With the price of oil dropping...

Strizzo wrote: to be honest, my job depends on the price of oil staying high-ish, so while lower gas prices might be nice, $4 gas is still better than unemployment. just ask any oil company geologist what the mid 80's were like.

But back then oil was less than $20 a barrel. We had two former oil field geologists that worked in our asbestos analytical lab becasue they could not find another job. The environmental assessment field had not quite gotten off the ground yet.

yep. my job is in geoscience training for oil companies, and part of that is managing feedback from our courses, theres a big gap in people with 15-20 years of experience because of the way that was all handled. i remember back when gas was 79cents a gallon

integraguy wrote: Watch gas "mysteriously" jump in price at the end of August...just in time for the Labor Day weekend.

One thing I have noticed is the morning to lunch jumps.

Yesterday AM fuel at the Speedway near my house was 3.999 at 7am and 4.069 at 1:00pm. This AM regular unleaded at the Speedway near work was 3.979 at lunch it was 4.049.

I think they are getting those that see the low price in the AM to come back at lunch but nailing them if they miss the low price boat.

Strizzo wrote: yep. my job is in geoscience training for oil companies, and part of that is managing feedback from our courses, theres a big gap in people with 15-20 years of experience because of the way that was all handled. i remember back when gas was 79cents a gallon

I remember when it was a nickel a gallon. Seriously, when I was in school I used to buy gas $5 at a time. That was usually about half a tank.

By the time I got my first car, filling up the accord was under 20.

David S. Wallens wrote:

Strizzo wrote: yep. my job is in geoscience training for oil companies, and part of that is managing feedback from our courses, theres a big gap in people with 15-20 years of experience because of the way that was all handled. i remember back when gas was 79cents a gallon

I remember when it was a nickel a gallon. Seriously, when I was in school I used to buy gas $5 at a time. That was usually about half a tank.

yes, but im only 26

Hey Neon, when I got my Integra 3 YEARS ago, I could fill it up for less than $20. Yesterday I filled it up for just under $49. Same car, same gas station.

David S. Wallens wrote:

Strizzo wrote: yep. my job is in geoscience training for oil companies, and part of that is managing feedback from our courses, theres a big gap in people with 15-20 years of experience because of the way that was all handled. i remember back when gas was 79cents a gallon

I remember when it was a nickel a gallon. Seriously, when I was in school I used to buy gas $5 at a time. That was usually about half a tank.

I don't remember a nickel a gallon, but I do remember 13 cents. I could fill the tank on my SL70 Honda for a quarter and ride for two straight days. That was in 1972. When I got out of high school in 1976 gas was something like 29 cents a gallon. A dollar would put roughly a quarter tank in my old Falcon. For that matter, I paid $125.00 for the Falcon and that seemed like a heap o' money at the time. Of course, minimum wage was $1.65 an hour, too.

John Brown wrote: One thing I have noticed is the morning to lunch jumps. Yesterday AM fuel at the Speedway near my house was 3.999 at 7am and 4.069 at 1:00pm. This AM regular unleaded at the Speedway near work was 3.979 at lunch it was 4.049. I think they are getting those that see the low price in the AM to come back at lunch but nailing them if they miss the low price boat.

that is probably why they are only allowed to change the price once every 24 hours here in NJ

Strizzo wrote: yep. my job is in geoscience training for oil companies, and part of that is managing feedback from our courses, theres a big gap in people with 15-20 years of experience because of the way that was all handled. i remember back when gas was 79cents a gallon

Hellfire, I was buying gas in college for 19.9 and I'm not THAT old. I well remember the first oil embargo though and it put an end to that. I also remember seeing a sign that said $.69 on it thinking it was gas and it was the price of a pack of cigarettes. Fooled again.

My two ex-oil field geologist friends said that the US oil companies would not do any more exploration when the price of oil was below $20 a barrel (it was $13 at that time). Well guess what folks...

yeah that was basically it, the companies all say they have learned from that and they won't just quit all exploration, but there will be lean times again, just maybe not as lean as before

In Houston, from time to time, you'll see the following on T-shirts, bumper stickers, etc.: "Please, God, give me just one more oil boom, and I promise not to pi$$ it all away this time."

apparently no one saw the story on Yahoo about what oil companies are doing with their (excessive) profits?

don't post the link or anything

integraguy wrote: Watch gas "mysteriously" jump in price at the end of August...just in time for the Labor Day weekend.

Don't forget it's Hurricane season! ( Look out, it's comin right for us! )

Reg gas in Columbus Ohio topped around $4.10 Now all over the place... 3.75 - 4.05

I am just waiting when I can get back to that CHEAP $3.99 a gallon gas......

ahh remember when.....

We are such suckers , we really believe there is competition to lower prices , when the real game is to make up excuses to RAISE prices....

lets see there is a Hurracane coming in the Gulf......

Beaulieu

I've seen some pretty big opportunities to steal SUVs. I passed a very clean 97 Suburban 4x4 the other day for $2995 on a dealers car lot.

Thinking about when gas was cheap? How about when gas was great quality? I remember my older brother buying 100 octane leaded at the pump for his 68 396 Impala

I find it funny that oil prices go up, prices for gas goes up instantly. Then when prices of oil drop like this week, the prices of gas doesn't even budge.

Just like when hurricane Katrina demolished everything in the Gulf. Prices shot up immediately. President Bush started to fine price gougers and now couple years later prices never came down from that.

strizo, how was your job when gas was $2.50 a gallon? That seams like it would be a nice compomise.

I was also just thinking about what would be a good compromise for gas pricing. Let's say you fixed it at $3 or less a gallon. If in reality it was less than that, you could use the surplus to either invest in research for future energy needs or to create a buffer for short term supply issues.

Per Schroeder wrote: I was also just thinking about what would be a good compromise for gas pricing. Let's say you fixed it at $3 or less a gallon. If in reality it was less than that, you could use the surplus to either invest in research for future energy needs or to create a buffer for short term supply issues.

I think that would work fine with were it is, just set it at a fixed 3.80 for reg, 3.90 for mid, and 4.00 for premium. Any "profit" on it goes to alternative energy research, but I don't think it would work like that.

neon4891 wrote: strizo, how was your job when gas was $2.50 a gallon? That seams like it would be a nice compomise.

I am lucky enough to have just finished school, so i haven't experienced the job market with 2.50/gallon gas. anyways, what drives oil companies is not the price of gas, but rather the cost of oil. a lot of production is used for things like roads, plastics, heating oil and the like.

2.50/gallon gas was when oil was around $50-75/barrel or thereabouts. at that price, there are a lot of reserves that are being produced at the moment that would no longer be economical, which means the companies drilling $10 million wells up in the dakotas for not much production wouldn't be doing so any more. I doubt oil will get too far below $100/barrel for quite a while, and i think it'd be a more realistic expectation to have oil around 100/barrel and gas between 3.00 and 3.50 once the economy is straightened out

Sources:

being in the market for a new truck/tow vehicle I'm loving the current state of affairs. After alot of really good options I ended up with a 94 F350 quad cab with a reading utility body for $1000 with both of the 20 gal tanks full. I'll only use it about 1000 miles a year so the full tanks should last awhile.

The utility body is ugly as hell but damn its useful. I can now leave all my towing gear (comealong, straps, etc) in the truck and not have to worry about forgetting to pack something.

Since we just downsized our DDs to a smart and a mustang (wifes car she works at home) we needed the quad cab to fit the dogs for vet trips. So basically this thing is the dog hauler and towing vehicle. Love it for the price.

at work we have employee-only auctions for old fleet vehicles. this week there's a quad cab long box 2004 GMC sierra diesel dually. starting bid is $2100 (basically the tax liability on the FMV, since we've been paying on it since '04), but with diesel at $4.89 per gallon, I don't think anyone's gonna bid. I'm gonna throw four grand at it because i know i can flip it for 7. and if not, well, it's gonna get a grease kit and i'll commute on french fry oil.