it

[MsTinkerbelly]

Originally Posted by *Anya*

Yes, I understand that. Rather than being direct, I was indirectly but clumsily responding to Dee's post about decreasing gas prices causing oil rig workers to lose their jobs.

Production continues here in California, despite the drop in prices. However, what happens in the south may indeed be different than what happens in the west.

When I started to research why gas prices go up and down in California and how it ultimately affects us, the consumer; I realized it is a far bigger issue than on the surface of what we pay for gas.

I do apologize for deviating from the intent of the thread, which is "What are you paying for

gas right now"!

It is a great thread!

No, please post anything that might help us understand! I have been surprised (and pleased) by falling prices...but WHY are they falling, and when are they going to hike them again?

As you know, here in California prices are down over $2 per gallon....the oil companies are not known for their low prices and lack of billions in profits; it worries me that we are going to see huge jumps just when we have gotten used to having some spare change in our pockets.

[MsTinkerbelly]

Originally Posted by C0LLETTE

Love the Gas Price Thread and the Weather Report Thread!

Gas is 91.2 cents and the temp is -3

Is that 91.2 a liter?

[MysticOceansFL]

.......$2.55............ For regular gas

[GeorgiaMa'am]

$2.43/gallon, that's with a .03 grocery store discount - near the south side of Atlanta, GA

[Red-Dragon]

i'm in canada right now its 0.88-0.91 a liter i dont know how much that is per gallon. compaired to before it was 1.19 a liter

[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by *Anya*

Yes, I understand that. Rather than being direct, I was indirectly but clumsily responding to Dee's post about decreasing gas prices causing oil rig workers to lose their jobs.

Production continues here in California, despite the drop in prices. However, what happens in the south may indeed be different than what happens in the west.

When I started to research why gas prices go up and down in California and how it ultimately affects us, the consumer; I realized it is a far bigger issue than on the surface of what we pay for gas.

I do apologize for deviating from the intent of the thread, which is "What are you paying for gas right now"!

It is a great thread!

Originally Posted by MsTinkerbelly

No, please post anything that might help us understand! I have been surprised (and pleased) by falling prices...but WHY are they falling, and when are they going to hike them again?

As you know, here in California prices are down over $2 per gallon....the oil companies are not known for their low prices and lack of billions in profits; it worries me that we are going to see huge jumps just when we have gotten used to having some spare change in our pockets.

Anya, Ms.Tinkerbelly is right, I am interested as well why prices are so low. It seems like an appropriate direction for the thread.

I hope that dee comes back and explains. Honestly, my understanding is that the oil production has not changed and the talk of less work is Republican propaganda. I thought maybe this is where you were going...that is why I was so interested in understanding the article.

Kelt? (I was thinking I could go google it, but why do that when Kelt already knows the answer?)

[TruTexan]

I have several cousins that work in the oilfield industry and they aren't being laid off, they are actually working overtime drilling more locations and re-opening the closed pumping sites that were shut down during the 1980's to preserve our oil in the ground for future needs. There is also a boom in a northern state of one of the Dakota's that is drilling like mad there and hiring new oilfield workers. My neighbor's son in law took a job up north in the Dakota's drilling for oil. He makes more money there than he did here in the south working on a drilling rig.

Also, here is an article that helps us to understand why gas prices are falling :


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/1...n_6062056.html

ETA: gas here East of Dallas an hour is 2.13/gal and dropping everyday.

[girl_dee]

Hey y'all... I really don't want to ruin the spirit of everyone's fun while WE (of course I am enjoying our $2.16 gallon) enjoy a break in our expenses wherever we can get them.

It has always been like this down here, low gas prices = oil field workers out of work. From what I understand, simply put, when the demand goes down, prices drop and the oil stays in the earth. They just don't need people on the rigs out in the gulf, which is where our people go. I do believe they shut certain rigs down until the demand goes up.

Right now someone in my family is sitting at home until further notice, because of the low demand in the oil field right now. He will be put back to work but for now he is laid off.

I may be wrong, but that is how I always understood how it works.

[girl_dee]

Originally Posted by *Anya*

Yes, I understand that. Rather than being direct, I was indirectly but clumsily responding to Dee's post about decreasing gas prices causing oil rig workers to lose their jobs.

Production continues here in California, despite the drop in prices. However, what happens in the south may indeed be different than what happens in the west.

When I started to research why gas prices go up and down in California and how it ultimately affects us, the consumer; I realized it is a far bigger issue than on the surface of what we pay for gas.

I do apologize for deviating from the intent of the thread, which is "What are you paying for gas right now"!

It is a great thread!

It's a thread about gas prices and I believe open for conversation, thank you for posting. I am DELIGHTED to be having a conversation on the sight again! I so get tired of one word threads!

[Kelt]

This article in the Economist "Cheaper Oil: Winners And Losers" is a pretty good look at the global nature of this round of shifting oil prices and addresses some of the region specific outcomes of the current situation. Bear in mind it is about seven weeks old, but the underpinnings are still accurate. And there are charts!

Here is a short excerpt on the effects in America and some of the extraction methods:

"The impact on America will be mixed because the country is simultaneously the world’s largest consumer, importer and producer of oil. On balance cheaper oil will help, but not as much as it used to. Analysts at Goldman Sachs reckon that cheaper oil and lower interest rates should add about 0.1 percentage points to growth in 2015. But that will be more than offset by a stronger dollar, slower global growth and weaker stockmarkets.

Extracting oil from shale is expensive. So when the oil price drops, America is one of the places most likely to pull back (Arctic and Canadian tar-sands producers are even more vulnerable). According to Michael Cohen of Barclays, a bank, a $20 drop in the world oil price reduces American producers’ earnings before interest by 20%, and only four-fifths of shale reserves are economic to extract using current technology with Brent around $85. How quickly production will fall as a result, though, is unclear, since producers’ costs vary and some have locked in prices via hedging. The impact will also vary by region. “If I’m in California, it’s pretty clear-cut that this is a good-news story,” says Michael Levi of the Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank. “If I were in North Dakota [the biggest shale-oil state], I would be a lot more nervous.”

America is a net importer, so lower prices mean Americans get to keep more of their money and spend it at home. But the stimulative impact is less than it used to be, since imports are becoming less important, and oil is shrinking as a share of the economy."


There's also the fact that the Russian economy is basically folding in on itself due their (Putin's) reliance on the earlier high price profits to escape the effects of sanctions. Here's an article from Al Jazeera: Russian rouble in 'catastrophic decline'

Oh yeah, right now I've got $2.29 gal.

[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by girl_dee

Hey y'all... I really don't want to ruin the spirit of everyone's fun while WE (of course I am enjoying our $2.16 gallon) enjoy a break in our expenses wherever we can get them.

It has always been like this down here, low gas prices = oil field workers out of work. From what I understand, simply put, when the demand goes down, prices drop and the oil stays in the earth. They just don't need people on the rigs out in the gulf, which is where our people go. I do believe they shut certain rigs down until the demand goes up.

Right now someone in my family is sitting at home until further notice, because of the low demand in the oil field right now. He will be put back to work but for now he is laid off.

I may be wrong, but that is how I always understood how it works.

According to this dee, they are actually drilling MORE which is why the prices are down. I'm sorry someone in your family isn't working.

http://americasmarkets.usatoday.com/...st-since-1972/



EDIT:

<Kelt's boring post> Hey, man, thanks! Good stuff, good stuff...<cough>

[Okiebug61]

$1.89 here in OKC

[Kelt]

Originally Posted by DapperButch

<Kelt's boring post> Hey, man, thanks! Good stuff, good stuff...<cough>

How silly of me! Of course I should have focused on the shallow US centric 5 month old news.

I mean, thanks Dapper, that was very readable.

(All in good sport )

[Teddybear]

today here in dallas i paid 1.99 for it. i drove by the station this morning and it was 2.12.

i heard an interview with boone pickens that the "problem" with falling gas prices is that there is MORE oil then demand and that we need to STOP producing it so that prices will raise.

im glad i was sitting down cause i would have fell down. I think we should be more oil/gas independent, but i think we should be more independent and STOP trying to tell the world that our way is better then anyone else. Just my .02 worth

stepping off my soap box now

[diamondrose]

Gas in my area averages $2.20 a gallon.

[Kelt]

Originally Posted by Teddybear

today here in dallas i paid 1.99 for it. i drove by the station this morning and it was 2.12.

i heard an interview with boone pickens that the "problem" with falling gas prices is that there is MORE oil then demand and that we need to STOP producing it so that prices will raise.

im glad i was sitting down cause i would have fell down. I think we should be more oil/gas independent, but i think we should be more independent and STOP trying to tell the world that our way is better then anyone else. Just my .02 worth

stepping off my soap box now

I agree with the desire for oil independence. I think one unintended side effect though is that this will hurt the demand for more renewables. Hard to figure out a balancing point.

[*Anya*]

Oil Falls to 5-Year Low, and Energy Companies Start to Retrench

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS DEC. 8, 2014

HOUSTON — The price of crude oil continued to collapse on Monday, plunging to a five-year low, as oil giants began to scale back their drilling ambitions and pare the ranks of their workers.

On the same day that the American oil benchmark traded around $63 a barrel, down more than 4 percent, ConocoPhillips announced it would cut investment spending in 2015 by 20 percent, the biggest sign yet that major oil companies are contracting.

The announcement came on the heels of BP’s notice that it would cut middle management and other jobs in the months ahead.

Both moves suggested that the 40 percent drop in oil prices since July had spread pain beyond small exploration companies that were highly leveraged and most vulnerable to oil price swings.

“We are setting our 2015 capital budget at a level that we believe is prudent given the current environment,” said Ryan Lance, ConocoPhillips’s chairman and chief executive.

But even with the sharp cut in investments, the company projected that its oil and gas production would grow 3 percent next year because of recent start-ups of major projects in Canada, Europe and Asia, as well as increasingly productive wells being drilled in the Eagle Ford and Bakken shale fields of Texas and North Dakota.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/bu...retrench-.html

US personal finance

Six reasons why the crash in oil prices is nothing to worry about
Oil prices are falling! Oil prices are falling! But don’t run into that bunker just yet, writes Suzanne McGee

Oil prices are plummeting. The US price for a barrel of crude has fallen to less than $78 a barrel, the lowest level in years. That comes hard on the heels of a summer-long 25% dip in prices that pushed gas at the pump below $3 a gallon – the lowest level since 2010.

It’s not a real crash: the world doesn’t really need more oil. Much of the drop is Saudi Arabia’s latest pricing shenanigans in negotiating with Opec.

A crash in oil prices looks dire. But this may make less difference than you might imagine to your day-to-day finances.

There is one exception: gasoline. Refined from crude oil, the price of gas tends to move in sync with oil. There are regional variables – is there enough refining capacity? What are the local fuel emission regulations? – that can alter those dynamics, and there’s usually a lag before crude oil price declines start showing up at the pump.

Cheaper gas could relieve some of the pressure on our beleaguered household incomes, just in time for the holiday season. And anything that spells relief on the cost front for the 95% of us who have struggled throughout the “recovery” would be welcome news, indeed. The retailers wouldn’t mind a bit, either, given their problems making money from the cash-strapped middle class.

There’s even an argument that lower gas prices at the pump could act as a kind of mini-economic stimulus.

The theory may be sound, but I’m wary of glib suggestions that cheap oil is a panacea. Betting one’s future financial wellbeing, or that of an economy, on a volatile commodity price, seems like a less-than-compelling idea. Especially since, right off the top of my head, I can see several ways in which cheap oil isn’t going to give your personal bottom line a boost.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/201...-nothing-worry

[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by Kelt

How silly of me! Of course I should have focused on the shallow US centric 5 month old news.

I mean, thanks Dapper, that was very readable.

(All in good sport )

Ok, ok, you're right, it was a pathetic attempt at information. I didn't see your post and I was curious to see if what I understood was correct, so I did a quick and dirty google search. I didn't notice the date of the article and it was quick and easy to read, so that is why I posted it.

I will take a more thoroughly educated approach to the thread.

It is interesting to see two Texans on the thread with one having the personal experience of knowing folks who are working MORE, with the other knowing folks who are working LESS.