OT - gas

[SPURSX3]

Just filled up at 1.49 a gallon.  anyone think it will keep dropping??  I keep thinking we all should have some sort of refund for being over charged so much due to speculation...I am gonna miss gas this cheap when demand starts to go back up.

[jemagee]

1.78 this morning at the second lowest station in town.

At some point it'll bottom out i'm sure - but as long as the opec nations don't lower production levels who knows when - now if my freight bills would start getting lower i'd be happy

[SPURSX3]

well I still plan on going hybrid no matter what the price of gas is,  just waiting for fuel cell to go main stream in this country.  Think I would prefer that over the gas/eletric options out there....unless I win the lotto and go buy myself a Tesla that is.   

[WayOutWest]

well I still plan on going hybrid no matter what the price of gas is,  just waiting for fuel cell to go main stream in this country.  Think I would prefer that over the gas/eletric options out there....unless I win the lotto and go buy myself a Tesla that is.   

The current fuel cell technology will run you about 600K (six hundred thousand) dollars per feul cell, plus the price of the car it's in.  The infrastructure for hydrogen fuel gas stations is about 10 years away at BEST.  Let me know how that works out for you. 

[SPURSX3]

well I still plan on going hybrid no matter what the price of gas is,  just waiting for fuel cell to go main stream in this country.  Think I would prefer that over the gas/eletric options out there....unless I win the lotto and go buy myself a Tesla that is.   

The current fuel cell technology will run you about 600K (six hundred thousand) dollars per feul cell, plus the price of the car it's in.  The infrastructure for hydrogen fuel gas stations is about 10 years away at BEST.  Let me know how that works out for you. 

assuming chrysler does not go under, I would hope they would start introducing in the U.S. sooner as they are selling fuel vehicle to companies in europe.  The station issue? yeah I understand that, but I do not want to buy another gas guzzler, or electric/hybrid option right now either.  I can wait for fuel cell.

[westkoast]

When I was in Arizona I saw it at 1.55. Diesel was under 2 bucks.

Crude oil shot back up yesterday though so I expect the prices to rise up a little bit again.

[Lurker]

Gas futures for Dec/Jan delivery were running just below a dollar recently.  Once you tack on the state & federal fuel taxes you will find that prices can't go much lower.  Unless the price of oil drops even further than the $40 barrel range (not happening because now US companies are now scaling back exploration...it is too expensive to look for new sources at such low prices).

[WayOutWest]

Gas futures for Dec/Jan delivery were running just below a dollar recently.  Once you tack on the state & federal fuel taxes you will find that prices can't go much lower.  Unless the price of oil drops even further than the $40 barrel range (not happening because now US companies are now scaling back exploration...it is too expensive to look for new sources at such low prices).

I used to work with a few drilling companies back in 99-04 and at the time they said once a barrel of oil went above $50 it was worth it to explore for new wells offshore.  Not sure if the same rule of thumb applies to land basded, onshore, drilling wells.

[Lurker]

Gas futures for Dec/Jan delivery were running just below a dollar recently.  Once you tack on the state & federal fuel taxes you will find that prices can't go much lower.  Unless the price of oil drops even further than the $40 barrel range (not happening because now US companies are now scaling back exploration...it is too expensive to look for new sources at such low prices).

I used to work with a few drilling companies back in 99-04 and at the time they said once a barrel of oil went above $50 it was worth it to explore for new wells offshore.  Not sure if the same rule of thumb applies to land basded, onshore, drilling wells.

I think that is a part of it.  I also think that the US companies (and govt) are savvy enough to let other areas of the world exhaust their reserves while still maintaining a large majority of the US based reserves untouched. 

[ziggy]

From Nouriel Roubini's Econo Monitor

Until July of this year Russia was growing at an annual rate close to 8%, oil prices were peaking at $140 a barrel, the country was running a large fiscal surplus and a large current account surplus, it had a war chest of $600 billion of foreign reserves, its stock market, bond markets and currency values were strong and policy makers were thinking of turning the rouble into a major reserve currency, at least for the CIS bloc.  This economic and financial success was leading Russia to flex its geo-political muscle challenging the U.S. on a number of political and military issues, using its energy power as an instrument of foreign policy in its relations with the Eurozone and its former Soviet neighbors.  What a difference a few months make! 

Read Nouriel?s ?Rouble Trouble in Russia: The Inconsistent Trinity at Work and the Need for a 20-25% Currency Depreciation?.

Russia is as they say "totally f$!#ed".  A 20-25% currency depreciation will be absolutely devastating, and it will be just the beginning.  Putin stole the investment of many Western firms in Russia, and gave the assets to Russian owned oil companies.  Now the rouble is toilet paper, the Russian stock market is in free fall, and Russian debt is verging on worthless.  They can't borrow internationally, nobody trusts them.  So they are going to reduce output, in concert with OPEC, so they can get prices to increase.  HA!! I will believe it when I see it.  Same with Chavez, and the Mullahs in Tehran, and the loopies running the show in Lagos.