Please review the information on the following link. What are some of costs included in the price of gas? Which states are the biggest suppliers? Why has opec's influence on price diminished recently? Who do we get the most oil from? Which country is is our primary supplier? What, if anything, could the government do to lower prices? What is the current global supply and demand trends? What about the domestic supply and demand trend?
21 Comments
Paul Sargent
3/7/2012 12:27:33 am
Oil is the most expensive commodity the world "burns" through, and the rate at which we do is staggering. Many costs go into oil including the cost of transportation, the cost of refining, distribution, and most importantly of all, taxes. The largest suppliers in the United States are North Dakota, California, Texas, and Alaska supplying over 20% each. Interestingly enough O.P.E.C. (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) has lost some control over the price of oil due to the discovery of oil reserves in the Western Hemisphere even though the primary supplier of crude oil to the United States is Saudi Arabia. The current trend of supply and demand for oil has been climbing like a mad man, with the U.S. consuming over 20 million barrels of oil a day, and the entire world consuming a total of almost 85 million barrels of oil a day.
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Valentina Sainato
3/7/2012 01:46:57 pm
The main culprit in the price of oil is, of course, the crude oil extracted; however, other costs that factor into the price for oil are transportation, the price of refining the oil, and taxes. Governments also placed many regulations on the quality of oil distributed, forcing the price yet higher. Although most states have some form of oil production, some contribute more than others. Texas, North Dakota, California, and Alaska are the top oil-producing states in our nation. Although the United States extracts more oil than any other part of the world, we do not rely solely on our own production. Much of our oil is drawn from other regions of the world, such as Canada, Latin America, Russia, and especially Saudi Arabia. Despite our reliance on foreign sources, OPEC's influence on pricing oil has decreased due to the discovery of oil in the western hemisphere. The supply curve of oil in the US has stayed fairly steady up until the last several years; production has dropped as reliance on imports have increased. Demand, on the other hand, is creeping upward. Globally, the supply and demand curve are essentially one line, and both are heading upwards. There isn't a whole lot that the government can do do to dramatically decrease the price; after all, the money consumers spend on gas is the money used to pay the laborers extracting, refining, and transporting the oil.
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Samantha Thompson
3/7/2012 02:23:45 pm
There are four main costs that are included in the price of one gallon of gas, they vary from the cost of refining, taxes, the cost of crude and finally to the cost of distribution. The biggest suppliers of gas in the United States that supply over and around 20% are Texas, California, Alaska, and North Dakota. OPEC’s influence on price has diminished recently because at first OPEC was able to adjust the supply of crude oil, but now since oil reserves have been discovered in the Western Hemisphere their power has decreased. We get most of our oil from primary supplier Saudi Arabia but Africa, Latin America and Canada supplies us with a large percentage of oil. The government could reduce the amount of taxes perhaps because only .45 cents are taken in account for setting prices, however it seems very difficult to reduce prices in general because there are various things to pay for, refining and the cost of distribution are necessary and the most expensive part for oil is the cost of crude which seems impossible to reduce. The government requires special gasoline blends which increases the price, swaying the government to push away from the blends seems highly unlikely. The current global supply and demand trends are neck and neck. They graph shows that they increase with one another. Domestically, the supply (production) shows that it had dipped as imports have increased. Demand (consumption) on the other hand has steadily increased, but took a little dip in 2010 where imports decreased but production increased. Overall, demand had always been escalating.
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Ramiro Zarate
3/8/2012 12:45:42 pm
Costs included in the prics of gas are refining, destribution, taxes, and crude. There are four states in the U.S. that are major gas suppliers. California, Texas, North Dakota, and Alaska make up about 20% or more of our gas.OPEC's influence on price has diminished because of a discovery of oil in the Western Hemisphere. We get most of our oil from Saudi Arabia. Theres nothing we can do unless our major suppliers are willing to bend the price a bit. There is a lot of demand for oil in both domestic and global.
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Angela Reddington
3/8/2012 01:15:01 pm
In the article “what’s behind these gas prices?” some of the costs included in the price of gas is the cost of refining, distribution, crude and taxes. The biggest suppliers of the United States are California, Texas, North Dakota and Alaska. Opec’s influence on price has recently diminished due to the fact that Opec was the first able to adjust the supply of crude oil, but recently oil reserves have been discovered in the Western Hemisphere and their power has decreased. We get the most oil from Latina America and Canada. Our primary supplier is Saudi Arabia. There isn’t much that the government can do to lower the prices because the money that people spend on gas is the money that is used to pay the workers that are extracting and transporting the oil.
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Harrison Reilly
3/8/2012 01:24:17 pm
Oil is one of the biggest industries in the world. Some of the costs that go into oil are refining, distribution, taxes, and the price of crude. California, North Dakota, Alaska, and Texas are the biggest contributors of gas in the United States, accounting for more than 20% each. Since the discovery of oil reserves in the Western Hemisphere, OPEC (a consortia of 12 oil producing countries that adjusted crude oil prices), has been diminished in power. We get most of our oil from Latin America, Africa, and Canada, but our primary supplier is Saudi Arabia. The government doesn't have much power concerning price of has, since the price is dictated by the world market for oil, which the government has very little, if any, control over. Globally, consumption and production are keeping up with each other, creating a balanced supply and demand. But domestically, demand is shifting right, and supply is shifting left, creating a market at disequilibrium.
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christopher
3/8/2012 01:33:29 pm
The reason why gas prices are on the rise is due to the demand of gas in other countries, if any country wants gas the demand will go up fallowed by prices. When the USA is the biggest consumer of oil in the world and when other countries want oil that will drive prices up. The steps that you have to go thought to get oil out ground and into your car are extensive. The first step is crude oil extraction, transportation, refineries, transportation, wholesale distribution, transportation, gas outlets, all that is a considerable investment into your gas. I don’t think the government can do a lot when it comes to lowering prices of gas, it takes so much money to get it out of the ground to lower the price on gas wouldn’t work. Another reason why government can’t do anything about gas prices is if other countries like China want more oil the demand will go up. The current supply and demand trends are that production is down which lowers supply and other countries want more oil which makes demand on the rise all this is why prices are sooo $*#&$*! expensive.
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Cassidy
3/8/2012 02:25:42 pm
The majority of our oil supply comes from the middle east, primarily Saudi Arabia. But our dependency on the the middle east and OPEC has gone down considerably due to drilling sites off shore of the US. Whereas before we were at the mercy of OPEC and their oil prices, we can now use or own resources of the coast of California, Alaska, and the states betwixt Florida and Texas. This doesn't necessarily mean gas prices are lower. The price at the barrel to the price we pay at the tank are completely different. After we buy the oil it costs money to refine it and to transport it. The last step is to tack on federal and state taxes. This is why gas prices are so high, plus some other factors. There is only so much the government can do to lower gas prices. They could build more refineries or take away some regulations on making gas. But those are small prices to pay to try and keep our environment clean. On the global scale supply and demand have matched up pretty close and have been raising steadily since the mid 80's. On a more familiar level, we intuitively know that consumption has risen over the years, but what is interesting is that our own production has had a steady decline while our imported oil has had a rocky rise. We have to think about all these factors when looking at gas prices and the changes they have had over the years.
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Carson Tazuk
3/8/2012 03:02:48 pm
America seems to live and operate under the impression of an old adage, "Oil, can't live with it, Can't live without it" as we continually burn through gallon after gallon of one of the world's most valuable resources, but raise objection after a single cent of cost increase. Nation-wide gas prices are mainly due to four factors: Refining cost, Distribution cost, Taxes, and then the pure cost of crude oil. But one of the biggest factors in itself isn't a cost on oil itself, but the fact that the U.S. places itself in a bad position of being one of the biggest global oil consumers ALONG with being totally dependent on foreign oil, especially Latin America, Canada, Africa, and the Persian Gulf; all apart of a oil consortium called OPEC, who normally influence the oil prices, but lately their power over prices has fallen because of new-found oil reserves in the west. Our dependence on foreign oil doesn't mean we don't produce any oil, but our major refining states of California, Texas, North Dakota, and Alaska; along with our off shore drilling sites; are being set back by all the refineries which are being closed. Hand in hand with gas prices, global demand has steadily increased with the emergence of China and India as larger markets that need fuel to grow... this should be the reddest of red flags, as this means that with a perpetually increasing demand, prices will remain constant or most likely increase. One of the only things one could imagine the government doing to attempt to increase prices would be to cut down on our dependence on foreign oil and actually use some of our own domestic resources, the only issue would be that we'd be missing out on possible cash back from selling our own oil to countries who will eventually want it just as bad as we do, but sometimes you need to throw your fancy coat into the water so you don't get your nice shoes dirty.
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Geoff Thompson
3/8/2012 03:17:01 pm
The charts on supply and demand show that the US consumption of oil is just around ten million barrels a day higher than both our production and exports. Fortunately our world's production has been able to keep up with the rising necessity for oil. The rising necessity for oil around the world has caused the prices to raise dramatically. the only way I see the Government making a difference in the price of gasoline would be to lower the taxes paid at the pump. its understandable that the price of gas fluctuates during certain times of the year. lots of factors go into the change of gas prices especially the rising necessity for it around the world. Other aspects that change the price in gas are natural disasters. as the "gas price" chart shows, after hurricane Katrina occurred gas prices went up about a dollar in a couple months. This sky rocket in price happened because the necessity for oil went way up which is back to the point that gas prices rise because the necessity of gas rises.
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3/13/2012 01:51:19 pm
A nice thing about the costs included in the price of gas is that the gas taxes have been fairly steady for almost two decades now. Other costs in gasoline are refining, distribution and the cost of crude. California, North Dakota, Alaska, and Texas are the biggest contributors of gas in the United States, accounting for more than 20% each. OPEC influence on price recently diminished due to the finding of the western hemisphere. Our primary supplier for oil is Saudi Arabia, we also consume amounts of oil from Latin America, Canada, and the Persian Gulf. The government cannot do much at this point, they can eliminate the costs of refining and distribution. They can also realize that the earth is already in a sick stage so they can remove special gasoline blends and that regulation will no longer drive gas prices higher. As the years go by the supply and demand for barrels of oil grow higher everyday, with the world consuming 84 million barrels of oil per day.
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Alec Faulkner
3/15/2012 02:40:46 am
With the U.S. being the biggest consumer of oil in the world the more the government taxes the product the more it will make. When you go to the pump you do not just pay for the gas itself; you pay for the refining cost, the cost of distribution and the tax on gas. The biggest suppliers of gas are California, Texas, North Dakota, and drilling in the oceans. Because of Opec's consortium we have been paying for overpriced oil because of our dependence on foreign sources of oil. Opec has lost a lot of its power over controling oil prices because of new found oil sources in the west. These new found oil sources create a larger market for the product, which means we will be less likely to pay for the overpriced foreign oil. Most of our oil comes from the U.S. itself, the biggest foreign suppliers are Canada, Latin America and Saudi Arabia. If the government wanted to lower prices the could make a price cieling on gas, so gas suppliers could not charge over a certain amount for gas. Globaly the supply of gas is increasing due to the fact everyone wants to start an oil buisness, however the supply of oil is diminishing beacause there is not an ulimited supply of oil in the world. The demand for oil keeps increasing due to the fact our population and the population of every other country in the world is increasing so more and more people want to buy cars.
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Jesus Lopez
3/15/2012 04:08:20 am
The prices of gas mainly depend on the cost of refining it, taxes, the cost of crude and distribution. North Dakota, Alaska, California, and Texas are biggest suppliers out of all of the other states. Opec's control and power over the prices has recently diminished because there have been other oil reserves discovered in the western hemisphere, so Opec has less power now. We get most of our oil from Latin America, Canada, Africa, and the Persian Gulf. Our primary supplier is Saudi Arabia. I do not believe that the government can do anything to lower the prices of gas, the prices of gas will only increase in price. The supply of oil and gas is increasing because they are so much of a necessity that no matter how much the prices go up, people will have to keep buying it. The demand is rediculously high, but there is not an unlimited supply of gas or oil in this world.
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Kenzy Hansen
3/15/2012 06:30:03 am
The main price of gas is based on the cost of crude oil extract, but it is also dependant on the cost of refining the oil, taxes, and distribution. North Dakota, Alaska, California, and Texas are the largest suppliers of oil in the United States. However, a large portion of our oil supply is drawn from other regions around the world including Canada, Latin America, Russia, and specifically Saudi Arabia. The discovery of oil reserves in the Western Hemisphere has caused OPEC’s influence on price to diminish. There isn’t a lot that the government can do to lower the price of gas, but if they were serious about wanting to make a difference they could place a price ceiling on oil, restricting the maximum price that can be charged. The current trend of supply and demand for oil has been steadily increasing with the U.S. consuming over 20 million barrels of oil a day, and the entire world consuming a total of almost 85 million barrels of oil a day.
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Brionna Gonzalez
3/15/2012 06:36:02 am
With america being the biggest user in gas we rely on imports to bring it in. Also, with taxes, regulations, the cost of distribution, refining and the cost of crude. The biggest suppliers in the U.S are: California, Texas, Alaska and North Dakota. Opec's influence on price has diminished ever since the discovery of oil reserves in the Western Hemisphere. Though, Opec was influencing the gas prices by adjusting the supply of crude oil was lost to this discovery. Saudi Arabia was the primary oil supplier and also get it from Africa, Latin America and Canada. There isn't much that the government can do but if they wanted to lower prices they could lower prices on distribution or even taxes, the demand is over 20 million barrels a day.
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Emily Griffin
3/15/2012 01:54:12 pm
The United States is constantly using more and more oil, and in search of new places to drill so the supply can keep up with the demand. As gas prices sky rocket it has become a much-debated topic among presidential candidates. Some have promised to lower the prices down to as much as two dollars a gallon. These promises are unrealistic because the price of crude oil is about $2.91. Some of the other costs included in the price of gas are taxes (both state and federal), distribution/transportation, and the price of refining the crude oil. The biggest state suppliers are Texas, California, North Dakota, and Hawaii. Opec is a combination of twelve oil-producing countries, that helps regulate the price of crude oil. Their influence has diminished recently because crude oil was found in the western hemisphere. We get the most oil from our own country, but outside of ourselves we receive a lot from Latin America and Canada. There is very little the government can do to actually lower the price of gas, they can lower the tax on it, or choose to subsidize it. Some candidates like to believe that if the government were to explore more areas for oil, and have more of it in general it would lower gas prices. The current supply and demand trends are growing steadily. Domestically the supply we get from our country has not really been increasing, but the imports from other countries have been. The demand trends are growing very slowly.
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Jacob Gallagher
3/15/2012 02:52:36 pm
Oil is some of the most expensive stuff on the market today, and for good reason. Without oil Americans would not be able to do some of the things we love the most, such as traveling. Some of the reasons oil is so pricey are the taxes on oil, the costs of refining and distribution. The biggest suppliers of oil include Texas, California, Alaska, and Hawaii. The reason America uses the most oil is because, basically we are a very lazy country. We have four percent of the population of the world yet we use 25 percent of the worlds resources, for this world to be at true peace we must first get rid of habits like this. Our primary supplier of oil comes from here in the U.S. but outside of here we get our oil from Cananda and Latin America. To lower our prices on oil, the government would have to lower the taxes to purchase oil and mainly get oil from the U.S. and not anywhere outside of the states. This would not end well in our efforts too make peace with the oil states, such as iran, and this would require us to drill alot more oil our of the U.S. which would hurt organizations such a P.E.T.A.'s feelings. The supply and demand for oil is increasing rapidly everyday, it doesnt help that we use more than 20 million barrels of oil daily and the rest of the world using more than four times that much everyday.
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Alec Fetzer (Blue)
3/15/2012 03:28:34 pm
As the world’s biggest gasoline consumer, the United States and its people are seeing the price of gas increase once again. When looking at the price of gas in our current predicament, there are many factors to consider. Included with the cost of the crude oil, consumers also end up paying for the gasoline’s transportation, refinery, transportation again, wholesale distribution, transportation yet again, and finally gas outlets. All of these steps are a necessity to get the gas required for our automobiles today, yet they all add to the price that we pay for at the pump. Contrary to common belief that all our oil is imported from overseas, actually much of the United State’s oil comes from North America. In addition to Latin America and Canada as heavy importers, states such as Texas, California, Alaska, and North Dakota provide much of domestic oil. The diminishing rely on overseas oil, such as Saudi Arabia and Africa, has since left OPEC with less power and influence on gas prices than they did 5 years ago. According to the article, “What’s Behind These High Gas Prices?” the United States actually gets most of its crude oil from itself, and then relies on Canada and Latin American countries for the rest of our demand. The use of oil found in the U.S. should have a positive affect on prices for the consumer, because that already eliminates transportation from overseas, which only adds to the price of gasoline. Although the demand for gasoline has only gone up in the past years, I believe that worldwide; the demand will slowly decrease with the current innovations of gas saving/eliminating technologies. In the U.S. we still consume much more gas than we produce, which causes a demand for oil from different countries, once we figure out a way to cut down on oil consumption and can be self sufficient, the price of gas could drop back down to where it was 10 years ago.
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Alex Dunn
3/15/2012 03:59:07 pm
For the US to get its hands on the beloved gasoline barrels, it pays a huge price. The US uses far more gasoline than any other country, almost half of all the gasoline, 42% to be exact, and gas ain't cheap. The US consumes all this gas but stock piles more than people think, and then sells it back to countries once they are with out gasoline. California, North Dakota, Alaska, Texas, and off the shore of Texas, are the main suppliers of crude oil in our country. OPEC is a series on crude oil distributors in the southern hemisphere, now that there has been discoveries of oil in the northern hemisphere, they have lost control over prices because they dont own the newly found oil. We get most of our oil from Canada, Latin America, Africa, and the persian gulf and our primary supplier is Saudi Arabia. The Government can try to lower the prices of gasoline by limiting the military and no more going to war. Also if the government worked on keeping people happy so that riots didn't break out, it would save money and keep a better society. The global demand and supply chart for oil is a constantly rising bar, with both counter parts evenly rising with small fluctuations. Our county has been producing less gasoline, buying more from other countries, and consuming more. There is only so much oil to go around. I need to start getting in shape to ride my bike every where...soon.
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Tyler kelly
3/16/2012 04:22:02 am
The biggest suppliers in the us for oil are california, texas, alaska, and north dakota. Opec's influence on gas prices has diminshed because of the discovery of oil in the western hemisphere. We get most of our oil from Saudi Arabia. The governmemt could put a price ceiling on oil to at least stop prices from rising. The current global supply and demand trends are going up.
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Matt Torres
4/23/2012 04:06:15 pm
In this article “what’s behind gas prices?” costs included in gas prices are crude oil extracted, cost of refining, and distribution. OPEC’s influence on price has diminished because of the fact of the discovery of the western hemisphere. The biggest suppliers of U.S are Canada, Russia, Latin America and Saudi Arabia. North Dakota, Texas, and Alaska are our main oil producing states. The primary supplier to us is Saudi Arabia. Disregarding our dependence on foreign sources. In order to lower prices, the government cannot do much. Current supply and demand trends. Supply and demand are shifting different ways.
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