Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Keeping me busy lately, had to add 3 more over the past week.

OPEC: Speculators to blame for high oil prices

Gasoline: The new big U.S. export

Chinese manufacturing slows down


DS Gas Price Excuse Tracker for reasons that gas prices increase:

1. Winter months, heating
2. Hurricane in Gulf of Mexico
3. Manufacturing demands by industrial nations, i.e. China
4. Americans and SUVs
5. Market speculation
6. March and April "pressures on refineries"
7. Tensions in Middle East
8. A whale died in the Atlantic
9. A turtle sneezed in the Pacific
10. Global warming
11. Pollen levels
12. Jupiter's red spot
13. The dog ate it.
14. Gas prices take a while to come down because the stations are still selling what they bought at the higher prices
15. Gas prices take no time at all to skyrocket overnight, because reason #14 doesn't apply the other way around.
16. Oil up to pay for alternative resource research
17. Because OPEC says so!
18. A special summer blend is more expensive than the winter blend, as it uses special ingredients! But I thought it was higher in the winter because of the heating demands?
19. Summer vacation, kids are off! And since they all drive cars, this makes total sense! (I guess all the school buses were running on pixie dust)
20. Memorial Day weekend and Independence Day, even tho it's still May and that's in July.
21. Weak dollar causing gas prices to rise
22. Strong dollar gets it back under $80
23. Fuel supply shortage (because OPEC cut the supply in half, right?)
24. Dollar against the Euro
25. See #1 - winter heating, as it got cold in some parts of the U.S. in October, thanks to...global warming?
26. Libya. It's all about Libya
27. No it's not, says Saudi Arabia. Everything is fine. Not sure why the high prices.
28. Gas station owners raise the prices ahead of time, expecting oil prices to go up. But then that means #14 can't be true!
29. Because of the unrest in Libya, more countries are buying from Algeria and Nigeria, which is where the U.S buy its oil from!
30. Benchmark broken, price of oil not related to price at the pump.
31. Gas prices lag behind oil prices by two of weeks, putting refiners in tight spot.
32. Because Deniers refuse to tackle Global Warming.
33. Saudi cutting back oil because market is flooded w/oil, no reason for high $.
34. "Hiring spree" means more people are using gas to drive to work!
35. River flood COULD cause disruptions, so we'd better raise it just in case.
36. Greece. Since oil dropped during the Greek riots, then following the same logic - that means demand must have plummeted. Therefore, Greece is the largest importer of oil due to all that manufacturing...forget China or the U.S.
37. Any sort of clash in Egypt is totally a legitimate reason for oil price increase.
38. Hurricane Irene (or any storm in the ocean/gulf) is unexpected and will disrupt oil and cause price spikes.
*NEW*
39. Oil has dropped 25% on the market, but the price at the pump won't parallel the drop like it does with the rise, because.....Well, just because.
40. We're back to the winter gas / blend. See #18.
41. World demand is strong, ignore what Saudia Arabia and OPEC say.
42. Oil prices in the US really don't reflect the actual price in the global market. In other words, the prices we see.....ARE ARTIFICIAL NUMBERS!!!
43. Even tho Libya was a good excuse for increase, don't expect too much of a decrease when it's over.
44. The oil used to make gasoline in the U.S. is based on a London benchmark. So this is why when Wall Street oil prices go down, we don't see it at the pumps. THEN WHY WHEN WALL STREET GOES UP DO WE SEE IT AT THE PUMPS???
45. China manufacturing at 32-month low. I thought the prices were high because of constantly increasing Chinese manufacturing demands?
46. The USA's massive refining infrastructure is producing more gasoline than the US needs, freeing it up to be exported. Excuse me?
47. OPEC says the price of oil is high because of the speculators