Expert: $4 a gallon gasoline coming soon Pricing analyst says consumers can expect even higher prices at the pump. August 31, 2005: 10:40 AM EDT By Grace Wong, CNN/Money staff writer NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Consumers can expect retail gas prices to rise to $4 a gallon in the near future, a pricing analyst said Wednesday. "There's no question gas will hit $4 a gallon," Ben Brockwell, director of pricing at the Oil Price Information Service, said. "The question is how high will it go and how long will it last?" OPIS tracks wholesale and retail oil prices and provides pricing information for AAA's daily reports on fuel prices. Brockwell said with gasoline prices now exceeding $3 a gallon before even reaching the wholesale level, it "doesn't take a genius" to expect retail prices to hit $4 a gallon soon. "Consumers haven't seen the worst of it yet," Brockwell said. He expects consumers in the Southeast and Northeast to be pinched first, following the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast region. Katrina forced operators to close more than a tenth of the country's refining capacity and a quarter of its oil production, which sent gasoline prices surging. The nationwide average price for a gallon of regular unleaded hit a fresh high of $2.619 Wednesday, according to AAA, the largest U.S. motorist organization, formerly known as the American Automobile Association. Average gasoline prices have gained 40 percent in the last year. Prices for crude oil are also up sharply and are currently hovering near record highs just under $70 a barrel.
$2.69 here in Florida. And I can now report some stations are dry and closed. The rest seem to be picking up the slack and are busier than usual. Looks like things are about to get interesting.
The arabs probably having an orgasm every time gas prices shoot up. Hey, every increase means one more Harem. Someone somewhere is making a fistfull of $$. What's the scope of being a wildcatter? are there anymore small closed wells in west texas to start back up?
Gas shortages, long lines and cops to keep order in Charlotte. ---snip--- RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) Though the Labor Day weekend is approaching, North Carolina's governor wants you to cut back on your driving. Mike Easley says gas stations across the state haven't been resupplied since Sunday, and are starting to run low on fuel. The stations usually keep a five- to seven-day supply on hand. But Gulf Coast fuel supplies have been cut off by Hurricane Katrina. Roughly 90 percent of North Carolina's gas comes from pipelines that originate in Texas and go through storm-ravaged areas in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Easley has prohibited all non-essential travel by state government workers, and asks private citizens to do the same. Meanwhile state officials have given permission to stations with old gas pumps to measure fuel by the half-gallon. That's because the older pumps can't compute prices higher than two-dollars and 99-cents. And Attorney General Roy Cooper wants consumers to let his office know if they seen any price-gouging.
TGregg, I'm sure you already know this, <b>but there is no such thing as price gouging!</b> If an individual owns any sort of property, it is not the proper function of government to tell him what he's allowed to sell it for. If I put out an offer to sell AAPL at $500/share, is that price-gouging? If I were to put my home on the market for $20 million (When it's clearly only worth a fraction of that), that should be my right. Nobody is forced to pay these prices against their will. Laissez Faire. If people are willing to pay $6/gallon, that is their choice. Victimless activity should never be a crime. The only 'gouging' I see is how the government takes away our money by force, and then uses it to take away our drugs by force.
Well said... The government should step back and just make sure the mechanics of the market (fair competition and the like) is in play. It's better to have $6 gas than to have have price controls, which encourage consumption, and the gas runs out quicker. At least with so-called 'gouging' it ensure only activity that is absolutly nessessary is taking place and it gives massive incentive to bring gas to those areas as quick as possible, by any means possible.
this news item excerpt is a little more than a yr old perhaps someone who lives in SA can eloborate more on this farce taking place in Venezuela ! -The currency's plunge against the U.S. dollar has sunk the price of leaded gas to just over US$0.02 per liter at black-market exchange rate Naturally, many Venezuelan drivers, accustomed to paying pocket change to fill up their gas guzzlers, have no complaints that the price of an egg buys three liters of gasoline- :eek: