Gas Prices

[Grumpy Bear]

31 minutes ago, richard wysong said:

Almost like a replay of last year only a couple of weeks earlier. I had to postpone our road trip to Fla until April due to unforeseen circumstances so will sit back and see what happens

 

It's the nice part of being a bit older. Less of a hurry. 

[customboss]

Here where we are Rocky Mountain high you can get cheap weed but since our only COLORADO fuel refiner SUNCOR refinery,  went down from freezing and a fire  in December we lost 17% of refining capacity so prices up here near $1 gallon. 
Sadly that’s where I get the Phillips no name u branded E15. 

[Grumpy Bear]

1 hour ago, customboss said:

Here where we are Rocky Mountain high you can get cheap weed but since our only COLORADO fuel refiner SUNCOR refinery,  went down from freezing and a fire  in December we lost 17% of refining capacity so prices up here near $1 gallon. 
Sadly that’s where I get the Phillips no name u branded E15. 

 

The east plant use to be Valero and the west Conoco/Phillips. West plant has been shut down for years. That cut production to 34,000 barrels a day. EPA killed the Phillps plant. Suncor bought both. Upgraded one and shut the other down. Supplies roughly 35-40% of motor fuel for Colorado. 

 

Something similar happened in El Paso when Chevron bought El Paso Refining. EPA mandates caused shutdown of the older part of the Chevron crude and FCC plants cutting total production by a bit more than half. 

Edited January 28, 2023 by Grumpy Bear

[customboss]

2 minutes ago, Grumpy Bear said:

 

The east plant use to be Valero and the west Conoco/Phillips. West plant has been shut down for years. That cut production to 34,000 barrels a day. EPA killed the Phillps plant. Suncor bought both. Upgraded one and shut the other down. Supplies roughly 35-40% of motor fuel for Colorado. 

 

Something similar happened in El Paso when Chevron bought El Paso Refining. EPA mandates caused shutdown of the older part of the Chevron crude and FCC plants cutting total production by a bit more than half. 

When I was running CENEX from my COOP exclusively it came from Kansas and was fresh stuff via pipeline heads in south eastern KS and piped up to Denver area. Good history there @GrumpyBear.  SUNCOR is blending EPA mandated LOW FRIGGEN octane fuels here then the name brands up the polymeric additives as desired. 

The E15 I use has almost nothing but EPA mandated adds thus the Amsoil UCL and PI being tried. Its making a difference for sure. Cleanest tailpipe ever and MPG up maybe ~5.6% latest. Weather been super cold and blustery and I sped up to 65 mph a few times with a pass once!  LOL  

[Grumpy Bear]

2 minutes ago, customboss said:

When I was running CENEX from my COOP exclusively it came from Kansas and was fresh stuff via pipeline heads in south eastern KS and piped up to Denver area. Good history there @GrumpyBear.  SUNCOR is blending EPA mandated LOW FRIGGEN octane fuels here then the name brands up the polymeric additives as desired. 

The E15 I use has almost nothing but EPA mandated adds thus the Amsoil UCL and PI being tried. Its making a difference for sure. Cleanest tailpipe ever and MPG up maybe ~5.6% latest. Weather been super cold and blustery and I sped up to 65 mph a few times with a pass once!  LOL  

 

Lots of 'top adding' going on. 

 

Boy am I behind the times.

 

Marathon bought Chevron/El Paso Refining! 2018 it looks like. I don't know what they did. No eyes in that plant anymore but the current capacity is quite a bit more than the two plants alone when I was working for Chevron in the 80's.  

 

refinery_rank_2022.xlsx (live.com)

 

Almost 18 million barrels a day total capacity across all products. So not gas alone. Everything from Ethane to Asphalt. 

[customboss]

Big oil like exxon and shell making a killing.  I’m guessing 40-60%  “ inflation” is price gouging. 
https://stocks.apple.com/AGsQEk1tfRTGiX-CqiKr4OQ

[Grumpy Bear]

In the news last night. Exxon/Mobil reports record profits amid surging oil prices.

[richard wysong]

It is sad that the big energy companies can hold the world hostage with their greed. If they raise the price by a penny just because they can, they make a couple million dollars more a day so if it is up a dollar it is no surprise the profits were that high. What is the alternative though? Government regulation? Government take over? Tax the excess profit? Because they can't generate the same obscene profit off renewables they invest very little in it while their executives draw multi-million $ salaries. I don't have the answer and neither does anyone else obviously 

[64BAwagon]

Remember when the oil companies had to sell fuel at a loss in 2020 just to keep the pipelines moving. 

The Government makes more money per gallon from fuel than the producers do and they have no skin in the game. Dont fall for the low hanging fruit of demonizing the industry, like most other issues its way more nuanced than that. 

But what do I know, I'm just some random guy on the internet 

[customboss]

46 minutes ago, Grumpy Bear said:

In the news last night. Exxon/Mobil reports record profits amid surging oil prices.

Essentially monopolies and guess what monopolies do??? 

[64BAwagon]

Produce a product that most (if not all) folks cant live without ? 

[KARNUT]

30 cents drop while I was gone for two weeks 2.79. I paid 2.88 to 3.15 from Texas to Fayetteville. COVID got me in the habit of stopping at truck stops. The next time out there will be a buck-ees day two and three going. They are pretty cool. 

[richard wysong]

Seems to have leveled off for the moment at $3.17 RU  most places but as always there's a few less and a few more

[Grumpy Bear]

On 2/2/2023 at 9:13 AM, 64BAwagon said:

The Government makes more money per gallon from fuel than the producers do and they have no skin in the game.

 

The Government doesn't have any money. It prints money, but doesn't have any. Taxes are their paymaster and programs their debtors. I'd love to say it's a 'pass through' but I'm not naive. They keep rasing the debt and cutting services. Money is going somewhere, and it isn't inflation.  When Programs get a 'Government Subsidy"; it means the public is footing the bill for something we are not buying or just don't want but someone thinks is a good idea. 

 

That said, I wonder if we appreciate the things our taxes actually do for us. I expect that might be lacking when drown out by the noise of abuse and corruption. But still......glad a Fireman shows up when my neighbor's house is on fire. 

[KARNUT]

21 minutes ago, Grumpy Bear said:

 

The Government doesn't have any money. It prints money, but doesn't have any. Taxes are their paymaster and programs their debtors. I'd love to say it's a 'pass through' but I'm not naive. They keep rasing the debt and cutting services. Money is going somewhere, and it isn't inflation.  When Programs get a 'Government Subsidy"; it means the public is footing the bill for something we are not buying or just don't want but someone thinks is a good idea. 

 

That said, I wonder if we appreciate the things our taxes actually do for us. I expect that might be lacking when drown out by the noise of abuse and corruption. But still......glad a Fireman shows up when my neighbor's house is on fire. 

Some local governments do well. We actually had a reduction in taxes. I believe Alaska still disburses oil revenue to residents. I’m sure there’s more examples.