West Coast Spike In Gas Prices Tied To Refineries

[warrior1]

http://www.kcra.com/news/31062548/detail.html

I say bullshit. If it's only a few weeks then let the damn gas price drop. It popped up over night last week from under $4.00 to $4.19.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Motorists across the country have been getting a break on gas prices. But not on the West Coast.

The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in Oregon was $4.17 on Monday, up 16 cents from last week. The price was $4.20 in Washington state and $4.35 in California.

Analysts say a shortage of gasoline inventory has caused a price spike in the wholesale market.

The shortage is tied to refinery issues. The planned restart of a BP refinery in Washington state failed last week and five of California's 12 refineries have reduced production because of scheduled maintenance.

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[JDPriestly]

1. Refineries do maintenance on a regular basis and I've noticed it tends to be

early summer (it's early summer here in LA) or when seasons change. That's just what refineries have to do.

My friends who drive Prius cars (I can't afford one) are rejoicing in their low mileage. I have a friend who got 50 miles per gallon on the open road last weekend. There are other cars similar to the Prius that also lower gas costs tremendously. It's the rest of us who pay through the nose.

But there is nothing unusual about maintenance at refineries. The timing may be suspicious, but the maintenance is done every so often.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

2. The formulas also change seasonally.

[badtoworse]

3. ...and they are different for different parts of the country.

It would be much cheaper if refineries could produce the same gasolines for the entire country year round. Motorists blame the oil companies, but it's the EPA that mandates it.

[safeinOhio]

5. It jumped 20 here in Ohio too.

Here is some proof that one big oil company, Marathon, who owns Speedway are the blame for large spikes in local gas prices. Like clock work, the price jumps 20 or 30 cents at every gas station in town in one day. Then over the next 2 or 3 weeks it goes down a penny every day or two.

http://www.thegasgame.com/speedway-effect/

It looks like other gas distributers are adopting Marathons successful strategy.

[FarCenter]

4. They also have to change over to making "summer gas", especially for California

Various parts of California require different blends that have less volatility.

It's unclear why this is still required for modern cars that have better controls for scavenging vapors.

[Andy823]

6. I live in Washington state

Prices at the pump went up, up, up when oil started climbing, sometimes twice in one week. Now that oil prices have gone down, the price in my area has only gone down one time and it stayed there until now when the prices went up 10 cents a gallon! I also know that Memorial day is coming up and every year the prices for gas have gone up "before" memorial day for one reason or another.

While there may be some legitimate reasons for what is happening, I also think that big oil companies know how to manipulate prices for their own gains. Refineries were shut down back east keeping prices higher, and up till this excuse here, they were saying it was the "higher" cost of delivery that was keeping prices up higher than the national average.

For some reason I just don't trust the greedy SOB's who can pretty much do as they please when it comes to fuel prices!