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And yet, gas prices here still hover around $2.45

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by tommyp, Jan 16, 2007.

  1. tommyp

    tommyp Member

    What can we do about this????

    Oil prices plunge after OPEC comments
    Crude falls below $51 a barrel after Saudi Arabia quashes output-cut talk
    The Associated Press
    Updated: 4:00 p.m. ET Jan 16, 2007
    VIENNA, Austria - Oil prices dropped below $52 a barrel to new 19-month lows Tuesday on a report that OPEC powerhouse Saudi Arabia said further production cuts aren’t necessary right now.

    Crude oil has fallen more than 16 percent this year in a sell-off triggered by a historically warm winter in the Northern United States and sustained by large funds taking short positions in the market, or bets that prices will fall.

    Some market participants believe that another production cut by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries could halt the price drop, but until that happens, there’s little to stop prices from sliding further.

    “It doesn’t feel like it’s run its course yet. It will probably fall below $50 a barrel — then the Saudis may be more amenable to an emergency meeting,” said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates in Galena, Ill.

    Light sweet crude futures for February fell $1.59 to settle at $51.21 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after hitting a low of $50.53 in earlier trading. Tuesday’s settlement price was the lowest since May 26, 2005, when crude closed at $51.01.

    Nymex heating oil slid 2.33 cents to settle at $1.4803 per gallon; gasoline fell 6.27 cents to settle at $1.3693; and natural gas futures inched up 3.7 cents to settle at $6.638 per 1,000 cubic feet.

    February Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell 86 cents to settle at $52.26 on Tuesday on London’s ICE futures exchange.

    The U.S. retail price of gasoline has fallen 4.5 percent in 2007 to an average of $2.229 a gallon, according to AAA. As of Tuesday, more than half of U.S. states were seeing average pump prices of less than $2 a gallon.

    Drivers should see further savings if crude prices stay low, but only about half of the retail cost of gasoline is determined by the price of crude oil, the U.S. Department of Energy says. The rest factors in distribution and marketing, refining costs and profits, and taxes.

    Nymex crude’s losses Tuesday were sparked by comments from Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi that diminished the chance of an emergency OPEC meeting this week — a possibility that had boosted prices Friday. The Nymex was closed Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

    “There is no need now (for further cuts) on the basis of what market conditions are,” Dow Jones Newswires quoted Naimi as saying after he arrived in New Delhi for an international conference organized by India’s Oil Ministry.

    The comment followed a call on Monday by Venezuela’s oil minister Rafael Ramirez for an emergency OPEC meeting to push for another cut.


    OPEC in recent months has committed to a total cut in output of 1.7 million barrels per day, including a 500,000 barrel-a-day reduction set to begin Feb. 1. Compliance is believed to be halfhearted. According to Dow Jones Newswires, independent surveys suggest OPEC has cut output by little more than half of its pledged levels. Production remains near 27 million barrels a day or about 700,000 barrels a day above OPEC’s target.

    “It is not that OPEC is not capable of 100 percent compliance, but trying to support prices at such high levels invites noncompliance. There is no urgency to cut output,” wrote Peter Beutel of Cameron Hanover in a research note.

    This is because prices are still high in historical terms, so OPEC members continue to pull in big profits. The last time crude oil traded at $40 a barrel was in 2004, but Beutel noted that for roughly 94 percent of OPEC’s history, its daily sales have been at prices below $40 a barrel.

    Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it expects warmer-than-normal weather in the Northern United States to continue through March, while the U.S. government said supplies of gasoline, heating oil and diesel fuel remained abundant.

    The energy market has deflated despite rising tensions in the Middle East, growing global energy demand and escalating violence in Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil exporter and the fifth-largest supplier of crude to the United States.
     
  2. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    Gas has dipped below $2.00 here.
     
  3. WazzuGrad00

    WazzuGrad00 Guest

    The cheapest station here is $2.60. And I don't live on an island.
     
  4. HoopsMcCann

    HoopsMcCann Active Member

    saw $1.98 everywhere today
     
  5. HejiraHenry

    HejiraHenry Well-Known Member

    I'm paying $1.95 at places where I don't think the gas is especially cheap.

    Some of you need to take a look and see if state gas taxes went up on Jan. 1. That has an effect.
     
  6. markvid

    markvid Guest

    2.40 or so in Pittsburgh, but we get taxed out the wazoo.
    Was in Hampton/Norfolk are last 2 days, was 2.15 there.
     
  7. Hank_Scorpio

    Hank_Scorpio Active Member

    1.83 here. Lowest its been in a long time.
     
  8. wickedwritah

    wickedwritah Guest

    You can wait until the futures market calms down. Barrel prices may be going down, but per-gallon futures aren't falling all that much. And, of course, oil companies are going to roll back prices a tad bit slower; why give up profit on what are guaranteed sales?
     
  9. OnTheRiver

    OnTheRiver Active Member

    $1.98 here in Indiana.
     
  10. tommyp

    tommyp Member

    I don't think that's happened here in NY...if I recall correctly, I remember a bill being debated in the state legislature last year that would have lowered the state tax on gasoline.

    I just think the companies are still trying to milk. It's frustrating.
     
  11. Sxysprtswrtr

    Sxysprtswrtr Active Member

    $2.03 here. ... of course, I always go cheap gas. Never Premium. Unless I'm driving my grandparent's Cadillac, and then I'm told that there are no other choices than Premium gas.
     
  12. Oz

    Oz Well-Known Member

    There's a story on the wire that I noticed while doing the business page tonight.

     
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