The reasons for high oil and gas prices? Will they ever go back to affordable prices?

Question

The reasons for high oil and gas prices? Will they ever go back to affordable prices?

Answer 1

Americans are wasteful.  They see cheap oil as an entitlement.  Until they stop wasting it, it will be expensive.

Answer 2

Large V8 engines is one cause.

Answer 3

we are running low on oil, and supply and demand is through the roof.  Think about this, when your parents were your age they were probably paying about .05 cents to .25 cents a gallon.  When I was a kid, I can remember it being .98 cents a gallon and some places it was $1.09 a gallon.  All gas prices have ever done was gone up.  Even during the gas wars in the mid to late 70's.  Paying less than 2 bucks a gallon is a thing of the past.

Answer 4

$40,000,000,000 in profits a year for Exxon/Mobil. What do you think the gas prices will do.

Answer 5

The increasing scarcity of the resource is the main cause, bureaucracy and taxes would be second.

Answer 6

Fuel prices are a function of several factors.  Supply, demand, refining issues, political situations and other factors play into the cost of fuels.  Crude prices are not as big a driver of gasoline prices as folks might imagine.  About half of a barrel of oil becomes gasoline, but that doesn't mean that half of the cost goes to gasoline.  There are very valuable fractions within crude oil that cost MUCH more per gallon than gasoline.

Refinery time costs money as well.  If a refinery is producing gasoline, it's not producing some other product.  If the other product is more profitable than gasoline, the refinery actually loses money making gasoline.  Also, seasonal demands play into cost as well.  Refineries across the nation prepare well in advance for the home heating oil season.  Huge stockpiles of oil are built up to deal with the winter-long demand of keeping homes and businesses warm.  Time spent preparing for that is done during the peak driving season of the summer.

The primary driver of gasoline prices is the global market.  India and China are demanding massive quantities of petroleum to feed the growing industrial sectors and since the world isn't producing more oil, we're draining down an already scarce resource at an increasing pace.  Folks snicker at the Chinese because they purchase mineral rights to oil that is difficult to extract and refine, but someday that's all that's going to be left and who will be snickering then?

The additional pressure they place on the global market affects our prices here in the US.  Every barrel we produce is worth whatever anyone, anywhere in the world is willing to pay.  Since we are currently the world's largest consumer of pteroleum and it would cost more to get our oil to the customer than the customer is willing to pay, we use all our production domestically.  Don't think for a second, though, that oil companies won't start exporting if they can make a penny more a gallon elsewhere.

Will prices ever return to less than $2.50/gallon?  Sadly, no.  We are entering the death throes of the Petroleum Age and as oil becomes more difficult to locate and refine, prices will continue to sky rocket.  The upside is that technological advances are being investigated and as oil becomes more expensive, these alternatives will become more attractive until they become preferable to oil and we will have a new energy source.

Did you know if we created a wind farm the size of North Dakota, we would have enough electricity to power the entire nation?  Or that if we built a solar array the size of Nevada, we'd have enough power to supply the nation?  We have the technology, it's just a matter of making it commercially viable.  Ocean currents are another potential renewable source of energy that's being investigated.

Answer 7

Oil is a commodity that is driven by international demand.  The US and China are the major consumers and as long as the demand is high the price will continue to rise.  This country will have to develope alternative fuels or we will all go broke filling our tanks.

Answer 8

We're running low on Oil, we cant just drill anywhere for new Oil, and well it the end of society as we new it... i mean all in due time we're gonna take it up the tailpipe!

And no the prices of OIL or anything we use daily anywhere will ever go down! it's only gonna get more and more expensive, GOD help our children and their children!

Answer 9

The NEXT time you get stuck in traffic- look around you, & you'll SEE the "reasons" for the rising price of gas & oil. More & MORE people, driving more & MORE cars- & using More & MORE gas & oil- that's fast running out. And BECAUSE it is running out, it's GOING to keep getting More & MORE expensive- until people start driving LESS, and FEWER, and SMALLER- cars... The Bottom line IS... gas is going to continue- to get Less & LESS affordable...-until we find some OTHER way to get around...

Answer 10

Mostly  due to lack of  supply ,  but  also  there is much politics,  war,  speculation,  and profit making going on.

Also  many  producing  oil  countries  are  under  attack from within  by  terrorists,  and  sabotage to their  infrastructure.  Slowing production  of available  oil.

Last  summer  there  were  no  major  oil  shortages,  gas lines  at  pumps,  or  cities  with no  gasoline.  Seems  we  would have  had  the  same  supply  and demand at  $2.50  a gallon  as  we  had  at  $3.50  a  gallon.   So  there  is  much  more  going on  here  than  we  can know.

Prices used  to  go down  in the  fall, yet  this  week  our price went up  almost 25 cents,

Barrel  prices  last year  at about  $68  a  barrel  devided  by  20  =  about  3.4  a  gallon.     Today  is  about  $96  which  =  around  $4.8  a  gallon.   Hopefully  it balances  back  down or  it  could  be  a  very  expensive  November.

There  is  so much  truth, and  propaganda going on here,  it is  almost impossible  for the  average  citizen to really  know  just  what  the  real  figures are,  we  are  busy just  trying to work, live,  and  get  by.   With  no real  mass  communication  from the  nation as  a whole,  the  oil  companies  have  us  at  their  whim  to charge what ever  the market  will  spend.

Answer 11

because everybody is using more and more gasoline and the high price isn't causing anybody to cut back and use less, the ONLY way gas prices will come down if we all use less!

I blame the rich that own the big, gas guzzling SUV's, they can afford the high price of gas!

I think we should tax them outta existence, if you own a SUV, you pay a high luxury tax to own that SUV, and SUV's are killers, they have head on crashes against the poor little Honda Civics and the poor guy that's working 3 part time jobs to make ends meet so he can afford gas, that's driving the Honda Civic, dies in the crash and the driver of the SUV that caused the accident don't get a scratch!