Better Fill up today

[Bonnie M.]

We paid $3.74.9 just a little while ago per gallon of gasoline, the least expensive in Escondido!

[Lookatmeknow!!]

This rising cost of fuel has really got my family saving on things.  We do most, if not all of our grocery shopping here in Howard.  I don't know what we would do if we didn't have the grocery store and Cookson's.  We have, even before, tried to get all that would could in town.  But now more than ever it is important to buy locally.  By the time I load up the van with the 3 girls, go to a grocery store either in Independence or Eureka, I haven't saved that much money or time.  What really worries me more about the price of fuel is that we farm, and this summer putting up hay could be a very costly project.  But we have to have it so we will do it, but Jeff used to custum hay, now I am not sure if he will even take any on.  He just won't make any money at it.  So, what money we save before summer will go towards putting up the hay!!

I think people really need to look at buy locally more.  You don't realize that you will actually save money, especially by the time you fill up to go somewhere!!!

[frawin]

Angie, I agree with you 100%, and the price is going higher, in fact crude traded at new highs overnite although it has traded off some this A.M.
Frank

[frawin]

Oil Rises to Record on Unexpected Drop in Supplies, Weak Dollar

By Alexander Kwiatkowski

April 17 (Bloomberg) -- Oil rose to a record after the U.S. Energy Department reported an unexpected decline in the country's crude and gasoline inventories and the dollar traded at an all- time low against the euro, boosting investment in commodities.

Oil climbed to $115.54 a barrel in New York, the highest since futures began trading in 1983. Crude supplies dropped 2.36 million barrels to 313.7 million in the week ended April 11, the department said yesterday. Gasoline stockpiles fell for a fifth week and refineries ran at the lowest rate since October 2005.

``People were expecting an increase in crude stocks and gasoline is going down,'' said Ehsan Ul-Haq, head of research at JBC Energy in Vienna. ``If gasoline stocks start dropping before the summer driving season it could mean trouble for the U.S.''

Crude oil for May delivery gained as much as 61 cents in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and traded at $115.26 a barrel at 10:47 a.m. London time. Yesterday, futures gained $1.14, or 1 percent, to settle at $114.93 a barrel, a record close. Crude has risen to records for the past three days.

Brent crude for June settlement advanced as much as 72 cents to a record $113.38 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange. It was at $113.11 at 10:48 a.m. local time. The contract yesterday climbed $1.08, or 1 percent, to close at a high of $112.66 a barrel.

Dollar Slumps

The dollar fell to a record $1.5983 against the euro today. It traded at $1.5973 per euro at 10:38

[Tobina+1]

Angie; isn't sales tax cheaper in Howard vs. Independence and Wichita?  So you're not only saving in gas, but saving in sales tax!  Even if some of the items are more expensive locally, you probably still end up equal or less with all things accounted.

[KandyKane]

I just had to put my 2 cents worth in regarding the sales tax in other towns.  For those who shop in Winfield, when you pay their sales tax, your money is helping to pay for their new county jail and other community projects they have crammed down resident's throats regardless if they wanted it or not.  If you shop in Independence, your tax dollars go for helping to pay for their new library, fancy swimming pool, renovation of the Memorial Hall, and now their school system is trying to cram some new school buildings down taxpayers throats (it's been voted down 3 times) and the Montgomery county sheriff is trying to get a new jail built.  So there you have it folks!

[frawin]

A short term hold or hesitation in Oil prices before they head higher for the coming summer driving season. Again our big trade deficits are a big part of the problem, along with the Nigerian Militants continuing their sabotage. I have spent some time in the Jungle areas where the Nigerian Treminals are and there is no way to protect them 100% against sabotage.


Oil prices slip

By PABLO GORONDI Associated Press Writer

R12; Oil prices slipped below $115 a barrel Friday amid thin trading volumes as the U.S. dollar held its ground against the euro.

A host of supply and demand concerns in the U.S. and abroad, as well as the depreciating dollar, have pushed crude prices up more than 4 percent this week.

Light, sweet crude for May delivery was down 56 cents to $114.30 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Europe.

On Thursday, the May contract hit a trading record of $115.54 as the dollar fell to a new low against the euro. Crude finished the floor session down 7 cents at $114.86 a barrel after falling back when the dollar strengthened.

In London, Brent crude futures fell 76 cents to $111.67 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Investors have been buying oil contracts as a hedge against the weakening dollar, betting that rising commodity prices will offset dollar declines.

But Friday, the dollar rose slightly, after falling to all-time record low Thursday against the euro, which hit $1.5982.

By midday in Europe, the euro stood at $1.5867 and was seen staying within a narrow range.

"Oil has been taking so widely its directional clue from the dollar that when the dollar does not move, oil does not know where to go," Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix in Switzerland said in a report.

Traders were also keeping an eye on unrest in Africa's biggest crude producer.

A militant group in Nigeria said it had sabotaged a major oil pipeline operated by a Royal Dutch Shell PLC joint venture and promised further attacks on the country's petroleum industry.

A spokesman for Shell had no immediate comment on any attack.

Attacks since early 2006 on oil infrastructure by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta have cut nearly one quarter of Nigeria's normal petroleum output, boosting oil prices.

The militants say they are fighting to force the federal government to send more oil industry revenue to their areas, which remain desperately poor despite decades of oil production.

Prices were supported by a U.S. Energy Department report on inventories, released Wednesday, that showed gasoline supplies fell 5.5 million barrels last week — much more than what analysts had expected.

That slide comes as the U.S. heads into its peak summer driving season, a period when demand and retail gasoline prices surge. The department's Energy Information Administration report also showed crude inventories fell 2.3 million barrels for the same period.

David Moore, a commodity strategist with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney, said strengthening demand in other parts of the world was also supporting oil prices.

"Outside of the U.S., oil demand in some areas has remained firm," Moore said. "Indicative of that was the recent Chinese trade data, which showed very strong growth in both crude oil imports and imports of oil products."

The Chinese government last week reported that China's oil imports surged to a record 17.3 million tons in March, as the country nearly unseated Japan as the world's second-largest buyer of foreign crude oil. China imported an average of just over 4 million barrels a day, according to calculations based on data from China's Customs Administration.

An International Energy Agency report that said Russian oil production dropped this year for the first time in a decade also helped to boost prices.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures fell 1.69 cents to $3.2505 a gallon while gasoline prices lost 2.09 cents to $2.9369 a gallon. Natural gas futures fell 1.3 cents to $10.370 per 1,000 cubic feet.

[frawin]

Unfortunately but not unexpected crude oil broke new highs again today trading as high as $117.00 barrel and settling at a new high of $116.69.
Frank

[Janet Harrington]

When I got home this morning I drove by P & J's and gas there is now $3.59 per gallon.  It was $3.49 in Independence, but I am sure it will go up soon.

[frawin]

This is an interesting insight into who now controls the World oil Production and markets.  I doubt that OPEC and Non-Opec-Non US producers have the capacity to raise production appreciably anyway. Hopefully the higher prices and the pain that goes with it will bring about change in the US that will make changes from being the World's largest and most wasteful oil consuming nation to the world leader in conservation and change.
Frank

Energy producers in driving seat

Reuters

Published: April 20, 2008, 23:50

Rome: Consumer countries and international oil firms keen to gain greater access to the world's energy resources are likely to walk away empty-handed from talks with producer nations in Rome.

Record high oil, which struck $117 a barrel on Friday, has helped to drive up the profits of oil majors, but it has also increased the spending power of national oil companies and made them ever more reluctant to grant access to their resources.

"The relative positions of international energy companies and national energy companies are changing - and not in our favour," Paolo Scaroni, chief executive of Italian oil and gas company Eni said in a speech at the opening of the International Energy Forum (IEF).



Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) member Venezuela, under President Hugo Chavez, has spearheaded a global trend towards resource-holders seeking to maximise their returns from their energy wealth.

International firms have found themselves faced with tougher terms and shut out of the best energy territory.

During the 1970s, the international oil companies controlled nearly three-quarters of global oil reserves and 80 per cent of production, Scaroni said.

Now, they control 6 per cent of oil and 20 per cent of gas reserves, and 24 per cent of oil and 35 per cent of gas production, he said. National oil companies hold the rest. There is little sign the trend will reverse.

But national oil companies still have some need for cooperation with foreign investors as international and national firms alike battle with cost overruns, staff shortages and the difficult of extracting oil and gas from more complex fields.

Meanehile, the world will need every form of energy available - from coal to biofuels -to keep pace with a booming population, the chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell said yesterday.

"... Despite high prices, demand is not dropping, there is only slower growth. Easy oil and easy gas cannot supply all that surge in demand," Jeroen van der Veer said.

Opec: No need 'to raise output'

The Opec sees no need to raise oil production to counter high oil prices, the Opec President said on Sunday. "No," said Chakib Khelil, who is also Algeria's Energy and Mines Minister, when asked by reporters whether Opec should raise production.

"There is a balance between supply and demand," he said, speaking during a visit to Kuwait. He said a previous output increase had failed to bring prices down.

He said Opec wanted an "appropriate" price suiting both consumers and producers, but declined