Diesel is going through the roof

$4.17/gallon.......San Jose, California.

 

3.95 houston area and still 3.99 in galveston

 

$4.10 in Arlington Tx

 

Those darned old oil commodities speculators are going to have a "hay day" over these tropical storms/hurricanes coming towards our oil drilling/pumping platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

There's roughly 3,500 of these platforms in the Gulf, and katrina, as I understand didn't damage any of them, though it was a very powerful hurricane.

Never the less, these brokers will make a "buck" off of you and me using any reason possible.

I hope this Gustav storm is a big "bust" and the oil price plunges back down!

I, of course hope and pray more than anything else that the people in the storms path are spared misery, hardship, or loss of life.

 

More damage than you think;

Katrina and Rita provide glimpse of what could happen to offshore drilling if Gustav hits Gulf

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/business/article/38055Shortly after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the U.S., Rice University civil and mechanical engineering professor Satish Nagarajaiah studied damage done to [COLOR=green ! important][COLOR=green ! important]offshore[/COLOR][/COLOR] drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. If tropical storm Gustav strengthens into a Category 3 hurricane, as forecasters are predicting, Nagarajaiah's findings could provide valuable knowledge about what to expect if Gustav hits the Gulf of Mexico oil platform regions.
Nagarajaiah is available to talk in greater detail about the risks to the oil industry platforms and what Americans could be paying in higher gasoline prices.
Katrina and Rita (both Category 5 storms with sustained winds of up to 175 mph) caused the following damage on an estimated 3,000 platforms and 22,000 miles of pipelines that were in the direct path of hurricanes:

• 52 platforms with major damage
• 19 of the floating drill units exposed to hurricane force winds went adrift or were damaged
• 115 platforms destroyed
• Eight rigs destroyed
• 535 pipeline segments damaged

"Predicting how much damage will occur to oil platforms and rigs is a difficult task," said Nagarajaiah. "These platforms and rigs may have sustained damage due to past storms, and like anything else, become more susceptible to threats of wind and storm surge."
The costs could be steep to an energy company.
"If one major deep-water production platform is destroyed, you're talking about a $1 billion or more loss," Nagarajaiah said. "If it's multiple rigs and platforms in a variety of water depths, then we're talking billions of dollars."
When Katrina and Rita struck, gas prices soared as a result of damage to oil facilities. With oil prices at all-time highs this year, U.S. oil production in the Gulf of Mexico has a direct impact on gasoline prices.
Nagarajaiah is available to explain how different types of platforms are constructed, how they are secured (or unsecured) in the Gulf, what they can withstand and how they are vulnerable.

 

Ok, thanks for the correction. A few platforms were damaged.

I just got a better count on how many are in the Gulf and it's around 4,000; not 3,500 as I earlier stated.

So, lets say, we have 50-100 platforms damgaged or out of commission. That's still a pretty small "dent" compared to the total amount of pumping/drillng platforms in the Gulf, isn't it?

I'd still say that speculators blow the possible scenario way out of proportion.

 

I agree about the speculators but judging by the number of platforms, pipes and rigs listed above, the total damage caused by Katrina and Rita was close to 10% of the operating machinery in the Gulf. The oil companies involved did not absorb those costs either; they passed them on to us, as they will do with Gustav.

 

I would like to revive this thread on a positive note that fuel cost have fallen expodentially over the past month. Hate to see what will happen after the elections though. I hope this helps our economy.

 

Down to $2.99 today at the same station that was $4.69 this past summer.

 

I posted a response in another forum just the other day, that here in San Jose, California, I saw a Shell Station on Hamilton Avenue, that was selling diesel for $2.99/gallon. This price was lower than their unleaded regular gasoline-price!!

I know there's a lot of skeptics out there, but it appears to me that diesel is dropping at a faster rate than gasoline. If you take into account that it/diesel was quite a large percentage higher per gallon than "premium" grade gasoline not that long ago.

Competition is forcing the price down, even though retailers would love to hold up the higher prices. It's a natural progression in a capitalistic society. One retailer tries to get the increased business over another by lowering his/her's fuel price a penny or two less. It's a win-win situation for us consumers and the country as a whole.

Speaking of capitalism........Enjoy it while you can, and work to sustain/protect it as part of what made our country great by voting with your brains next Tuesday. Don't let yourselves get sucked into an idea or a "hope" of change with little or no substance. I'll leave that to you folks to know what I mean.

 

Most places $2.99 a gallon or cheaper for diesel. Gasoline is $1.96 in Springfield Missouri.

 

$1.96 wow it's still in the middle $2s here in Texas and we're a lot closer to the Gulf refineries than you are. Diesel is $3.21 here.

 

Gas is $2.31/gal in Castle Rock and Diesel is $2.83 I believe

 

Diesel here, in Los Alamos, NM, was $3.39 and gas has been holding around $2.40.

LT.

 

Diesel was $2.95/gal this morning in the east bay here in CA. Reg gas was $2.77/gal.

 

Here in the South Bay Calif, I've seen it at $2.89/gallon/diesel, but the average is about $2.99/gallon/diesel.

Unleaded Regular gasoline is running $2.35/gallon/Costco, and as low as $2.41/gallon(Quikstop) at regular gas stations.

 

$1.99 for reg unleaded gas and $2.69 for diesel today.

 

Uh oh !

Gas and diesel seem to have leveled off around here, is it getting ready to go the other way? What about your area?

 

The price of a barrel of oil is still dropping.

It's just about ready to drop below $60.00/barrel as of Friday.

I would think that would still create downward pressure on retail prices.

 

I noticed the same thing here. Maybe on Monday it will continue to drop.

LT.