Gas prices going through the roof -- 9.6 US dollar for 1 gallon in Norway -- anyone beat that?

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paganstarchild		#21	[url]	[-]
Posts: 473 06/13/08 13:29 Hapless Heathen UK	Oil tests to begin in the Mendips Oil was found near Shepton Mallet in the 1890s after an earthquake An Irish company has been granted a licence to start exploring part of the Mendip Hills for oil. Reservoir Resources has permission to test drill in an area between Wells, Shepton Mallet and Castle Cary. Oil was discovered in the area as far back as 1892, when it was found seeping from the ground at Ashwick Court near Shepton following an earthquake. Historians say it was sold locally, but the quantity was insufficient to take extraction any further. Professor Michael Kendall, a seismologist from the University of Bristol said: "The price of oil is in an order of magnitude higher than it was before, so it's probably worth re-evaluating some of these smaller claims." But oil and gas exploration consultant, Mike Campbell, said it was unlikely there would be rigs springing up all over the Mendips. "There's been oil and gas exploration across Southern Britain and the East Midlands since about 1915 and most people don't even know it's there. "The British scale of it is much smaller than that in the States, and I'm sure as most people know, the planning regime is much tougher and there is a lot of process to go through before anyone is allowed to bring a drilling rig in." The exploration licence was granted by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/7452476.stm http://www.freewebs.com/notesfromtheplot/index.htm Torchwood Freelance Operative - Omega
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amberlover13		#22	[url]	[-]
Posts: 20575 06/13/08 17:07 Moderator USA	I think this will only get worse before it get s any better unforutnately
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Sunshine56		#23	[url]	[-]
Posts: 43131 06/13/08 20:25 Mosken ezOP Board Owner Norway	Thanks for the information, pagan! Yes Virginia, I think it could be better if we have some better results in developing alternative energy. And alternative transportation.
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jillybromley		#24	[url]	[-]
Posts: 2443 06/15/08 00:17 Jilly in UK	Mosken, I've just looked this up. Yes, you're right. 1 US gallon = 3.78 litres. But 1 UK Gallon = 4.54 litres. I think my conversions in my post about the car might be wrong. I did them very late at night! I think I'll edit it so as not to confuse.
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ozieme		#25	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1136 06/16/08 06:30 Australia	This afternoon in Australia ...I payed $167 a litre ....They are saying $2 dollars a litre by Christmas ,not good
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paganstarchild		#26	[url]	[-]
Posts: 473 06/16/08 06:44 Hapless Heathen UK	After an earlier meeting with the Kingdom's King Abdullah, Mr Ban said Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil producer, viewed current prices as "abnormally high". The price of oil keeps on rising "He [King Abdullah] acknowledged that the current oil prices are abnormally high due to speculative factors and some other national government policies," Mr Ban said. "He is willing to what he can to [bring] the price of oil to adequate levels." On Friday, the Saudi oil minister said current elevated oil prices - which hit a record high of more than $139 (£71) a barrel last week - were unjustified. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7455570.stm http://www.freewebs.com/notesfromtheplot/index.htm Torchwood Freelance Operative - Omega
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shadeaux63		#27	[url]	[-]
Posts: 2940 06/16/08 11:00 USA	One of our local newspeople was saying the other day that they believe that the reason prices are going so high is because of stock speculators believing that this year may present abnormally high natural disasters, which could affect oil distribution. For instance, when Hurricane Katrina hit, it closed down many of our oil refineries, and distribution slowed,causing prices to rise.However, because of that, many were accused of price-gouging(raising prices unneccessarily, in order to make more profit)which is illegal.
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paganstarchild		#28	[url]	[-]
Posts: 473 06/16/08 17:45 Hapless Heathen UK	A Devon petrol station is charging drivers more than £1.99 a litre - or about £9 a gallon - for petrol and diesel as drivers clamour for fuel. The Foxhayes station at Exwick near Exeter has put all grades of petrol and diesel up to £1.99 a litre. The manager said the move was to conserve stocks and said he was not being mean. It follows a four-day strike by Shell tanker drivers in an industrial dispute over pay. We're not being mean... the price will go back to normal as soon as we get a delivery Ron James Ron James, the manager of the petrol station, told BBC News: "It's all been panic buying. "People have been coming in buying £80 to £100 of fuel instead of £10 and £20. "It's been chaos and it's still chaos. "I've never seen anything like it in 30 years of petrol retailing." He said the move was prompted by dwindling stocks. "We cannot get any more supplies. "We're not being mean. "I would say I'm a very nice person. "The price will go back to normal as soon as we get a delivery." Talks begin In the meantime drivers who buy petrol from the garage while the prices are high are getting a £24 discount off an MoT. Petrol supplies in another South West town ran out on Monday. Some drivers from Liskeard travelled as far as Plymouth, 12 miles (19km) away, for fuel as other petrol stations struggled to maintain supplies. Picket lines have been in place at a fuel depot in Cattedown, Plymouth, barring any tankers from taking deliveries. The strike is a result of a dispute between haulage firms contracted to Shell and their tanker drivers. Talks will begin on Monday to avert another strike next weekend. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7456458.stm http://www.freewebs.com/notesfromtheplot/index.htm Torchwood Freelance Operative - Omega
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ZuriDea		#29	[url]	[-]
Posts: 2236 06/18/08 08:52 Lady Grace Part time Moderator Young Adult USA	I pay $4.50 a gallon in gas here in Seattle. We have a fairly good public transportation system, but what I've learned is that if you don't buy a buspass, which is still quite spendy and will only go up to cover gas prices, it is cheaper for me to fill my tank every three weeks (I get about 30mi to the gallon), than to pay about $1.50 for oneway busfare to the grocerystore/school/etc and then have to pay the same price back. I don't have the luxury of being healthy enough to be able to walk around the city, so the car allows me one of my few freedoms to get around the city. This is an extremly complex situation with no easy answers but the one thing that I think everyone can agree on is that it is going to get worse before it gets better. With the floods, storms and tornadoes that hit the US midwest and are still ravaging the area (with calls that the weather is going to bring more in), crops have been ruined and this is only going to raise already rising food prices higher. This is going to be another heavy blow, not only to the US economy but the world economy, as well. I agree that speculation is definitely one of the main reasons prices are being driven so high and I do believe congress is looking to investigate the matter. I think they are looking to investigate why the oil companies in the US have record "windfall" profits, as well. It is harder to investigate cartels like OPEC or even the companies in Canada (who happen to have the second largest oil reserves in the world, behind Saudi Arabia), because we don't have any juristiction. The news from King Abdullah confirming that prices are too high is good news though, because he does have a lot of pull in the region and if he looks into it, it may not put more oil into the market, but it may bring some things to light. No country in the world will go unaffected by high oil prices--this includes those countries who have members in OPEC. Citizens living in those countries, like Saudi Arabia or Egypt for instance, will need to by food. As we have already seen, food prices have increased due to a combination of farmers using their crops for research for biofuels instead of food and this increase in oil prices...it has also left a decrease in food production itself. A predominant portion of the population in Saudi Arabia (an all of the other OPEC countries) are poor (some extremely so). There is no middle class in these countries. It may be to the benefit to the ruling elite to make money, but it isn't to their benefit to make so much money that it is to an extreme detriment to the whole of the populations of their countries...so much so that it creates riots in the streets, like happened in Egypt a month or two ago. At some point those in power, whether it be those in US oil companies, OPEC, Canadian companies, etc, will feel a backlash if they do not try to curb the movement of oil and gas prices. The speculators drive up the prices, but ultimately it goes into the pockets of the companies...a complex problem. It'll be interesting, frustrating and terrifying to see where it goes.
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shadeaux63		#30	[url]	[-]
Posts: 2940 06/18/08 11:27 USA	I read an article last night about how Americans living along the US-Mexico border have been crossing the border just to fill thier gas tanks.Gas in San Diego is $4.61 a gallon, but just across the border in Tijuana, it's just a little over $2 a gallon-a little less if the customer pays in pesos.Diesel is even more of a savings- it's more than $5 a gallon in San Diego, and $2.20 in Tijuana.For some, it makes the 2 hour waiting line to get back across the border worth it.And I can't say I blame people for doing this.but I wonder how soon our government is going to try to stop it.
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Sunshine56		#31	[url]	[-]
Posts: 43131 06/18/08 13:35 Mosken ezOP Board Owner Norway	So many good points! It is especially interesting to hear the younger generation thoughts about this, Amanda. I wonder though, normally we believe in the free market. But in this case it hurts. So maybe we don't believe in it anyway....... I read a few articles expressing the views of the Norwegian government: INTERVIEW-Norway says high oil price good for renewables Thu Jun 12, 2008 4:55pm IST Email \| Print \| Share \| Single Page [-] Text [+] OSLO, June 12 (Reuters) - Present high oil prices make life difficult in poorer countries but at the same time also help fuel development of renewable energy sources, Norway's Energy and Petroleum Minister Aaslaug Haga told Reuters on Thursday. "There are several dilemmas regarding the high oil price," Haga said in an interview. "It makes it difficult for the poor countries. At the same time renewable energy will be developed faster, which is good." Norway is the world's fifth largest exporter of oil and the second biggest supplier of natural gas to Europe. (Reporting by Camilla Bergsli) © Thomson Reuters http://in.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idINOSO00123520080612
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Sunshine56		#32	[url]	[-]
Posts: 43131 06/18/08 13:42 Mosken ezOP Board Owner Norway	A central reason that oil supplies are not rising much is that major producers outside the OPEC cartel, like Russia, Mexico and Norway, are showing troubling signs of sluggishness. Unlike OPEC, whose explicit goal is to regulate the supply of oil to keep prices up, these countries are the free traders of the oil market, with every incentive to produce flat-out at a time of high prices. But for a variety of reasons, including sharply higher drilling costs and a rise of nationalistic policies that restrict foreign investment, these countries are failing to increase their output. They seem stuck at about 50 million barrels of oil a day, or 60 percent of the world's oil supplies, with few prospects for growth. "According to normal economic theory, and the history of oil, rising prices have two major effects," said Fatih Birol, the chief economist at the International Energy Agency in Paris. "They reduce demand and they induce oil supplies. Not this time." With global supplies tight, geopolitics continue to play a big role in pushing up oil prices. Oil futures closed at $118.75 a barrel, up 23 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after strikes by oil workers in Scotland and Nigeria that shut down nearly 1.7 percent of the world's daily production. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/business/worldbusiness/29oil.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin
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Sunshine56		#33	[url]	[-]
Posts: 43131 06/18/08 13:52 Mosken ezOP Board Owner Norway	In the United States and through much of the developed world, the higher fuel prices have led drivers to reduce their consumption, and gasoline demand is expected to drop this year. But that drop will be more than offset by the rise in energy demand from developing countries. In the next two decades, demand is projected to jump by 35 percent, and developing countries will consume more oil than industrialized countries. It's a crunch," said J. Robinson West, chairman of PFC Energy, an energy consulting firm in Washington. "The world is not running out of oil, but rather it's running out of oil production capacity." As countries like Russia slow output, analysts say OPEC will have to pick up the slack. The oil cartel accounts for 40 percent of the world's oil exports and owns more than 75 percent of global reserves. But there are serious concerns that OPEC will also find it tough to increase production. Last Edited By: Sunshine56 06/18/08 13:59. Edited 2 times.
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Sunshine56		#34	[url]	[-]
Posts: 43131 06/18/08 14:04 Mosken ezOP Board Owner Norway	After an earlier meeting with the Kingdom's King Abdullah, Mr Ban said Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil producer, viewed current prices as "abnormally high". The OPEC countries only produces 40% of the world export. They are not able to increase the production enough to meet the increasing world demand with the developing nations. The problem is that consume is increasing and delivery is going down in nations like Russia and Mexico.
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tecjb		#35	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1906 06/19/08 02:42 Insomniac USA	I want to know why Obama doesn't want to drill for oil off the coast- is he kidding? Gas prices are rising, food costs are going through the roof- the only thing that's NOT increasing is my salary! I think this country needs to do EVERYTHING it can to get oil to lower the demand ... and then bring down the price. I just don't know what will happen if this continues around the world- it's really a scary thought!
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ZuriDea		#36	[url]	[-]
Posts: 2236 06/19/08 04:58 Lady Grace Part time Moderator Young Adult USA	Drilling off the coast is controversial for many reasons, the primary one being the enviromental dangers involved. But there is a false idea about offshore oil driiling and that is that it will impact us NOW, and the truth is it won't. In reality, if we were to overturn the 26 year ban on offshore oildrilling, we wouldn't see the results for years, probably about ten. There are many reasons- companies would have to get permits, get the equipment (which is in high demand), actually find oil, drill, construct pipelines, refine the oil, etc. This is a process that takes years and years and would not effect anyone, anytime soon. Furthermore, it would likely not make a large dent in our dependency on foreign oil because they expect that they would be able to pump about 75 billion barrels of oil (and this is if we opened up ANWR-the Alaskan Animal Wildlife Reserve, as well), but by 2030-world consumption will be up to 120billion barrels A DAY.* The oil we get from offshore drilling/ANWR--all of it, would only last us two years. It's a drop in the bucket. Very well written Time Magazine Article that I paraphrased a few facts from* I can see why Obama is against offshore drilling. There are pros and cons to the issue. A few pro are the potential dip in our consumption of foreign oil and a possible albeit tiny boost to the economy at the coasts from the new endevears. A few cons are the enviromental dangers, such as an oil spill, and their detrimental, expensive effects, and an encroachment on the refuge of endangered species--its a question of what is the animals lives worth. For me, no one has given me a solid enough reason on why we should do it, considering the long term risks to animals and humans if a spill occurs (as they have repeatedly in the past).
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Sunshine56		#37	[url]	[-]
Posts: 43131 06/19/08 06:37 Mosken ezOP Board Owner Norway	I think the only way to reduce the price of oil is to reduce the demand. The most effective way of reducing demand is to develop alternative energy. And that takes time. Frankly, I don't think we can reduce the prizes, we can only hope slow it down. With the increased need for oil around the world, I don't think that will happen either. Excellent article, Amanda! But there's a flaw in that logic: even if tomorrow we opened up every square mile of the outer Continental Shelf to offshore rigs, even if we drilled the entire state of Alaska and pulled new refineries out of thin air, the impact on gas prices would be minimal and delayed at best. A 2004 study by the government's Energy Information Administration (EIA) found that drilling in ANWR would trim the price of gas by 3.5 cents a gallon by 2027. (If oil prices continue to skyrocket, the savings would be greater, but not by much.)
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shadeaux63		#38	[url]	[-]
Posts: 2940 06/19/08 09:30 USA	I absolutely see why we cannot go towards offshore drilling.The environmental impact simply isn't worth it.What kills me is, back in the 70's, we were ALL about finding alternative energy.So why did we stop?How did we go from demanding better,lower mileage cars to demanding gas-guzzling SUVs? And we WERE looking at some good alternatives back then.If we had only thought two inches in front of our faces, we would have stuck with it, and by now we probably wouldn't need nearly as much oil as we do. But no, the oil companies said there was plenty,and the prices got cheap for a while. We bought it, and didn't care how much we burned.We threw the baby out with the bathwater when we stopped demanding better alternatives because it just wasn't convenient to bother with it anymore- and made oil company CEOs and OPEC nations rich in the process. And now, we're paying the price(quite literally) for getting off the environmental track. I was chatting with another online friend of mine a while back,and we were talking about this subject. We're both Pagan, both have FM, and both feel the same way about this issue. We both see the Earth as a living organism. At one point,the conversation got around to oil drilling,and mans demand for more.She stopped for a minute and said," You know, you can equate drilling for oil to drawing blood.We don't know that the Earth NEEDS that oil for some reason.And by continually drilling for more and more, all we might be doing is the same as if somone stuck a needle in your arm and keeps drawing more and more blood from you.After a while, you'll get weaker and weaker, and eventually, you'll die-even if there's still more blood in you to draw out.But, just like air pollution, and water pollution, man won't realize it until it's too late-and it may already BE too late." Looking for cheaper gas isn't the direction we need to look in- finding ways to that don't depend on petroleum is where we need to be headed.
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Sunshine56		#39	[url]	[-]
Posts: 43131 06/19/08 20:29 Mosken ezOP Board Owner Norway	Offshore drilling: a few useful facts by Jerome a Paris Wed Jun 18, 2008 at 01:56:34 PM PDT http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/18/16358/9014/1003/538017 Climate Progress The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently did a detailed study of the likely outcome of offshore drilling for their Annual Energy Outlook 2007, "Impacts of Increased Access to Oil and Natural Gas Resources in the Lower 48 Federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS)." The sobering conclusion: The projections in the OCS access case indicate that access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030. And the impact of the projected 7% (!) increase in lower-48 oil production that might result in 2030 thanks to opening the OCS is … wait for it … … any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant. Jerome a Paris's diary :: :: Huffington Post McCain's Offshore Drilling Position A Flip From Three Weeks Ago It is hardly a secret that when it comes to offshore drilling, Sen. John McCain was against the idea before he was for it. (...) In late May, (...) [o]n a campaign stop in Greensdale, Wisconsin, the Senator suggested that turning to the nation's coast for energy needs would be something of a waste in time and effort and do little to resolve America's broader energy needs. "[W]ith those resources, which would take years to develop, you would only postpone or temporarily relieve our dependency on fossil fuels," McCain said when asked about offshore drilling. "We are going to have to go to alternative energy, and the exploitation of existing reserves of oil, natural gas, even coal, and we can develop clean coal technology, are all great things. But we also have to devote our efforts, in my view, to alternative energy sources, which is the ultimate answer to our long-term energy needs, and we need it sooner rather than later." From McCain's recent energy speech: What is certain in energy policy is that we have learned a few clear lessons along the way. Somehow all of them seem to have escaped my opponent. He says that high oil prices are not the problem, but only that they rose too quickly. He's doesn't support new domestic production. He doesn't support new nuclear plants. He doesn't support more traditional use of coal, either. So presumably McCain supports both of these. Oh, and the reason why offshore drilling is not a good idea: oil spills (list sent by email by Glenn from Democratic Courage - last two items added by me)
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seashell65		#40	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1443 06/20/08 00:29 DVD release reporter USA	the ONLY thing that is going to lower gas prices is to put a restraint on the speculators and the investors who have a lot to gain with the prices going up. Decreasing demand isn't really going to do much. I don't think we are going to see much of a decrease in prices, ever. We complained (in the US.) when it topped $2 a gallon a couple of years ago. But the consumers KEPT buying the gas guzzlers, even when advised otherwise. The technology is out there for more efficient vehicles. Has been for years. Shad was right, in the 70's it gained momentum, along with solar energy and self sufficiency. But then the hippie generation became the gimme generation and all that got pushed aside for want of money. It has taken this "energy crisis" to get the ball rolling again. Unfortunately, a lot of people are going to starve in the meantime. We can do without the power, the cars, etc....but we can't do without food. Or water. And that is where this fuel crisis is hitting the hardest. Because, push come to shove, admit it, most of us CAN live without electricity and cars. We can walk, if we are able, and we can live as our great-grandparents did. It isn't inconceivable. But when we don't have food or clean drinking water, and a good sewage system, all that breaks down. I was watching the news the other day when an item on the food crisis/fuel crisis came on. It was in Afghanistan. The people there are starving because food costs have gone up due to fuel costs going up. And this poor man had to bury a 3 year old relative recently due to her starving to death. This is outrageous to me. We are bemoaning the price, and yes it hurts, tremendously. If it were JUST gas prices for the car, I could live with it. But our utility bills have and will continue to go up. Our food prices continue to go up, along with the uncertainty of their safety to eat. But truly, we are still rather fortunate. We have some access to learning how to be more self-sufficient, some don't have that option. When drought kills your crop, and doesn't provide drinking water, then your up sht creek, so to speak. Okay, I know I've run off at the mouth, but it is the continous fall out of the fuel crisis that bothers me, not for cars, but for other everyday needs. As for the off-shore drilling, as with the drilling in the arctic, those who are proposing it don't give a rat's a* about what else could be destroyed and don't care to try to do it more efficiently. It's like the oil tanker ships, if they had invested in double hulled ships, less fuel would be spilled into the ocean when mishaps occur. I still think that we should seriously invest in solar and wind farms. and hydrogen fuel cars would be great, but you would have to have a nearby fueling station. That is what is holding back so much of the alternative fuel ideas. People are open to it, just don't have ready access.
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