Crude oil is getting cheaper; so why isn't gas?

// added February 16, 2009 // 8 comments //
Image...
Future_America
Crude oil prices have fallen to new lows for this year. So you'd think gas prices would sink right along with them.

Not so.

On Thursday, for example, crude oil closed just under $34 a barrel, its lowest point for 2009. But the national average price of a gallon of gas rose to $1.95 on the same day, its peak for the year. On Friday gas went a penny higher.

To drivers once again grimacing as they tank up, it sounds like a conspiracy. But it has more to do with an energy market turned upside-down that has left gas cut off from its usual economic moorings.

The price of gas is indeed tied to oil. It's just a matter of which oil.

The photo above is of gas prices posted at a Valero gas station in Hayward, California on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009.
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8 comments // Crude oil is getting cheaper; so why isn't gas?

  • harleyblueswoman
  • krush_productions
  • sickinjersey
  • dmass5
    • 0
      dmass5  
    • wtf?!?!

      y r ppl bitching!

      it was like 5 dollars a gallon not to long ago, it has went down so much and ppl r still complaining?

    • 12 months ago
  • Nettle
    • 0
      Nettle  
    • dmass5:

      That's how they condition you to accept prices that shouldn't exist in the first place. I remember during the crisis last summer, gas dropped from $4 to $3.50 and I remember thinking, "Oh thank god! I can manage that" when in reality it was still way too much.

      If the prices can go lower, they should be.

    • 12 months ago
  • Jacques_of_Spades
    • 0
      Jacques_of_Spades  
    • Kind of a funny coincidence, I have the local news on TV in the background and they just asked/answered that same question. They said that the refineries decreased capacity back when demand was so low (I remember gas getting down to $1.48) and may have overcompensated, so now they can't turn all that oil into gas.

      If you ask me though, I'd say that it's just a conspiracy of the gas companies charging as much as they can get away with.

    • 12 months ago
  • mcwally
  • logicpocket
    • 0
      logicpocket  
    • I was wondering this myself. Not that I expect gas to stay cheap forever but damn, with it trading this low I want to be able to fill my tank with a $20 and have change left for coffee. Sheesh. :p

    • 12 months ago

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