Todays gas prices

[Amelia]

Converted to dollars and gallons

Great Britain $8.42 gal

The Netherlands $9.50 gal

Russia $3.06 gal

Saudi Arabia $.45 cents

[LifeHiscost]

Converted to dollars and gallons

Great Britain $8.42 gal

The Netherlands $9.50 gal

Russia $3.06 gal

Saudi Arabia $.45 cents

Northern California $3.93 gal discounted .03c reg unleaded

"And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus."

Philippians 4:19 NASB

Regards!

[Beryl]

Western Australia $1.47 per litre for just plain unleaded (nothing fancy!!).

Would someone please onvert that to per gallon? I would like to see the difference between us and other places.

Thanks,

Beryl

[Stan]

Beryl, for a US gallon, ( a smaller size than other gallons) that is about 5.20 US a gallon.

[CyberGuy]

Prepare for higher prices guys. They say oil may climb to 150 dollars a barrel and that means $5 a gallon here in the USA. Add about 25 percent to what you are paying in the rest of the world and you can get the picture. They expect that to happen by December this year. That is on the news this morning.

[lazarus]

anybody want to buy my Covette.....big discount?

[Liz]

Beryl, for a US gallon, ( a smaller size than other gallons) that is about 5.20 US a gallon.

I may be naive--and probably am--but could you explain this? Isn't a gallon a gallon? How are ours smaller?

[Stan]

US gallons on 3.7 litres

Regular gallons are 4.5 litres

[lazarus]

It may be the mother of all doom and gloom gas price predictions: $12 for a gallon of gas is “inevitable.”

Robert Hirsch, Management Information Services Senior Energy Advisor, gave a dire warning about the potential future of gas prices on CNBC’s May 20 “Squawk Box”. He told host Becky Quick there was no single thing that would solve the problem, due to the enormity of the problem.

http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2008/20080521145247.aspx

[Amelia]

well I still think that .45 cents a gal in Saudi Arabia is disgusting.

[Amelia]

Today in downtown Portland, Oregon, $4.09 gal for regular gas.

[lazarus]

well I still think that .45 cents a gal in Saudi Arabia is disgusting.

Disgusting? I say good for them.

[Dr. Shane]

Mexico is at $2.85/gallon last time I filled up there. A big problem in the US is we all drive cars that are too big.

[Amelia]

[CyberGuy]

Gas was $3.90 a week ago. I have not had to fill up for the past week as I drive only 10 miles round trip to work every day. I do not do any more driving than that if I can help it. I even plan my shopping trips like shopping on the way home from work. I happen to drive right past the grocery store on my way home. I just stop to get what I need on the way home thereby saving on an extra trip to the store.

I expect it will be close to $4 a gallon when I go to the pump tomorrow.

I found Congress idea of taxing the exess profits of the oil companies a bad idea. The oil companies will just pass that expense on to us thereby many the price even higher.

[puddles]

Here in WV, we're paying anywhere from $3.95/gal to $4.05/gal depending on where you go.

Heard on the news that some places were setting up their work schedules so folks working a 40 hour work week could work a 10 hour day and only have to show up 4 days rather than 5. We have this available where I work and I ask my boss if he would consider let me work a 10 hour day so I could get my 40 hours in within 4 days but he's against it. It sure would be nice since I travel 40 miles one way to get to work. Oh well...it could be worse! I'm thankful I have a decent job and will just have to manage better.

[CyberGuy]

Cheapest Gas is $4 to $4.05 in Riverside today.

[Tallmark]

My car is a diesel, so fuel here in Central FL is about $4.50/gal. It will run on vegetable oil, and I'm in the process of doing that. Anyone else who has a diesel can go to dieselsecret.com for more info. I'll give more updates as I progress with this project. Isn't it funny how none of the candidates say anything about the cost of fuel?

[ChildofChrist]

Amanda, On 60 minutes the other evening they mentioned that a limo can fill up for about $8 in Saudi. Don't that bite !?!

[Dottie]

It seems that the questioning was all one-sided. Did anyone hear Representative Waters tell one of the oil people that what Congress would like to do is SOCIALIZE the gasoline distribution? did you hear John Hofmeister tell her that in part, the large price of gasoline here in the US is because of the restrictions that congress has placed on the oil companies, i.e., no drilling in our country, including off shore, in a remote area of Alaska which would be the size of Dallas airport, or take the oil from shale deposits where there is very much available, no building of new refineries,etc. Sounded like he let her know how things really are, not just the way we are constantly told that the oil companies are making huge profits. Maybe they are making huge profits, not a huge profit margin.

[Dottie]

A huge company makes huge profits.

[CyberGuy]

Oil Companies make about 5 to 8 percent profit. Not a huge margin considering pharmasudical companies make 80 percent profit but they are not as large as the oil companies either.

[Amelia]

So no one thought it was outragious that those members of the oil companies were pulling in saleries in excess of 4 million dollars???? Huge profit is right. Right into their pockets and out of ours.

[Dr. Shane]

There are two motivating factors in life. Love and money. People are generally motivated to do something due to one of these two things. Company executives normally are paid on the basis of the profits they are producing for a company or the losses they are minimizing for a company.

I take no issue with those executives making large salaries. They hold positions of incredible responsibility. Those working in the oil fields, refineries and transportation are being well paid. I haven't heard of any oil workers collecting food stamps. The executive's salary is only a very small percentage of what the company profits and only a drop in the bucket of what is spent on fuel everyday.

[Robert]

I believe oil was trading at about $132 a barrel Friday. How does that translate into the price per gallon that you pay at the pump? Well, first you need to know that a standard barrel of oil holds 42 gallons. So if you take $132 for one barrel and divide it by 42 gallons you'll get $3.14/gal.

The average price for a gallon in Columbia, SC is $3.79/gal. So the difference in what crude oil costs and refining it into gas; transporting it, etc...is $0.65. My understanding is that it costs approximately $0.50/gal to refine it. Therefore the remaining $0.15/gal is transportation cost and what your local gas station charges you at the retail level.

So your gas is costing mainly because of what they are charging for a barrel of oil. Comparing ($3.14/gal) to ($3.79/gal) you'll get approximately 83%. So 83% of your gallon of gas comes from the oil companies (not the gas refineries).

Why so high? They, the oil companies, say they can't keep up with demand. Okay, if that's the case why aren't we having shortages? Consumption of gas has only dropped about 1%....We should be seeing gas lines.

So who is to blame? Lobbyists and the good folks in Washington. Back in the early 70's ex-president Nixon said we should seek to become more energy independent. What has happened is completely opposite of what he called for. In many cases we are depending on crude oil from our enemies. So blame good old corruption in Washington...blame the oil lobbyists...blame the auto manufacturers.

The fact is big oil doesn't want to let go of their power monopoly. Alternatives are coming (if big oil doesn't buy them out) such as electric and compressed air cars.

The electric cars requires a battery that delivers high mileage ranges. Right now they have lithium ion batteries that have a range of about 200 to 250 miles. The battery itself cost $30,000! Add this to the price of the car and you get prices around $50,000 plus….

That leaves the air car. It works off of compressed air in tanks under the car. The tanks are pressurized to about 4,000 PSI. A pressure regulator decides how much air pressure to deliver to each piston controlled by an on board computer. The air pressure causes the piston to be driven down for the power stroke. As the piston moves up back towards TDC (top dead center) the air is expelled out (exhaust stroke). So it's like a 2-stroke without the carbon emissions.

Two types of this air car should be available around 2010. A plug in and a hybrid. The plug in charges the air tanks using 110Vac in your garage. It uses an on board electric compressor and takes about 4 hours to fully charge up the air tanks at about $2 worth of electricity. The range per charge is about 200 miles.

Now let’s do some math: My Miata gets about 30 miles/gal. My tank holds 10 gallons. The price of gas this moment is $3.79/gal for regular. So it costs me $37.90 to fill up. So it cost me that much to go 300 miles. How much is that per mile? $37.90/300 miles = $0.13 per mile.

Now look at the air car: For about $2 of electricity I can go 200 miles, which yields $2/200 miles or $.01 per mile! Comparing the two we get $0.01/$0.13 = 8%. That means the air car would cost me about 8% of what I am paying now in fuel costs for my Miata.

Currently I drive about 1,200 miles per month in my Miata. Fuel cost are approximately $151.60 for the month (@ $3.79/gal). To go the same distance in an air car would cost 8% of $151.60 or $12. Wow!

Now, for me, there’s a slight problem. My Miata is paid for. So my only cost is fuel plus maintenance (which I do). So I came up with a formula that tells me at what point fuel prices ($/gal) would need to go to before I could break even and buy an air car.

But before I give you my formula we need to figure the equivalent miles/gal in the air car. Remember it costs $12 in electricity to go 1,200 miles in the air car. How many gals is that? $12/($3.79/gal) or 3.2 gallon to go 1,200 miles. Dividing 1200 miles by 3.2 gallons I get 375 miles/gal.

Now let’s look at my formula:

[color:#660000]$/gal (price of a gallon of gas) = [(Monthly loan)/(average miles per month)] x U

where U =[ MPG(eq) x MPG]/[MPG(eq) – MPG]

Okay, the price of the air car will be approximately $18,000. A 5 year loan @ 7% would be approx. $360 per month.

Now at what price of a gallon of gas would I break even by buying an air car? Well, what’s the average miles I drive per month? I drive abut 1,200 miles per month. Let’s put this into my equation:

$360/1,200 miles = 0.3

Now let’s figure U!

Remember that the equivalent miles/gal in the air car is 375 miles/gal. So MPG(eq) = 375. Again, my Miata gets 30 miles/gal or MPG = 30. So now let’s compute U.

U = (375 x 30)/375-30) = 32.6

Now take 0.3 x 32.6 and I get $9.78/gal.

That’s the point where I would break even buying an air car and using about $12 of electricity a month. So until it gets there it is actually cheaper for me to keep my Miata.

Now what if I traded my Miata in? I might get $3,000? Then I would finance the air car for $297 a month. A what point in the price of a gallon of gas would it be beneficial for me to switch over? Here’s the math: $297/1200 miles x (32.6) = $8/gal.

So it really depends on how much your old gasoline car is worth on a trade in and how much you’ll end up financing.