We've launched the new forums! Read more here

Gas Prices: What are you paying?

Here in the Charleston area, I have seen it as low (1 day) at $3.09 and a few at about $3.20, but most seem to be in the mid $3.30s And It's been closer to these numbers since we got here in July - in fact on the way here (from NoVA) I had to fill up 2 times and the cost was over $5 gallon at each stop - no price gouging near the highway though.:rolleyes:
 
Finally dropped below $3 last week, currently at around $2.95 most stations. Still needs to drop .50 cents to be where it should be.
 
pumbaa said:
Wonder why the spike out west? Gas here has been dropping for a while now its like 3.40ish when I drove by the station yesterday. I got in on the Circle K promo a week or so ago when gas here was like 3 bucks a gallon and filled up. I don't drive much so I still have like 200 miles left in the tank from it
Click to expand...
I'll fill you in. The state of California has mandated its own unique gasoline formula. So, there are only a few refineries set up to provide gas that can be sold in California. As a result of this captive and limited market, gas prices are routinely $1 a gallon higher in California. Higher gas taxes plays into this some too.

Nationwide, most of the recent drop was driven by classic supply/demand. In this case, the demand side. Higher prices have driven consumers to change their driving habits. Demand was down 10% over the summer. That is a LOT given how dependent we are on our vehicles.
 
leftshot said:
Nationwide, most of the recent drop was driven by classic supply/demand. In this case, the demand side. Higher prices have driven consumers to change their driving habits. Demand was down 10% over the summer. That is a LOT given how dependent we are on our vehicles.
Click to expand...
That is a tiny part of why the prices have come down.
1 part crude oil prices.
1 part China being soft in buying
1 part many states had suspended tax
1 part record amounts of reserves released
 
Paid $2.98 yesterday morning.
 
leftshot said:
I'll fill you in. The state of California has mandated its own unique gasoline formula. So, there are only a few refineries set up to provide gas that can be sold in California. As a result of this captive and limited market, gas prices are routinely $1 a gallon higher in California. Higher gas taxes plays into this some too.

Nationwide, most of the recent drop was driven by classic supply/demand. In this case, the demand side. Higher prices have driven consumers to change their driving habits. Demand was down 10% over the summer. That is a LOT given how dependent we are on our vehicles.
Click to expand...
I knew Cali used their own mixes ala 91 instead of 93 and so on but I figured even with that it would still follow the trends around the country with prices sliding.
 
Still $4.56 by my house. Roughly down 40 cents from peak prices.
Still more than $2 higher than before "something" happened in D.C.
 
$3.25 a gallon here, supposed to go back up by winter.
 
JB said:
That is a tiny part of why the prices have come down.
1 part crude oil prices.
1 part China being soft in buying
1 part many states had suspended tax
1 part record amounts of reserves released
Click to expand...
As I said, most of the recent drop in prices at the pump in the U.S. is due to a 10% decline in demand. People driving less due to the higher prices. Crude oil price reductions are generally a reaction to demand, not the other way around. In fact, if it was the other way around, you'd expect a drop in crude oil to drive up demand. The opposite happened.

The U.S. is not a huge exporter to China and the change in how much was exported to China this summer is a small fraction of a percent of supply, not enough to influence pricing. It is true that some states suspended in part or whole their gasoline taxes, which reduced the price paid for a gallon of gas in those states. But it is clear that is not the primary driver, because states that did not suspend any of their gas taxes still saw a substantial drop in their gas prices. If it was the primary driver you would anticipate a drop in gas prices in those states suspending gas taxes, but little to none in the states that did not.

Finally, 1 million barrels a day have been released from the strategic petroleum reserves since March of this year. If this was the major driver you would have expected prices to drop starting in March, but we didn't see this until the summer. Also, the percentage of supply that this represented was a single digit percentage of the total production and some of that was exported to places like China. So, the net impact was not as much as the drop in demand. The data suggests that this was a temporary help (which ends this month and the reserves will need to be replenished at some point), but not the main driver of reduced pricing at the pump.

Thus the economic data supports a 10% drop in demand over the summer as the main driver with releases from the strategic petroleum reserves and suspension of gas taxes as secondary factors.
 
Last edited:
  • Haha
Reactions: JB
pumbaa said:
I knew Cali used their own mixes ala 91 instead of 93 and so on but I figured even with that it would still follow the trends around the country with prices sliding.
Click to expand...
Our prices have slided. Unfortunately, in California that means our price of gas is down to $5.00-5.50 a gallon instead of $6-7 a gallon.
 
leftshot said:
As I said, most of the recent drop in prices at the pump in the U.S. is due to a 10% decline in demand. People driving less due to the higher prices. Crude oil price reductions are generally a reaction to demand, not the other way around. In fact, if it was the other way around, you'd expect a drop in crude oil to drive up demand. The opposite happened.

The U.S. is not a huge exporter to China and the change in how much was exported to China this summer is a small fraction of a percent of supply, not enough to influence pricing. It is true that some states suspended in part or whole their gasoline taxes, which reduced the price paid for a gallon of gas in those states. But it is clear that is not the primary driver, because states that did not suspend any of their gas taxes still saw a substantial drop in their gas prices. If it was the primary driver you would anticipate a drop in gas prices in those states suspending gas taxes, but little to none in the states that did not.

Finally, 1 million barrels a day have been released from the strategic petroleum reserves since March of this year. If this was the major driver you would have expected prices to drop starting in March, but we didn't see this until the summer. Also, the percentage of supply that this represented was a single digit percentage of the total production and some of that was exported to places like China. So, the net impact was not as much as the drop in demand. The data suggests that this was a temporary help (which ends this month and the reserves will need to be replenished at some point), but not the main driver of reduced pricing at the pump.

Thus the economic data supports a 10% drop in demand over the summer as the main driver with releases from the strategic petroleum reserves and suspension of gas taxes as secondary factors.
Click to expand...
The US not being a big exporter to China has nothing to do with China being soft on oil and thus bringing costs down. If you believe the drop is from drivers changing, great. (y):LOL:(y)
 
Filled up at a Valero in a little town nearby for $3,649 (credit.) A Citgo was selling it at $3.590/. Interesting, because the average price in our area is right at $4.00
 
I think I saw $3.33 today, it’s slowly been creeping down more the past couple weeks.
 
$3.56 today
 
$3.09/gallon
 
They’re starting to come down here in the UK. I won’t say how much in case there’s Americans of a nervous disposition on here 🤣😊.
 
Saw $2.94 yesterday. I'm sure the midterms just around the corner are a coincidence.
 
$3.08 Hannibal, MO
 
Gas prices increased.38 overnight at Walmart in NW Arkansas…
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top