Check the Owners' Manual for your vehicle. Many engines, today, where premium is "Recommended", not "Required", can safely run on 87 Octane regular. All it will cost is a couple of HP and ft-lbs. of peak torque......probably not enough to notice in most driving.

What happens is that with regular, engine sensors detect pinging/knock and adjust spark-timing, air-fuel-mixture, and other functions to eliminate the pinging and compensate for the lower-octane fuel.

And, of course, fuel prices usually go up in the summer, especially after Memorial Day, due to increased driving, increased demand for fuel, and the summer driving/vacation season. You'll probably see a significant price-drop after Labor Day, unless the price of a barrel of oil goes through the roof.

 

Every state has a department of weights and measures that is responsible for inspecting and certifying gas pumps. If you think you are getting ripped off, call them and report it.....but first make sure you actually ARE getting ripped off, and that the pump-readings aren't being affected by things like a slanted or tilted surface which can affect the level of fuel in the car's tank. It's always best to gas up on a level surface for the most accurate reading.

 

Several reasons. At least here in Californian, compared to decades past, the oil companies purposely keep production to a bare minimum. This causes a supply and demand deficit, which naturally raises prices at the drop of a pen. There is no room for error. But guess what has happened for the last eight years? A factory or two goes down for maintenance (all the time), the season changes (all the time), or one has an accident (all the time). Suddenly, prices shoot way up because they claim there "could" now be a shortage. Well la dee freakin dah, what a surprise. Suddenly there's not enough oil for California (so they claim, yet it's never actually been proven), and prices go way up over night and never come back down. There is no real extra oil to sustain (so we are told), and the rest gets exported out of the state instead of saving it for us in case of a season change (all the time), a factory accident (all the time), or for maintenance (all the time). It's all planned out and on purpose. It is sneaky business, but pretty much known now...how to extract as much money as possible to maximize profits (keep supply low and then make excuses up for eight years). The hell with everyone else trying to make a living driving to work and school. This practice has been going on for about eight years now, and not one liar, I mean politian, has stepped in to prevent it. We are on our own while being taken advantage of.

 

Unless we get everyone to go on strike on paying high prices on gas, we have no control over the price fluctuation that is occurring.

 

It's been over $3.00 for regular here in Vegas for a while. We never went as low as the rest of the country though.

 

The summer driving season will drive up prices no matter what the world oil price. There are domestic oil markets and refiners. International oil markets may see a glut but domestic refiners are flooded and have reached capacity.

So that mean the best stuff is going to see a jump. The lag you see is between the crude that comes out of the ground and the highly refined product that sits at your gas pump and the premium is at the top of the price ladder.

 

I was deployed while you guys got to enjoy the $1.80 gas. It's now at $2.80 for regular =(

 

gas here has fallen to 3.35 for regular.

I hypermile as much as I can.
Red light 2 blocks away? I'm off the gas pedal already, coasting, and hoping it turns green when I get there.

 

I have noticed, when election year is around, gas prices seems to stay moderately low. Gas prices here are $0.80 - $1.00 less than this time last year

 

A couple of points: First, since motor gasoline has become a conduit for revenue enhancement (tax collecting), it's difficult to compare gas prices nationwide. First we are all paying 18.4¢ per gallon to Uncle Sam for the use of the gasoline we buy. That's supposed to cover repair and maintenance of our federal highways, but of course you know better than that - it's going into some politician's pocket.

Otherwise, each individual state reaches into your wallet for an additional 29¢ to 70¢ per gallon, including both state excise tax and sales tax. So with as much as a buck per gallon, your friendly local gas pump is largely a tax collector . . . and that's before you begin paying for the product. http://www.api.org/~/media/files/sta...taxes-tracking

Then we have seasonal variations in the cost of product. Generally, winter motor gasoline is cheaper than summer blends because they do not contain the expensive oxygenates required by law to suppress ozone emissions in hot weather. Then there is the old supply and demand factor. When we are doing more driving in the summer, prices go up. That's simple economics. So's inflation, as your dollar is worth less and the cost of living goes up, so do gas prices.

But overall, believe it or not, the cost of gasoline - exclusive of taxes - has remained pretty constant since the '20's. Only in the past ten years has it spiked, but that trend is now coming down with the production of petroleum from the oil shale discoveries in the Eagle Ford shale in South Texas, the Bakken shale in North Dakota, and significance new finds in New Mexico and some bright prospects in Oklahoma. While none of these discoveries will be cheap to produce, they are recoverable at current rates. What concerns oilmen is not the current price of crude - nor even the future price. The balance point of the industry is found in consistent oil prices that allow for long-range investment and development.

But we've been working another angle that is affecting both our cost of motoring and the income derived by the states for fuel. Our cars are using less fuel, therefore we purchase less gas than we did even twenty years ago. That's a good thing for our wallets, but it's bad for our state's tax revenues. Since we are taxed on the fuel we use, as we use less of it, the less revenue goes to the state and federal governments. Since no government is in business to lose money, they are going to find some way to replace that income - and more, and new taxes are the way to do it.

Forewarned is forearmed.

 

Another reason gas is more expensive than it should be is the many different regional blends that different states require, for different times of the year. Thus you have perhaps a dozen different blends of gas for different US markets, that are constantly having to be changed depending on the time of year. Needlessly added cost and complexity to an overtaxed refinery system allows the oil men to claim supply is short and raise the price.

Which brings me to my next point, our overtaxed refinery system. Environmental regulations have made it "cost prohibitive" to build new refineries or dramatically expand capacity. But why would oil companies want to do that? They can charge more if supply is constantly tight.

 

It's pretty easy to forget history. Your perception doesn't match reality, though. Here's a document from API showing actual data. You'll notice the gasoline price tracks crude price. Any perceived difference difference is only that - perceived.




Now, how gas stations distinguish their premium products is unrelated to this. It seems you take issue not with the price of regular, but the cost difference for premium. There is a trend recently to sell premium fuel not just as a higher octane, but as a "premium product" with other tangible benefits - like better detergents, etc. While claims of benefits from these additives are dubious, you can always go to a non-premium gas station. I buy at HEB, and the price difference for their 93 octane vs Exxon/Shell is often 40-50 cents. So, blame the Exxon/Shell service station brand for gouging you, but keep your blame there. Most of the industry, including the majority of upstream drillers actually finding and producing oil domestically, have nothing to do with this. In fact, you should be thanking them for the future low, less volatile prices they are working hard to bring to you.




http://www.api.org/~/media/files/oil...ices-hires.pdf

 

Infra - excellent post.

most people love bashing oil companies.

also, how about the need for streamlined federal rules for gasoline so refiners don't have to make dozens and dozens of different formulations for different states and times of the year? plus, the country hasn't added any refining capacity in years i believe, probably because the chance of getting approval to build one is close to zero.

this country loves to shoot itself in the foot and rely on oil from unstable countries with dictators or 'royal families', that support terrorism.

 

Agreed it was a good post on Infra's part.

This is an especially bad problem in California, where the state requires all kinds of special blends for the L.A. basin and other high-pollution areas. It's one reason, in addition to high taxes, why gas is more expensive there than in other states.......simple economies of scale.





Actually, we HAVE made a lot of progress lately in increasing our own supply of crude oil...which has helped keep the price substantially below $4.00 a gallon for some time now, even with the high demand now in the summer driving season. Obama, after several years of opposition, finally agreed to allow offshore drilling in more areas (let's hope we don't see a repeat of that awful BP rig-accident a few years ago). As far as the refining capacity goes, you have a point, though I don't think that a practical solution necessarily has near-zero chances. One thing I myself suggested (and I sent a proposal to my representatives), was that Congress create an independent commission to investigate and determine locations for new refineries. They would have the same authority as the military-base commission did, years ago, for the closing of military bases. Those proposals for the military base closings stuck in spite of local political opposition...and I think the ones for new refineries would, too.

 

Any NEW refinery would out-produce the combined totals of 20 of these old refineries. Plus a new refinery would not need to "shut down for maintenance" when switching over from summer-winter blends, plus would be able to handle a complex array of crude types & produce a wide mix of fuels, plus the efficiency of only 7% waste.