Do not boycott....you are trying to hurt the wrong people!!!

["Charlie" <onegudman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Contrary to popular belief, your local gas station is not making a killing
on  the recent increase of fuel prices.  Here is why....

As Environmental Manager for an independent oil company I would like to
remind everyone why we find ourselves in the present escalation of petroleum
product prices.  For the first time in many years, the oil cartel is
adhering to the production limits of crude oil that was agreed apon.  The
United States government was involved in these agreements as we import a
majority of the crude oil we use.  The original idea was to get the price up
from the historic low of about a year or so ago (no one seems to remember
that!) so North American crude oil producers would find it worth their while
to explore and produce more oil. In turn our dependence on foreign oil would
be decreased.  The Middle East has lower production costs and can easily
undercut our market.

In combination with this the eastern US found itself in a sudden cold snap
and the demand for heating oil greatly increased for a time.  Crude oil
refineries distill so much gasoline, so much heating oil, etc.  and if
stocks of one type of petroleum start getting low it takes time to gear up
production to distill more crude oil to make more of that type of fuel that
is needed most.  All that means higher production costs which are passed on
to consumers.  Heating oil and diesel fuel are the same distillate so when
one goes up the other follows.

Your local gas station be it a major or independent has to buy its fuel from
a local terminal.  By this time the oil producer has passed on their price
increases, the refinery its price increases and now the terminal its price
increase for distribution. Hence the prices at the gas pump are likewise
increased.  However, the profit margin is the same or smaller for the gas
station than it was when the price was lower.  In order to remain
competitive and because we Americans are so used to cheap supplies of almost
everything we want, the gas station ends up clearing about 1.5 to 3 cents
per gallon of gasoline REGARDLESS OF PRICE!  Not a whole heck of a lot.  A
really good gas station will sell 150,000 to 200,000 gallons of gas per
month.  Most mom and pops do much, much less.

My company had days when we could not even get heating oil from the
terminals because supplies were so short.  The oil cartel may be making big
bucks because they control the supply, but your local gas station is not.

As someone on the list so aptly put it.... More money is made on coffee and
cigarettes than gas sales as the profit margins are so much larger.  People
will pay .99 for a large coffee and think nothing of it.......making that
coffee cost only a few cents per cup.....


Charlie



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