More bad news from the oil market=Closed over $41

[BEER980]

This is just for starters. China is driving other materials up here as well. Scrap steel through the roof lately. Plywood doubled in price in the last year. Concrete shortage in South Florida. We just signed a contract 2 weeks ago to have a new house built and now it will cost the next person $5000 more for the same house.

bpd is barrels per day

"Thus far, the rising oil price has been largely a consequence of good things, such as a strengthening world economy, rather than a cause of bad things, such as faster inflation or slower growth. China’s burgeoning economy guzzled about 6m bpd in the first quarter of this year, 15% more than a year ago, according to Goldman Sachs. Demand was also strong in the rest of Asia, excluding Japan, growing by 5.2% to 8.1m bpd. "



"China is already a tremendous competitor with us for oil, there will be 800 million Chinese cars," he added. "We have no right not to tell China not to have cars."

[Guest]

This is just for starters. China is driving other materials up here as well. Scrap steel through the roof lately. Plywood doubled in price in the last year. Concrete shortage in South Florida. We just signed a contract 2 weeks ago to have a new house built and now it will cost the next person $5000 more for the same house.

A friend of mine just mentioned the concrete shortage the other day. Has some of our local business owners worried.

[Stephanie]

Thanks Beer! I didn't realize that about China.

[coriolis]

Yeah the steel thing is for real. the contractors on our jobs are all complaining about it. Vendors are being very skittish about how long they will honor a price quote. PennDOT is putting escalation clauses in highway contracts to account for steel prices. It's nuts!

I imagine that China's economy IS taking off. Hopefully they will see the truth in the free market and become more of an ally. That would be helpful in the world situation.

[JQ Public]

Woo hoo! I was so happy to get gas for $1.80 today! I hope it stays low

[BEER980]

Stephanie your welcome. Most don't realize that China is a big part in the world economy. They can hurt us by paying more for goods then we do. BTW oil is at an all time high so look for todays price to hit in another month. We paid $1.96 this AM and 4 hours later we passed by the same station and it jumped to $2.03.

[JQ Public]

Man! The place i got gas for $1.80 on thursday was $1.87 on friday afternoon. Gas prices in Durham just soared to $2.09. I have never in my life experience gas above 2 dollars!!!!!!!!! I hope this isn't some sort of scheme. I'll be a little skeptical if gasoline prices suddenly drop around Presidential Election time!!

[Lindaloo]

Gas is $2.09 for the good stuff. For the first time since I have owned a vehicle I bought regular. SAD DAY!!

[Stephanie]

Gas is $2.09 for the good stuff. For the first time since I have owned a vehicle I bought regular. SAD DAY!!

Same here Lindaloo - I usually get midgrade but that's in the 1.90's. I'm feeding my new "baby" regular. However, the recommended grade of gasoline for my car is "regular", so I don't feel like I'm hurting it.

[Lindaloo]

I agree Steph. I just do not trust some of the gas stations and their watered down versions of regular gasoline.

[Stephanie]

Yeah, I know what you mean Lindaloo. I usually stick with the 'big guys", Texaco, Mobil and Sunoco because of that!

[JQ Public]

Yeh. I heard it was easier for them to do it up north when they don't have self-serve. Is that true Stephanie? I'm referring to watering down the gas btw.

[Lindaloo]

Watering down gas is not a Northern thing I don't think. They do it here too. Water can also get into gas if the underground tanks are in bad shape.

[rainstorm]

no one waters down gas. come on, can you imagine the complaints? its not possible to do that.
let me explain something here. gas is lighter than water. in a 10000 gallon underground gas tank the water settles to the bottom quickly. it does not mix. i worked at a gas station as a cashier once, and we always stuck the tanks every morning, checking for water. if there was more than 3 inches in the bottom of the tank, it had to be pumped out. gasoline and water just cant be mixed.

[rainstorm]

the most likely place water comes into a cars gas tank is from condensation, or the cap not tightly sealed, resulting in water leakage when it rains

[Stephanie]

Your gas station was probably very concientious Helen. I've received bad gasoline before and it was probably because of water still in the tank.

I'm not going to say that it's done intentionally but...

Anyway, I'm sure that there's alot of old tanks out there that need to be replaced and some owners that will do anything for a buck.

[rainstorm]

Your gas station was probably very concientious Helen. I've received bad gasoline before and it was probably because of water still in the tank.

I'm not going to say that it's done intentionally but...

Anyway, I'm sure that there's alot of old tanks out there that need to be replaced and some owners that will do anything for a buck.

but the problem with that argument is that 500-1000 cars in a day would have their engines ruined from that one station alone. a station that did that would be put out of business in no time.

[Stephanie]

There's always good old "dry gas" that you can purchase. I know my old cars always had a problem with moisture in the tank - stalling, sputtering, white smoke coming out of the exhaust, etc.

Oh, I'm sure that they can "clean them out" if there's enough complaints, but that doesn't mean that they'll replace the tank.

[Lindaloo]

no one waters down gas. come on, can you imagine the complaints? its not possible to do that.
let me explain something here. gas is lighter than water. in a 10000 gallon underground gas tank the water settles to the bottom quickly. it does not mix. i worked at a gas station as a cashier once, and we always stuck the tanks every morning, checking for water. if there was more than 3 inches in the bottom of the tank, it had to be pumped out. gasoline and water just cant be mixed.

Okay, my husband is a mechanic. He just had three cars in his shop last week where he had to pump water out of the gas tanks. One customers car had to have new injectors because of the water. So please, do not tell me that there is no water in the gas sometimes.

[wx247]

Prices here are back up to $1.89 for 87 octane. I bought 89 octane yesterday though at $1.93. That is the highest I have paid to date. We shall see what prices are like in few weeks.