# Whats with the price of gas? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 8, 2003, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-price-of-gas/153623 "2003-02-08T01:46:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-price-of-gas/153623/1 "2003-02-08T01:46:57Z")
I last filled up my Toyota pickup with gas at a local Safeway on January 27th and paid $1.37.9 a gallon including my 3 cent a gallon club card discount. I just filled up again a few hours ago and paid $1.54.9 cents a gallon at the same Safeway. This is for low grade regular, not the better stuff. When the price of gas starts going up it is usually news here in the Seattle area. Is this a local thing or is the price going up everywhere? ---
**Author:** ![3waygeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/e95f7d/32.png) [@3waygeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3waygeek)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-price-of-gas/153623/2 "2003-02-08T01:57:13Z")
Here in Atlanta, it’s gone up $0.10/gallon since Monday, to about $1.459 now. It was $1.289 about 2 weeks ago. Remember that the general strike/lockout (in case **Chumpsky** is lurking) in Venezuela (our #2 oil supplier) is still in progress. That, combined with the near-certainty of war in Iraq, has raised crude oil prices from ~$20/bbl to over $30. According to an item on tonight’s evening news, we will probably see record prices for gas come spring. The same story said that home heating oil prices are about 50% higher than last year – bad news for those in the Northeast, where oil heat is still in wide use. ---
**Author:** ![Slainte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Slainte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slainte)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-price-of-gas/153623/3 "2003-02-08T02:02:43Z")
$1.49 today, yesterday it was $1.43 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-price-of-gas/153623/4 "2003-02-08T02:03:33Z")
I just filled up at a station – Union 76 – that usually has the cheapest gas near where I work. $1.639, up from 1.599 yesterday. It was up a penny from this morning. It seems that prices are going up almost by the hour. It's going to get worse too, for the reason \*\*3waygeek\*\* said. Gas in my neighbourhood is usually about .20 - $.30/gallon more than where I fill up in Orange County. ---
**Author:** ![Feynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@Feynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Feynn)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-price-of-gas/153623/5 "2003-02-08T02:10:23Z")
Fuel here just went up 6 cents a litre which brings the price per gallon up to… (does conversion) THREE DOLLARS AND FORTY FIVE CENTS A FREAKING GALLON! or 2.17 U.S. That’s an increase of over 25 cents a gallon… overnight. Good god. ---
**Author:** ![djxiii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6f9a4e/32.png) [@djxiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/djxiii)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-price-of-gas/153623/6 "2003-02-08T02:44:44Z")
81.7 cents per litre this morning. I’ve never had to pay that much before. Not happy about it. 1 us gallon = 3.786 litres and then convert cash… 2.03USD per gallon here in Surrey BC. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-price-of-gas/153623/7 "2003-02-08T03:00:01Z")
NYMEX light sweet crude was $34.25 at noon today, and natural gas was ~$5.67 the last time I looked. These are high prices compared to recent years. The rig count in North America was, IIRC, 873 last week, and is slowly creeping up. But it’s been in the mid-800s for months now. That’s compared to a.) a rig count ~1200 about 2 years ago and b.) a rig count ~4500 when I started working in oil and gas exxploration in 1981. The Venezuelan situation has been mentioned, as has that of Iraq. Additionally, natural gas storage is very low, and our imports of that are from Mexico and Canada, not overseas. So we still rely on ourselves for that, more so than we do for oil, and the drilling is just not happening. Also, the world economy is at a slow tick right now. One way or another, most of the money is not convinced that they need to be cheapening energy right now, by funding drilling efforts, although those of us in the business think (generally, of course) that we need to be expanding gas reserves _right now_! ---
**Author:** ![JimSox5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5a626/32.png) [@JimSox5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimSox5)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-price-of-gas/153623/8 "2003-02-08T03:01:51Z")
We’re paying $1.52 per ninth in good old middle-of-nowhere (read:West Central Indiana) ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-price-of-gas/153623/9 "2003-02-08T03:17:20Z")
1 euro and 18 cents per liter here in Holland, which would make it 4.46 euro per American gallon, or $4.81. So, in short: quityerbitching. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-price-of-gas/153623/10 "2003-02-08T03:30:03Z")
Petrol around here is about 93 cents a litre. About $4.18 a gallon but our gallon is 160 ounces. Routinely our prices are rigged by the petrol companies. Every week the price rices several cents per litre from Wednesday morning onward. It then reduces over the weekend until hitting rock bottom on Tuesday. A garage that has fuel for say 85 cents a litre on Tuesday may change its price to 91 cents on Wednesday without even getting a delivery. ---
**Author:** ![xenothrope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/7ab992/32.png) [@xenothrope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenothrope)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-price-of-gas/153623/11 "2003-02-08T03:49:59Z")
linkaroo (sorry i dont know how to make a real link) [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/904748.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/904748.stm) it was on fark the other day. -x out ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-price-of-gas/153623/12 "2003-02-08T04:16:08Z")
On Monday I paid $1.43 a gallon, today I paid $1.64. Yikes. Happy ---
**Author:** ![porcupine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac91a4/32.png) [@porcupine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/porcupine)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-price-of-gas/153623/13 "2003-02-08T05:49:27Z")
I drive by the cheapest place in town on my way home every day and it’s up .08/gallon over the last 3 days here to 1.59.9. ---
**Author:** ![Wysiwig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b2d939/32.png) [@Wysiwig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wysiwig)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-price-of-gas/153623/14 "2003-02-08T07:15:14Z")
$5.98 for UK Gallon (smaller that US) ---
**Author:** ![arachnidlove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@arachnidlove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/arachnidlove)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-price-of-gas/153623/15 "2003-02-08T07:51:57Z")
I’m paying $1.82 right now. Sucks to be a delivery driver… ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-price-of-gas/153623/16 "2003-02-08T13:12:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wysiwig \* > \*\*$5.98 for UK Gallon (smaller than US) \*\* Bigger than US, actually. The US has 16 ounce pints, the UK has 20 ounce pints, so a UK gallon is 10 US gallons = 1.25 US gallons. ---
**Author:** ![auRa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@auRa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auRa)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-price-of-gas/153623/17 "2003-02-08T15:35:33Z")
1.199 euros per liter in some stations in Helsinki today. The cheapest was 1.099 e/l. Unfortunately, that one was also the furthest from where I live. 🙂 I hate shopping for anything. Comparison shopping for gasoline just takes the cake. Argh! Frustration!