Gasoline and Oil Prices

We have weekly gasoline prices through week ending 9/30:

What’s in store for the future? Oil futures and gasoline futures (RBOB) are in backwardation.

14 thoughts on “Gasoline and Oil Prices

  1. pgl

    $3.18 a gallon is not bad for a national average. Of course Moses probably has found a much better deal near where he lives!

    Reply
    1. Moses Herzog

      Most recent that I have gotten was $2.67. But I think I saw it cheaper today at one of the stations (waiting a day or two for my next fill-up).

      Reply
  2. pgl

    Second oil company CEO conspired with OPEC to keep prices high, FTC charges
    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/second-oil-company-ceo-conspired-with-opec-to-keep-prices-high-ftc-charges/ar-AA1rtYRH?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=5f86f77ede1640cea66d012940882ca6&ei=9

    Federal regulators are alleging a major oil company CEO conspired with foreign governments to keep oil and gas prices high. On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a complaint against John B. Hess, CEO of Hess Corporation, accusing him of secretly communicating with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Hess’s company had sought a $53 billion merger with oil giant Chevron — a deal that the FTC ruled could go forward only if Hess himself was not involved with the subsequent company. “We are very pleased that our merger with Chevron has cleared this significant regulatory hurdle,” Hess said in a statement. “This transaction continues to be an outstanding deal for Hess and Chevron shareholders and will create a premier integrated energy company that is ideally positioned for the energy transition.” But while Hess will remain on as an advisor to Chevron concerning the new company’s business operations in Guyana, he will not get a seat on its board. The FTC asserted in its complaint that his direct involvement in the new conglomerate would “heighten the risk of harm” to market competition, and would “meaningfully increase” the risk of the kind of backdoor coordination between rivals that is barred by federal antitrust law.

    Now I suspect the reasonable people here will applaud the FTC as collusion is just wrong. But we know fake oil consultant Steven Koptis thinks the actions of people like John Hess are just fine and the FTC should cease promoting market competition.

    Reply
  3. Macroduck

    Here’s another look at the same gasoline data – price change from a year ago:

    https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1uAcN

    This y/y comparison takes care of seasonal variation in gasoline prices. In the latest week, the price of a gallon was down 62 cents from a year ago. On 50 gallons per month (recent U.S. household average), households would spend $31 less per month compared to a year ago.

    Reply
    1. pgl

      I did a calculation the other day comparing nominal prices to those 5 years ago and total increase was a mere 10%. Which means in inflation adjusted terms, gasoline prices were 10% lower than they were 5 years ago (prepandemic).

      Reply
        1. Moses Herzog

          “Adjusting for consumer price inflation, as we do in our second graph, shows the same variability but reveals something new: After the increase in the early 2000s, the real gas price has not been trending up and the 2022 peak in the first graph is surpassed on several occasions. But, of course, what really matters is how gas prices relate to incomes, which we show in our third graph. There, we see that current gas prices (measured as the number of minutes of work it takes to purchase a gallon of gasoline) are not that much higher than in the 1990s.”

          Bruce-ie Baby, you’re just not a big fan of READING, are you?? That post was an entire 2 paragraphs long Bruce. Too “brutal” for you??

          Reply
        2. pgl

          “Posted on July 17, 2023”

          Hey Bruce – I guess you did not read your own link again? Or maybe you are too stupid to read what I wrote. My timeline did not end over a year ago dumbass. It ended around now and began around 2019 as I clearly stated.

          Now Brucie boy – I get that Team Trump wants you to attack anyone who disagrees with their lies but come on – I never realized anyone can be that effing stupid. But you are.

          Reply
        3. pgl

          https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GASREGW/
          US Regular All Formulations Gas Price

          I’m going to point this out SLOWLY so even the man with the brain of a retarded dog (Bruce Hall) can follow.

          (1) I’m using a weekly series not a monthly series (the FRED blog post that Brucie boy dug up).
          (2) My series goes all the way to September 30 and was not cut off to a prior date per Brucie’s little blog post.

          Even a two year old would know why this matters. But not our Village Moron Bruce Hall.

          Then again Brucie boy thinks one calculates inflation rates using the change in not seasonally adjusted CPI over a 17 month period. So I can see why the poor little boy got confused here.

          Reply
        4. pgl

          Hey Brucie – your total failure to READ your OWN link has bitten you again:

          ‘After the increase in the early 2000s, the real gas price has not been trending up and the 2022 peak in the first graph is surpassed on several occasions.’

          And MAGA morons like you kept telling us two years ago that gasoline has never been so expensive. But your OWN link notes in inflation adjusted terms this was far from being true.

          Gee Brucie – it is a crying shame that your preK teacher has done so a poor job at getting little Brucie boy to take his reading lessons seriously!

          Reply
        5. pgl

          Rather than using an old FRED blog post that Bruce Hall does not even remotely understand, I decided to update any calculations of the change in the nominal price of gasoline per my FRED link using the 5-year period starting on 9/30/2019 and ending on 9/30/2024 (most recently reported data). Prices rose over this 5 year period from $2.642 a gallon to $3.179 a gallon or a 20.3% nominal increase.

          Now MAGA morons like Bruce Hall want us to believe the CPI by twice that amount but they are lying. FRED tells us the increase over the past 5 years has been only 22.5%.

          But of course Bruce Hall is too dumb to get that the 20.3% nominal increase in gasoline prices represents a fall in the inflation adjusted price. Yea – Brucie is that confused! MAGA!

          Reply

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