Cheap Gas?

[Art Davis]

I have a habit of watching the evening news from Paris on the web to practice my limping French.

Last night I saw a news story that scared me. So help me out here. The report said that gas had just hit 1.36 euros per liter. I checked the exchange rate on euros and found that one euro is equivalent to $1.60. Then I asked Lalah to compute the price per gallon in dollars (I never can remember how many liters in a gallon.) She did, and we discovered that the Parisians are paying about $8.30 per gallon!

So---we have cheap gas, hunh?

Can someone verify or refute our calculations?


Art

P.S. Of course I know that this makes you feel great, right? (Scares the heck out of me to think that we might soon be paying that.) And, what do you think? Is it the Wall street moguls who are making dough from our misery, or is it the folks in OPEC?

[Booker B.]

Yes, comparatively speaking North Americans have some of the cheapest gas in the world outside Iran and Venezuela.

The problem is that we are running out of easily accessible oil while the demand in China and India grows ever stronger - I was just reading an article on how GM hopes to sell large number of Escalades to the Chinese elite this year.

Though prices may drop here and there short term, long term gasoline will continue to escalate in price until our consumption meets our falling demands.

[Gilles D]

Europe use métric system ,we have the same here in Canada
1 US gallon equal 4 liters, 1 Impérial Gallon équal 4.54 liters
So if you convert 1,36 Euro in Us dollards you will get this:
1.36 Euro = 2.16660 Dollar américain (Check on FX converter today)
http://www.oanda.com/convert/classic

2.16660 X 4 liters = $8.67 for one US gallon of Gaz

NO IT'S NOT CHEAP! It's insane! We better get green and use biodiesel
I already sold my motorcycle and my next truck will run on Bio or Diesel
You need lot of torque to tow a camping trailer ,diesel offert more torque
then gaz engine , hybrid and électric dont match for the moment .

They will destroy the economy if we let them (petrol compagnies) fool
us about the reason they give to rise the price. If every one tomorrow reduce is
speed and use there car only for going working and real obligation
ex: food/children school.... For about 4 weeks , Just to built a big reserve
and no one buying it...:-) I'm sure they will press the panic botton fast...
Bio ,hydrogen and électric scare them ,they try to get maximum profit
before the end of there empire...

Without your monney they are nothing...Be wise and get maximum use
of every liter of gaz you burn, the monney you save will paid for you next
camping trip :-)

[Loren G. Hedahl]

Cheap Gas! Oxymoron of the year.

We're leaving on our annual spring trip to visit our kids and grandkids that have settled in various parts of the country. By the time we get back the odometer will have turned between 6 and 7 thousand miles. Glad we have a Scamp.

[LSChilders]

I have a habit of watching the evening news from Paris on the web to practice my limping French.

Last night I saw a news story that scared me. So help me out here. The report said that gas had just hit 1.36 euros per liter. I checked the exchange rate on euros and found that one euro is equivalent to $1.60. Then I asked Lalah to compute the price per gallon in dollars (I never can remember how many liters in a gallon.) She did, and we discovered that the Parisians are paying about $8.30 per gallon!

So---we have cheap gas, hunh?

Can someone verify or refute our calculations?


Art

P.S. Of course I know that this makes you feel great, right? (Scares the heck out of me to think that we might soon be paying that.) And, what do you think? Is it the Wall street moguls who are making dough from our misery, or is it the folks in OPEC?

OPEC - Absolutely

Plus, .... The major U.S. oil companies and their VERY large annual profits. They are milking our wallets to better line their pockets, and Congress is too spineless to do anything about it.

[Gina D.]

I paid 20 bones for 30 liters of unleaded in Mexico yesterday.

30 liters = 7.9 gal.

20/7.9 = 2.53 per gallon.

The Mexicans think thats outrageous just as we think 4 bones is outrageous. I guess it's just a matter of what you are used to changing that makes us upset.

[Pete Dumbleton]

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own problems that we lose grasp of reality. I have actually read on another RV group, where folks from Europe are asking about RV rentals, warnings for them to be prepared for high fuel prices - What a LAUGH!! Fuel prices one-half what they are used to paying are high????

We think they are high because they are higher than what we paid in the past, but the US prices are a bargain compared to Canada and the North American prices are a bargain compared to Europe and other parts of the world.

When I left Germany in 1992, they were paying more at the pump ($4/USG) for unleaded regular than we are today!! We are now, 16 years later, just approaching what the norm was then....

Get used to it because it's going to get worse.

[Greg A]

I'm just going to buy a piece of land within walking distance of my house and setup the Scamp on it. When we want to camp we'll just walk or ride our bikes over there and camp.
I allready work out of the house.
When we want to have an egg gathering, we can all setup webcams on our laptops and setup a virtual campground at FGRV where we each virtually camp and send our images in from our walking distance piece of ground. We can do virtual dutch ovens, campfires, and virtual marshmallows. It'll be great fun and you no longer have to drive to Oregon for NOG, which means you'll be able to spend much more time at the gathering.
Problem solved.

[HaroldB]

OPEC - Absolutely

Plus, .... The major U.S. oil companies and their VERY large annual profits. They are milking our wallets to better line their pockets, and Congress is too spineless to do anything about it.

"The major U.S. oil companies and their VERY large annual profits." A true statement, when stated in profit dollars.

However, get on you computer and do a little research via Googling and you will learn that in '07 Exxon/Mobil's profit margin was 11.3%, Microsoft's profit margin was 27.5% and Google's was 25.3%. Exxon/Mobil is turning over many more dollars (because we demand their products), making 11.3% profit. Microsoft and Google don't turn over as many dollars, but are making 25+% profit (just because they can).

Maybe we should demand Exxon/Mobil cut the fat and reduce their profit margin to only 10.5% like McDonalds.

I don't like high fuel prices any more then the next guy, but they aren't caused by the evil doings of the oil companies (or even OPEC), it is us, the world wide consumers.

Harold

[Dan B]

Well said, Harold. I would hate to be in a business where the gvernment culd come in and tell you that you are making too much money. Is not PROFIT what free enterprise is all about? Isnt that what built this great nation we call home?

[HaroldB]

Today Forbes reports another oil company "1Q profit up 17 pct. on higher oil prices" This time it's ConocoPhillips
At least the headlines state it almost properly. The dollar profits are up 17% because the cost of the product they sell is up and I do believe the cost per barrel of oil has risen about 17% in the first quarter.

If you read the entire Forbes report you see "Earnings fell sharply on the refining and marketing side, to $502 million from $1.14 billion a year ago - a decline ConocoPhillips said earlier this month was not unexpected.

The root of the problem was refining margins, which were squeezed by higher crude prices. Those margins reflect the difference between the cost of crude and what the company makes on refined products such as gasoline."

So, here's one evil oil company that is getting its "comeuppance," they are not making as much profit % as they used to on the gas they are selling us.

But neither is Starbucks. For some reason, Starbucks '07 profit margin was only 7%. Could it be that as their cost of goods increase we just won't pay the price required for them to mark it up 25%?

As for government intervention, will someone please refer me to the incidence where that has worked for the good?

Just think, if every RV on the road was a molded lightweight fiberglass RV, like us smart people have, the oil companies' profits would be less and . . . .

Harold

[Donna D.]

<MODERATOR HAT ON>

As long as you stick to published facts, and don't turn this topic into a Political Statement, we'll allow it to run. Although we reserve the right to delete or edit any post. I've already deleted one posting that included some name calling. Please remember our Registration and Use Policies that you agreed to when you became a member:

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We're much rather everyone stick to the subject of molded lightweight fiberglass RVs...

<MODERATOR HAT OFF>

[Paul Bostick]

Just another set of facts to toss in.

Oil companies do not set the price on a barrel of oil, it is sold on the world market and it's price reflects what people are willing to pay for it. Bearing that in mind:

One barrel of crude oil selling at $114 per barrel.
There are 42 gallons in a barrel so:
$114 divided by 42 equals $2.71 per gallon just to pay for the oil to make the gas.
Add: 18 cents federal tax and (in Oklahoma 16 cents state tax) per gallon.
2.71 plus .34 tax equals $3.05 a gallon for material cost and tax.

At $3.35 a gallon of gas that leaves 30 cents a gallon to cover the cost of transporting the oil to the refinery, refining the oil into gas, transporting the gas to the station, and selling it. And each of those steps in line have to make a profit.

Also note that no new refineries have been built in this country since the mid 70's. And why should they? It costs about 1.5 billion to build a new refinery that would turn out gas at (if they are lucky) at 9 percent profit for the product. Or you could invest that same 1.5 billion into a oil rig off the gulf coast and pump out oil that will sell on the work market for $114 per barrel.

And yes the report every year that oild companies make billions of dollars each year in total profit, but you are looking at a industry that spends 5 billion dollars to build one oil rig in the gulf of Mexico. How many other companies spend that kind of money on research and developement?

I don't like high gas prices anymore that the rest of us. But you have to except that fact that with China and India come of age as world super powers there populations want to be able to own two or three cars per family and have all the gas that we do. And folks, they outnumber us about 10 to 1!

[james kent]

$1.16 a litre at East end of city
!.16 x3.78=$ 4.38/American gal
1.16x 4.55=$5.28/Canadian gal
$1.22 at West end of city. Not going to figure it out, I'll just go back to the other end of town. How fast can they be anyhow.

[CD Smith]

In Dallas and Grand Prairie prices vary from $3.43 to $3.56 a US gallon. Sometimes just across the street from each other.

[Pete Dumbleton]

I'm not sure I understand the concept of American oil companies gouging the public.

Canadians pay more than Americans for fuel and Europeans pay a LOT more than either for fuel.

[Greg A]

I'm just going to buy a piece of land within walking distance of my house and setup the Scamp on it. When we want to camp we'll just walk or ride our bikes over there and camp.
I allready work out of the house.
When we want to have an egg gathering, we can all setup webcams on our laptops and setup a virtual campground at FGRV where we each virtually camp and send our images in from our walking distance piece of ground. We can do virtual dutch ovens, campfires, and virtual marshmallows. It'll be great fun and you no longer have to drive to Oregon for NOG, which means you'll be able to spend much more time at the gathering.
Problem solved.

I found some land today not too far from the house, think we could bike there easy! Checking on zoning now... Plan is coming together..

[steven jones]

it is also a matter of economic balance, & lifestyle... in the USA, we are much more dependent on our cars, & virtually all our consumer goods are transported by trucks...
someday soon we may need to subsidize diesel fuel prices so that there are not shortages/inflation caused by transport costs... but gasoline for cars will always remain a consumer-demand cost item...
--- steven

[james kent]

The price we all pay at the pump isn't always a reflection of the cost/barrell but the tax our g'mint thinks we'll overlook.

[Pete Dumbleton]

Here's a calculator that won't make you feel good...

http://www.unfocusedbrain.com/projec...es_per_dollar/