Where are the gasoline shortages?

Question

A problem i have with the oil catastrope therory is that, although prices are through the roof there are no gasoline shortages anywhere . Today it was anounced by Samuel Bodman that the reason behind high gas prices was flat production levels of oil since 05 and increasing demand. Is this true? Because if it is than surely there would be a major shortage by now. Those who lved through the 70's tell us about line ups at the pumps. Why hasn't that happened yet?

Answer 1

Line ups at the pumps in the 70s were not caused by a shortage of crude oil, but my a shortage of gasoline because we did not have the capacity to refine it.  There were tankers of crude oil waiting to offload during that time.   It was a problem of production and distribution not supply.   We still don't have sufficient refineries but this time the supply of oil is less because the congress of the US will not allow us to drill for the vast quantities of crude oil we have here in the US, off the coasts and in ANWAR.  We could be almost entirely independent in oil if we were allowed to drill at home, build more refineries and use nuclear power for electricity. However congress has bowed to the Enviro-terrorists demands and is keeping us from energy independence, except for nonsense programs like wind, solar, and bio-diesel.

Answer 2

it is not the shortage

since the prices of the oil are raised the some producers hesitate to refine the oil due to the high prices

and the raise in the oil is due to the changes in the international market and not due to our market

Answer 3

There is no excess.  Refineries are going full tilt to supply the fuel now.  Refineries do not have much storage capacity to hold finished product.   They were putting out and it was being used with little to store.   When they had too much stored, that is when gas prices drop(they would rather sell it than store it).  These days the storage tanks are empty as that product has been bought as well.   The oil companies cannot create a buffer in case of a natural disaster (such as the hurricane) which shut down some refineries.  ALL refineries in the world going 24/7 is "just" keeping up with the demand.  

    There is plenty of oil coming out of the ground now, but no refineries are available to take the crude.(so the crude tapes are closed)  The oil companies build refineries.  At a billion $ apiece "it is not a throw away project".   They are not building any.  Obviously they figure "it won't pay for itself" and they are going to make due with what they got.

    Maybe they know something?

Answer 4

gasoline shortage is present here in the philippines.

we don't mine oil. we only have one oil depot a project of the government but i dont actually think that it can cater to the ( milions Filipinos. We get most of our gasoline and oil from the middle east. our prices have reached 55 pesos per liter for diesel when a year ago the price range from 30-40 pesos per litter