Fuel Prices

[Phillyfanfrombirth]

Originally Posted by MEDIK418

I;d like to add one more point and then I'm through with this.
A case in point to illustrate how the public's perception and the panic buying that follows events in the oil industry.
In February of this year, we blew up a major part of our refinery. End result was we lost production for a little over 100 days. That's 150,000 barrels a day.
The price of gasoline never went up a penny anywhere in the country because of it. Wanna know why?

Nobody heard about it.

Outside of the 20,000 or so residents of this area, the news never got out. The press didn't blow it out of proportion, nobody felt the pinch and more importantly, the company didn't find it a benefit to "gouge" anyone.

Yes, they did go up... however, it was a big issue only in business news. The public generally doesn't react to a couple pennies at the pump.

[MEDIK418]

Originally Posted by Phillyfanfrombirth

Yes, they did go up... however, it was a big issue only in business news. The public generally doesn't react to a couple pennies at the pump.

I beg to differ. The official government watchdog information agency reports that for the month of February, 2005, gasoline prices held steady (actually dropped 2 cents a gallon) until the last few days of the month and rose 4 cents nationwide.

My point is that whenever the public perceives a threat, the whole market goes nuts for no reason. I can't remember the hurricane that tore up the gulf before Katrine. Anyway, there were some damaged resources in the gulf but the Western side of Florida took the brunt. One drilling platform in particular, owned by BP Amoco, was found listing about 30 degrees after the hurricane tore through it. There was fear that it would topple if hit by the next storm which was already brewing. Gas prices went nuts again. Interesting part is that the rig was being towed out to sea when it was hit. It had never been put into production but the media had us believing that we'd lose production for years to come if it sunk during the next storm.