It seems appropriate that this 1970 Oldsmobile 442 decided to make an appearance in a colligate sports arena that first opened in 1970.
On the 15th-16th of March 2024, Idaho State University (ISU)-College of Technology Automotive Program held its ‘Chrome in the Dome’ car show.
My walk-around video:
Holt Arena 2024: 
BRITISH BOND BUG
“‘This is ridiculous,’ said Criley, 55, who pulled into a Valero station off Hamilton Avenue in San Jose where gas was selling for $4.61 a gallon. A station attendant told him that he had just raised the price 20 cents five minutes earlier. ‘It had been holding at $3.99 for a couple of weeks. Now this. You betcha this hurts.'”-The Oakland Tribune, 04 October 2012
“Gasoline station owners in the Los Angeles area including Costco Wholesale Corp. are beginning to shut pumps because of supply shortages that have driven wholesale fuel prices to record highs.”-Bloomberg, 04 October 2012
“The U.S. average retail price of regular gasoline decreased five cents last week…Prices decreased in all regions of the Nation except the Rocky Mountains….The national average diesel fuel price decreased a nickel…”-U.S. Energy Information Agency, 26 September 2012
So, in September average retail fuel prices slightly decreased. In some places, like Idaho, per gallon Diesel (distillate fuel oil, DSO) prices held almost steady while gasoline went down a piddly few cents. Now prices are already going back up.
Do not blame the gas station operators!!! I managed a gas station in Santa Maria, California, decades ago, and I can tell you the profit margin is just too small at the retail level. In fact, the current situation in California is shutting down family owned gas stations: “Gas is costing me almost $4.75 a gallon with taxes. There’s no sense in staying open. The profit margins are so low it’s not worth it.”-Sam Krikorian, owner Quality Auto Repair in North Hollywood
A Montana based petroleum industry analysts agrees: “The mom and pop gas stations are having to close down from either not being able to obtain gasoline from their regular distributor or cannot afford the break-even price of almost $5 per gallon!”-Bob van der Valk
Back at the beginning of September I warned of higher fuel prices for October. This was based on the futures (commodity) prices of fuel, which are usually four weeks out. I basically warned that on 12 October 2012, DSO fuel prices could hit around $5.15 per gallon!
I also explained that fuel prices in the Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts (PADD) 5 area (Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Washington) was being hit by fuel refinery shut downs, for reasons known and unknown (and so is the rest of the country). It looks like that situation has not changed, and might actually be worse on the east coast and along the Gulf of Mexico!
Several media sources are reporting that California fuel refiners are actually rationing out fuel! The result is that gasoline is reported to have jumped by a full dollar in one week in some parts of the Los Angeles area!
Phillips 66 is shutting down two California refineries for maintenance. A Chevron pipeline was shut down because of contamination. On 01 October, a ExxonMobil refinery was shut down because of a power outage. And according to a Bloomberg report, the narcissistic environmental policies created by California politicians/environmentalists have made it impossible to import fuels from outside California!
So don’t blame Obama! Obama has allowed the opening of more oil fields than any other U.S. President (a true oil man)!!! It’s the fault of the oil companies and fuel refiners, and stupid laws in California! And that’s the real crux for the drivers in California, the stupid laws!
Even though California is part of PADD 5, their fuel refining laws are so strict that fuel made outside California, yet still within PADD 5, can not be sold inside California!!!
Oh, and the prices Californians are seeing now don’t even reflect what the gas station owners are paying: “Really, since the Chevron Richmond fire, inventories have been tight. As other refinery problems occur, there isn’t much or any available inventory. Retailers are not yet reflecting the wholesale price increases they have experienced...”-Tom Robinson, Robinson Oil
How about PADD 4 (Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming)?
Phillips 66, Pocatello, Idaho, 04 October 2012.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, the current average retail price for PADD 4 area DSO is $4.20 per gallon. If you notice in the pics I posted, here in Bannock County, Idaho, diesel prices range from $4.30 to $4.40 per gallon, at the cheap fuel stations.
CommonCents, Chubbuck, Idaho, 04 October 2012.
For regular octane gasoline, USEIA says the average PADD 4 area retail price is $3.76 per gallon. My pics show that where I live it’s at least $3.82-$3.84 per gallon.
Padd 4 fuel stockpiles have been stable for all types of gasoline, around 6 million barrels, that’s according to 28 September 2012 data. All types of DSO, in PADD 4 area, has a stockpile of about 3 million barrels, steady for the past four weeks. So stockpile issues do not explain why prices in Idaho are higher than the PADD 4 average.
It’s not production issues either. PADD 4 production has gone up. DSO production at the end of September was averaged at 0.174 millions of barrels per day (mbpd). Last year it was 0.156 mbpd.
PADD 4 gasoline production ended September with an average of 0.296 mbpd. At the same time last year it was 0.254 mbpd.
In fact, even in the troubled PADD 5 area, USEIA data shows stockpiles and production hasn’t changed that much in the past four weeks. (stockpiles of DSO in PADD 5 have actually gone up in the past two months!)
Is it demand? Nope. According to USEIA, overall demand for fuel in the United States has gone down slightly since last year!
Average demand for gasoline was at 8.6 mbpd at the end of September, last year it was 8.9 mbpd. For DSO the average demand was at 3.6 mbpd, compared to last year’s 3.8 mbpd.
The USEIA reported that at the end of September, for the country as a whole, raw oil stockpiles were down by 500,000 barrels. The ‘expert’ media analysts had expected an increase of 1.5 million barrels! Overall stockpiles of gasoline went up by 100,000 barrels. The big loser is DSO, with stockpiles falling by 3.7 million barrels!!! The net result being an overall reduction in petroleum supplies!
Well, if stockpiles and production are steady or actually up in PADD 4 & 5 areas, and demand is slightly down for the country, then why would overall supplies be low?
Blame PADD 1 and 3! Stockpiles and production are crashing on the east coast and in the Gulf states!
At the end of September PADD 1 had 41.1 million barrels of DSO, a 20 million barrel drop from last year’s 61.5 million! Gasoline is at 46.1 million barrels, compared to last year’s 55.3 million barrels!
PADD 3 ended September with 67.4 million barrels of gasoline, last year they had 74.9 million! DSO saw a huge drop, from 50.8 million barrels last year to 37.4 million barrels at the end of September this year!
For such a big drop in stockpiles, PADD 3 averaged DSO production is unchanged from last year, at 2.4 mbpd. PADD 1 DSO production average is down slightly from 0.4 mbpd last year to 0.38 this year.
The same can be said of PADD 1 gasoline production; 2.8 mbpd this year versus 2.9 mbpd last year. Average gasoline production for PADD 3 ended September at 1.8 mbpd, last year it was at 2.1 mbpd, so a big drop there.
This begs the question: Is the western half of the United States being made to pay for shortages that should only be affecting the eastern half of the country?
“I see no reason for this at all. Sounds like a load of rubbish to me!”-Errol Emrich, pissed off California driver
PS: Wholsale/futures/commodity prices for refined fuels ended September 2012 higher. So expect even higher prices at the pump next month! Wish the U.S. petroleum industry a Happy Thanksgiving!
I was upset by a Memorial Day report on one of the mainstream U.S. national TV news programs, ’cause they reported gas prices down across the country! Wait a minute, I live in the United States and gas prices actually went up where I live!
I noted that the mainstream media report focused only on the eastern half of the United States. I checked the internet for reports concerning the western half, and sure enough fuel prices have been going up here!
In the Pacific Northwest U.S. state of Idaho gas prices average $3.64 USD, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA). But here in eastern Idaho it’s more like $3.77 per gallon. In Mackay (pronounced Mac-Key), Idaho, it’s $3.90.
In the U.S. state of California prices are more than $4.00 per gallon. Gas prices have not come down in the past few weeks, even though oil prices have!
What’s going on? Why have fuel prices come down in the eastern half of the U.S. and, in some cases, actually gone up in the western half?
For one, the eastern half has a glut of oil, from the fields in the U.S. state of North Dakota, and from the northern country of Canada. However, in recent months there was a lot of predictions that fuel prices would actually go up for the eastern half of the U.S., because several major refineries were being permanently shut down.
Two of those refineries are located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Fears of skyrocketing fuel prices turned to joy when it was revealed, towards the end of April, that Delta Airlines and Energy Transfer Partners will buy those refineries, and keep them up and running!
Also at the end of April, it was revealed that a new refinery, also in Pennsylvania, was up and running on the Delaware River! It’s primary source of oil is shale oil from North Dakota and Texas. This is important because it turns out that many of the older refineries can not handle refining shale oil.
Another important fact is that finally new oil pipelines are opening up, helping to get that bottlenecked glut of oil in North Dakota, and from Canada, down to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico, and to ports in Portland, Maine.
Finally, there was a recent report that a new diesel fuel refinery will be built near Williston, North Dakota!
So what’s happening in the western half of the U.S.?
On 22 May it was reported that U.S. oil supplies were at a 21 year high. However, when you look at refined gasoline and break it down between eastern and western U.S. you get a different picture, because you’ll see that having a lot of oil does not translate into having a lot of gasoline.
The very next day, 23 May, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released a report which stated: “PADD 5 gasoline inventories at 24.1 million barrels on May 18, about 5.1 million barrels (17 percent) below typical levels for that date, the lowest for the region since March 1999.”
The DOE explained: “Abnormally low refinery runs on the West Coast since February tightened local gasoline markets, causing both wholesale and retail gasoline prices to rise.”
The DOE blamed reduced fuel supply to the western U.S. on that fact that several refineries were shut down for maintenance. One of those refineries, British Petroleum’s Cherry Point, in the U.S. state of Washington, should be re-starting.
The DOE also explained that the western half of the U.S. sees higher fuel prices because of a lack of pipelines: “While unplanned refinery outages generally cause retail product prices to rise, the West Coast market is especially sensitive to such shutdowns. That is because the West Coast market is relatively isolated. Given the West Coast’s lack of significant pipeline connections to other markets and relative distance from the active physical trading markets….”
According to the DOE, it takes six weeks for any change in the price per barrel of oil plus any shortage or surplus of refined fuel, to be reflected in western U.S. fuel prices at the pump, but, if there are no further interruptions in western refinery operations prices should start coming down.
For the first time Russian export gasoline (petrol) sales are making more money that domestic sales.
Last week Russian export premium gasoline hit $1,050 per ton. Domestically sold premium gas was at $970 per ton. Russian fuel exports have also increased in volume.
Most of Russia’s exported refined fuels go to Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS) members, but export customers also include Virgin Islands and Netherlands.
Interestingly, the surge in fuel exports comes even after Russia imposed a 90% customs tax! Analysts say even with such an outrageous tax, Russian fuel exports are still profitable because of how high the price of oil is.
According to Russian media, the price of premium gasoline, in the CIS countries, varies from $4.00 per gallon in some parts of Russia, to as little as $2.00 per gallon in parts of Kazakhstan! ($1.00 per liter in Russia, 50 cents per liter in Kazakhstan)
Combine natural disasters, corporate and government incompetence, and regular inspections, and you end up with more than 80% of Japan’s nuclear power turned off. That’s disastrous when you realize that Japan’s industries rely on nuclear power! Can you say poor planning?
On November 25, another nuke plant will be shut down for regular inspection. But that’s not all. The remaining operating nuclear power plants will also be shut down going into spring 2012, because of the timing of scheduled inspections. That means all 54 Japanese nuke plants will be off line!
This means there will be a huge demand coming from Japan for petroleum (oil, gasoline, diesel), natural gas and coal to run traditional electrical generators. Now imagine what will happen to the price such commodities when an entire country suddenly starts sucking up millions of barrels of fuel per day!
In eastern Idaho, the difference between the price of one gallon of regular gasoline, versus diesel, is now a full one dollar.
Phillips 66, next to the Bannock County court house, Pocatello, Idaho
On November 19, the average price, in the Pocatello/Chubbuck area, hit $3.18 per gallon for regular gasoline, and $4.18 for diesel.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (USEIA) says gas prices are falling, in general, due to the usual seasonal drop in usage. I’ve never seen it drop by this much, here in eastern Idaho. Back in May, the average price was $3.65 per gallon, and it stayed that way through most of the summer. In the past two or three months the price has dropped almost 60 cents.
The USEIA also says regional fuel refining has a lot to do with prices, but back in September I discovered that PADD 4 gasoline production was being kept below demand. The latest data on PADD 4 gas production shows that, after months of keeping it around 290 thousand barrels per day, regional refineries are now pushing out more than 324 thousand barrels per day. This is why gas prices, in the Rocky Mountain area (PADD 4) are, or should be, dropping.
In California it’s a different story. The latest gasoline price survey shows the average price around $3.54 per gallon, with many areas paying $3.79. California taxes are one reason for the higher prices, but the other reason is that California refines its own fuel, and the refineries are in trouble.
According to the USEIA, despite having the third largest refinery industry in the country California’s refineries are maxed out, there’s just too many people driving too many vehicles. The USEIA is warning of a fuel price catastrophe in California: “California refineries need to be running near full capacity to meet the State’s gasoline demand. If more than one of its refineries experiences operating problems at the same time, California’s gasoline supply may become very tight and prices can soar. Even when supplies can be obtained from some Gulf Coast and foreign refineries, they can take a relatively long time to arrive due to California’s substantial distance from those sources. The farther away the necessary relief supplies are, the higher and longer the price spike will be.”
Regarding the rising cost of diesel fuel, it looks like some of what I warned about back on November 5 is coming true. Bottom line; around the world diesel production is down, while international demand is going up and up.
The latest reports on diesel commodity prices show a slight decrease. The decrease is so small that the global increase in demand for diesel will still cause pump prices to go up.
And how does the global demand affect us here in the U.S.? According to the American Petroleum Institute (API), most diesel fuel produced in the Untied States is actually being exported to other countries (a 37.6% increase, in both diesel and gasoline exports, in the past year). That means less diesel for the domestic market.
Diesel fuel is part of the “distillates” family of fuels. In the U.S. ultra low sulfur diesel is referred to as “Distillate Fuel Oil 15 ppm (parts per million) and under of Sulfur”. According to USEIA records, ultra low sulfur production, in the United States, varies between 3.2 million and 3.6 million barrels per day. Now realize that international demand has gone up, and that U.S. refineries are exporting much of their diesel. Since overall production is remaining in the 3 million to 4 million barrels per day rang, that doesn’t leave much for us. The result is diesel prices will continue to go up, until U.S. distillate refiners greatly increase production.
For those of us in the Rocky Mountain (PADD 4) area, the USEIA shows an up and down pattern for “Distillate Fuel Oil 15 ppm (parts per million) and under of Sulfur”. From March through May, diesel production was stuck at about 160 thousand barrels per day. By the end of July it increased to 195 thousand barrels per day. Since the end of August it’s dropped, to 185 thousand. That explains why diesel pump prices in the Rocky Mountain area are going up.
But here’s one more reason, and one that many diesel fuel users have speculated on; the high pump prices of diesel is an attempt by producers to make a bigger profit, since they’ve actually been keeping gasoline pump prices artificially low. A Reuters article states just that: “This in turn crimps diesel output until the cost of the fuel gets high enough to offset losses from additional gasoline sales.”
The Reuters article explains, not very well, that ultra low sulfur refining requires hydrocracking, a process involving hydrogen. It’s also used for gasoline. The problem is that many refineries in the U.S. can not produce both diesel and gasoline. This might explain the swings in production; one month gasoline production up, and diesel down, the next month it’s reversed.
The push for fracking natural gas, is actually for the fuel refining industry, because it turns out that using the hydrogen in natural gas is a good cheap way to conduct hydrocracking in fuel refining.
Eventually more diesel will be produced, because of the global demand. Several companies in the Gulf Coast area have invested billions of dollars to build new refineries to extract the hydrogen from natural gas to hydrocrack new diesel fuel.
Diesel fuel users should really look into making their own biodiesel, even though you could get into trouble with the Federal and State tax collectors, as well as the EPA. Here’s some links: Backwoods Home Official BioDiesel Home BioDiesel Diesel Master JR Whipple (good for moonshine too, remember diesel is a distillate) There plenty more sites on the internet about making your own diesel, do the research.
As of November 5, 2011, some of the fuel stations in the Pocatello/Chubbuck area had dropped their gas prices to $3.29 per gallon. Yet diesel prices remain unchanged, still between $3.99 & $4.09 per gallon. Local gasoline prices had been falling steady for more than a week now, diesel has not.
Fred Meyer, Pocatello, Idaho
According to indexmundi diesel commodity prices have been falling ever since prices peaked in July, 2011. August saw a 5% drop, and September saw another 1% drop. In September the average daily commodity (New York Harbor Ultra-Low Sulfur No 2 Diesel Spot) price for diesel was $2.98 per gallon.
Phillips 66, near Kmart, Pocatello, Idaho
For those of you who continue to believe it has something to do with low sulfur refining, let me remind you that the commodity price is for already refined diesel.
Indexmundi also reports that refined gasoline commodity prices have been falling, also since their peak in July. Gas (New York Harbor Conventional Gasoline Regular Spot) has actually been falling more then diesel: August saw a 6% drop, September a 2% drop. The average daily commodity price for gasoline in September was $2.77.
Interestingly, The Associated Press reported in October that wholesale fuel prices went up, which contradicts the indexmundi web site.
Here’s the bad news for diesel users: When we look at the latest November commodity prices diesel has actually gone up; $3.06 as of November 1, versus gasoline commodity prices which were only $2.7o per gallon.
This might explain why diesel pump prices haven’t dropped, and why gasoline pump prices should continue to drop (unless you’re living in an area of the U.S. that’s actually seeing gas prices go up). The latest diesel commodity prices also indicate that pump prices will probably go up.
In a quick survey of international news stories, it seems diesel prices are going up because of growing demand around the world.
In the Indian state of Manipur, an economic blockade has caused fuel prices to jump by four times, since the blockade started on August 1. Basically there are people in Manipur that are seeking independence from India.
The Indian government controls the price of fuel in the country (it’s part of how the Indian government generates revenue for itself, and they’re hurting for more revenue), and is trying to hold off on raising diesel prices anymore: “It is always difficult to raise diesel prices as it is widely used by farm sector and industry for transportation. It is not perceived as a luxury fuel.”-Victor Shum, Purvin & Gertz.
On October 25, Reuters reported that China’s busy economy will drive diesel prices upward, and that fuel producers can’t keep up: “In the last 12 months China’s demand for diesel for power generation has been one of the major drivers (of the market). They do tend to step in and stockpile. We are not seeing any significant squeezes yet but this is a supply side story, if we carry on with this current trend we will have some problems in the light, sweet products. I don’t believe supply can keep pace.“-Tony Hall, Duet Commodities Fund
Don’t forget that Japan has seen half its nuclear power plants shut down since the March 11 disasters. Japan was almost totally dependent on nuclear power, now they are switching to other forms of generating electricity, and that includes diesel powered generators.
In South Korea demand for fuel, including diesel, has skyrocketed, and the government has approved the opening of 1,300 new fuel stations! Ironically the South Korean government thinks by opening more fuel stations (thereby increasing demand) they can provide cheaper fuel: “Nonghyup and the KNOC [both government controlled companies] will jointly buy fuel from local refiners or from abroad, so they can be sold to the thrift gas stations. Prices will be kept down further by the gas stations operating on a self-service basis, where the driver fills his or her car.”-South Korean government statement
Another reason for an increase in diesel prices is that petroleum supplies are falling behind.
There is a problem with a refinery in Indeni, Zambia. The refinery can not meet current standards of fuel refining, and needs U.S.$40 million to become compliant.
In Mexico, oil production has dropped. In September oil production was 2.863 million barrels per day, the lowest levels since October 1995!
In fact around the world oil production dropped by 7% in September. More specifically, diesel fuel production dropped by 12.7%!
In an earlier posting I explained how decreased gasoline production was the real reason for gas pump prices going up, now it’s diesel.
Like I said, bad news for diesel fuel users.
September 19, gas prices in Idaho are about 70 cents above the national average. One local TV station tried to give the usual explanation by saying it’s a mix of regional demand and state taxes. FAIL!
I just checked on demand, and according to the latest numbers from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, demand for gasoline across the country is still below last year’s numbers. On August 26, 2011, the four week average demand for gasoline was at 9.169 million barrels per day. Compare that to the four week average of a year ago at 9.261 million barrels. So there is a slight decrease in demand.
Regarding fuel taxes; there has been no increase in Idaho fuel taxes since 1996!
What is happening is that production of fuels has been dropping. In other words, production is falling faster than demand, and that has the same effect as demand going up; prices go up (when there is less of something, in relation to demand, it becomes more valuable).
According to U.S. Energy Information Administration, PADD 4 gasoline production is down from last year. PADD 4 includes Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming. The four week average for “finished gas” production, for August 2011 was 0.273 million barrels per day. Compared to last year’s production of 0.296.
In other words, fuel producers are deliberately keeping production just under ‘demand’ in order to keep prices high.