Will gas prices ever go down? or what would it take for them to go down?

Question

Will gas prices ever go down? or what would it take for them to go down?

Answer 1

Gas prices will likely, but not definitely, go down in the future.  Keep in mind that we are entering the spring maintainence season for refineries.  This means less gasoline is available for consumers, driving up the price.  This is the best time of year to perform maintainence, as the summer driving season hasn't kicked in and home heating has begun to drop off drastically.

Prices are set on the global market.  Since the dollar is weakening against most major currencies, even without the true increase in price, our dollar has less purchasing power.  Commodities are a safe investment when stocks are volatile.  This is why gold has increased to record levels as well.  Commodities don't change, regardless of where they are.  

For gasoline prices to come down for the long term, refining capacity needs to increase.  Refining is the bottleneck in the gasoline supply chain.  Refiners don't just produce gasoline, oil is the source of thousands of industrial and consumer products.  Refining time has to be split between these products and this makes the time more valuable.  This is why when a refinery shuts down, prices automatically jump up.  Less supply will be available and demand doesn't drop.

Most people don't realize, the US is one of the larger producers of crude oil.  The problem is, we use every drop we generate, plus what we import.  Our largest import partners are Canada and Mexico.  Saudi Arabia is third, followed by Venezuela.  OPEC also doesn't control prices, they control output, which is designed to achieve a target price on the global market.

Opening NAFTA will not have a significant impact on global prices, folks.  The global supply won't change and if we don't buy Canadian oil, someone else will, which will ease demand on the supplies they were purchasing.  This will soften prices on those supplies and we will purchase those instead of Canadian oil, with no change in volume.  The Canadians are processing oil sands as quickly as they can.  One of the major problems is that refineries need to be able to process the heavier, tar-like crude and most of those refineries are in the US.

As India and China gear up their economic engines, they continue to increase their share of the global energy pie.  With China's national oil company setting artificially low prices, there is no incentive to control consumption.  While this seems terrible to us, we were the ravenous beast that consumed (and still consumes) over half the world's energy supply.  Until we and every other consumer in the world reduces energy consumption, prices will continue to increase as supplies become more scarce.

I'm not sure where the other responder got his info, but the latest data I've seen from the energy companies indicates we have about 40 years worth of known reserves and estimated unproven reserves to last an additional 50 or so years.  This includes Alaskan oil, the oil sands and shales.  While I am for opening Arctic oil fields, it's not clear that these fields will last more than 10 years at currnet consumption rates.

Answer 2

there is no such thing as gas!

Answer 3

1) No.

2) Powerfull magic.

Answer 4

The gas prices are actually supposed to get even higher this year. The price for barrels of oil went up, and we have yet to see that reflect our gas prices, as that oil has yet to make it that far. But when it does the prices will go up. It will take a new president who is better at negotiating and doing things for the better of our economy.

Answer 5

i dont think gas is going down. as a matter fact they say it going to hit 4 a gallon.

Answer 6

Get wise folks.....10 dollar a gallon is just around the corner!  Just watch and you will see bicycles become more expensive for no apparent reason!  Buy one NOW!

Answer 7

Lets Start a Gas Price War!

The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.



How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying gas.



But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war.



Here's the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. And under no circumstances buy from CITCO. If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.



But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers.



If everyone would copy and email this idea to at least ten people (30 x 10 = 300) ... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x10 = 3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers. If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted!



If it goes one level further, you guessed it.... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $2.00 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK.

Answer 8

They will probably go up.  If Clinton or Obama end up getting elected,  they have both pledged to mess with NAFTA.  Basically NAFTA  makes Canada sell us their oil at a preset price, which even now, is keeping it below $4/gal at the pump.  If they mess with NAFTA, this releases Canada from their agreement with us, so Canada can sell the oil that was allocated to the USA to China for a much higher price.  Prices at the pump will then soar to $10/gal at the pump in the USA.

To drive prices down will take the USA becoming 100% independent of foreign oil.  The only way for that to happen will be to tap into the vast oil fields in Alaska, where their is enough already discovered to supply our current consumption rate for the next 50+ years.  You can thank the environmentalist wacko tre-huggers for standing in the way for the time being, but we will drill in Alaska eventually.  The wackoes assume that the drilling will happen the same crude way it happened 50 years ago, but in reality the new drilling  technology is very clean today.  All the lobbyists are succeeding in doing is driving up our oil prices and at the same time trying to blame Big Oil for the pump prices.

Despite what some people think, the gas price increases have nothing to do with 9-11 or the war in Iraq.  That is all hype to put the blame spotlight on everyone except the real culprits.

Answer 9

That's so ridiculous.  The President has nothing to do with the price of gas.  We need to not be dependent on foreign oil.  THere is plenty of oil available in ALaska but the bleeding hearts won't let us drill.  If we don't, the price will continue to go up and we will continue to fund the people that want to kill us.

Answer 10

If they pump more of it out of the ground than people are willing to buy, the price will go down.  Currently China and India are drastically increasing their oil use as they are seeing a huge rise in their middle classes, and everyone is buying cars, and putting gas in them.  When demand goes up, the price follows.  If the demand goes down (in our dreams!) the price will drop.

If oil production increases and new oil refineries are built, it will push the price down as gasoline becomes more available.

Answer 11

Our planet will have oil for the next 150 to 200 years.

However this oil won't be easily accessible, meaning we will need to spend more and more money to get the oil.

As a result oil prices will increase over the next 200 years, until we will only use oil for incredibly important things where no other material will work.

However our cars, and many people forget trucks which use up considerable resources, will stop using gasoline long before that, give it 50 to 80 years and gas using cars will be an exception you see at an oldtimer fair.

A gasoline combustion engine is such a crude mechanism in principle, that this technology was bound to be replaced over time. Anyway the idea of cars for transportation will remain from that era, which is not necessarily a good thing.

Did you know that current hybrid cars are less fuel efficient? Of course this is true only for the fuel consuming engine part. The total gas mileage will be much better.

Answer 12

Yes, gas prices will go down.

But, to make them go down, the US would have to start producing its own oil. There are massive reserves in Alaska, and they've been exploring oil reserves in Michigan.

If they don't want to start drilling here, then the unrest in Venezuela would have to calm down. That's a major contributor to the high price of oil.

Will we see $4/gal for regular unleaded? Yes. We saw it last year, and life still went on. I don't think we're going to see as many people on the roads, even compared to right now.

Answer 13

They will fall sometime. Its illogical to think that they will keep rising. It may keep rising and then fall.

Answer 14

The price doesn't bother me. I traded in my medium-sized car for a smaller car with good mileage. Gas prices made a lot of people rethink their driving choice. It's nice to see the age of the giant SUV finally slowing down.

Answer 15

with our money becoming less and less valued throughout the world,  the dollar is buying less and less oil each day as its value declines.  maybe the us government will realize that extreme deficit financing is a dead end road.  i sure hope they do soon.

Answer 16

Prices will go down when our government finally decides to use the reserves we already have instead of buying and buying from foreign countries.  or, we just take over those countries.

Answer 17

I doubt that the prices ever will go down.  In the 1970's gas prices went up, so the USA started to produce their own oil.  So OPEC decided to increase production and lower their prices to eliminate their competition, it worked.

Answer 18

Dont listen! YES! Gas prices will go down.

(Economics major)

In the near near future?..NO! but in a few years (2,3,4). Yes!

To make this as simple as i can:

1st: Gas is a business! Gas is imported from other countries (such as the country we are at war with now). So since we need them and they dont like us...obviously they would make us pay more, taxing gas heavily. However, the economy respond to change, and learn how to counter. That is why more fuel efficient cars have the most commercials, and people are turning to other ways to generate power. People are selling their big trucks (because it take up too much gas) and these trucks are going for cheaper (because little people want it because the cause of gas in the long run)

Thus: In a few years we would be over our huge need for gas, and like i mentioned before GAS IS A BUSINESS, and the point of all business is to make profit. If gas is being neglected, no revenue is being generated. So gas owners lower the price for gas, (better to make some profit than none at all)

Gas is now back at a reasonable price!

Answer 19

the impeachment of president bush