BleepingComputer.com: Gas Prices...

I dont know if its so much as peak oil or if its just more demand than supply.

China and India are growing. A lot of the problem goes back to the USA for letting our jobs go overseas I guess. Or some of it has to do with that.

Now we have more people than ever wanting to use a source of fuel that is limited.

Oil companies DO NOT set the price. Supply and demand does and the price is based on the WORLD MARKET not just your country.

45% or so of the USA's oil comes from the oil sands in Canada. Its expensive to make this gas and now oil shale will come into play when gas reaches 4 bucks a gallon. We have lots of oil shell, infact they said its way more than IRAQ or whatever has. We have the worlds largest oil reserves right in the USA in Alaska and in the shell in the USA too.

[quote name='cowsgonemadd3' post='957271' date='Sep 26 2008, 11:05 AM']I dont know if its so much as peak oil or if its just more demand than supply.

China and India are growing. A lot of the problem goes back to the USA for letting our jobs go overseas I guess. Or some of it has to do with that.

Now we have more people than ever wanting to use a source of fuel that is limited.

Oil companies DO NOT set the price. Supply and demand does and the price is based on the WORLD MARKET not just your country.

45% or so of the USA's oil comes from the oil sands in Canada. Its expensive to make this gas and now oil shale will come into play when gas reaches 4 bucks a gallon. We have lots of oil shell, infact they said its way more than IRAQ or whatever has. We have the worlds largest oil reserves right in the USA in Alaska and in the shell in the USA too.[/quote]
How much supply and demand there is depends on the source it's coming from and the amount of production they're willing to output.

See here for example: [url="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_40/b4102045670723.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_news+%2B+analysis"]http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/conte...ws+%2B+analysis[/url]

Side note before we begin. Recall that OPEC is a cartel, and cartels by definition are a price-fixing organization. Got that? Good.

[quote]WARY OF HIGH PRICES

The tug-of-war is a key factor in the extraordinary volatility in prices lately. After soaring to $147 per barrel this summer, crude plummeted to below $90 in early September. On Sept. 22 it jumped again to $130 as traders scrambled to cover short positions and fretted about the U.S. economy, then fell to $107 as those pressures eased.

Why wouldn't the Kingdom want to squeeze the maximum out of customers? The Saudis have long memories and recall how high prices can cut into consumption; it happened in the 1980s and it's happening again now. Any threat to oil's leading role as a source of energy is a big worry for a country that sits on reserves of some 260 billion barrels. "We are concerned about the permanent destruction of demand," says a senior Saudi official. "Those who buy hybrid vehicles are not going back to SUVs."

OPEC hardliners such as Iran and Venezuela, by contrast, have less oil in the ground and are running short on cash, so they're more interested in maximizing revenues today. Friction within OPEC has been growing because Saudi Arabia has been pumping almost 10% more than its OPEC quota of 8.9 million barrels per day. The Saudis and other Persian Gulf states believe a price of $90 per barrel is about right, while the hardliners don't want to see anything less than $100 per barrel. "The current market is not balanced; it is oversupplied," Iranian OPEC representative Mohammad Ali Khatibi told Reuters.[/quote]
In summary, the OPEC members with smaller reserves want to intentionally keep production down to ensure less supply and higher prices, whereas the Saudis who have larger resources overall want to increase production to lower prices so that they can increase demand in the long term. The people in the oil business aren't simply going to maximize their oil production and let their profits fall to the wind of whatever supply and demand ratio falls their way, they're going to maximize their profit in every way that they can, and they influence that directly by means of production.

So far as oil shale, shale is great for making natural gas, asphalt, tar and heavier crude oil products, but it's not currently economically viable to produce gasoline from it. Way too much work in production and not enough return.

Yes I knew they could slow demand and that they do to raise prices.
But there is no way they have raised prices from 1.80 2 years ago to almost 4.00 today and are profiting that much. That part has to be supply and demand somewhat.

That is true, China and India's massive industrial revolutions have very much heightened the demand on oil. OPEC wants that demand to remain high so they can maximize their profit in the short term, meaning that they will set quotas for productions to meet a specific price-per-barrel of crude. It's true that the market has played its natural forces in the matter, but it's also true that the oil companies will decide on the final price at the pump. Supply and demand play their parts, but unlike in our economy, competition does not. Meaning there are no controls on the oil companies to prevent them from price fixing, monopolizing, and all in all gouging their consumers. At least not until the high price points stave off demand enough to where we look for alternative sources of energy, which is what worries Saudi Arabia.

The problem is the Arabians wont have oil to sell to anybody much if they break our economy with their nonsense pricing. Really we are babied and gas is not as bad as walking but it is hard on minimum wage workers.

If we cant afford gas then we all need to upgrade to a fuel efficient car and stop driving a truck just so you can look cool.

The problem is people dont even have the money to upgrade.

[quote name='cowsgonemadd3' post='958208' date='Sep 28 2008, 12:38 AM']The problem is the Arabians wont have oil to sell to anybody much if they break our economy with their nonsense pricing.[/quote]
I think you have got that wrong,CGM3. The Arabs couldn't care less what happens to the US Economy.They have more demand for Oil than they are producing. Did you read this Article.China wants all the Oil it can get their hands on.
[url="http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/17/stories/2008091756161100.htm"]http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/17/stories...91756161100.htm[/url]

Well what I forgot to mention is this. China makes its money from the USA...without us the are about nothing. A lot of countries depend on each other and the USA.