Gas prices are about more than just oil

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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gGW54KItRCt4ToUNfru7EmS9wPEw?docId=1e0c3ad4fb5d4fbfbae4b767e8110f70

When Jay Ricker, owner of the BP filling station off Interstate 70 in Plainfield, Ind., set the price of unleaded gasoline at $3.44 per gallon on Monday of last week, it was 4 cents higher than the Friday before.
That alone might have been irritating to drivers paying the highest gas prices in more than two years. It was even more so because it happened on a day when the price of crude oil, which is used to make gasoline, fell almost $1 a barrel.
"It's up 20 cents one day, down 10 cents the next day," says Oscar Elmore, a courier who was filling up his Ford Taurus at a RaceTrac service station in Dallas recently. "It sounds kinda fishy to me."
Gas prices rise when oil prices rise, and fall when oil prices fall ? except when they don't. What you pay at your filling station depends on an array of factors, from what happens on an exchange in New York to what the competition is charging.
This can rankle drivers, especially these days. Gas reached a national average of $3.51 a gallon on Monday. That's up 14 cents, or 4 percent, over the past week. The week before, the average rose 20 cents, the steepest increase since September 2008.
A year ago, the price was $2.75. The average is the highest it's ever been this time of year, and analysts expect it to climb higher in the coming weeks.
Unlike an iPhone or a pair of jeans or a Big Mac, oil and gas are commodities, and their prices can change every second at the New York Mercantile Exchange and other trading hubs. Those far-off changes affect the cost of the next day's commute. Sellers of commodities, like gas station owners and refineries, price their product based not on what it costs to produce it, but on what it costs to replace it.
Station owners need to make enough money selling the gas they already have to pay for the shipment they have coming. At busy stations like the Plainfield BP, those shipments are delivered several times a week.
Oil is the biggest factor in gas prices. It accounts for 50 to 70 percent of the cost. Recent upheaval in the Middle East and strong demand for oil around the world have pushed oil prices over $100 a barrel for only the second time in history. But the price of a gallon of gas at the pump rises ? and, yes, falls ? for a number of other reasons.
Oil prices can be moved by geopolitics, the value of the dollar or Chinese demand. Gas prices can be moved by oil prices, refinery problems or even weather that might keep drivers at home. For example, gas prices are expected to rise in the next few weeks as refiners switch from cheaper winter blends to more expensive summer ones because the warm air makes gas evaporate faster.
"We have to pay whatever the market says we do. It's an instantaneous world," says Joe Petrowski, CEO of Gulf Oil, a big gasoline wholesaler.
Whether the gas at the Plainfield BP was made from a barrel of oil pumped a month ago 1,000 miles away in Williston, N.D., or three months ago and 7,000 miles away in Kuwait, its price is set by buyers and sellers in New York hours before Ricker buys it.
There's no way to know exactly where the oil used to make the gasoline sold at the Plainfield BP came from, or even where the gas was refined. Oils from many sources are mixed together on their way to a refinery, and gasolines from many refineries are mixed together on their way to a fuel terminal.
But here's a plausible route: Oil is pumped by a company operating in Texas or Louisiana and piped to a major oil hub in Cushing, Okla. From there, it is sold to an energy trader who may store it or trade it a few times.
Then BP buys it to feed its Whiting, Ind., refinery. After a two-week pipeline trip to Whiting, the oil is cooked into gasoline and piped to BP's fuel terminal in Indianapolis.
There, BP blends it with ethanol and a few special BP-branded additives and sets a final wholesale price, known as the rack price. It's this rack price that leads to the final pump price for most station owners.
A wholesaler like BP or Gulf each has its own formula for setting the rack price. In an attempt to smooth out the spikes and dips of the market, a wholesaler usually buys some of his fuel through long-term contracts. The rest is bought on the so-called spot market, priced at a given moment by a benchmark like the New York Harbor gasoline price.
Every day at 5 p.m., BP tells Ricker what the rack price will be starting at 6 p.m. That price is good for 24 hours.
Ricker hires a trucker to go to the terminal, fill 'er up with 10,000 gallons and bring it to his station. Then Ricker decides what price to charge customers based on his ultimate concerns: The Speedway and the Circle K that share an intersection with him.
There are only two or three pennies per gallon in profit selling gas for most station owners. What Ricker really wants is to attract customers to sell the truly precious liquids: Not the gasoline and diesel outside, but the water and soda and coffee inside.
Three times a day, his station manager, Debbie Sennett, enters his competitors' prices into a computer. The software spits out a price that will match or undercut the competition. When the competition lowered prices on Tuesday, so did Ricker, to $3.24 per gallon.
"Gasoline is the only product in this country that if you're a penny different people will go out of their way to go somewhere else," Ricker says.
Wholesale gasoline prices have risen 38 cents per gallon, or 15 percent, since the first uprising in Libya on Feb. 15. When wholesale gas prices rise fast, filling station owners get squeezed or even lose money because competition prevents them from raising retail prices as fast as costs are rising.
So if it seems like station owners take their time lowering prices when oil and wholesale gas get cheaper, it's because that's exactly what they do.
"If gasoline prices drop a dime, a station will only pass along one or two pennies a day," says Patrick DeHaan, an analyst at GasBuddy.com, a website that collects and publishes retail gas prices. "They are slower to pass along the discount because they need to make up for money they lost when prices went up."
Through the first eight weeks of 2011, average gross profits for gas stations were 4.9 percent, according to the Oil Price Information Service. In 2010 it was 6 percent.
That doesn't draw much sympathy from those who have to pay more at the pump, though. "To me it seems like a money game," says Steve Armonett of Indianapolis, who pulled into Ricker's BP to fill up his Buick LeSabre recently. "They're just worried about how much money they can make."

[teaberryeagle]

OIL - You better be sitting down when you read this !!!!!!

As you may know, Cruz Construction started a division in North Dakota just 6 months ago.

They sent every Kenworth (9 trucks) we had here in Alaska to North Dakota and several drivers.

They just bought two new Kenworth's to add to that fleet; one being a Tri Drive tractor and a new 65 ton lowboy to go with it.

They also bought two new cranes (one crawler & one rubber tired) for that division.

Dave Cruz said they have moved more rigs in the last 6 months in ND than Cruz Construction moved in Alaska in the last 6 years.

Williston is like a gold rush town; they moved one of our 40 man camps down there since there are no rooms available.

Unemployment in ND is the lowest in the nation at 3.4 percent last I checked.

See anything in the national news about how the oil industry is fueling North Dakota's economy?

Here's an astonishing read. Important and verifiable information:

About 6 months ago, the writer was watching a news program on oil and one of the Forbes Bros. was the guest.

The host said to Forbes, "I am going to ask you a direct question and I would like a direct answer;

how much oil does the U.S. have in the ground?" Forbes did not miss a beat, he said, "more than all the Middle East put together."

The U. S.. Geological Service issued a report in April 2008 that only scientists and oil men knew was coming, but man was it big.

It was a revised report (hadn't been updated since 1995) on how much oil was in this area of the western 2/3 of North Dakota,

western South Dakota, and extreme eastern Montana.

Check THIS out:

The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska's Prudhoe Bay, and has the potential to

eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates

it at 503 billion barrels. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable( 5 billion barrels), at $107 a barrel,

we're looking at a resource base worth more than $5.3 trillion.

"When I first briefed legislators on this, you could practically see their jaws hit the floor.

They had no idea.." says Terry Johnson, the Montana Legislature's financial analyst.

"This sizable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years," reportsThe Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

It's a formation known as the Williston Basin, but is more commonly referred to as the 'Bakken.'

It stretches from Northern Montana, through North Dakota and into Canada.

For years, U. S. oil exploration has been considered a dead end.

Even the 'Big Oil' companies gave up searching for major oil wells decades ago.

However, a recent technological breakthrough has opened up the Bakken's massive reserves,

and we now have access of up to 500 billion barrels. And because this is light, sweet oil,

those billions of barrels will cost Americans just $16 PER BARREL !!!!!!

That's enough crude to fully fuel the American economy for 2041 years straight.

And if THAT didn't throw you on the floor, then this next one should - because it's from 2006 !!!!!!

U.. S. Oil Discovery - Largest Reserve in the World

Stansberry Report Online - 4/20/2006

Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world.

It is more than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction.

In three and a half years of high oil prices none has been extracted.

With this motherload of oil why are we still fighting over off-shore drilling?

They reported this stunning news:

We have more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth.

Here are the official estimates:

8 times as much oil as Saudi Arabia

18 times as much oil as Iraq

21 times as much oil as Kuwait

22 times as much oil as Iran

500 times as much oil as Yemen

and it's all right here in the Western United States !!!!!!

HOW can this BE? HOW can we NOT BE extracting this? Because the environmentalists and others have blocked all efforts to help America become independent of foreign oil! Again, we are letting a small group of people dictate our lives and our economy. WHY?

James Bartis, lead researcher with the study says we've got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East, more than 2 TRILLION barrels untapped. That's more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil in the world today, reports The Denver Post.

Don't think 'OPEC' will drop its price even with this find? Think again! It's all about the competitive marketplace, it has to.

Think OPEC just might be funding the environmentalists?

Got your attention yet? Now, while you're thinking about it, do this:

Pass this along. If you don't take a little time to do this, then you should stifle yourself the next time

you complain about gas prices, by doing NOTHING, you forfeit your right to complain.

Now I just wonder what would happen in this country if every one of you sent this to every one in your address book.

By the way, this can be verified. Check it out at the link below !!!!!!

http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911


Cruz Construction:

http://www.cruzconstruct.com/

[blucher]

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Crews Work to Staunch North Dakota Fracking Blow Out | Water Contamination From Fracking (Hydraulic Fracturing)

North Dakota
Crews in North Dakota are working to seal a leaking oil well. According to the Associated Press, officials are calling the leak, the result of a well blowout, the worst in the state since it saw a resurgence of the gas drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

The leak was first reported Wednesday about 2 1/2 miles southwest of Killdeer. The well sets atop the Killdeer Aquifer, the source of drinking water in the area. According to the Bismarck Tribune, crews are now working to plug the well with three cement caps injected at depths between 8,000 and 9,000 feet.

Sanjel Corp., of Canada, was conducting the fifth of a 19-stage fracture, each one injecting 370,000 gallons of water and gel chemicals at 8,000 pounds per square inch of pressure when the blowout occurred, the Bismarck Tribune said. A spokesperson for Denbury Onshore, which was leasing the well, said it continued leaking about two barrels of mostly water each minute on Thursday morning, according to the Associated Press. As of yesterday morning, 1,007 barrels of water and 125 barrels of oil had been recovered. The Bismarck Tribune is reporting that a total of 2,000 barrels of oil and fluid have so far leaked from the well.

The leak occurred when steel and concrete casing within the wellbore failed, according to the Associated Press. The leak is said to be confined to the drilling pad. A protective dike was built Wednesday to keep oil from a nearby creek.

The state health department said monitoring wells would be drilled by the end of the week to test groundwater in the area. The state?s director of the Department of Mineral Resources told the Bismarck Tribune that only one of the chemicals used in the fracking fluid, potassium hydroxide, is toxic. However, he maintained it did not pose a risk at the dilution ratio used in the fracking fluid. He also maintained that the Killdeer Aquifer flows less than one foot a day, so it would take decades for any contamination to reach the community?s drinking wells. If needed, he said the aquifer would be remediated.

The state?s investigation of the incident will focus on whether or not pressure testing regulations instituted only two years ago were being followed at the site, the Bismarck Tribune said.

?Fracking? utilizes brute force, high tech

A June HBO documentary called ?Gasland? shows some of the impacts of ?fracking? in Pennsylvania?s Marcellus natural gas drilling operations, including one homeowner striking a match and lighting gas seeping through a water faucet.
In June, the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission unanimously required drilling companies to tell the state what chemicals are used during ?fracking.? Also in June, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency started a study of the potential effects of this technique on public health and water supplies.

A natural gas and oil drilling process called hydraulic fracturing has set off a booming industry across 34 states, including North Dakota. However, many Americans aren?t aware that fracking (under Bush and Cheney) has been exempt from major environmental laws.
Filmmaker Josh Fox wasn?t aware of this either ? that is until he was offered $100,000 for drilling rights to his Pennsylvania property.
Fox did the right thing and refused this money. He traveled across the country to reveal shocking discoveries about the oil and gas industry. His documentary, ?Gasland,? reveals illness in drilling areas, pools of toxic waste and water that can be set alight right out of the tap. This is true in North Dakota, as well.
According to the documentary, 596 chemicals are used in fracking, most of which can be deadly and carcinogenic. I obtained a list of the chemicals from our Department of Mineral Resources.
There were 15 chemicals such as proppant, used as playground sand; ethylene glycol, used for household cleaners; N, N-dimethyl formamide, used in acrylic fibers and plastics ? just to name a few. This list sounds a bit innocuous when you consider that petroleum distillates alone are carcinogenic.
The state says the fish kill near Columbus is a ?unique situation? and that the ?runoff from nearby oil wells is low on the suspect list.? I suggest the state inspector watch ?Gasland?; it may help him know what to look for in his investigation.
North Dakota has already experienced a saltwater spill whereby there was a massive die-off of fish, turtles and plants along Charbonneau Creek.
If you haven?t seen ?Gasland,? I hope you will try to catch it on HBO.

Worried about fracking effects

One official said that ?North Dakota will never again be a place where the buffalo roam.?

Mortgaging our resources for short term profit is the height of insanity!

[blucher]

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4.8 Earthquake in South Texas - Experts blame Fracking Oil Production

Earthquake In South Texas: Fracking Fluid at Fault? | KUT News

A 4.6 magnitude earthquake struck an area of South Texas today that is a center point for natural gas and oil production in the Eagle Ford Shale. The quake?s epicenter was here in Karnes County. When you look at this map from the Texas Railroad Commission, the sheer number of dots representing wells in the area has obscured Karnes County?s name.

A University of Texas seismologist says hydraulic fracturing itself does not cause earthquakes. But he says earthquakes have been associated with the disposal of fracking fluids.

?They [drilling companies] pump the water back into the ground into a deep aquifer to get rid of it,? earthquake researcher Cliff Frohlich at UT?s Institute for Geophysics told KUT News.

?The quakes have been associated with the pumping of water back into the ground, not the producing of the gas,? he said, pointing to seismic activity in North Texas and in Arkansas.

In September, Arkansas banned the use of deep wells to store waste water. StateImpact Pennsylvania points to a study by Southern Methodist University and UT that linked small earthquakes in the North Texas Barnett Shale with the practice, and says the Army Corps of Engineers has expressed concern about drilling for natural gas near dams.

Blood Nation women arrested in fracking blockade
Blood Nation women arrested in fracking blockade : Indybay

?The women are part of the Kainai Earth Watch and have been active advocates to stop the fracking due to the major threat to human health, wildlife and livestock and the irreversible damage to the land and water on the Blood Reserve and surrounding areas. They feel this is the only choice left to them to stop the operations as plans for construction begin tomorrow.?

Meanwhile, on the website Protect Blood Land Canada protectbloodland.ca | Protect Blood/Kainai Land the health dangers of fracking are listed, as well as the fact that Blood Nation members were not consulted about the fracking deal.

?The first issue is the toxic nature of the drilling and its capacity to do irreversible damage to the land and water on the Blood Reserve and surrounding areas. Furthermore, fracking poses a major threat to human health, wildlife and livestock.

?The second issue at hand is the nature of the deal between KRI, Murphy Oil, and Bowood Energy. We believe this to be highly problematic for a number of reasons: Blood Tribe members were NOT consulted during the negotiations of this deal even though the drilling will occur on Blood Tribe land.

?KRI and the Blood Tribe Chief and Council neglected to maintain any degree of transparency during and after the negotiations. Ultimately, leaving a large population of tribal members completely unaware of the situation until after the deal was made.

?Above all else, the health and well-being of Blood Tribe members and all future generations will be compromised due to the rash and reckless decision by KRI and Blood Tribe Chief and Council to sign this deal with Murphy Oil and Bowood Energy.?

Fracking 'likely cause' of quakes

WEDNESDAY, 02 NOVEMBER 2011 12:12
It is "highly probable" that test drilling for shale gas triggered two minor earthquakes in Lancashire, a study concludes.

Fracking 'likely cause' of quakes
Fracking caused our earthquake - Baltimore Green Building | Examiner.com

Fracking hollows out massive chasms in the substructure of the earth's crust. Fracking disturbs aquifers that supply drinking water, methane ends up in our tea, and soups are known to ignite like an Olympic torch. Fracking results in the rumbling, crumbling, trembling and tumbling.

Never in hundreds of years were there anywhere near the numbers or intensities of quakes in Arkansas, Texas, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, etc until the fracking nabbers busted their cannons loose on the substructure.

?Our land is more valuable than your money. As long as the sun shines and the waters flow, this land will be here to give life to men and animals. We cannot sell the lives of men and animals. It was put here by the Great Spirit and we cannot sell it because it does not belong to us.?-Isapo-Muxika, Crowfoot, Blackfoot Chief, 1880