the biggest expense - gas

How high do you think gas will go this summer, and how much is too much? I think gas will get up over 3.50 a gallon this summer probably closer to 4.00. If you fill up the boat thats around 120.00 for 5 to 6 hours of riding. Not to mention the extra 30.00 you spend putting gas in truck to get to the lake. To me, that is just ludacris, and I get pissed everytime I think about it. What does everyone else think? I know this has been discussed before, but it is something good to talk about.

Well, I don't smoke crack, so you can say that fuel is my crack habit. I'm addicted to fuel, plain and simple.
Hello, my names Chris and I am Fuelolic

ive heard 4 bucks a gallon this summer from friends in the fuel industry and after that proabblly never see less than 3 bucks.. if it keeps traffic off of the lake im all for it!

I get pissed every time they raise gas prices. All these excuses they give abut why the raise the prics is all bull crap!! Oh the summer supply was lower than we expected so lets raise gas .40 to .50 cents. Then at the end of summer they will drop the price drastically because they will be like oh we have more supply than we thought. We found this huge supply in the gulf one to be the biggest finding in a long time. So gas still goes up. My theory on this whole thing is they will keep raising gas because they are making us think when they drop gas to 2.19 or 1.99 its cheap when its not. Im 27 but I Remember when gas was 69 cents a gallon and when gas hit 1.29 it was rideculous. It seem they are building a monopoly with the oil companies (only that its not just one company controlling the market a few are). When you see exxon moble make something like 300 billiuon in proft shows you something.....can you say price gouging! F**K gas companies. sorry I am venting but this is a hot topic for me.

i really get pissed about it, i just don't understand how gas can go up 50 cents in a month! i mean it's like $2.90 for regular already here and it's not even warm yet!

i wish i had enough money to not be bothered by it or even atleast act like im not but i don't think ill be able to afford to ride as much as i want if prices keep going up!

i remember 7 years ago when i was a senior in high school i paid 78 cents a gallon for regular

In Europe gas costs about $6 a gallon.

Quit yer winin´!!!!

exactly, until gas is over $5 a gallon no one will change their habits. I don't see that this summer but within 5 years I'm sure we will be there. Even then it's still a bargain compared to gas prices outside the US

I paid $3.99 this weekend on the lake. Gas off the lake is around $3.15 or so. I ran my boat for 5 hrs this weekend and spent $130.00. Good thing i'm a 1/2 mile from the lake.

'Even then it's still a bargain compared to gas prices outside the US.'

My friend from Kuwait says gas is 30 cents a gallon over there. We must not be getting that good of a bargain.

You can not use the European arguement for gas prices here. Europe has a completely different tax model than we do. Europe is actually closer to the oil than we are and should be cheaper. The reason gas in europe is a social issue not a supply cost issue.

Matt

We board behind a smaller boat then the norm these days which will help keep the costs down. I don't understand why the 23-25 foot wakeboard boats keep selling. They may become a bit cheaper in the years to come. Buy a boat that throws a great wake without having to add 3k of weight in it . SAN or older x-2. That's the way to go..

I have to heat my house in the winter with oil, gas for the boat in the summer through fall so it's about a wash. Just budget for it and your riding shouldn't suffer.

i need to hurry up and sell my 23' boat so i can downsize

well ,and on the news this morning . Gas is expected to rise due to rumors that Iran fired a missile at a us Ship in the pers gulf . Hell , we may be in a nuc war by summer , never know !!!

i don't get how the gas price gouging isn't like what enron did to CA with energy? tell the world there are shortages and hike the price.

what do you think the true causes of high gas prices are, or could be?

i know a guy who worked for the DOE (department of enegery) in new orleans a few years back and the DOE just stockpiles crude only between new orleans and beaumont, texas. there is like 5 locations where they do this, they keep it in salt domes and they just save it? they say its for emergencies, they are never gonna touch that stuff, i think $3 for regular is a emergency!

People are buying lots...
Well, that sounds facetious but the Asian markets are consuming much more energy than they ever have and so there is less for the rest of us. 3billion people using 4 times what they used to makes a difference. Now, they still don't use anything like we do in North America per person but they can try.

It's a combination of increased demand in Asia exacerbated by energy futures trading being one of the hottest/easiest ways to make money in the market over the past two years-unfortunately at the avg. Joe's expense. Educate yourself and make your gas money on the market.

the thing about the market is that the prices are artifically high. People buy all the oil up at 50.00 a barrel take some of it off of the market, which creates a "shortage" then they sell back to the market at a very nice profit. Or they buy it up when it is in the 60 range and leak a rumor to the press about something in the Persian Gulf which jumps prices 5.00 a barrel in 5 minutes. Then they sell the crap out of it, and think up the next rumor. What gets me is they make up excuses that are total bs, just tell us that you are sticking it us and there is nothing we can do about it. I guess in a few more years our social configuration will be something like: people with oil stock, and the poor. Is there an end in sight? On the topic of wakeboarding, I was gonna buy another boat this summer, but now I am not so sure. I could afford to go to the lake when gas was 1.59 a gallon, but at 3.00 it hurts, and 4.00 there is no way. I am not paying 45k for something to sit in the driveway when gas goes skyhigh. I wonder if boats will get cheaper if that happens?

Increased fuel prices will hurt the pocket book a little, but if you have a good group of riders that share the fuel expense every week, then it won't be that bad. Four riders contributing $30 a day to ride isn't that much of an increase versus the $20 a day that we used to kick in. This isn't a cheap sport and increasing the cost of fuel might just make the lakes a little less crowded this summer.

Matt- Well said. I agree completely.

schoolefrider???????? Easiest way to make money????

Is that why the Amaranth hedge fund lost 6 billion dollars? because it's easy money?

The increased oil prices have everything to do with how much we consume as Americans. WE ARE THE REASON WHY CRUDE IS WHERE IT IS. Take a look around you. Yukon's trucks, boats, we have ZERO mass transportation compared to pretty much every other developed country in the world.

We drive everywhere and when we get there we sit in a nice air conditioned room because we can. We pay for it in the end though.

The price of crude is up here for a reason. When the price hits certain levels different industries can switch energies which helps to alieviate the demand for oil.

Blame ourselves first. Nobody's willing to change and everyone's is still buying 23 foot boats and driving their SUV's to the store.

I would say that used boats will get cheaper. The higher and higher prices get the more people who just dont think it is worth it anymore. I dont see people buying new 50k+ boats being too terribly worried about spending a little more on money on gas.

I have an 82 nautiuqe and I think it must sip gas compared to what some of you guys boats use. I know it is small but it is also an old carb motor. The tank is 31 gallons and last summer one day we put 9 hours on the guage with probably 1000 lbs in the boat and used 1 tank of gas.

At $4 a gallon that is $120 for 9 hours. That is expensive but will not slow me from going to the lake much.

Okay - I guess I'll comment. I mean no offense, but very VERY few people really understand how the oil & gas market works. I'm from Oklahoma and work for and own a small % of an oil & gas partnership.

In Oklahoma, we LOVE the trend of oil & gas prices. It is doing great things for our economy. I know that it hurts the pocket book of the majority of people in the rest of the country. However, the price of oil & gas is NOT determined by the oil & gas companies in the U.S. Believe me, we WISH we could control it, but we can't. It is a global market and is most widely controlled by futures investors. The futures investors drive it up or down based on a lot of different factors. Inventories, tension in the Middle East, weather, refinery slow downs, are just a few of the major factors. OPEC is another huge factor. OPEC stand for "Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries". The largest member of OPEC is Saudi Arabia. They control the supply of oil exported from their countries. (By the way, the U.S. is NOT part of OPEC).

10 years ago when people were paying $1/gallon of gas, the oil & gas companies in the U.S. were going broke. You can complain about the profits the Oil & Gas companies are making now, but go back and look at what they were making (or losing should I say) just a few years ago. Over the long-term, O&G companies (as an industry) are no more or less profitable than any other company.

Just as very few people really understand how the oil & gas market works, even fewer know what it takes to get a barrel of oil or an mcf of gas out of the ground. I will not get into this because I don't understand it real well, but when gasoline prices are $1, that means oil is somewhere around $30/barrel and natural gas is somewhere around $2.50/mcf. At that prices, there are very few places in the U.S. that can be drilled economically. In other words, it costs more to get the oil & gas out of the ground than the companies can sell it for. When this happens, O&G companies in the U.S. stop drilling. We, of course, use just as much gasoline as before, so that means more of our oil gets imported - and we make other countries rich.

Realistically , in this global economy, it is not in the hands of anyone in the U.S. The only solution is use less gas. I highly doubt that is going to happen unless some sort of renewable energy source is discovered, and is as efficient as oil & gas. In the short run, however, it is what it is.

Now, I know this was a long post, and very few people are even going to read the whole thing, but I hope it sheds a little bit of light on the subject. I know it doesn't ease the hurt people feel at the gas station, though.

I know myself, I just paid $50k+ for a new boat. I'm not going to let it sit in the driveway. I'm going to pay the price and use it. I don't like the high gas prices but this is my recreation. What price can you put on that?

Bill good luck i've been there and done that after the newness wears off it hurts a little more each time you fill her up. I figured up last summer that I spent over $700.00 per month on gas during the summer. By the end of the summer, I got used to the idea of the new boat setting in the driveway. On the ok post, I will agree that $1.00 might have been too cheap, but anything over $1.70 is to high and anything over $2.00 is complete bs. Oil companies seem to be quiet well at $2.00. I think I might just buy a rowboat.

I'm only 18 don't make too much money but I still get up to the lake about 4 times a week. I pay for the gas in the boat and the truck. I just make whoever is going to be in the boat that day pay 10 dollars and they don't seem to have a problem with that at all. I never make the girls pay their payment is dancing around in their bikini all day.

You're not getting the point, Matt. Oil companies more or less ride the wave of futures investors. About a year ago, I had drinks with a successful investor and learned A LOT. Margaret Mead said it best; "Never doubt a small group of committed people can change the world..." I forget the rest. Anyway, it seems the necessary step is to create some sort of limitations on investing and speculation but how is that fair?

I just erased a long post because it was simple.

Owning a boat is not an economic decision, it's a lifestyle choice.

Operating a boat is an economic decision because you spend the cash now. If you have less you can't ride as much. If you can't ride as much maybe you'll change your lifestyle.

How is buying something not an economic decision.

What does spending cash NOW instead of in the past or future have anything.

I think some people here are a bit ignorant.

Some of you americans just don't get it that they are the highest users of oil.. Almost all of you drive big suv's... have big boats...... big houses.... and all of that costs a lott of money.

Fuel is in America verry cheap. in the netherlands it's €5.67 a gallon = $7,45
So stop whining... those prices will come your way either. let's see how maney of you can still afford those big cars.

If you want to spend less money.. just consume less. (with that, i mean buy a cheaper smaller car)

And you might consider rebuilding your engine to lpg. (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) don't know what's the price of that in America but in Europe it's about 1/3 of the price of gasoline. Gonna modify my ski nautique 2001 also.

No car or boat payments = Not that concerned about fuel prices.

People bitch like they have a "right" to inexpensive fuel while wasting thousands of dollars to have the latest financed bling. Check the inflation rate of gasoline and it may not look as bad as your current perception?.............

IMO i wish gas would go up to $5.00+ a gallon. Then just maybe they will start to look more into alternative fuels. We need to stop relying on the eastern countries and making them rich.

Hey Paul Hanna, yes it is that easy. A $5000 investment in Western Refining Inc (WNR) more than paid for my gas this summer. And fyi, Amaranth's collapse was due to one trader betting on natural gas futures. Like I said, educate yourself, get out on the water and have fun.

han murraij: you have a good arguement but dont take this the wrong way but nobody cares how it is in your country because we don't live there you choose where you want to live and man forgive me if you take this the wrong way because i dont want to sound like a jerk but in America we dont compare our prices to your prices because we dont live where u live..all we worry about is our prices. we pay the money for big cars and nice wakeboarding boats so we can enjoy them,not waste our money on these outrageous gas prices. we shouldnt have to pay that much when boat prices go up every year as car prices do to..that should be enough punishment by itself

lots of good info.
this is why I have an old boat, cheap truck, cheap apt. , and no kids...more money for gas!!!

Ryan, what Han was saying was that the prices in the US are not outrageous. They have a pretty good sized oil company based there. It's called Shell, you might have seen there signs up.
Boat's are constructed with a great deal of plastic in them and most of it comes from petroleum. The price of oil goes up and the price of plastic goes up. The fuel to run the plant goes up and the cost of the boat goes up.
It is punishment enough and it's tied together.
That's the choice of the lifestyle.

boooo hooo. just raise gas to 10 bucks a gallon so that i can sell my kids in order to use my boat.lol. even if we use less gas they'll find a reason to make it more . lets be real. thats funny. a guy that has a part in a oil com says that gas in not too much. nice one. i work at nike and i think nikes are the best. dude all you know is gouging. a billion dollars in profit is a joke. its called GREED

Schooledrider

dude. I know more about the collapse of Amaranth than this whole discussion board combined. Lets just say I ran part of a fund that invested some money into Amaranth. B Hunter was the head trader, and he was up 2 billion in May, was long hundreds of thousands of gas contracts, betting that there would be hurricanes last year. There were no hurricanes so he tried to hedge his long positions with a March/April spread which also went in his face. News of Amaranth getting margin called got leaked from JP Morgan securities to the commodity trading side of JP and the Head Trader at JP Morgan, Parker Drew, ran the positions against Amaranth and then bought the book for billions less than it was worth. Amaranth would have been fine however the money they promised Hunter to run his portfolio was tied up in other areas and they had to liquidate everything else. Parker was fired, JP Morgan is under investigation as well as the September natural gas settlement as it went through the roof and was different then the Ice settlement price by something like 75 cents. All Greek to most of you I'm sure. Lets just say, just because you bought an oil company stock and you made money, doesn't mean you have any clue of what you're doing. Talk to me in 10 years and if you can make the "easy money" for the next 10 years then I guess you are in the wrong business. I'll start taking your advice...

A huge factor of gasoline is also the lack of refining we have here in the States. If you've ever spent any time watching the ships come up the Hudson river to unload their Heating oil and unleaded gas. You would understand a very large part of the problem is that we are paying for the extra costs of getting the refined product to the states from places all over the world. I can't remember the economics of bringing a tanker over but it's not cheap.

I have about 1/2 of my portfolio in oil in gas for the past 5 years so I'm not complaining one bit on the price of gas. If you're worried about not being able to fill your boat, hedge your bet with some oil company stock. Up or down, you'll probably be ok with it...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,261207,00.html

We had more refining capacity events than usual, and this tightened supplies," Lundberg said. "At the same time, demand has been strong for this time of year and it's risen seasonally after January."

ITs getting absolutely ridiculous it costs me like 100 dollars a month just to go to school

Art
thanks for clearing that up for me man now i get what yall are saying...My fault Han

I just bought my second Toyota Epic because I just can't reconcile spending 200$ a weekend on gas instead of 80$ Still sucks, but not as bad. 3-4gph. My D drive was 2-3 GPH with 1750 lbs of ballast and people. The boat has a 27 gal tank and I never used more than 3/4 tank in a day, with a boat full of teenagers and riding back and forth all day.

I put it on on Onlyinboards.com, got two guys coming this weekend to test ride that both want it. Gas prices hookin me up;) I HIGHLY recommend that site, BTW, two serious hits in a week after no action on Boattrader, Flipsell, etc.

Call me crazy, but I drive 230 miles a day to and from work and then spend $100+ for gas in the boat on weekends. That's about $250.00 a week. Sure, I wish prices would come down but it's not going to stop me from what I enjoy. Of course my wife and I have good jobs and can afford it. I know alot of you are younger and can't do it. I know my daughter struggles with the higher gas prices. But, she's learned to cut down on meaningless trips to the mall etc.

I'm sure all of us can find ways to cut our fuel consumption if we wanted too.

How come no one is talking about the refining? No new refineries have been built in the US for 25+ years. There is plenty of oil, just not enough refining capacity. If Exxon, Chevron, Shell etc..pu 1 years worth of earnings into building new refineries, oil would not be like the diamond industry(false shortage). False shortages are the lifeblood of the Oil companies. to think that we are running out of oil (heaven forbid) is too simplistic. We are short on GASOLINE, not oil.

Wicked wakes hit it the facts here. The oil companies in the US are reporting record earnings and not investing a dime to drive the price down. They now realize most americans will just bend over and take it in the a@#. I have personally been on site of some of these old ass refineries and I ask then when are they going to build a new one. I sell large industrial chillers(make cold water) for their process and they have seen no action started on their end. Enthanol plants are poping up left and right here in CA but the $Billions it will take to setup a distrubition infastructure is its biggest hurdle.

To sum things up, I personally am involved with parts of this industry and they wont do anything until the government makes them...the problem is they "Donate" large amounts to political parties.

Paul, are you saying we disagree on the subject? There is plenty of money to be made in energy-right now. When it is easier somewhere else in the future that's where I'll be. I'm a teacher and have been supplementing my income with investing on my own for over 10 years and will be doing so much longer than 10 years from now. Did I say I'm not complaining about the reality of higher fuel prices

I don't think you guys get it.

Oil companies do not set the prices.

You do. As a consumer you are willing to still buy gasoline at 3 bucks. You'll probably still buy it at 4 bucks as well. The oil companies aren't going to sell you a product for a buck when you're willing to pay 3-4 bucks. They're in it to make money, not help you out because you can't afford to run your boat in the summer or drive your Yukon or Truck.

You complain about how much money they're making? Isn't that why they're in business? I don't know about you but the business I run, I want to make as much money as the market will take.

Schooledrider all I'm saying is there are some over valued oil companies out there. Do you your home work. It's not as "easy" as you may think. If you've had good luck investing in oil companies good luck. Just watch out if OIl goes to 50 bucks, it's not quite as easy then

Some excellent points here (and a few idiotic ones)...This is not a simple issue. There are MANY factors that weigh in here. The lack of refineries are definitely contributing to the shortage. However, if the prices fall, then companies stop drilling, which means - the brand new REALLY EXPENSIVE refineries are sitting idle. Another major factor in the lack of refineries is the EPA - the restrictions are absolutely incredible. I wouldn't want to build one either.

There's only one reason someone would build a refinery - to make money! Why would a company build a refinery to drive their prices down! Who here can honestly say - I wish I made LESS money. Exxon Mobil (the company to which you are referring) has to report to its boards, its investors, the SEC, etc. Yes, Exxon made $39.5 billion in profit last year. However, they are also one of the biggest companies in the world. Earnings per share was $6.70. With an average share price over the last 52 weeks of approximately $67, that's a 10% return on investment (based on EPS). Depending on when someone bought the stock, the return could be more or less. The price was as low as $56 and as high as $79.

We are dependant on oil - this forum is an example of that. There are really no suitable alternatives currently. (By the way - most of the ethanol plants that are being built are being built by O&G companies.) Public transportation in most of our cities is non-existent. Most of the time, people live quite a ways from work. People complain about the prices, but...they still go to the pump and fill up their new Escalade for $90 and our $50k boats for $200/weekend. Demand is still rising (although not as fast as it was).

Heard a lot of different stuff lately about the oil industry. Like 8 billion in EXCESS profit over the 4th of July weekend in '06, not just profit but EXCESS PROFIT. A radio guy in our area made a suggestion last year which I thought was a good one. For one month buy all the gas we need for work and pleasure from any gas mfg. BUT!! boycott one gas mfg.for a month. He was even saying that over a two week period the company would be devestated. But all the Shell, Union 76, Econo, etc. we need but just don't, buy any Mobil. This would take some organizing but in all respects what do you think would happen?

I agree (amazingly) with everyone on this post. If we all "Unionize" as consumers, the oil companies will have to do something. But until Oil companies are forced to make changes because of the consumers, Paul is correct. Oil companies dont set prices, but they DO set profit margins. They also forecast use, and, unlike most industries they do not boost supply for projected use. They increase PRICE for projected use.

the problem with boycotting a company for a week or month or whatever, is that all the consumption is still there. so you don't buy from XOM for a month, but sales at CVX double. there is no economic effect of trading suppliers every two weeks. the companies with reserves would sell to the ones with empty tanks. and vice versa the next month.

Kinda like the text/email that says "don't buy gas on April 3rd." So everyone fills up on the 2nd and 4th. same sales for the week/month. makes no difference

about 10 years ago, one of my friends parents converted their engine to LPG. never seen or heard of it since then, but i thought it was a good idea. not sure why we don't see more of it. and I don't think we can grow enough corn to make a difference, but that remains to be seen.

As long as we buy it, they'll happily sell it. whether its 3 bucks a gallon or 10. just look at everyone above that says "oh well this is what i love." I love it too, but thats why they can charge what they do.

ramhouse - excess profit? what is that?

The last 2 comments were ridiculous. IF people were to buy 2 months of gasoline during a 1 month period and not buy any the following month, the demand during the buying the month would exceed the supply by such a large amount that the price would go up like we have never seen. By the time you got to the end of the "buying" month, $3/gallon gas would sound great.

I really don't know why you would want to boycott one particular o&g company. ExxonMobil made the most money, but they are also the biggest company.

I'm not sure how "profit margins" are set. O&G companies do not control the price, they do control the amount that they sell to the refineries, but only on a very small scale. However, when prices are up they DO increase production. The reason production is decreased (also known as "shut-ins") is because it is not economical to pump the fluid out of the ground when prices are lower. However, when prices are higher (as they are now) - believe me, the O&G companies are selling as much as they possibly can. They do "boost supply for projected use."

The only ones that can really make a noticeable difference in the supply of O&G is OPEC. And...again...the U.S. is NOT part of that - it is primarily controlled by Saudi Arabia. OPEC's primary goal is to stabilize O&G prices between an acceptable range...whatever that is.

The most recent increase in prices is primarily due to the situation in Iran. Iran is the 4th largest oil producer in the world. Approximately 25% of the world's oil is shipped through the Strait of Hormuz. If that is disrupted...well...you can figure it out. However, I'm sure that the U.S. oil & gas companies will be blamed for price gouging if that happens. Hahahaha.

I'm through reading this thread.

So all this about high gas what about diesel. That used to be cheaper. So why is it more expenive now? From what I understand it is cheaper and easier to produce than regualr gas. If gas was 10 bucks a gallon I would ride a freakin bike and build a cardboard wakeboat with a custom tower and a leg drive motor!

mr. oklahoma tycoon - which posts were ridiculous?

FYI profit margins aren't "set".

okwakebdr, So explain why gas was down to almost a 1.70 a month or 2 ago? There was still tension in Iran. If your still reading this. Why would they slow down when gas prices drop??I know why..its do bring them back up and make money which is crap. I do not buy its not economical to pump it out of the ground when gas was under a dollar a gallon for a heck of a long time. There is absolutely no freakin reason gas should be over 2 let alone 3 dollars.

nick re read your statement

"Why would they slow down when gas prices drop??"

Are you serious? lets see prices dropping means that there is more supply than there is demand. Stop drilling for oil and the supply comes back into line.

"its do bring them back up and make money which is crap" Are you serious? Good thing the oil companies aren't in this to try and make money Contrary to popular belief there are risks to oil companies. Exploration costs. There are 1000's of juniors all over the world that go bankrupt because they've drilled dry holes.

"I do not buy its not economical to pump it out of the ground when gas was under a dollar a gallon for a heck of a long time. There is absolutely no freakin reason gas should be over 2"

I don't know about you but my costs and salaries have gone up over the years. So have the oil companies. they pay salaries, they have to pay transportation costs, drilling costs, exploration costs. All these costs have increased by a huge amount in the past couple of years.

Re read your post and tell me that it shouldn't be nominated for the most ridiculous post of the month award.

HAHAHA oil companies should only exist so they can provide Nick cheap gas. They shouldn't be allowed to make money? You must be a big fan of the former soviet union? Do you have pictures of Stalin on your wall by chance?

I have yet to see anyone on here that knows the difference between profits and profit margins. Or, if they do, they're not bothering to note that the sensationalist media only reports these companies' profits, as opposed to their margins, which are still as slim as they have always been...and the majority of our high cost comes from (as stated above somewhere) the EPA and their woodhead restrictions on new refineries.

As far as 'in it to make money'...theoretically, I agree in the capitalistic sense, but at the same time it seems like the rules would be at least slightly different for commodities versus luxuries, and fuel has long since become a required commodity. I'm in business to make money just like the next guy, but any good company strategy will make their product seem like it can't be lived without, so I suppose the same rules still apply to companies that have done just that


Cliff notes: Look up profits vs profit margins, because that argument is almost as LUDICROUS as OP's thinking that word is actually spelled like the rapper's name

Okay, I couldn't resist.

Nacho - I was not referring to your posts. I agree with your posts. I was referring to "Richard" and "wickedwakes".

Paul & Tony - I completely agree with you as well.

We have not even really talked about the risk involved with exploration. In a lot of cases, especially the smaller oil & gas companies, 90% of the revenue comes from 10% of the wells - because the other 90% of the wells were dry, or are making just enough to pay the operating costs and royalty owners. You can't just go out in the backyard and kick over a stone and start pumping oil out of the ground.

okwakebdr, Don't waste time kickin them stones. Everybody knows that you have to be shootin at some food and up from the ground comes that bublin crude...Oil that is...Texas tea.

Why dont you guys run your boats on LPG Propane GAS, most UK boats run on it and it works fine and is half the price.

ross

Paul,
I am not trying to say they shouldnt make money which is what it sounded like (my bad). All I am saying is if all these huge profits are comming with record gas prices then they must still be making money when gas prices are lower. I am not trying to be an idiot and am in no way a big fan of the soviet union. No one will ever agree on anything except one thing with this post and its gas prices suck. Some of us on here have the ability to not worry about it, but some feel the crunch every time we pump gas into the car.

Like some of the other people have said on here it definately costs a lot more money than most people think to provide gas at your nearest gas station. Average day rates for offshore rigs I think is around $100,000. That is the operating cost for just the drilling rig for 1 day. Multiply that times 365 days a year and thousands of rigs then it starts to add up quickly and that doesnt even take into consideration to cost to transport and refine the crude oil. Land rigs are much cheaper but as demand goes up it becomes necessary to start drilling for the oil that is harder to get to. That means deeper wells in harder formations which directly translates to higher costs. I definitely dont enjoy spending $70 to fill up my truck but all of the conspiricy theories can get annoying after awhile.

Yep, we just have to deal with it. If you can't afford to gas up your boat, there are plenty of other board sports to enjoy. What annoys me the most is not about spending the gas$ on myself and family(which I would probably do if gas were $5/gallon), but friends that seem to still think that a lousy $5 or "thanks" can cut it. Sorry, it can't, we're not in the 90's anymore.

As long as we are dependant for petroleum upon people who as a general rule don't like anything about us but our money we are in trouble.
It is rather pointless to compare petroleum consumption in the U.S with countries in Europe that don't even compare to the population or geographic size of California.
Considering the agricultural production that we feed the world with relies upon petroleum is another matter.
There is an in inaccurate perception out there that we are all driving 10mpg lifted Suburbans everywhere we go. I think it is driven by the ads in magazines, etc.
I drive a '65 VW beetle around town, it gets around 25-28 mpg. It is 40 years old and I can usually fix it with a pair of pliers and a screwdriver.
I tow my boat with a diesel truck. It is a crew cab 4x4 long bed dually; it gets 13 towing with 4 people in it.
Oh, and carrying a 4200lb camper on it's back.
Oil is a commodity, it is traded like a commidity. If there was the same demand for pork bellies that there is for crude, we'd be paying $20.00 a pound for bacon. Supply and demand, simple as that.
In California, the number of registered vehicles hasn't stopped growing for decades. The number of people living here continues to grow as well.
We have a select group of citizens who have elected political leaders and worked with them to prevent the construction of refining capacity for almost 3 decades. We have fuel blends specific for this state. We have taxed fuel every possible way, only alcohol and cigarettes are more highly taxed.
So we have a higher demand for gas by more people.
We have an unchanged capacity to provide gas to meet the demand.
We are competing with growing worldwide demand for petroleum by growing economies (China)
who are bidding on the same crude we are.
And here we sit, not coming even close to maximizng our own domestic sources of crude, developing refining capacity, and streamling the formulas nationwide. I'm not intersted in developing those sources to enrich anybody by selling it overseas, I am talking about putting the fuel on the doemstic market.
But it goes on; we continue complaining about the problem on one hand, but we ain't fixing it at the ballot box.
We really do need to take a look at the alternatives for petroleum, and get on the ball now. I do believe that there is a magic number out there that will really cripple this economy, and I think it is around $4.50 a gallon. Whe you stop and think about the cost of trucking, energy production, the auto industry, etc., we could be facing some real problems.
Of course, the people responsible for making drilling, refining, and all things related to oil a dirty word in this country will disappear into the woodwork when it happens, and look for somebody else to blame.
And our boats and the industries that they support will be pared down to a few strong manufacturers who have either a high quality niche product or the corporate backing of a giant multifaceted parent company to support them.
That's if we're lucky.
If we're not,and some nutcase somewhere decides to turn the world upside down, all bets are off.

There is this thing in St. Cloud, Mn called a gas bank. Firstfuelbank.com you can lock into a gas price of what the current rate is at the time and buy gas at that price at any time. You have to pay for the gas up front and then you get a gas card to use from there. When you go to the pump you pay nothing and get the gas for the price what you looked it into. I was planning to buy $1000 of gas in late January when it was 1.99 a gallon but was working alot and couldn't get up there. I am now kicking myself for not doing it but I don't always get up there that often, I only go through the area when I go to my dads for the weekend. I don't understand why there are not more of these "gas banks" around. From what I understand there is no catch but there are only 5 different gas stations in the St. Cloud area that you can get the gas.

I saw on the news that Premium hit $3.99 9/10 today in LA. In San Francisco Regular is already well over $4.00. So how high will gas go this Summer is anyone's guess.