Three words in honor of the recent runup in fuel prices:

[randomness]

Locking. Gas. Cap.

(My car's locking fuel door broke from metal fatigue a while back, but with the recent price rises I decided it was time to get a locking gas cap, rather than wait to get another fuel door.)

Comments

[frotz.livejournal.com]

I have my own two or three words for this: gouging crack-monkeys.

Prices at most of the gas stations out here in cow-land are the same or cheaper than they were yesterday. It's the urban stations that have shot up, perhaps because they can get away with it.

Yay FUD.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Actually, the explanation I heard on WBZ was that stations were getting hit with price rises from distributors, and that this was happening as they received their deliveries. Urban stations tend to have higher volumes, so they get deliveries more often.

A test of this will be if, in a week or so, when the rural stations have to refill their tanks, their prices also go up.

One other detail from the WBZ broadcast was that the stations owned by the big chains generally have long-term contracts, which has meant that they have more secure supplies, although the prices charged to them are rising also--evidently the contracts don't guarantee price level, only supply--while the independent dealers are being told by their distributors that there may not be any more fuel for them next time around.

The behavior I have observed around here is that all the formerly cheap independent dealers are now on the order of twenty cents higher than the chains.

Two links from perspicuity:

http://www.gaspricewatch.com
http://www.gasbuddy.com

[hotpoint.livejournal.com]

That's what I was guessing, from how the most expensive gas stations I regularly see (the Mobil at Alewife Brook Parkway and Mass Av, and the Shell on Concord by the Ground Round Rotary) were now cheaper than the independent stations on Mass Av.

But none of these stations receive a shipment of gas every day. Also, the station nearest my house had raised its price for 87 octane to $3.179 Tuesday night, and to $3.[ ]59 tonight. (They ran out of 3s!) Either their suppliers are saying there may not be any more gas for another week and they'd (profitably) reduce demand to what they'll be able to supply, or they've decided they're going out of business and they might as well get a bankroll for Foxwoods.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

But none of these stations receive a shipment of gas every day.

Seriously! As an example, the broadcast said that once every three days was high-volume.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

This from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/31/AR2005083102644.html:

"Motorists were confused that the price increases varied widely, from pennies to a dollar. The variations were due to how stations buy their gasoline. Most branded stations, such as Exxon and Shell, have contracts that lock in prices over extended periods, allowing them to weather fluctuations in the market caused by disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.

"Independent stations, which usually purchase gas on the spot market, suffer from daily price swings and are more likely to boost their prices significantly during chaotic events. Gasoline futures prices have climbed about 35 percent since Friday."

So I'm wrong. The long-term contracts do lock in prices, at least according to the Post.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Note: I'm not saying there aren't gouging crack-monkeys...only that I'm not sure where in the supply chain they actually are.

[frotz.livejournal.com]

As one data point, there's a very high-volume 24-hour Mobil just off of I-93 at MA-129. They were $1.829/gallon this afternoon and $1.799/gallon around midnight. New York rack prices seem to have turned the corner as well, but I'm very curious to see what happens tomorrow.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Gee. I haven't seen under $2 per gallon in a while.

Maybe I should go out there tomorrow. :)

[frotz.livejournal.com]

The Shell near the south end of the O'Brien highway in Cambridge was $1.889/gallon at 23:30 or so. Big chains seem to be the best bet, indeed. (Then there's Southwest Airlines, which is reportedly burning jet fuel based on massive long-term futures they bought at $27/barrel. They're certainly sitting pretty!)

[frotz.livejournal.com]

Oops, I keep doing that. Go ahead and add a $1.00 to all of those.

It still beats $7.00/gallon that I saw a week ago, though.

[dianec42.livejournal.com]

Okay, that's impressive. That beats the $6 a gallon in Georgia we saw on the news last night...

The effect hasn't swept the entire nation yet; LA are is still hovering around $3/gallon pretty uniformly.