gas prices skyrocketing everywhere...and here's why

2.55 in Claremont, 40 miles east of LA.. this is for 87 octane too.. -_-;;

Why were you using premium? In no way was it benefiting your engine.

hehe the economics of oil is so fucked up anyway...

During this whole thing lets not forget that the petroleum distribution companies here in the US (gas stations) are the ones controlling at the pump prices ultimately and *THEY* are the assholes responsible for the high prices... OPEC screws things up but they are not completely to blame.

Also, Before I begin, lets also recognize that while the price of oil has fluctuated from as high as $55/bbl in the early 80's to as low as $7/bbl in 1999 we have not seen ANY significant price cuts, as a matter of fact the rate has steadily gone UP despite changes in the price of crude oil. *THEY* are the ones to blame for the prices. Money hungry fuckers.

Ok so now a lil opec and crude oil history.
The 11 countries are members of OPEC and they all agree on pricing of oil.

Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela

And here's the history:

1980 - Crude oil was at $55/bbl

1980-1985 - some benchmarks were established and the price dropped $20 over the 5 yr period. The benchmarks helped in establishing quotas to supply demand for crude.

1985 - Saudi Arabia increases oil production by 44% and the price for crude oil dropped from $35/bbl to a nice $18/bbl by 1986. With some hiccups up and down between $18/$20 from 1986 to 1989 everything looked stable. There were some fluctuations from the Iraq-Iran War but nothing significant.

1990 - Iraq invades Kuwait and we deploy to the middle east... The price of oil goes up $10/bbl to $30/bbl.

1991 - Iraq is defeated and we bail out of the middle east. Once this occured oil dropped down to $22/bbl and steadily dropped to an alltime low of $15/bbl by 1994. (mainly the whole inflation thing starting in 1994 made this possible)

With some minor fluctuations and a rise up to $25/bbl in 1996 opec screwed up and had a huge production swell due to the financial situation in Asia... They thought asia was going to keep using the shit outta oil and then bam, they hit a grinding stop. Once this occured and they found they had a huge surplus and oil dropped to a new alltime low of $7/bbl in 1999.

OPEC starting playin some games and stuff from 1999 to 2001 - the price had some rises back up to as high as $31/bbl by Jan 2001. Then they found ' oh look we have a huge surplus again' and dropped the price to $23/bbl in Feb 2001 which had some stable drop to $20 when Sept 11 stuff went down. The price fell out right after that to $15/bbl. This was probably due to the increased fear that the US may say screw foreign oil (THIS IS ONLY MY OPINION AND NOTHING MORE)

At the end of 02 beginning 03 prices started going back up and reached a high of $30/bbl due to the Venezuelen strike and when we invaded Iraq (or right around that time period) the price had actually dropped and continued dropping to $24/bbl .

At this point the oil prices started playing games up and down between $27 & $23/bbl and continues to do some fluctuation to this very day.

Current Crude costs:
NYMEX Light Sweet Crude - $41.38/bbl
IPE Brent Crude - $38.76/bbl

As it stands, OPEC is trying to avoid a repeat of their whole delimma in the 1970's where the prices hit that whole $55/bbl mark (that was due to their idiocy in the first place) but our gas chains here in the states continue to spike the price because we will pay for it.

As it has been stated, it is up to us to end this price hike... It sucks and unfortunately we can't get enough of the mindless sheep in America to stick together for a week to not purchase gas. We *should* go on a gas strike... everyone should fill up on a Sunday and hold out as long as they can all week long w/o a fillup... watch those fuckers squirm a few days while we conserve some fuel.

*shrug* I dunno - perhaps I just wrote a pointless post but its not just OPEC fault

I have to use premium... *sniffle*

Its OPEC...and it always has been. It had nothing to do with Bush, NOR the war in iraq.