Good news for the beginning of 2012—gas prices aren’t expected to spike come the New Year. Don Good of Good Oil in Winamac said that current oil prices are, as of now, driven heavily by the world economy, and with the possibility of an economic slowdown in China, Good expects prices to stabilize or even come down early 2012.
Gas prices have been hovering around the $3.40 in Indiana lately. We asked Congressman Joe Donnelly what his thoughts are about the current state of gas prices:
“The more we become energy independent, the better we get control over our gas prices,” said Donnelly. “As we move forward, all of our policies that are based on American energy independence will make our economy continue to grow and will lower gas prices.”
Have you been pleased that gasoline prices have dipped recently? Do you think it’s because consumption is down around the country? Don Good, at Good Oil in Winamac, says gasoline prices have been disconnected from supply and demand for a long time.
“Everything is driven off the markets,” said Good. “I think when China started coming out and saying that they were intentionally slowing down their economy, and then rumblings started about the Greek debt crisis and the European debt crisis. The stock market started to fall and gas prices went right with it.”
If you’re traveling this Labor Day Weekend, you know that gasoline prices are set to break the record for this time of the year. The average price of gasoline is already 60 cents higher than it was at this time a year ago.
The highest gasoline prices on Labor Day are in Connecticut, which has an average price of $3.97 a gallon, while Alabama is the lowest at $3.48.
Have you ever wondered why gas prices go up at the pump when consumption is down, or why pricing varies so much from station to station or even town to town? What about why, when oil prices drop considerably, prices at the pump only drop a few pennies?
Well, WKVI Radio has arranged for those questions and more to be answered by an “insider.” Scott Imus, Executive Director of the Indiana Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, will be in Knox August 25th at the Knox Community Center for a presentation and will be available to answer your questions. All governmental officials and individuals alike are invited to attend. Imus will begin his presentation at 6:30 p.m. CT.
The session is co-sponsored by Senator Ed Charbonneau, Representative Nancy Dembowski, and Knox Mayor Rick Chambers.
Over 75 people attended a meeting to address gasoline pricing in LaPorte last night. The meeting was arranged by State Senator Jim Arnold (D-LaPorte) and State Representative Tom Dermody (R-LaPorte).
Presenters were Scot Imus, Executive Director of the Indiana Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, and Maureen Hellman-Ferguson, Executive Director of the Indiana Petroleum Council.
Scot Imus, Executive Director of the Indiana Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, and Maureen Hellman Ferguson, Executive Director of the Indiana Petroleum Council, will attend a forum in LaPorte tonight that has been arranged by Senator Jim Arnold (D-LaPorte) and State Representative Tom Dermody (R-LaPorte) to discuss gas prices.
State Senator Jim Arnold (D-LaPorte) and State Representative Tom Dermody (R-LaPorte) will host a community forum on June 22nd in LaPorte to discuss concerns about gasoline prices and the oil markets with local residents.
The meeting will take place at the LaPorte County Government Complex, 813 Lincolnway on June 22 at 6:00 p.m. CT. The event is free and open to the public.
It seems like every time a motorist passes a filling station they look at the price board with fear in their eyes.
Don Good, of the Good Oil Company in Winamac, explains the dramatic increase this week. Continue reading
Gas prices jumped Wednesday. Gas prices that were in the $3.80 range Tuesday were up to $4.15 Wednesday. A leak in a major pipeline servicing the Midwest has forced the whole pipeline to shut down which has caused the spike in prices.
Do you feel like you’re a yo-yo when it comes to gasoline prices? If you filled up Tuesday night or early yesterday morning you were lucky because by mid-morning the gas prices had spiked higher. Prices that had fluctuated between $3.60 and $3.80 for a gallon of regular suddenly were up to $3.95 locally.
The gas prices are dropping and Don Good from the Good Oil Company in Winamac gives us his analysis of the current trend.
“Part of it is that this time of year, we go into what they call the turn around on the terminals which is an environmental requirement,” explained Good. “All the refineries pull their inventory down to put the summer-grade gas in and that always creates some glitches, but it also creates some opportunities for the speculators. I think there has been some economic news that has come out that kind of spooked them a little bit. There’s actually been a drop in demand so that spooks the speculators a little bit and when they leave the market, prices are going to come down now. This is the most volatile time I’ve ever seen. In this industry, we’ve seen where one night it goes up twenty cents and the next night it comes down fifteen cents. Usually, it takes some type of disaster to create that kind of volatility, but right now it’s just mainly the speculators jumping in.”
The national average of a gallon of regular gasoline is over the $4.00 mark and that hurts the pocketbook of all consumers in the United States. It also affects the fuel line item in County, City and Town budgets.
Starke County Sheriff, Oscar Cowen, told WKVI that the Sheriff’s Department staff is keeping an eye on the prices, but services to the citizens will not diminish because gas prices are high. He said that when we saw a spike in prices in 2008, the Sheriff’s Department made it through and hopes to come within the fuel budget this time around.
Speculators and the unrest in the Middle East continue to drive gas prices in the United States. We talked to Don Good from the Good Oil Company about the current gas price situation.
“You’d think we’d be losing some steam on this,” said Good. “It’s pretty much speculation that is driving prices. The good news is unemployment is down and the bad news is, the economy is going to heat up, petroleum is going to go up, use is going to go up so that’ll probably keep it from going down too much. As long as the Middle East is in turmoil, there’s more support there. I’m going to guess that we should see it leveling off very soon, but to be honest with you, I never thought we’d get to four dollars either.”
The second greatest jump in regular gasoline at the pump has occurred the last two weeks. The jump has been 33 cents a gallon.
“The oil companies are not the culprit, they are the beneficiary,” said Don Good of the Good Oil company in Winamac. “They benefit from all this and I don’t think that you’ll find the oil executives sitting around the table crying over $100, $130 crude because they will just make a lot of money off of it. They aren’t the ones driving that market, but they’re more than happy to ride along.”
Everyone is talking about gasoline prices. We’re seeing oil prices rise and we’re hearing about $150.00 for a barrel of oil when we don’t really see signs of a robust recovery. Is there a reason behind these increases?
Don Good of the Good Oil Company in Winamac explains the prices at the pump.
The oil price closed at $91.50 a barrel in Wednesday’s market. That prompted a call to Don Good from the Good Oil Company in Winamac.
“They took a little spike over the unrest in Egypt and the Suez Canal comes through there and that’s a big concern as far as shipping oil out of the Gulf,” reported Don Good. “There’s also a major pipeline that runs through Egypt called the Suez Pipeline and it’s a concern there that it may be impacted if the violence goes that way. I think a bigger concern there is it could destabilize the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia. Their fear is that if it spreads there, that’s where we’ll really have a problem.”
Gas prices spiked ten cents this week when prices hit $3.19 a gallon.
“We’re kind of seeing a little bit of a combination of things when it comes to crude oil prices,” said Don Good of the Good Oil Company in Winamac. “It’s combination of the weak dollar, we’ve kind of talked about that crude oil is valued in dollars, so when we do something in our economy that makes the dollar weaker, like the $900 billion tax relief plan that added to the deficit, that made the dollar fall. Since the dollar is the currency that they value crude in around the world, it makes crude oil more expensive for us and less expensive for other countries. India’s and China’s economies have really picked up. I think they’re running at about a six or eight percent increase compared to where we are struggling. As a matter of fact, China just passed us as being the largest consumer of petroleum in the world. They’re consumption of oil is going up while ours is pretty stagnant. Right now the markets are focusing on their use than ours.”
Holiday traffic is expected to increase this year by about 11% from last year according to AAA. The average distance travelers will go is 812 miles, and the median spending will be $495.00. The price for gasoline has increased to an average of $2.89 a gallon which is the highest prices of the year as recorded by AAA.
