I found this document on the internet evidentley published by oil companies. In particular what caught my attention is from page 20 on they discuss the world economy and how much it can absorb their hikes and how they can keep increasing the cost and what effects it has on us and how they can pass the cost to them onto the governments of the world.

http://www.imf.org/external/np/pp/eng/2005/030105.pdf

I just would hate to see what internal documents contain if they have the brass to publish this.

 

Easy solution is to stop using oil then a lot of those companies will dry up, very, very quickly. They'll have to start selling sand to import and made sand dunes.

 

Sad part is............good luck on that for quite awhile!!!!!!!!!!

 

There are some guys who are doing mods to their hybrids and getting up to 240 MPG. Granted these arent vehicles you could tow your trailers and quads with, but hey, to stop sending my money to those freaking people, I'd do it. And yes, the gas companies and refineries (not dealers) are making record profits. The cost of producing gas has not gone up. It is speculation causing these price hikes. And, being the former owner of a gas station, I can tell you that the companies do manipulate prices by region (sometimes very small ones), raising them in rich areas to make more profits.

 

This seems to be the only car achieving 240 (actually up to 317) MPG:

VW 1 Litre Car

Right now, the most fuel efficient vehicle I could drive for my purposes is the VW Jetta TDI - if I could get between 45-49 mpg as the car is capable of I would be in good shape with all of the driving I do. Right now my 4 liter ranger is getting like, 17-ish, not bad considering it is a 4 liter heavy pickup, but nothing like the Jetta.

 

I couldn't wait to get my reply in on this topic so early in a thread.

Unfortunately, it appears that the money grubbing middle east might be in for a surprise from the grand old U S of A. I'm not to sure where you guys all come from, but here in the corn state farmers and people in general are already fed up with gas prices and ethanol plants and fuel stations are popping up here and there. The diesels are burning ethanol with extra water and some kind of soy based oil added for lubrication. Prices of ethanol here are at or around 2 bux a gallon, with the probability of going down with competition.

There ARE some complications in using these fuels, but I think its important for everyone to look at the big picture here. Faced with the possibility of loosing money to this alternative fuel OPEC might think twice about continuing rate increases. But I could care less about that. Here we are in America paying taxes to contribute to farmer subsidies. What does that mean? That means the government pays farmers to destroy crops that can't be possibly used do to overproduction. In the face of an oil shortage though, it's not much to say it would be feasable to burn alchohol after some small fuel system modifications in engines. Most modern gasoline engines are already capable of burning ethanol/alcohol.

Who can benefit from this? Farmers mostly. An honorable job, that might be profitable again. A far more stable income and definately more jobs in America.

I'm still burning gas, but I'm ready to dump the greedy crooks.

 

Blackhawk, I think any VW with TDI is slick, I wish they would make a mini-van as that's what my wife wants next. Every time someone asks me about a hybrid I point them to the TDI's.
LowRecoil, can you back up that mileage#? I'd love to read about it but I don't buy it. It sounds like the same kind of stories that were around during the 70's gas crunch.
I don't claim to know squat about this but I believe the prices are going up due to speculation over oil rights, basically a bunch of middle men much like stock traders. They have agreements to buy certain amounts of oil at set prices using borrowed money. Then they trade or sell these agreements. The thing is their house of cards can come tumbling down causing them to lose fortunes but won't happen until they hit the point the demand drops, then they will panic and start selling to avoid getting stuck.
You can find these people with their fingers in everything from baseball cards, muscle cars, art, Alpacas, stocks, any hot market.

 

Well, I happen to work for one of the major players in the oil & gas industry, and I can tell you that everybody on my end has gotten their piece of the pie except me. I pulled up to the pump just yesterday and like to have hit the ground whenever the diesel pump passed the 70 dollar mark...this is getting ridiculous...the cost of living has skyrocketed and now money to be found for the ones who are actually getting the work done....yeah, Im wondering if we are the lab rats too....[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Gas just hit $2.80 a gal from 2.47 in one day here in MI. I know in some spots its well over $3. I just herd that the big oil co. are making profits in the Billions and the little guy gets the screwed. Has any one seen any on line petitions going on to submit to local politicians? not that I want more government but some one out there might have a better Idea than whats going on right now.
this really plays in to both sides of the coin. the greenes say more hybrids to get away from oil and the oil drillers say lets open up more Fields. all I know we all are sick of being pulled from all sides for our money, and I dont like making other country's filthy rich at our expense.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]

 

There was an article in the Wall Street Journal within the past week or two rearding the guys making mods to hybrids and the mileage they were getting. If you want the exact date I'll have to look around and see if I still have the paper.

Yes, the oil co. employees are doing great. My rep and the reps in my state all recently got brand new cars from the co. They are getting bonuses, free vacations to the caribbean, raises, just enjoying life. Dealers on the other hand though are making like .06-.08 cents a gallon. If the companies find a dealer who is making over 50k for himself, they raise his rent. I had a dealer near my station who had his rent raised by 10k a month (gradual increase over few years). Getting the oil out of the ground has gotten cheaper. It's only the mideast problems and speculation raising the prices.