PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

retmil46 · #2 03-15-2011, 10:49 AM

Indeed. Even the NYT hinted it was due to speculation, noting a week ago that on-hand stocks of petroleum and distillates were 2% higher than this time last year - and have been at multi-year highs for at least the past two years by both API and DOE figures.

Some gas station owner/operators are even worse offenders than the futures traders. Legally, they're not supposed to change the price at the pump, for fuel they already have in their tanks and already paid for, until they get a new delivery of fuel. But I've watched several area stations jack the price up by 5 cents or more PER DAY as the price of oil went up. But now that it's dropping again, suddenly they're now playing by the rules and not dropping the price until they get another fuel delivery or are forced to by the competition down the street.

A fellow Jeep CRD owner in Charlotte related how recently he stopped at a local station to refuel his gas vehicle. After fueling, he went inside to pick up a couple items. The station operator was watching one of the business channels, observing what the price of oil and gas was doing. It was just as the markets were closing for the day, and as soon as they did, the station operator immediately went over and increased the prices on each pump by 10 cents per gallon - right in the midst of several people fueling their vehicles. At least a couple of them came in and demanded to know what the hell was going on, but the operator just blew them off.