Weekly Petroleum Data

[Diane Amberg]

     Some of the wealthiest people I know got that way by hard work and avoiding conspicuous consumption. One friend  has a hugely successful pizza shop. He and his family worked there long hours, have a nice but ordinary house, drive older cars and invested wisely in local real estate. He is a millionaire many times over, donates tons of money to various causes and is as nice a person as you'd ever want to meet. I'm sure he wouldn't be caught dead in a hummer.
     Some of our young people really need to reassess how they spend their money and take a look at "need" versus "want." If you look at the commercials on tv, they come at you like everything is just fine and there is lots of money out there.  I filled up my 8 year old Ford Focus wagon on Monday at $3.14 and was glad to have it. Have you noticed nobody is pushing car pooling like a few years ago? Perhaps we just have to think differently.
    The algae research has been going on here for quite some time, but the expense to profit ratio wasn't good enough. Now that is changing. But the upshot is that the oil refineries aren't going to expand to handle new found oil, even if someone goes after east coast off shore oil, or more in the Gulf of Mexico, if they think "other" energy sources will become readily available.

[frawin]

Interesting article, T\that is one of the things that is the hope of the future. Renewable clean burning fuels is the hope of the future. Hydrogen Fission, Algae, battery power are all being explored for future fuels. "Necessity is The Mother of Invention" and I think we will have clean burning renewable fuels in the future and the sooner the better.
Frank

[pam]

Not to make light of the situation, but do y'all remember in the 70's when a guy in canada supposedly fixed his car to run off water!? First hydrogen car lol and everybody laughed at him if only we knew then what it was gonna be like now!

[Dale Smith]

I tell you what, I drive a Toyota Prius Hybrid, and thank God for it every day.  I drive an average of 400 miles per week for work, and now only buy one tank of gas per week.... this morning it took a little over 7 gallons for the past week and cost me about $24 to fill it up.  I can't imagine how much it would cost me if I weren't averaging over 50 miles per gallon.

[sixdogsmom]

Too bad they can't use Johnson Grass to make bio-deisel! Elk county would be a wealty place! 

[frawin]

Dale, congratulations on buying a Prius, one of my friends here in Bartlesville has one, they took a 3500 mile trip through the mountains last summer and got 60 + MPG. I have ridden in it and it is so quiet and smooth. If we cut our petroleum derivate energy by 5% / year we would reduce our daily oil consuption by more than a Million Barrels per day, in addition we would be decreasing our annual consuption instead of increasing it. The only time we have ever had a decrese in consuption year/over/year was in WWII. I did away with both of my V8 engines and went to 6 cyclinders on both and they have more than enough power, room and performance for my needs. I plan to eventually get a Hybrid, but I am waiting on Honda to build one I like, my daughter works for Honda so that is all I that I have at present.
Frank Winn

[W. Gray]

Great rip-off in increasing gas mileage.

Back in the very early 50s, brother Waldo's family from Howard came to visit brother Jack's family in Missouri. Jack had a new item called television and all 7 inches of a round screen caused quite a fascination.

While both families were watching, an advertisement appeared on that little TV plugging something called the ROCKET. It cost either 98 cents or 1.98 and looked vaguely like a rocket. One simply unplugged the center wire of an automobile distributor, inserted the ROCKET, and re-plugged the center wire to the ROCKET.

Use of this this little gadget on one's car would significantly increase performance by not only increasing horsepower but also increasing gas mileage at the same time. It had to be true because the advertisement said so. All one needed to do was send in a money order for the ROCKET, plus postage, and the post office would deliver.

My Mom ordered two, one for each of the brothers. The items arrived and I watched my Dad install his. We took the other one to Howard so Waldo could install his.

The gadget did absolutely nothing.

A few years later after I began driving, the ROCKET was again being advertised on TV. I decided maybe the adults did something wrong on their installation so I ordered one for myself.  I cannot recall the cost but it was quite a bit more this time.

After installation, it did absolutely nothing.

A few years ago, I saw the ROCKET being advertised on the internet but could not find it in a recent search.

There are several sites on the internet having to do with running your car on water.

[Tobina+1]

How about those guys who can turn a car (diesel?) into a veggie oil mobile?  I've heard you can do it yourself and only takes up a bit of room out of your trunk.  They just swing by fast-food restaurants and fill up out back where they dispose of their used oil!

[greatguns]

Flo,  Maybe we should move to Augusta and I can walk to work and the Grocery store and Steve could carpool with 5 other people to Severy everyday to work.   What to do? What to do?   Actually I do trade a ride so I only have to drive all the way every other day.  Have to drive to Keighley every day though.  Surely all you good taxpayers would take care of my grocerys and a little help on the electric bill would be nice  ( Of course I would turn out my lights while I'm down drinking a few Buds.)  Maybe I could tap into your water and save having that bill.   Be sure and let me know what you think Flo.  Goodnight!

[frawin]

Here is one of the  main causes of the higher crude oil costs, we have made China the second largest oil consuming nation in the world behind the US. In addition, due to our big trade deficits the Dollar has been devalued  and the oil producing nations want more dollars per barrel to keep their income and spending levels on par as compared to the euro, yen and other currencies.
Crude Oil Advances as U.S. Dollar Slides, China Boosts Imports

April 11 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose in New York as the dollar slid against the euro, and Chinese crude imports surged to a record.

Oil has gained 4.1 percent so far this week as the U.S. currency touched a record low versus the euro, making dollar-priced commodities cheaper and more useful as a hedge against inflation. China, the world's second-largest oil consumer, boosted imports 25 percent last month, according to Customs General Administration data released today.

``It's pretty clear that it's dollar-related,'' said Olivier Jakob, managing director of Petromatrix Gmbh in Zug, Switzerland. ``The Chinese data is higher than expected and certainly supportive, but the dollar is still the main input for oil.''

Crude oil for May delivery rose 41 cents to $110.52 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 10:14 a.m. London time.

The International Energy Agency, the energy adviser to 27 nations, today cut its forecast for 2008 global oil demand for a third consecutive month on concern that world economic growth is deteriorating.

Brent crude for May settlement rose 79 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $108.99 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange at 10:12 a.m. London time. Brent reached in intraday record of $109.98 yesterday while the Nymex contract set a record $112.21 a barrel on April 9.

The dollar weakened to $1.5833 per euro at 10:15 a.m. in London, compared with $1.5742 in New York yesterday, on speculation the Group of Seven nations are unlikely to agree on a plan for supporting the U.S. currency when they meet today in Washington.