Gas prices

[orbital]

Ethanol is around 40% less than gasoline... However, EPA says anything >10.5% is automatically E15. Not something anyone wants to be caught with. I'm not sure what happened in Florida over the past couple of years, but there have been multiple times when multiple stations were selling bad gas, so something likely was happening at the terminal, not the station.

I'm still surprised we're dealing with this ethanol garbage. It's been well proven by this point that it's worse for the environment than dino juice. It gets worse performance. It drives up grocery prices.

+

I'v been buying ethanol-free gas since the 80s' ~Unfortunately, it's only Premium here at 'some stations'

In High School, friend of mine had a family next door that was all engineers, incredibly smart people.
The son was the first to truly develop 3D photography, just a brilliant man.
He explained to my friend why you should not use ethanol gas,,,,, there are many reasons

..did an exhaustive mpg test with ethanol and non ethanol gas in my Nissan truck.
I ended up getting better mpg without ethanol_________________ and that's just the mpg part of why you shouldn't use it.

People in areas where you can only get booze gas will try hard to dismiss the argument

======> ETHANOL IS JUST FILLER

 

[Monocrom]

Went to the cheapest gas-station near my 3rd Shift job.... Gas is up again to $4.19 per gallon for Regular (if you pay with cash).

 

[orbital]

+

Oil companies profits surge due to Iran war,
and this surprises who?
It's all intentional, daily *reports* from region to keep oil price artificially high

Chevron's net income soared to $12 billion, a nearly 400% increase compared to $2.5 billion in the same period last year (CNBC)

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/31/exxon-xom-chevron-cvx-q2-earnings.html

 

[orbital]

+

Unless you own several thousand shares of Oil Sector stocks, you are getting fully holed at the pump

 

[bluflaam777]

1- don't live in California
2- phuk eyeran
3- phukeyeran
4- don't live in California

That is a good start and then don't live in California or NYC. Both are tards when it comes to the US

 

[TPA]

I'm seeing ~$3.50-$3.65 across much of Florida. For some reason it's running $3.75-$3.99 where I'm at now. BUT, God was gracious: This week's rental car is a hybrid and we have more than enough fuel to make it to some of the cheaper fuel areas.

 

[TPA]

======> ETHANOL IS JUST FILLER

So is cellulose in food. It's wood fiber! I'm not a woodchuck. I won't buy anything which uses it as a filler.

Unless you own several thousand shares of Oil Sector stocks, you are getting fully holed at the pump

I'd love to, but I have a conscious, so I try to invest ethically. That said, at least Chevron isn't using child labour like they do in the mines for rare earth metals used to make EVs and their batteries.

 

[Monocrom]

I'm seeing ~$3.50-$3.65 across much of Florida. For some reason it's running $3.75-$3.99 where I'm at now. BUT, God was gracious: This week's rental car is a hybrid and we have more than enough fuel to make it to some of the cheaper fuel areas.

If I was in the market for a leased vehicle, I'd go with Hybrid.
But I prefer to own. Would rather not pay the cost of a new car just to replace the battery after only a few years.

 

[recalled]

+

Oil companies profits surge due to Iran war,
and this surprises who?
It's all intentional, daily *reports* from region to keep oil price artificially high

Chevron's net income soared to $12 billion, a nearly 400% increase compared to $2.5 billion in the same period last year (CNBC)

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/31/exxon-xom-chevron-cvx-q2-earnings.html

I have no reason to doubt those numbers. They don't matter, much, though. The amount of money is based on several primary things...

One of those things is that the price of oil is dictated by the market at large, not the oil companies.

One of those things is that the price of product (distillates, fuels, plastics, fertilizers, whatever) is dictated by the market at large, not the oil companies.

So, the profit made by the "Big Oil" companies is really driven by, well, not the oil companies. There is a price delta between the price of a (notional) barrel of raw crude and a (notional) barrel of finished product (which is an amalgamation cost, because many different things get made from that oil, not just gasoline), and that is known as the crack spread. That price delta varies constantly and is, you guessed it, dictated by the market at large (not the oil companies).

Another of those things is demand. The demand for petroleum-derived goods that cover the planet. People in Antarctica are probably using products made possible by "Big Oil" but aren't using, say, a painting by Picasso. The synthetic clothing you wear, the paint your kids use in school, the fertilizer many crops are fed with, the lubricant in your railroad crossing arms, the resin in your non-glass eyeglasses, the tires on your electric car, and even the food you eat transported by trucks using fuel derived from oil... The sheer volume of stuff produced, even at lesser crack spreads, makes for a lot of money.

How much money did cnbc make last year? I do without cnbc EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR.

 

[TPA]

If I was in the market for a leased vehicle, I'd go with Hybrid.
But I prefer to own. Would rather not pay the cost of a new car just to replace the battery after only a few years.

Hybrids are best for stop-and-go traffic, much less so, sometimes worse on highway driving, which is most of my driving. That's where my Mercedes Mutt excels. It's been built and tuned for highway driving. 9-speed transmission and the ability to quickly decouple the transmission at speed.

Also, with the exception of Toyota, I don't think I'd dare buy a hybrid from anyone else. The Mazda PHEVs seem to have some real problems. I don't care for how Toyota does theirs either since above ~20mph the engine needs to run. Even in my Mutt, the engine can drop out at highway speeds even though it's not a hybrid.

 

[orbital]

One of those things is that the price of oil is dictated by the market at large, not the oil companies.

+

You think I'm against US Oil companies, nope
..and everyone knows markets and variables dictate price on commodities

My issue is the generated reports from the gulf region and Washington, every day to make sure the price/barrel stays high.
US oil companies are laughing their asses off because we produce more oil here than any other county and don't need gulf oil.
and they'll make sure those 'reports' or things 'said' keep happening....
=It's in their interest, billions to be made

...and I'm a Republican saying this

edit, reword

 

[recalled]

You think I'm against US Oil companies, nope

Actually, I don't know anything about you, I merely replied to your post where you stated, "Oil companies profits surge due to Iran war," and "It's all intentional, daily *reports* from region to keep oil price artificially high" - which kinda implies that the oil companies are responsible for the high prices (even if that was not your intent in that post). So my post was actually just informative for the folks that don't get it. And there are a lot of them, even if maybe most of the folks here on CPF actually DO get it.

and everyone knows markets and variables dictate price on commodities

Actually, you may be surprised how many people DON'T know that. Which is the reason I explained how that crack spread gets determined (which in the long run determines how much the oil refiners make). And because a lot of people also think cnbc is essential, but petroleum is not, I went on to explain that.

It was really just a primer...

 

[TPA]

Wide spread in gas prices in the Tampa area today. I paid $3.54 before discounts ($3.36 after)
Prices generally ranged from $3.60 to $3.99 for regular. For the most part, the major stations (Wawa, Racetrack) were $3.99, while the independents were all over the place.

What gets me is seeing people filling up at the station with the $3.99 prices when the other stations on the corner are $3.54-$3.60. I might do that if it's a cent or two difference (nah, not really...I'm too cheap to pass that by!), but when you're talking a $0.45 per gallon difference, that adds up quickly. $0.45x15 gal = $6.75. Or if you take the $0.63 savings I got today, $0.63x15=$9.45. How much is their time worth? Figure it takes 5 minutes maximum to drive to one of the other nearby cheaper stations. That $6.75 per 5 minutes = $81/hr. I highly doubt the people I see at these stations are making >$81/hr.