Monday, March 9, 2015, 8:00PM: OK, something weird is going on with Chicago wholesale prices today, with prices there soaring 17 cents a gallon due to “aggressive buying by a refiner”. Maybe someone is just messing with us here at the Gas Game, but I have to rescind my weekend prediction. So, sorry, WOOD radio. We could get a hike tomorrow … or not. -Ed A.
$2.39 showing up in West Michigan now
2.39 Kazoo area
the squirrels must have got bored today and hacked into speedway Facebook page
Haha.
Apparently the hacker is a breast man(or woman).
Too funny.
Sounds like the Tickle Me Elmo marketing approach… Make a run for every TME doll out there and wait for prices to go up.
Oh well, “Oil prices slid Tuesday on expectations that U.S. crude stockpiles hit another record high last week.” Time to lock in the gains and keep us higher. Honda Fit, let’s go for a gasoline hunt.
What’s the deal with the Facebook page?
LOL. Most of the stuff is pretty funny.
Then again, I DO have a juvenile sense of humor.
BP Whiting is the buyer in the spot market, smaller gasoline producing (FCC) unit went offline few days ago, unable to restart yet, combined with shift this weekend to 9.0RVP spec summer gasoline, it’s about to get UGLY.
Let’s go for the gold! Sub $50 crude with $2.75 (dare we hope for $3.00) gasoline…
And here I thought our 50-60 cent run up in prices was already due to the summer blend switch. Must have been the “pre run up” lol. Sounds as though we’re prime for one of them thar mega Greedway spikes this Saturday of 40-50 cents then.
Looks like they can do whatever they want Turbo. I remember a few years when crude was $114. It gave us higher gas prices with $114 as compared to the 2008 crude price hike in the low $140 range.
I don’t think either of you two are grasping the issue. If there are refinery problems, then it doesn’t matter what the price of crude is because neither my car (nor yours) can run on straight oil. If anything, the fact that it’s taken Speedway this long to push a hike is probably screwing over a lot of the stations that probably have to buy on the spot market. So long as the marathon refineries where they get their supply from are running fine, they’re making money. Hence why, it’s always much worse if one of the marathon refineries is having issues I think (Robinson, IL or Detroit especially). Just my 2 cents.
Just venting a little frustration Jrunner. I suppose one option would be to park the car lol
Family Express leading a spike to 2.39 in NW Indiana. Based off the numbers, it seems like a fair hike to me.
Justin: I’m actually happy that’s all it is. Guess I’ll try to hit a “slow to spike” station on my way home today.
No spike apparent yet in Indy area. Will they wait for Friday or do it Saturday again?
Phil, Saturday seems to be the thing this time of the year. Fort Wayne isn’t spiking yet either. But I did get all my running around done and both cars topped off. I say 60/40 for Sat vs Fri.
I guess OH/KY will get one today or tomorrow then. Not like Speedway to only spike in 2 states. Topped off for $2.15 just in case.
BP Whiting: catastrophic failure. Expecting spot prices to soar today, combined with shift over the weekend to 9.0 RVP, watch out.
How convenient.
I wonder if we could get a graph of refinery downtime percentage vs price of crude…
And on the same graph for the same time span, include the IN/MI retail gas vs National Average.
Turbo, margins are strong, BP is missing out significantly, they wouldn’t want to miss out on the strongest margins of the year. I grow tired of the conspiracy theorists always saying “how convenient”… and when you don’t do enough maintenance, what happens? Look at Chevron’s Richmond, CA refinery fire in 2012. Or ExxonMobil’s Torrance, CA refinery that just blew up. Low crude prices have enticed refiners, who before refinery season hit a December high for refinery utilization at 94.4%.
STOOOOPID question:
Can’t they just “say” there is an issue, or make it look like there’s one, at the refinery without there actually being one?
Would be the perfect cover to increase profits.
Just saying…….
Patrick, no disagreement. But we had suppliers based 20 miles from Fukushima and when it had its “reset” we dd not get hosed not did we hose our customers with price hikes.
When the whole debacle with BP Whiting took place one of the pro BP arguments was that a modern refinery would keep our gasoline prices stable. That did not happen, at least not from the consumer standpoint.
While the fist shaking and conspiracy theories are fun to weave, I’m not sure it’s all just that, theories.
Patrick: Well winter blend CBOB spot price still plunged almost 6 cents. But the quote on summer blend was 12 cents above the winter. Whatever that pair of facts means for the trend at dealer wholesale this weekend.
“I wonder if we could get a graph of refinery downtime percentage vs price of crude..”
Start here: http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pnp_wiup_dcu_r20_w.htm