Kero is $2.00 a gal. Gasoline going up to $2.00 a gal.

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This is the latest from Western Maine. Kero is now at $2.07 a gal. Gas will be $2.00 this week. The high octane is gone here. Had lines at the pumps yesterday. Fuel oil is up to $1.85 at some places and over $2.oo at other places. Can't wait till next week to see what the prices are then. BTW the kero that is 2 a gal was bought last july and put into the underground tanks. they paid .98 cents a gal then. when asked how come the price increase they said it was controled by the state. Yeah sure! Will let you all know when I find out more.

-- jules (jules@fridgid.net), January 24, 2000

Answers

Lines at the pumps indicate what? That some stations do not have gasoline or are limiting sales? Or that news of the price hike is out and people are tanking up before prices jump? Or that news of impending shortages is circulating and folks are hedgin against a future disruption in supple? Here, in Oregon, all is normal. Gas prices lowest in months, same with diesel.

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-- Squirrel Hunter (nuts@upina.cellrelaytower), January 24, 2000.


http://projo.c om/report/pjb/stories/03086092.htm

TO: 1.24.2000 07:04:29 Oil dealers urge customers to ride out price spike The message from dealers: Don't buy it if you don't need it because the increased cost won't last.

By MARION DAVIS Journal Staff Writer

``I want to know who is responsible,'' one woman complained, after paying $1.75 per gallon for heating oil this weekend. ``It's a fiasco.''

Tell us about it, heating oil distributors said. Some were having to call customers to raise the prices for orders made hours earlier. They were being yelled at, accused of price-gouging, and still they might lose money.

``It's ridiculous,'' one said. Remarked another: ``There's something wrong here.''

There's no question about it: The price of heating oil has skyrocketed in the last few days.

At Colonial Oil, in Providence, for example, general manager Joseph Iannucci said wholesale price increases forced him to go from $1.219 per gallon Jan. 15, to $1.339 last Thursday, to $1.569 early Friday, to $1.839 Friday night.

For a 150-gallon delivery, the difference would be $93 -- from $185.85 to $275.85.

A&A Fuel Service, in East Providence, was only slightly lower: $1.79 per gallon, according to Alan Perry, the owner. The Brennan Oil & Heating Co., in North Providence, was charging $1.82, or $1.72 for cash customers. Wood's Heating & Oil was charging similar prices, but its automatic-delivery customers were protected by a $1.099 price cap.

Why is oil more expensive now than during the Gulf war?

Blame the cold. And the strong winds. Perhaps some poor planning by wholesalers, and an eagerness to profit from the consequences. And Wall Street speculation. And the Arab nations' export policies. A close look shows that at every level, the pennies are adding up.

Rhode Island heating oil distributors can buy their oil from 11 suppliers in the state, though many tend to stick to one or two.

Perry, of A&A Fuel Service, said the latest price quotes he had received were in the $1.42 to $1.43 per gallon range. Iannucelli, at Colonial, said he was being charged $1.469 by his supplier. Carl Benker, owner of Wood's Heating & Oil, in East Providence, said he was being quoted $1.36 to $1.46.

Retailers interviewed yesterday disagreed about whether there's a shortage of oil. Perry said he had received a fax Saturday from Global Petroleum ``saying there's an ample supply of oil.''

But Benker said Wood's was ``on allocation'' at Mobil, its main supplier, and Northeast Petroleum was ``giving it out by the spoonful, . . . trying to limp through by giving it out in small amounts.''

Dennis Brennan, owner of Brennan Oil, said Mobil had been unable to sell him oil since Thursday; Sprague Energy was only taking regular customers; and Global Petroleum, which he said normally operates around the clock, had shut down its East Providence terminal Saturday afternoon, to reopen today at 7 a.m.

``Product is tight,'' Brennan said. ``The supply of fuel was only good for two weeks. You catch a cold snap like this, and you've got to run.''

Some people seem to be buying oil they don't need precisely because they hear there's a shortage, Brennan said.

Benker suggested an additional reason for the increased demand: The gas companies give lower rates to large commercial customers who are willing to be shut off when there's a high demand for gas. When the demand spikes -- say, during a bad cold spell -- the ``interruptible'' gas customers need to find an alternate heating fuel, so they also buy oil.

Jim Grasso, a spokesman for Providence Gas Co., confirmed that the company has shut off interruptible customers in recent days.

Efforts to reach oil wholesalers yesterday were mostly unsuccessful. But Betsy Eaton, a spokeswoman for Mobil in Fairfax, Va., did return a call from The Journal and confirmed that the oil supply had been very low.

The cold snap boosted demand, Eaton said, and while normally Mobil could refill its tanks soon, the weather made that impossible, too. The waves were too high to bring a barge into the East Providence terminal mid-week, she said, so it only made it in last night.

An allocation system was put in place to ensure the supply was distributed ``fairly and equitably,'' she said. Asked how much Mobil was charging, she said she didn't have the latest figures, but in general, ``pricing is very much a supply-and-demand situation, and very competitive.''

The demand at the New York Mercantile Exchange, where heating oil futures are traded, had ``an element of hysteria'' on Friday, one analyst told Reuters. The price rose by 10 cents, to 93.50 cents a gallon, within hours that morning, reaching a nine-year high.

Also on Friday, the Journal of Commerce reported all-time high heating oil prices for barges in New York, $1.10 to $1.37 per gallon, surpassing Gulf war records. A week before, the prices had been in the 79- to 80-cent range, the business paper said, nearly double the 40- to 48-cent price a year ago.

The rapid price hike has been attributed to the rise in demand in the Northeast and to reports last week that output limits set by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries have excessively reduced worldwide oil supplies. It's unclear whether reduced oil reserves have spurred panic buying.

Perry, of A&A Fuel Service, said he is waiting for the New York traders to come back to their senses.

``All of this is based on innuendo,'' he said. ``In New York, they look out the window and if it's cold, the price goes up. People who have called me for oil, if they have enough to wait three days, I'm telling them to wait, because if the temperatures moderate, the price is going to drop.''

Al Iannucci, owner of Waldo Oil Service, said he isn't even filling his regular customers' tanks all the way, because the price ``is going to kill them.''

``I'm telling them -- I'm being honest with them -- `If you don't need it, don't buy it, because this can't last,' '' Iannucci said. ``I really don't believe it's going to last. . . . I think if the weather breaks this week, it should crack it.''

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), January 24, 2000.


That's funny, because I just bought gas for $1.29 a gallon in western Maine this weekend.

-- You Knowwho (debunk@doomeridiots.com), January 24, 2000.

Anybody that doesn't believe fuel costs are taking a BIGGER bite out of one's take home pay this January compared to the same time last year is off their rocker.

Last year we were paying 83 cents for regular, this year we are paying $1.30, This represents a whopping 57% rise in fuel prices.

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), January 24, 2000.


Last January, gas was $.78 a gallon in Austin, Texas.

On January 20, 2000 in Houston, Texas at the Shell gas station at the intersection of Richmond and Weslyan(sp?), it was $1.51 a gallon.

Gasoline is produced in Houston; I have no earthly idea why it would be so expensive there.

Peace, Y'all!

Don

-- Shimoda (enlighten@me.com), January 24, 2000.



Ummm...something about crude oil prices and the collusion of mideast producers to reduce output to pump up prices perhaps?

-- You Knowwho (debunk@doomeridiots.com), January 24, 2000.

In Western Massachusetts:

Kerosene: $1.69 a gallon Reg. Unleaded Gas: $1.39 Ultra Gas: $1.49 Super Gas: $1.69 This is self-serve. Full Serve is .10 more per gallon and it is even higher 3 miles away in CT. No lines so far that I've noticed and not even alot of complaining yet. Curiouser and curiouser, Diane

-- Diane (cptlauthor@aol.com), January 24, 2000.


In Kenosha Wisconsin, diesel moved up a nickel from this weekend to $1.49 9/10's. No lines, no panic, no shortages, just prices moving up fast.

-- Sure M. Hopeful (Hopeful@future.com), January 24, 2000.

I'm not sure what all this price spike talke is all about. Costco's regular unleaded has been steady at $1.25 here in NW Washington since before Christmas! I think you folks are experiencing normal fluctuations. Has anyone heard any credible reports of what DDfirstlight talked about with gas availability dropping to 45% of 1999 levels? So far, things are pretty good. We're near the end of January, when we were told the oil bomb would drop... but virtually nothing. A few cents fluctuation here and there is *not* what was predicted. Just wondering...

-- RPGman (tripix@olypen.com), January 24, 2000.

Youknow: I'd be very interested in knowing exactly where you found your $1.29 gas in western Maine. I just drove in through Rumford to Penobscot Bay today (Monday) and the cheapest I saw was $1.389 self- service regular.

RPGman, as has been noted elsewhere on this board, the West Coast gets its petroleum from different sources than the East and Midwest. The Alaska Pipeline didn't turn into one long popsicle, as was once predicted, and I haven't heard to many refinery problems out there. It's sort of the reverse of the problem you had last year, when refinery problems pushed up prices in California well beyond the East Coast rates.

-- Cash (cash@andcarry.com), January 24, 2000.



Cash: try southwest Maine. Might have been Wells or York.

-- You Knowwho (debunk@doomeridiots.com), January 24, 2000.

I just received an "alert letter" which reportedly has a commnication from a trucker in Boston..The driver reports that deisel fuel is selling at 2.38 a gallon in Boston at this time. And that the independant trckers are having a hrd time paying for enough fue to "get ut of there".

The driver also added that there are truckers selling their CB's (and every thing else, trying to come up with fuel money). He further added that the public won't have to worry about a trucker's strike! Quite simply because they would all be stranded on the side of the road with empty tanks.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shakey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-- Shakey (in_a_bunker@forty.feet), January 24, 2000.


Youknow: Ah, you're in *southern* Maine, the Boston suburbs. I would guess you don't get up to Maine very often, if you're calling Wells and York western Maine. And I'll bet it wasn't on the turnpike, either. Thanks for the tip, though, I'll go out that way tomorrow and see if it's still that low. I can always use a cheap fill-up :-) The mountains, BTW, are generally considered to run from west of Sebago Lake and Lewiston and north to Jackman. I think Jules is in the real western Maine mountains, not those hills in York County.

-- Cash (cash@andcarry.com), January 24, 2000.

Colorado:

Diesel was at $1.33/gal right before New Years, dropped to $1.25 right after New Years and edged up to $1.29 in the last day or two. Being as we are on the east side of the Rockies, does our oil come from the same source as the NE's? If so, why haven't we seen the same jump? Just wondering.

-- rob minor (rbminor@hotmail.com), January 24, 2000.


Unleaded regular is staying at $1.649/gal here on the garden island of Kaua'i. Heating oil and kerosine unavailable in bulk. Things seem normal...

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), January 24, 2000.


Cash is right. I do live in the western Maine mountains. Rangeley lakes area. We got our kero tank filled today. Cost $179. for fillup. we were just above half full. Holds 275 gals. Went to a different dealer to get a break. Ha. Our usual guy told us 2.07 a gal. the new one sold it to us for 1.75. It cost us $95 more to pay for the same amount we bought a month ago. Now that's inflation. We were told we were lucky to get the kero. A lot of dealers are just about out of kero around here. Gasoline is 1.41 here. If you know of someplace close that isn't an hours drive thru the mountains let me know. I would love to get some cheaper gas. Its been 1.41 for about a month and ahalf now. was told the next delivery at our usual place to gas up will be around 2.00 a gal this week. Will keep you posted.

-- jules (jules@fridgid.net), January 24, 2000.

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