Are oil companies manipulating supply and demand of gasoline?

1. 50

   bradmasterOCcalposted 8 years ago

   Are oil companies manipulating supply and demand of gasoline?
   
   Today, the price of gasoline in CA is expected to go up thirty to forty cents a gallon. We already pay the highest price for gasoline except for Hawaii. The reason for this latest sudden and drastic increase in the price of gas.
   Yes, the oil refineries are switching over from winter to summer gasoline blends. Like So Cal knows the differences between the seasons.
   Ca has doubled their population in the last thirty years, and that increases the number of vehicles on the road, as well as all the visitors, and trucks bringing goods into the state.
   Yet, no more refineries have been added.
   
   

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2. 86

   tamarawilhiteposted 8 years ago

   Saudi Arabia, along with Kuwait and UAE, are deliberately flooding the market with crude oil at losses to:
   * cause ISIS to lose the profits that allowed them to fund jihad, which is why they had to cut terrorist pay in half
   * undercut Canadian shale oil and American fracking oil production and shut down those wells, which is a repeat of what they did in the 1980s for the exact same reason
   
   So no, it isn't oil companies but oil dependent governments in the Middle East doing so.

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   1. 50

      bradmasterOCcalposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Tamara
      Did you read my entire question, about CA?

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3. 80

   dashingscorpioposted 8 years ago

   
   
   Absolutely!
   The so call "supply & demand" model we were taught in school never mentioned "market manipulation".
   Back in the 1970s there was talk about there being a "shortage of oil" in the sense that the planet was running out of it. We now know some 50 years later that was never the case.
   Man {creates shortages} in order to get prices up.
   Don't be too surprised if there is an "accidental" oil spill or explosion at a major refinery if prices stay low another six months.
   The surge in oil prices today is because of planned meetings from the various oil cartels. Wall St. hopes the outcome of the meetings will be an agreement to cut oil production.
   Therefore the price is going up now over "optimism"  and speculation that such an agreement might be made.
   Thus far Saudi Arabia has resisted the idea of cutting production and there is some doubt that Iran will want to cut production.
   They just had there sanctions lifted and would love to sell oil into the open  market again.
   Having said all of that there has been NO change in actual oil supplies!
   There is no (real justification) for raise prices at the pump other than greed. When U.S. oil companies start losing profits they manipulate supply.
   If we as country were serious about finding alternatives to oil now would be a great time push for more research in electric, solar, battery, and other ways to power automobiles. Exxon-Mobile, Shell, and BP will never allow that to happen. The government also doesn't want it.
   Thus far over 100,000 people have been laid off from good paying jobs in the oil industry due to falling prices. Texas has been hit the hardest.
   The government is afraid this will have a ripple effect on the economy in the long run. Right now consumers are happy paying lower prices.

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