I left town at 8:45am this morning. Regular unleaded gas was $2.04/gallon at the Casey’s in town, and $2.06/gallon at the Casey’s next town over.
I returned just before 12:00pm. Gas prices were up to $2.18/gallon.
What the hell happened? I pounced on the computer, thinking Chavez did something stupid, Bush did something stupid, or the Nigerians were taking oil workers hostage again.
Nothing. Not a peep. Not a single indication any trauma had happened to spike oil prices.
In fact, I found just the opposite. Forbes reports ExxonMobil is reporting a record profit for last year, a total of $39.5 BILLION.
Now we know how they did it.
on Feb 3rd, 2007 at 2:28 pm
It got cold, idiot. Now they can say “Oh, we have to produce more heating oil which is a strain on supply.” That, and when the weather was really mild, the president decided to buy more oil for the Strategic Reserve (double it - http://www.mywesttexas.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17805577&BRD=2288&PAG=461&dept_id=474107&rfi=6) . That was the move that had pushed things back over $2 anyway. Let’s see, gas goes under $2, oil president decides to make the government a big competitor for oil supply. I refuse to persue conspiracies that refuse to hide themself.
on Feb 3rd, 2007 at 5:57 pm
I’m not seeing or looking for conspiracies — just an explanation. It’s just another example of how full of shit the whole speculator market its. The oil industry cries they don’t have the supply to fill the demand, yet they turn over profits like this.
Conspiracy? No. Bullshit? Yes.
At least now I have one less car to hook up to their teat.