Just out of curiosity...

[Phantom Blooper]

where does our government buy its fuel? Do they have there own refineries? With the current situation here at home and the situation in the world they are using billions of gallons of gas & diesel,whose making it,paying for it or supplying it?

On another note CITGO gas is owned by a Venezuela company and the gas there is 0.12 cents per gallon.


Semper-Fi! "Never Forget" Chuck Hall

[Osotogary]

Bought gas last evening.
$2.85 cents per gallon for regular at a CITGO gas station here in Miramar, Fla.
Yep, Phantom, Venezuela has entered my mind as being, perhaps, a vendor of sorts to the US Government.

[mrbsox]

$3.19.9 in Louisville this morning.

I've wondered the same SSgt.
The hundreds of thousands of gallons per day it takes to keep ships moving, choppers, jets, tanks, Humvee's...

I'd be willing to bet we have not only stock piles, but world wide resources that make the supply line possible. It HAS to be available to the troops in short order, in quantity, and at spec (octane, cetane, etc.)
The scarey part to me is that today, it is probably up to CIVILIAN CONTRACTORS to keep the flow. That means someone negotiated a contract, and it PROBABLY isn't in the governments favor.

Terry

[rproctor922]

$3.39 here in hampton roads

[DanBO]

I've see it here in Chicago at $3.59.9

[Phantom Blooper]

I know here in the Jacksonville area if a sedan with U,S. Government tags pulls into a local gas station they can get gas using a debit card. I haven't seen it lately and really haven't paid attention to it within the past couple of months. I imagine that the vans and sedans for local use fill up at the base motor pool. But somebody is supplying this gas and I would venture to say that the government is not paying $3.00 & up for gas. I have also noticed that there is not as much air traffic flying overhead with the helo's. I did see a few Osprey the other day,but, usually from my home you can see many choppers in the air each day. Don't know if they sent them for other commitments. But there normally is a few squadrons on the air station training.

As you know I love America and I support the war and the troops,however I am not a big fan of trust when it comes to our government or any government. I believe there is a cover up somewhere,and it's not a Marilyn Monroe pillow.

"I love America! It's the Government I Don't Trust"

Semper-Fi! "Never Forget" Chuck Hall

[2jarheads]

I'm sure you all have seen a similiar email sent to your office. This is the one that is currently running it's course through mine. Not a bad idea, but not very likely.

IT HAS BEEN CALCULATED THAT IF EVERYONE IN THE UNITED STATES DID NOT PURCHASE A DROP OF GASOLINE FOR ONE DAY AND ALL AT THE SAME TIME, THE OIL COMPANIES WOULD CHOKE ON THEIR STOCKPILES. AT THE SAME TIME IT WOULD HIT THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY WITH A NET LOSS OF OVER 4.6 BILLION DOLLARS WHICH AFFECTS THE BOTTOM LINES OF THE OIL COMPANIES. THEREFORE Sept 10TH HAS BEEN FORMALLY DECLARED "STICK IT TO THEM DAY" AND THE PEOPLE OF THIS NATION SHOULD NOT BUY A SINGLE DROP OF GASOLINE THAT DAY. GET THE WORD OUT. WAITING ON THIS ADMINISTRATION TO STEP IN AND CONTROL THE PRICES IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE REDUCTION AND CONTROL IN PRICES THAT THE ARAB NATIONS PROMISED TWO WEEKS AGO? REMEMBER ONE THING, NOT ONLY IS THE PRICE OF GASOLINE GOING UP BUT AT THE SAME TIME AIRLINES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES, TRUCKING COMPANIES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES WHICH EFFECTS PRICES ON EVERYTHING THAT IS SHIPPED. THINGS LIKE FOOD, CLOTHING, BUILDING MATERIALS, MEDICAL SUPPLIES ETC. WHO PAYS IN THE END? WE DO!

[Osotogary]

Watch that talk about the Marilyn Monroe pillow! It's a Norm Jean Baker pillow monday through friday. LMAO
By the way, the oldest son is back in Iraq. I think that this the fourth trip over there (his choice). What a way to make a living.

[dscusmc]

That's an interesting question about the fuel...I'm pretty sure Halliburton was contracted to provide fuel to Iraq for the reconstruction effort. Then they probably sub-contract it out even further. It wouldn't shock me if they also provide bulk fuel on a domestic basis. I didn't do much research on this, but it looks like Halliburton has a number of subsidiary companies that also provide lots of services to the US government.

Who knows where Halliburton or its subsidiary companies purchase the fuel from...
S/F - Dan

[germe1967]

The gas prices are artificially high here. No question about it. Especially considering that we have so much oil in Alaska. (Trust me, I'm from there and there is a lot more than the media claims up there) The fact is that environmental groups have stepped in and blocked building the majority of proposed US refineries. If these refineries were built and operating, the supply of gas would not just increase but tripple. Then you would find gas prices closer to $1 per gallon. A factor in Venezuela is that there is far less demand for gas there. But there is simply no excuse for the price gouging going on right now. Especially considering that there seems to be an element of capitalizing on a catastrophy.

[GySgtRet]

The governor of Hawaii has capped the price of gas at $2.25.9. Tha was announced about a week ago to for go the crap we are putting up with her in CONUS. Here in Stafford COunty Vurginia it is generally at $2.79. But that was at 07:00 this morning, it could have gone up another dollar, who knows...????

[ringoffire]

I got gas yesterday on New River, $2.50 a gallon. Out in town it was around $2.79, that was for Reg unleaded. Today it was $3.15 out in town for Reg. On Lejuene it was still under $2.75 for Reg. BUT, there were lines waiting for the fuel trucks to fill up the pumps. Once the truck fills the pump, it lasts for about 3hrs.

[Phantom Blooper]

Gasoline Rises for a Fourth Day as Katrina Shuts Refineries

Sept. 1 (Bloomberg)


Gasoline futures soared for a fourth day on concern that refineries shut by Hurricane Katrina will take weeks to recover. Prices at the pump shot up overnight to above $3 a gallon at many filling stations.

At least eight U.S. refineries, more than 10 percent of the nation's refining capacity, remain shut for a fifth day because of the flooding and blackouts after Katrina. Some pipelines moving fuel to the rest of the country were shut. Motorists formed lines as long as a mile at stations in Georgia yesterday, draining pumps before the Labor Day weekend.

``This is going to translate into $3 gasoline for everyone and prices may go higher,'' said Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist at Deutsche Bank AG in New York. ``The chances of another storm hitting the region are pretty high and we just aren't prepared for it. Refineries are already having great difficulty getting back up and running.''

Gasoline for October delivery surged 15.37 cents, or 6.8 percent, to close at $2.409 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The October contract has risen 28 percent this week. Prices are more than double from a year ago.

The September gasoline contract touched $2.92 a gallon yesterday, the last day it traded, the highest since trading began in 1984.

`Gasoline Crisis'

``The U.S. is facing a major gasoline crisis and is starting from a nearly empty tank,'' Barclays Capital analysts including Kevin Norrish said today in a note to investors. U.S. gasoline inventories were falling last week, even before the hurricane, because of rising demand, according to the note. The data ``would have argued for higher gasoline prices even if Katrina had not struck.''

U.S. gasoline inventories declined 508,000 barrels to 194.4 million last week, according to an Energy Department report yesterday. Stockpiles have fallen for nine straight weeks and are the lowest since November 2003.

``Gasoline supplies are going to be real tight for a long time,'' said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy and Economic Research in Winchester, Massachusetts. ``All you need is a little hoarding to cause regional shortages. This is what we went through in the 1970s when motorists rushed to filling stations and filled tanks because they feared supplies would run out.''

Regular-grade gasoline, averaged nationwide, rose 6.1 cents to a record $2.68 a gallon yesterday, according to data released today by the AAA, the nation's largest motoring organization. Pump prices are 44 percent higher than a year ago.

Pump Prices

Retail prices peaked at a nationwide average $1.417 a gallon in March 1981, according to the Energy Department. That's about $3.14 in today's dollars. Gasoline prices surged then because of the Iranian revolution of 1979 and the country's war against Iraq, helping send the U.S. economy into recession.

``Nothing can stop the average pump price from passing $3 a gallon in the next few days,'' Lynch said. ``At some point you will see a big drop in demand.''

Stan Sheetz, president of Sheetz Inc., an Altoona, Pennsylvania-based owner of 315 filling stations in six states in the Southeast, called the situation a ``crisis.''

``The prospect of outright shortages of gasoline in the next few weeks has become quite real,'' Goldman, Sachs & Co. economist Dominic Wilson said today in a note to clients.

Price Gouging

Alabama Attorney General Troy King said his office is investigating whether gasoline stations are breaking the law by unnecessarily raising the price of fuel in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

``Why are the prices going up on supplies that are already in tanks at gas stations?'' he said in an interview today. ``Alabama has a price gouging law. If we find that it's been violated -- it doesn't matter who has violated it -- they're going to be held to account.''

The storm shut 1.36 million barrels, or 90 percent, of daily crude-oil output, according to the U.S. Minerals Management Service, which manages offshore resources. About 30 percent of U.S. oil production comes from platforms in the Gulf. The region receives more than half of U.S. oil imports and is home to about 50 percent of the nation's refining capacity.

Waiting for Refineries

``We have to wait for the refineries to come back on line, which will take a couple weeks,'' said Jason Schenker, an economist at Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte. ``We're hearing a lot about the importance of getting the power going, but that isn't the only problem we will have reopening the refineries. Homes throughout the region are destroyed and workers need someplace to live.''

September typically is the most active month in the June- through-November Atlantic Basin hurricane season.

The U.S. is vulnerable to hurricanes because so many of ``our refineries are in one geographical area,'' said Matthew Simmons, chief executive of Simmons & Co., a private investment bank in Houston for the oil and gas industry. ``We shoved it all into Texas and Louisiana. We put the heart of the industry in the middle of hurricane alley.''

Last year prices rose after Hurricane Ivan destroyed platforms and closed refineries when it struck the Gulf coast on Sept. 16.

``Even another tropical storm could set the reconstruction back for months,'' Simmons said.

`Classic Pocketbook Issue'

``Gas prices are the classic pocketbook issue for the average person and the average family, and these are things that they notice very much,'' said Charlie Black, a Washington-based Republican strategist who was an adviser to former President George H.W. Bush. ``It helps explain the paradox we see in the polls: The economy is very good, but right now a majority of people say it isn't. The hurricane, and its aftermath, will only exacerbate this problem.''

Foreign vessels also are being allowed to ship oil and gasoline, where needed, President George W. Bush said in a statement from the Oval Office. He asked Americans to conserve energy. ``Don't buy gas if you don't need it.''

``There ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this, whether it be looting, or price gouging at the gasoline pump or taking advantage of charitable giving or insurance fraud,'' Bush said in an interview on ABC's ``Good Morning America'' today. ``I made that clear to our attorney general.''

Price Caps

White House spokesman Scott McClellan declined to say whether the administration is considering price caps on gasoline.

The Bush administration is studying ways to encourage construction of the first new oil refineries in the U.S. in almost 30 years, Tim Adams, under secretary of the Treasury for international affairs, told reporters. White House officials for the past year have been studying ways to constrain energy costs, Adams said yesterday in Dalian, China.

``You have to question why we haven't seen one built since 1976,'' Adams said. ``Obviously, it's because companies have made a decision that it's unprofitable. Included in that calculation are probably a number of factors that the federal government could help influence.''

The amount of money U.S. consumers are laying out for energy is rising, Goldman Sachs' Wilson said. Energy is now 5.6 percent of total spending, up from 4.5 percent two years ago. The U.S. economy has been more resilient in the face of rising oil prices recently because oil is a smaller part of the economy than it was when prices climbed in the 1970s and 1980s.

Profit Margin

The profit margin for turning a barrel of crude oil into heating oil and gasoline is $28.761, based on futures prices in New York. That has more than doubled from Aug. 26 and is five times higher than a year ago.

``U.S. prices are sending a signal to every refinery in the world,'' said Bill O'Grady, assistant director of market analysis at A.G. Edwards & Sons in St. Louis. ``Gasoline imports are going to surge in the weeks ahead.''

BP Plc and Morgan Stanley are among companies planning to ship European gasoline to the U.S. As many as 10 tankers were booked this week to transport 363,000 metric tons from Europe to the U.S., according to five shipbrokers. The total would equal about 130 million gallons, enough to fill 5 million Chevrolet Tahoe trucks. Other companies hiring ships include Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips, the brokers said.

Emergency Stockpiles

Crude oil for October delivery rose 53 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $69.47 a barrel in New York. The contract touched $70.85 on Aug. 30, the highest since futures trading began in 1983. Prices are 58 percent higher than a year ago.

``Crude oil isn't the problem right now but may be in a few weeks,'' Sieminski said. ``The helicopters that are needed to get repair crews on the platforms are busy saving people from rooftops.''

Exxon Mobil Corp. will receive 6 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to counter supply disruptions, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said in a statement. Deliveries can begin as soon as tomorrow, and the oil must be returned ``once supply conditions return to normal.''

The reserve holds about 700 million barrels of crude oil in salt caverns along the Texas and Louisiana coasts. The government also has a 2 million barrel heating-oil stockpile in the Northeast.

``The SPR is not a strategic petroleum reserve,'' Schenker said. ``It should be called a strategic oil reserve. Regardless of what the government does it will be at least a few weeks before gasoline prices go down.''

Offshore Oil Port

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port may unload its first tanker cargo since Aug. 27 when the facility closed because of the approach of Katrina, a port official said. The offshore terminal is located about 20 miles south of the Louisiana coast and handles about 1 million barrels of crude oil a day, or 11 percent of U.S. imports.

``We hope to offload a tanker sometime today,'' said Dale Rollins, vice president of business development at New Orleans- based Loop LLC, the port operator. ``We wanted to offload a tanker yesterday afternoon but we ran out of daylight.''

In London, the October Brent crude-oil futures contract rose 70 cents, or 1 percent, to close at $67.72 a barrel on the International Petroleum Exchange, the highest since trading began in 1988.



To contact the reporter on this story:
Mark Shenk in New York at mshenk1@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: September 1, 2005 16:03 EDT

[greensideout]

We can all thank the EPA for the shortage of refineries. It has been going on for years. Plenty of oil---so few refineries.

The government is here to help---and help the shortage they have---but it just came home to bite them.

[Nagalfar]

I agree with everything you said there greensideout, with the exception, it's "us" that are taking the biting, and it dont even feel good..
I think we need to look at this from another direction, look at it from the oil producers POV, they knew almost 32 years ago this day would come, no ability to refine at required levels, thus creating a shortage, supply and demand, if supply is short prices go WAY WAY up, this was done to us in the 70's by OPEC, did we do anything to removed OPEC's ability to do it to us? yes we kissed arab arse and said thank you for turning the gas back on.. we have had 30 years of "we knew it was going to happen again".. but this time American Oil Producers are the ones (Along with OPEC) that are making money at record obscene levels.. and here "we" sit filling out credit apps just to fill up.

[Joseph P Carey]

The EPA, a Democrat Congress Evironmental Government Agency:

A Board of Elected officials and Bankers looking for low cost energy resouses.

DESCRIPTION, HISTORY, AND BACKGROUND

The Environmental Financial Advisory Board (EFAB) was chartered in 1989 under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) to provide advice and analysis to EPA's Administrator on paying for the growing costs of environmental protection and how to increase investment in environmental infrastructure through the leveraging of public and private resources. EFAB provides EPA with a cross-media, intergovernmental perspective on environmental finance that integrates environmental and economic goals, while emphasizing cost-effective, risk-based approaches and public-private partnerships. The Board has made significant contributions to EPA's efforts to address the critical environmental financing challenges of the 21st Century.

EFAB's membership includes prominent experts from all levels of government, including elected officials; the finance and banking communities; business and industry; and national organizations. Board members meet semi-annually; the meetings are open to the public and are announced in the Federal Register. The Board has also produced a number of advisories on important environmental financing issues.

The Environmental Financial Advisory Board has adopted three environmental financing goals:
Lower the costs of environmental protection by removing financial and programmatic barriers that raise costs and by improving the efficiency of investments needed to close the gap between limited resources and increasing mandates;

Increase public and private investment in environmental facilities and services as a spur to sustainable development, job creation, productivity, and tax revenues; and

Build state and local financial capacity necessary to carry out environmental mandates so that gains made to date are secured and further environmental progress can be made.

EFAB serves a unique role, assisting the EPA in providing a credible and significant response to the increasing concerns over how to pay for federal and state environmental mandates. EFAB's expertise and advice focus on cross-media financing, particularly on the "how to pay" issue of environmental mandates. This is of critical importance as the nation has invested billions of dollars in environmental facilities and programs over the last thirty years. While progress has been made, this work is far from complete.


Off hand, I would say that they have done what they were supposed to do. They have created revenues for the government in the way of gasoline taxes, and have done nothing to level the cost of the energy product. As was said, Supply and Demand. They have limited the supply through enviormental issues, and they had created the demand in the way of higher prices.

[Devildogg4ever]

I know this much, WE HAVE NEVER HAD A GAS SHORTAGE!!! In the 70's, when there was suppose to be a shortage, we had plenty! We owned a service station then and the oil people came around and asked my father if he wanted to buy in, due to a shortage "THEY" were going to create! We got out of the business! The coffee shortage was the same, years later, they found bin after bin of rotten coffee beans, came around the time of the great coffee shortage! Even after being caught, prices never came down on coffee!

[Ed Palmer]

Gas in Wichita Ks hit 3.19.9 this morning and going to go higher this
week. Dont you just love our Goverment they are treating U S so fair by not letting the oil companys gouge U S

[Old Marine]

I can still remember the gas ration stamps during WWII. If my father ran out of ration stamps he couldn't buy gas. The gas was cheap compared to today, but no ration stamps, no gas. The thing is that we survived and I am sure that everyone will survive this crisis.