Posted on 02/12/2009 8:59:45 AM PST by EagleUSA
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Oil prices slid closer to a new multiyear low Thursday because of growing doubts that the $789 billion stimulus package will reinvigorate the economy and demand for energy.
Retail gas prices, meanwhile, reached a new high for 2009 on Thursday and appeared headed back to $2 a gallon as refiners cut back on production.
Light, sweet crude for March delivery fell $1.04 to $34.90 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.61 overnight to settle at $35.94 after a government report on Wednesday showed that crude inventories jumped much more than expected.
There were also more signs of economic weakness.
The number of people requesting first-time unemployment benefits dropped slightly last week, but remained near a 26-year high as companies lay off thousands of workers amid a deepening recession. The Commerce Department said the number of initial jobless benefit claims dropped to a seasonally adjusted 623,000, from an upwardly revised figure of 631,000 the previous week.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Yeah I am getting it the taxes as well.
I wonder if its just normal maintenance or profiteering at our expense.
Many thanks for telling Freepers what oil benchmarks we should be paying attention to. Brent is always out of wack these days. 10$ above the oil prices more commonly quoted
What’s interesting to me is that gold is trending up, USD is up and stable, and crude is trending down. This is good for America
The minute the economy shows any signs whatever of beginning to return to normalcy, count on the Osamabama goobermint to take every measure it can think of to force the price of crude and products much higher.
Just good business. Demand is down so they are lowering supply. The market is absorbing the price increase so far, so there is little to no incentive to lower price or increase supply.
There are some small finds from time to time, but that area was heavily explored for decades.
Very few people here realize that the price varies from region to region and state to state because of the large variations of additives and blends that are required by mandated laws. (Methanol, ethanol, lead substitutes, etc,)
This makes the price rather chaotic and seem abnormally high in areas that require these “blends”.
Federal and state fuel taxes in Washington are $.524/gallon, fifth highest in the country.
yep - gas prices inching up here in Pa., typcial for the Spring. Refineries have to retool for all the eco-’friendly’ boutique blends they must produce for the summer months. Thanks enviro-nazis.
Wow refining must be a huge pain in the butt with all those requirements.
Gotcha thanks.
Gotcha seems like almost endless variations from area to area.
I paid $1.57 a few months ago. Now that oil is at a multi-year, I’m paying more $2.22.
And all the gas stations have close to the same price.
Manipulation, I THINK, actually didn't involve a huge amount of money (huge for me, but not for the guys who did it.) I think early on, the manipulators used their investment like a guy that uses a snowball to start an avalanche. Once it got rolling, it took on it's own life. I don't think there's much manipulative money going on right now, as I think people are out of the market based more on fear of depressed demand, rather than trying to keep the price artificially low.
Just went up to $1.91 in Indy.
I do believe they will increase a Federal tax on every gallon of an additional $1 per gal., on top of what they already take.
They will get this done sometime this summer. And it won’t help oil companies out one bit because people will drive less and crude prices will go even lower. It will be an artificial non-beneficial increase.
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