Still More Upside for Retail Gasoline Prices
By Brian L. Milne, Refined Fuels Editor, Telvent DTN
The Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) US retail gasoline average for regular grade snapped more than two months of consecutive gains, inching down 0.2 cents to $3.939 gallon on April 9 which made it the second weekly decline in the average out of the past 16 weeks going back to mid-December.
Easing geopolitical tensions with Iran amid talks started over the weekend between Tehran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany regarding Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear capability is weighing on the oil market early this week, with the discussions seen potentially diffusing a standoff that boosted international oil prices by as much as $20 barrel. Although reports say analysts are still doubtful that a resolution will be reached, the April 14 meeting in Istanbul produced a second meeting between the parties to take place in Baghdad on May 23 that will likely keep US crude prices in consolidation near term.
View Telvent DTNs Historical Gasoline Price Index.
There are mixed views on what a slower economic expansion in the first quarter by China, reporting 8.1% annualized growth for the first three months of the year compared with 8.9% in the fourth quarter 2011, means for global economic growth although the data initially pressured markets. Several market observers note that data aside from the headline Gross Domestic Product figure suggests the world’s second largest economy and consumer of oil remains on a strong but more balanced growth trajectory, while others argue the slower growth was engineered by Beijing to tap down inflation.
Moreover, oil demand for China, which has driven the world’s oil consumption growth rate, remains strong, with China also reported to be in the second phase of a three phase plan to increase its strategic oil reserves to 500 million barrels by 2016. The first phase, bringing its reserves to 103.2 million barrels, is filled. Construction for another 78.7 million barrels of storage capacity has been built or was scheduled to have been completed by the end of March.
US economic data has been mixed, with March’s unemployment report released earlier this month still impacting sentiment, suggesting the US economy is not as strong as some thought earlier in the year. Yet, while that’s a negative vote on oil demand looking forward this year, others point out that it increases the likelihood that the Federal Reserve will act to stir job gains above March’s anemic 120,000 new positions. Past efforts by the Fed to spur US economic growth has triggered inflationary pressures for oil and gasoline prices.
The broader oil futures market that trades on the New York Mercantile Exchange moved into the second half of April with a selloff that will pressure wholesale costs later this week should the decline hold. Ahead of that however, wholesale costs in most major metropolitan markets increased, with large gains seen in the Midwest. This should translate into higher retail gasoline prices, with a $4.00 gallon US retail average within striking distance.
About the Author
Brian L. Milne is the Refined Fuels Editor for Telvent DTN–a leading business-to-business provider of real-time commodity information services. Milne has been focused on the energy industry for 16 years as an analyst, journalist and editor. He can be reached at brian.milne@telventdtn.com.
Future of Blogging as a Profession in Pakistan
Blogging is a way to express ones thought. it is probably the best thing happened to human society since the invention of printing press. Blogging takes many forms.
It can be as simple as twitter account, tweeting micro blogs. It can be a facebook update. It can be a free blog on wordpress, blogger or even tumblr. It can be as complex as having your own domain and hosting with a Content Management System.
Some take it even further and have a whole network of websites and blogs. (some folks also include mass SMS as a form of blogging) Whatever form a blog may have, Its basic idea is simple. It is to communicate what is happening around us and our opinion and feelings about it.
Blogging was seen as political/economic threat
Blogging , when it starts reporting on current issues, steps on toes of some existing institutions and professions. These institutions (media houses, newspapers, information cells of governments) enjoyed either a monopoly or some degree of control over the information and its presentation to masses. With introduction of Blogging in equation, they no longer enjoy same degree of control over their most important commodity. Information!
Suddenly, the playing field is level again. Authorities are becoming more insecure each day as they lose ability to hide things and suppress the voices of decent. Experienced journalists found themselves competing with wannabe , part time journalists like me. They are using every mean possible to discourage bloggers and maintain their monopoly over information, which at the end of the day will be a futile effort.
Remember Printing Press. Law says, you still need a license to install a printing machine. By Legal definitional, that printer on your desk is also a printing machine. no one cares anymore. this will be the case with blogs as well. Sooner or later everyone realize that you can not fight and idea but with and idea.
Types of Professional Blogging
The basic test of a professionalism in a profession is Money. If you do something for love of it, its a Hobby. But if your livelihood depends on something, its your profession. Most Institutions are having a blog or two. BBC has many, Jang has one. Companies have blogs too. These companies and institutions are now hiring people to blog on their behalf. This is one example of professional blogging where one is hired to blog on the behalf of a company and get paid for it.
In my humble opinion, we see following kind of Professional Bloggers in Pakistan. I am making a list on the fly there is no particular order to this list.
- Professional Bloggers On Salary( Few Lucky )
- Content Writers Working on ODesk like site Or Local Software Houses(Most Educated /Exploited of the Lot)
- Adsense Publishers / Re-Bloggers (Your average boy next door)
- Affiliate Marketing Professionals(people with 3000+ friends on facebook)
- Local / Current Affair Bloggers (People with a Unique Idea)
Who is making most Money?
As per my estimates, Adsense Publishers / Re-Bloggers ( People who have one or two blogs with adsense on them) are making most of the money in Pakistan. individually, they might be earning 10,000 Rs to 50,000 Rs per month but it is a huge number. Let me give you an example of Haroon Abad. It is a small city on the brink of cholistan desert in southern Punjab. About 5 hours drive from Lahore. According to its post office, every month 100-150 guys get Western Union Payments from Google. payment range is small 8000 25000 Rs each but the number of people is quite astonishing.
Most of these people like to be anonymous. They sit at home, hunt viral content on internet and then either re-write it themselves or get it re-written by someone else for 50 -100 Rs per 500 word article. Then they reblog it on their websites and spam the hell out of it on social media sites.
There are some rag to riches stories among these people. People who make millions. But the word never gets out. They dont want to draw attention. These guys never disclose address of their website 
. They live in constant fear of Panda Updates and SERP rank drop. They spend days after days, devising strategies to bring more traffic and find high paying keywords.
Some may argue that these are not bloggers. These people dont contribute anything to society or internet. They just get whats on internet already and Chew it and spit it back on internet. In the process they make some money for themselves and for Google too.
But so what if they do so, who cares. In a country like us, where there is no electricity and internet is a luxury, these guys are making a couple of dollars each day for their families. They are also bringing in foreign exchange. I think they are real heroes. My Hats off the them.
PS: Googles recent crackdown on such spamlogs reduced their numbers considerably but they are really survivors. Most of them have recovered with new sites and accounts.
Who is Best and what Future Holds
In my humble opinion, Local / current affair bloggers are the best of the lot. These people are blogging out of passion and have made it a profession. When the history of internet will be written, their names will be at top of the list.
They are not making much money but they are making some. some of them are even making enough to make a living out of it. The Future is Them. They hold the eye balls of a majority of internet users in pakistan and as the internet usage grows , so will their Incomes. Only thing, that is holding these people down is absence of online economy in Pakistan. People who browse websites dont buy stuff online. Not because they dont want to or do not have purchasing power. Reason is as simple as 1,2, 3.
- they dont have credit card or method of payment
- there is no recourse in case of fraud by a merchant.
- Due to high merchant fees, it is too expensive to shop online.
The future is only bright for local bloggers when local businesses want to advertise through your blog. I dont mean just a few MNC or cell companies spending few hundred thousands to get brand exposure. I mean when people start to buy groceries online. Then whoever holds the most traffic locally will get most advertising revenue. It will be a billion dollars advertising revenue that has to be divided among local blogs. but that , i dont see happening in next 5- 10 years. There are some basic hurdles that can be removed by simple measures. I will discus this in detail in my next post , Inshallah.
Why I wrote this Blog Posts?
Minutes ago, i was having a discussion on future of blogging in context of pakistan. We were chatting on facebook . As we all know, chat on facebook is not a very good medium to have a serious debate. So, while looking for a medium to express my opinion , I realized , i have an account on Lahore Metblogs. Also, i noted that there has not been any activity here since January. so, this post is just an ice breaker and call to all my fellows on lahore metblogs to take some time out of thier ever busy lives and post something here. it can be anything, a photo, a thought, a comment. just anything to let us know that you are still there..
04.28.12U.S. Gasoline Average Just Shy of $4 Per Gallon
By Brian L. Milne, Refined Fuels Editor, Telvent DTN
The national gasoline average for regular grade provided by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) is rapidly approaching $4 gallon, reaching $3.941 gallon on April 2, which was the tenth consecutive weekly increase in the average. Moreover, the average has increased in 14 of the last 15 weeks, going back to mid-December, and is up 64.2 cents or 19.5% since Jan. 2.
Judging by supplier postings at regional distribution terminals, we are likely to see a pause in the torrent higher by retail gasoline prices, with wholesale costs down in most metropolitan markets. This was especially true in the case of the Chicago, Detroit and Indianapolis markets, where wholesale costs plummeted by 19 cents or more in a week’s time.
The steep drop in wholesale costs in the Midwest comes alongside sharply higher retail prices, with gasoline pump prices above $4.20 gallon in some metropolitan areas, including Chicago. Historically, a high price for retail gasoline had reduced demand.
View Telvent DTNs Weekly and Historical Gasoline Price Index.
Another historical correlation impacting gasoline demand is high unemployment, with the most recent report on jobs in the US painting a different picture for US economic growth than was thought to be the case.
On April 6, when most markets were closed for Good Friday, the Department of Labor reported 120,000 jobs were created in March, well below the 210,000 expected, and about half the job growth pace witnessed in recent months. Some analysts are suggesting that the higher plus 200,000 monthly increase in jobs from December to February was due to mild winter weather, bringing forward new hires while reducing what would have been better numbers for March.
Despite the smaller than expected increase in new jobs last month, the national unemployment rate eased from 8.3% to 8.2%. However, that’s due to a decline in those seeking a job. The employment-population ratio dipped 0.1% to 58.5%, with the participation rate slipping from 63.9% to 63.8%. A lower number of people employed would reduce the number of individuals traveling to and from work.
One month’s data doesn’t make a trend, but the report threw cold water on market optimism for the economy, with the gasoline futures contract, RBOB, trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange sliding to a nearly one-month low.
Employment Concerns
Some analysts note, however, that a slower growth rate in US employment could prompt the Federal Reserve to embark on another round of monetary easing policy referred to as quantitative easing, which works to cut interest rates on various investments such as government bonds in an effort to push money sitting on the sidelines into play.
QE3 was thought to be unlikely in the near term, an unpopular action for many because it expands the Fed’s balance sheet and typically weakens the US dollar while also having the potential to distort markets. Previous QE activities have had the result of spurring equities and commodities values sharply higher, with some investors purchasing commodities to retain or gain value as the dollar weakens.
Recently released minutes of the central bank’s March meeting illustrated the reluctance by some members to engage in another round of QE activity. The March unemployment rate could be argued however to consider implementing such stimulus, which would, as suggested by recent history, underpin higher oil and gasoline prices.
About the Author
Brian L. Milne is the Refined Fuels Editor for Telvent DTN–a leading business-to-business provider of real-time commodity information services. Milne has been focused on the energy industry for 16 years as an analyst, journalist and editor. He can be reached at brian.milne@telventdtn.com.
Merger means the new Bay Citizen will be more investigative and experimental
Breaking: The Bay Citizen wont be covering as much breaking news any more.
The merger of Bay Citizen with the Center for Investigative Reporting announced yesterday — with CIR forces coming out in charge — will mean structural changes for the nonprofit outlets. But itll also mean editorial changes, one of them being a reduction in covering the same big daily stories and subjects the competition is — at least not in the same way.
Theres so much information, theres so much newsgathering, theres so much out there, and theres so much clutter out there, CIR executive director Robert Rosenthal told me. Someone may have it first, but theres almost no such thing as first anymore. News is a commodity. Information is a commodity.
(The Bay Citizens own story on the merger puts it this way: The Bay Citizen will likely no longer cover breaking news or culture, as CIR leaders have said they see those as commodities that don’t fit the expanded organization’s core mission.)
Today, a Bay Citizen reporter might post several times a day on a breaking story or a story on the Bay Area that they were covering maybe in a unique way, Rosenthal said. Were not going to do that. If we get into a major developing story, it will be in an investigative or explanatory wayFor a beat reporter, to suddenly not have the obligation of potentially filing I-dont-know-how-many stories a day or week — it liberates you.
You know as well as I do that one of the key elements of this kind of reporting is time: time to develop sources, time to do that extra step, having the time not to be chasing deadlines, quickly running out to events that are covered by multiple other people.
Developing a focus
From its launch in January 2010, Bay Citizen took a broader approach to its coverage than many of its nonprofit peers, which tended to focus on narrow, specific areas like investigative reporting or a particular beat. Founded at a time when many were concerned the San Francisco Chronicle could close, Bay Citizen mixed in daily breaking news coverage, cultural coverage, and even sports with more investigative and enterprise work.
When the San Francisco Giants were in the 2010 World Series, Bay Citizen had author Dave Eggers attend games and do notebook drawings of players and fans. Indeed, Bay Citizen has done game stories, fan slideshows, and even fifth-inning updates from Giants games and other area sporting events — something not many other nonprofit outlets would do.
In particular, its probably not something youd see from the CIR-founded California Watch, the statewide investigative news service. The Bay Citizen will adopt an approach that parallels the guiding principles at California Watch, only on a more local level, Rosenthal said. The combination of Bay Citizen, California Watch, and CIR can give the organization wide reach.
Heres an example: Weve been looking very hard at issues on homeland security, and we have lots of data sets on a national scale, Rosenthal says. A reporter looking at that is thinking, Whats the story for California? We may [also] be looking at a national story around surveillance. Its a very flexible model.
Bay Citizen is one of three regional nonprofit news outlets to have partnered with The New York Times to provide content for the Times regional editions; the others were the Chicago News Cooperative and the Texas Tribune. The Times, in addition to money, gave status and prestige to the new local brands, plus the promise of local print readers. But the deals also committed the outlets to producing a certain amount of newspaper-ready content — stories of a certain length and covering a newspapery mix of beats — that helped define its approach. Stories were due to the Times late Tuesday for Friday publication, so stories had to be able to hold a few days. (Note: We originally said Bay Citizen stories were due to the Times on Tuesdays. Actually, while Tuesday is the first deadline in the week for a Bay Citizen story, other stories have deadlines later in the week, including some right up to the day before publication. We regret the error.)
The Chicago News Cooperative has faced challenges even greater than Bay Citizens, suspending operations last month. Of the three Times partners, only the Texas Tribune — which keeps a tight focus on matters of state government and public policy — has thrived. And the Trib is known for ignoring even big breaking news that falls outside its editorial mission. (The New York Times Texas report does include culture coverage, but its provided by Texas Monthly instead of the Tribune.)
Rosenthal said CIR is currently re-evaluating The Bay Citizens relationship with the Times, noting that the deal carries an agreement of exclusivity that raises concerns. Times associate managing editor Jim Schachter told me the partnership is mutually beneficial: An organization like The Bay Citizen is put in the same breath with the nations leading news organization, and The New York Times has a network of locally knowledgable reporters to tap for stories if something big breaks — the 2010 San Bruno gas leak is once example.
Rosenthal said CIR is currently re-evaluating The Bay Citizens relationship with the Times, noting that the deal carries an agreement of exclusivity that raises concerns. Times associate managing editor Jim Schachter told me the partnership is mutually beneficial. An organization like The Bay Citizen is put in the same breath with the nations leading news organization and gets access to tens of thousands of local Times print readers. The New York Times gets a network of locally knowledgable reporters to tap for stories if something big breaks — the 2010 San Bruno gas leak is one example.
These organizations are doing things that we ourselves are not able to do, Schachter said. The Times respects, admires, and has needed each one of these organizations to provide this journalism to our readers in local marketsThis is not saying, Were the big mighty New York Times and youve ridden on our shoulders. It is a genuine collaboration.
Multiple platforms, multiple revenue streams
The flexibility of the model may be the key to the Center for Investigative Reportings success, and its about more than a newsroom-culture shift away from the kind of crime coverage youre already going to get on the six oclock news. Freeing up reporters to spend more time digging deeply into stories is the foundation. But the real opportunity for innovation comes in experimenting with a variety of distribution methods and multiple sources of revenue. Thats at least in part because the fundamental instability of the industry is directly tied to questions about how people get information today.
Its very difficult to be ambitious and build something in a newsroom where youre getting smaller and the business model is broken — and it is broken, Rosenthal said. It has been broken. Its not the journalism thats broken, its the business model. Were in a completely different world.
The process can be very iterative, it can be messy, but at the same time you get some great ideas.
Adapting – and ultimate survival – in this new world requires deftly crossing platforms to tell stories that matter. Rosenthal bristles at the idea of having readers because CIR doesnt just produce news websites, it produces news across platforms.
CIRs revenue strategy mirrors the spirit of the diversification with which it approaches content production. Rosenthal says that the funding that flows into The Bay Citizen will, like California Watch, have multiple channels: philanthropic support from major donor efforts, content fees, fees from membership, fees from events, corporate underwriting. More opportunities for revenue translate into more journalism, which further fuels a newsrooms ability to try different kinds of storytelling.
Youre working simultaneously with the video people, youre working with a radio reporter, youre working with people who are doing interactive data, youre working with people who might be doing animation, Rosenthal says. The process can be very iterative, it can be messy, but at the same time you get some great ideasTheres a tremendous amount of involvement from everybody. Its a very lively, creative, ambitious culture.
Its also a culture that encourages ideas that might not even be discussed in a traditional newsroom. Remember California Watchs Ready to Rumblecoloring book? That came out of an investigative series on earthquake safety in schools. Next up: Puppets.
Were going to be very experimental, Rosenthal says. Were really thinking of how people of all ages get, use and want information at this revolutionary moment were all in. This is a good opportunity– a terrific, unique opportunity to be entrepreneurs.
Photo of Golden Gate Bridge by Marco Klapper used under a Creative Commons license.
04.26.12Retail Gasoline Tops $4 Gallon in Markets in Several States
By Brian L. Milne, Refined Fuels Editor, Telvent DTN
Based on a report delivered by the Energy Information Administration to a Senate Committee in late March, more than a dozen states have at least one community in which retail gasoline prices have topped $4 gallon.
All of California, Alaska and Hawaii are paying more than $4 for each gallon of the transportation fuel, with the pump price above $4.20 gallon for many of these locales. Consumers in most of the communities in the Pacific Northwest are finding gasoline at their local outlet at or above $4 gallon. Illinois and New York are two states in which the $4 gallon pump price is broadly found, with a smaller number of locales in Nevada, Minnesota, Indiana and Connecticut seeing the $4 price tag.
In February, the national average price of regular grade gasoline averaged $3.58 gallon, 37 cents or 11.5% higher than February 2011, and an historic high for any February. Diesel fuel prices have moved higher along a parallel path, averaging $3.95 gallon in February, 37 cents gallon or 10.3% higher than 2011.
View Telvent DTNs Weekly and Historical Fuel Price Index.
The key factor driving gasoline and diesel retail prices are the cost of crude oil inputs to refiners, explained Howard Gruenspecht, acting administrator of the EIA, in his report to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on March 29.
EIA projects the average refiners’ acquisition cost of crude oil to increase from $102 barrel in 2011 to almost $115 in 2012, before falling back to $110 in 2013.
“Given its forecast for crude oil prices, EIA is expecting an increase in gasoline and diesel prices in 2012 of almost 30cts gallon over the 2011 average price. EIA expects gasoline retail prices to average $3.79 for regular-grade this year compared with $3.53 last year.
During the April-through-September peak summer driving season this year, prices are forecast to average about $3.92 gallon, peaking at $3.96 gallon in May.
Diesel prices are projected to average $4.15 gallon in 2012, 31cts higher than in 2011. Prices decline to $4.11 in 2013.
The increases in crude oil prices since the start of 2011 appear to be related to a “tightening world supply-demand balance and concerns over geopolitical issues that have impacted, or have the potential to impact, supply flows from the Middle East and North Africa,” Gruenspecht said.
About the Author
Brian L. Milne is the Refined Fuels Editor for Telvent DTN–a leading business-to-business provider of real-time commodity information services. Milne has been focused on the energy industry for 16 years as an analyst, journalist and editor. He can be reached at brian.milne@telventdtn.com.
A Market Review and Opinion Report for The Week Ending April 2nd, 2012
- Previously the head trader and partner of PGA Futures, Inc.
- Has been published over 1,000 times (online and printed media)
- Author of the book, 7 Secrets Every Commodity Trader Needs to Know, published by Traders Press, Inc.
- Quoted/Published in Time Magazine, SmartMoney, Consensus Inc. Newspaper, Futures Magazine, 321Gold.com, Gold-eagle.com, Pitnews.com, Reuters, TradersWorld Magazine, ETVFutures.com and many more.
- Currently authors the Weekend Commodities Review distributed to thousands of commodity enthusiasts each week and published on over 20 commodity information websites.
- Member of the National Futures Association
Wholesale Gasoline Costs Continue Upside Push
By Brian L. Milne, Refined Fuels Editor, Telvent DTN
Retail gasoline prices in the US, which have already reached a nearly five-month high, are set to again increase as wholesale costs continue to climb on multiple factors from geopolitical risk to unexpected refinery outages.
At $3.523 gallon as of Feb. 13, the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) regular grade retail average for the country is at the highest point ever this early in a calendar year, and during a time when seasonal demand is weak. On top of seasonal weakness, gasoline demand has been down historically, hovering near 10-year lows, with preliminary data from the EIA showing an implied consumption rate so far this year that’s 7% lower compared with the same timeframe in 2011.
View Telvent DTN’s Weekly and Historical Fuel Price Index.
On the geopolitical front, tension is building regarding Iran, which over the Presidents’ Day weekend announced that it would not ship any crude oil to the United Kingdom or France in a retaliatory move over an embargo of Iranian oil agreed to by the European Union and set to take effect on July 1. The sanctions are in response to what western nations believe is a pursuit of nuclear weapons by Iran, which Tehran denies.
Iran’s embargo of UK and France were symbolic, with the UK not receiving any oil from Iran while France had previously ended imports of 70,000 barrels per day (bpd) from Iran. Countries along southern Europe–Spain, Italy and Greece, are the largest Iranian importers within the EU, with those countries working at finding alternative sources of crude.
The greater concern is what other actions Iran might take as the sanctions tighten, including its previous threat to shut the Strait of Hormuz–a key oil shipping lane in the Middle East where nearly 17 million bpd of oil passed through in 2011. For perspective, the International Energy Agency estimates global oil demand for 2011 at 89.1 million bpd, so 19% of that oil traversed the Strait of Hormuz last year.
There’s also heightening concern that Israel is preparing an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities this spring, which would spike oil prices.
Iran is the second largest oil producer with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
In addition to higher crude costs, several regional wholesale gasoline prices have moved up sharply in mid-February. A string of refinery outages along the West Coast has triggered double-digit gains in wholesale costs from Los Angeles to Seattle. In Chicago, after regional cash differentials were pressed down sharply on a glut of supply, they roared back, setting up sharp increases in upper Midwest wholesale gasoline costs.
About the Author
Brian L. Milne is the Refined Fuels Editor for Telvent DTN–a leading business-to-business provider of real-time commodity information services. Milne has been focused on the energy industry for 16 years as an analyst, journalist and editor. He can be reached at brian.milne@telventdtn.com.
Crude news: Never before have gas prices risen so high so early
LOS ANGELES US motorists have seen the national average for regular gasoline rise above $3.50 a gallon in just three different years, but it has never happened this early.
The national average hit $3.523 a gallon, the Energy Department said this week, up 4.1 cents from a week earlier. Analysts said the early price shocker is likely a sign that pain at the pump will rise to some of the highest levels ever this year.
This definitely sets the stage, potentially, for much higher prices later this year, said Brian Milne, refined-fuels editor for Telvent DTN, a commodity information services firm. Theres a chance that the US average tops $4 a gallon by June, with some parts of the country approaching $5 a gallon.
Even in 2008, the year that average gasoline prices hit records above $4 nationally and in California during the summer, the US average didnt climb above $3.50 until April 21, according to the Energy Departments weekly survey of service stations. The $3.50 mark also was breached last year, but not until March 6.
This time, the dubious milestone was hit weeks before prices usually rise because of refineries typically shutting down for spring maintenance, and weeks before the prices rise again when states switch from less expensive winter blends of gasoline to more complicated and more expensive summer blends.
California motorists arent likely to summon much sympathy for drivers in other states. They are paying an average of $3.835 for a gallon of regular gas, up 7.7 cents from a week earlier. In the past, the states average had never topped the $3.80 mark before March. And February is usually a month when prices fall.
There are plenty of reasons for the high prices, and lots of reasons to expect a big price surge in the spring, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for Oil Price Information Service.
Early February crude oil prices are higher than theyve ever been on similar calendar dates through the years, and the price of crude sets the standard for gasoline prices, Kloza said.
In addition, several refineries have been mothballed in recent months, he said, and some of those refineries represented the key to a smooth spring transition from winter-to-spring gasoline. The annual change in gasoline formulas is mandated by pollution-fighting regulations.
Some cities, including Los Angeles and New York, already are closing in on $4 a gallon, said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com, a website that tracks gasoline prices.
The high cost has inspired considerable disgust among drivers like Stanley Moore, who paid $3.85 a gallon at an Arco station in San Pedro, Calif.
Moore, a child-welfare social worker, was on his mobile phone at the gas station Monday, patting pockets for a pen and a scrap of paper to write down a name, until he realized he could just write the name in the grime on the hood of his gray 1999 Nissan Sentra; it was that dirty.
I used to wash it pretty often, take a little pride in how it looked, said Moore, who thinks he last had it washed shortly after Labor Day. All that money goes right into the gas tank now. Every year it gets worse.
| Posted in Commodity Information | Comments Off