Crude oil tops $140.00 a barrel today

jeff... · 06-26-2008, 09:18 PM

What does this mean? here's a few facts...

1 barrel = 42 gallons, at $140.00 a barrel that's $3.34 for ONE GALLON OF CURDE OIL When refined that one barrel of crude oil makes right around 20 gallons of gasoline (19.6 gallons to be exact) as well as other petroleum products.

Is somebody laughing all the way to the bank? I'm ready to start digging in the back yard

ebarr · 06-26-2008, 09:51 PM

(1 Dodge Dakota 5.2L V8 + 20 gallons of gas) * 16mpg = 320 miles

(1 Yamaha Motorcycle + 20 gallons of gas) * 70mpg = 1400 miles

My truck has moved 1 time in 3 weeks. Not sure what I am going to do this winter. Bundle up I guess.

jeff... · 06-26-2008, 09:59 PM

Originally Posted by ebarr

(1 Dodge Dakota 5.2L V8 + 20 gallons of gas) * 16mpg = 320 miles
(1 Yamaha Motorcycle + 20 gallons of gas) * 70mpg = 1400 miles

My truck has moved 1 time in 3 weeks. Not sure what I am going to do this winter. Bundle up I guess.

ah... we all might be riding horses before long... Personally I think I'll get an ox and make an ox cart

russellellis · 06-26-2008, 10:43 PM

1 1980 Mercedes Benz 300d ---- 21 gallons WVO ---- free miles.

i cant understand how people are still out buying large SUV or crossovers as they are badging them now. Peoplw must have waaaaaaaaay more disposable income then i do.

pcooper · 06-27-2008, 08:10 AM

My guess is that they are either more concerned about the status symbol, or they got them so cheap they think they can afford the gas. Either way, I'm ready for those big monsters to go the way of the salvage yard and be turned into smaller cars. Maybe the pumps should be rigged to charge soccer mom SUV's $8 a gallon while the small working class cars get $2 per gallon. If we're trying to save fuel shouldn't we get something for our efforts?

russellellis · 06-27-2008, 08:25 AM

Originally Posted by pcooper

My guess is that they are either more concerned about the status symbol, or they got them so cheap they think they can afford the gas. Either way, I'm ready for those big monsters to go the way of the salvage yard and be turned into smaller cars. Maybe the pumps should be rigged to charge soccer mom SUV's $8 a gallon while the small working class cars get $2 per gallon. If we're trying to save fuel shouldn't we get something for our efforts?

I agree with you 100%. Washington state has tried numerous times to pass bills that would charge car owners taxes based on the engine displacement. Instead of a road tax built into the price of a gallon of gas. Every system will have its weaknesses. The current road tax system isnt completely fair, since the owners of large work trucks/suvs at 5000+ lbs do far more damage than someone in a econo-car. Also, if you completely fill your tank in say Kentucky and drive back home to NC, then you go thru 2 or 3 states using their roads, interstate or not, and are not paying their state road taxes. WV has some the HIGHEST road taxes in the nation. They really need to figure another way to collect taxes. Maybe based on your actual mileage, weight of vehicle, engine displacement, usage, or something. They force you to pay the tax, and youre allowed to claim it all on your returns, but its not well known, and you have to download a hard to find form just for road tax and even for the fuel you use in your lawnmowers, tractors, weedeaters, atvs.
We are getting rooked severely now, its obvious. I just came back from 3 weeks in Europe, where fuel has ALWAYS costed more than here in the states. BUT........we were only paying 5.85-6.00 for diesel #2 in Spain/southern France. We are at 5.05 in WV right now.

pcooper · 06-27-2008, 09:14 AM

As I understand the truckers fuel tax for NC, they have to stop at weigh stations for weight, but also to check for fuel purchase, and if they didn't buy fuel in NC, they pay a road tax that would have been included in fuel. I tend to agree with that logic in some way, except the truckers are getting hit with more stuff than is fair anyway. The news this morning says gas at $7 a gallon by 2010, and I guess if they talk it up now it'll surely be there no matter what we do by then if not sooner. I don't know the answer, but what we're doing isn't working is it?

russellellis · 06-27-2008, 09:50 AM

yeah i agree that truckers/otr are getting caught in the pinch moreso than a guy with his mercedes or his dodge cummins running a landscaping business. but neither one are getting charged correctly. the tractor-trailer does more damage to roads, hence one need for a fuel tax to maintain the roads, and the small pickup/suv/diesel car does far less yet pays the same. and the landscaper/in-town delivery operation/etc that uses diesel ....well thats his lifeline too...just like the otr guys. we are all being rooked.
i used to say i felt bad for those people driving the large suv guzzling gas at 10 mpg. well now i actually dont feel bad for most of them. but i do feel bad for all of us as a whole.

PeteQuad · 06-27-2008, 09:52 AM

There's lots of reasons people might want to still drive their trucks around, but lets look at the actual costs here. Suppose you bought a cheapo pickup (which you can get now pretty easy) for $15,000 that does 15mpg. If you put 12,000 miles on the truck in a year, that's 800 gallons of gas - at $4 a gallon that's $3200.

Now, if instead you bought a car that gets 30mpg (double the truck), it would cost half what the truck cost, or $1600. But, if the nice car you bought cost $30,000, it would take over 9 years of driving before you made up for the difference in the costs of the car.

And then you are just breaking even. Nevermind the fact that you had to drive around without as much cargo space car for all that time. And if you already had a big truck, it certainly doesn't make sense to switch for such a deal.

Now, if the cars cost the same, you are spending $1600 more per year for the truck, or $133 per month. Plenty of people are willing to pay that premium for the bigger car. Many pay that much for cable TV.

I'm not saying it hasn't gotten expensive, I'm just saying that just because someone has a truck doesn't mean they got it because it's a status symbol. The difference in cost isn't as huge as some of you are making it out to be.

russellellis · 06-27-2008, 10:12 AM

But factor in that most new suv (lexus, landrovers, mb, escalade, expedition) are never as cheap as 15,000 and those people are not using them for cargo space per se. i understand "needing" a large vehicle for the space. but that falls very short for the average user. to them it is status and the air of safety aspect. and...that you can get a nice economical car for far less than 30 grand too. its their life, its their wallet. if they want to pay out the nose for gas. so be it. and we should all argue at what we are paying for it. as a world. but its not so cut and dry as to big car vs little car. poor vs good mpg. its more in depth than that. my SO is a geologist. worked for oil in texas, now for gas in wv. the ins and outs arent so "consumer friendly" and the prices will only keep going up. no doubt about it.

jtodd71 · 06-27-2008, 10:45 AM

Please keep things civil in this thread please.

russellellis · 06-27-2008, 11:01 AM

i hope no one took what i said with any attitude. a lot can get lost in typed words. i meant no harm.. no grief. im as civil as they come.

Sandy Rose · 06-27-2008, 11:29 AM

Originally Posted by jeff...

What does this mean? here's a few facts...

1 barrel = 42 gallons, at $140.00 a barrel that's $3.34 for ONE GALLON OF CURDE OIL When refined that one barrel of crude oil makes right around 20 gallons of gasoline (19.6 gallons to be exact) as well as other petroleum products.

Is somebody laughing all the way to the bank? I'm ready to start digging in the back yard

Don't forget the tax per gallon that all states and the federal gov't adds, plus the cost of refining, plus cost of transporting the refined gas to the gas stations, plus the extra couple of cents that the gas stations make.

I'm not taking up for the oil companies by any means, they are doing what they do best - make money for their shareholders. The large fluctuations in the price is what I've been tellng my clients for 2 years now - unregulated futures trading on overseas markets....It's just like any other stock investment - the more money that investors pump into those futures, the higher the price gets. I don't even think I'm convinced that the low value of our dollar is to be blamed, like OPEC is saying.

Glennbear · 06-27-2008, 11:54 AM

There are a multitude of factors going into fuel costs pretty much all of which have been mentioned here. I was considering purchasing a used smaller vehicle to keep my gas guzzling truck parked more often but as has been pointed out the time frame to recoup the purchase price in savings is fairly extended since I am retired and rarely travel/commute anyway. IMHO the current fuel cost/supply situation is untenable and in all likelihood will self correct in the not too distant future. In the interim, conservation is all we can do.

jerrye · 06-27-2008, 12:33 PM

How do you get everyone that uses a road to pay fair share for use & maintenance?

TOLL ROAD

As for oil companies "doing what they do best-make money for their shareholders": which company would any of us want to invest in that doesn't make money?

As Glenn stated, this is far too complex to have any easy, glib answers-the reality is that oil is so much a part of our life, AND ECONOMY, that we're stuck for now. Look around wherever you are as you read this & see if you can find anything oil is NOT a part of. Impossible.

Answers? Many are proposed, though I doubt that the right QUESTIONS have been asked. Good questions will lead to better answers. Questions asked in the heat and passion of pain are rarely good ones. We shoulda been asking these earlier.

Now, here we are. A bit late to put the cat back in the bag. Maybe we are paying now for our past huberis?