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Meanwhile In California, Unambiguously Ungood...

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Having discovered this week what Americans are spending their "gas savings" on, and noted that nationwide gas prices are rising at the fastest pace in over a decade; as AP reports, for Californians, it's considerably worse as gas prices have soared 60c to $3.23 per gallon in the last few weeks. Between refinery shutdowns (due to strikes and explosions) removing 17% of California's production, and the seasonal shift to the less-polluting summer blend of gas mandated in California, supply remains drastically short spiking prices 20-30c on Thursday alone as one gas station owner exclaimed, in 48 years "I've never seen anything like this kind of [price spike]."

 

Nationwide, gas prices are rising at the fastest pace in over a decade...

 

But California is the hardest hit for now. (photo taken Friday in LA)

 

As AP reports, gas prices are soaring in California in a classic example of supply and demand after an explosion stopped gasoline production at an Exxon Mobil refinery while another remains offline due to labor unrest...

Average retail gas prices in the state have surged 25 cents a gallon in less than a week, from $2.98 per gallon for regular on Monday to $3.23 per gallon on Friday. That caps a run that saw the price of regular unleaded go up 60 cents per gallon since Jan. 30 as refineries prepare to shift to a summer blend of fuels.

 

In some areas of Southern California, gas station owners were forced to pass price hikes of 24 cents per gallon along to consumers on Thursday after seeing wholesale prices shoot up. Prices in Northern California lagged a day, but by Friday were also rising; an independent operator with a chain of gas stations around the San Francisco Bay area boosted prices 20 cents a gallon for regular on Friday, to $3.19.

 

The situation underscores the frustrating complexity of the gasoline market in California, where state environmental regulations mandate a specialized blend of fuel that isn't used anywhere else in the U.S.

 

Because of that, California is economically isolated and can't easily or quickly purchase fuel from outside the state in a crisis.

 

Between the strike at the Martinez Tesoro refinery and the explosion at Exxon's Torrance refinery, the two facilities combined make up 17 percent of the state's crude oil processing capacity, said Gordon Schremp, a senior fuels specialist with the California Energy Commission.

 

"It takes a while to get some significant supplies from outside," Schremp said. "It's very normal that we'd see a significant price spike."

 

...

 

Gas station owners, meanwhile, chafed at having to pass the costs on to consumers. The profit margin for station owners was 18.5 cents per gallon in California on Friday, a break-even or money-losing proposition for many independent retailers, said Jeff Lenard, a spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores.

 

In Torrance, station owner Frank Scotto was forced to increase his prices by 24 cents per gallon on Thursday. He hasn't seen such a spike since he went into the gas station business in 1967, he said.

 

"I printed out the price change and I'm framing this thing because I've never seen this kind of thing in all my years," said Scotto, who owns a Mobil and Exxon station.

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As GasBuddy shows - the California differential is extreme...

 

*  *  *

However, while the extreme price moves are hitting California for now, given RBOB's recent rise, nationwide gas prices look set to top $2.60 within a week... 

Or as CNBC's Larry Kudlow would say: "Unambiguously ungood" for everyone.

 

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Sun, 03/01/2015 - 19:47 | 5843955 Deathstar
Deathstar's picture

One of the things I have noticed over the decades... When the prices dip and the oil corps want to hike the prices again, there's an explosion(s) somewhere that magically spike the price of gas.

 

One must ask,  is this recent "explosion(S)" that have been spiking prices recently.... planned?

 

I think so.

Sun, 03/01/2015 - 20:57 | 5844146 One Eyed Jack
One Eyed Jack's picture

It's manipulated like gold and silver. The oil companies don't like where the prices were headed so they set the price just like the fed they don't want gold going up so they suppress it bottom line it's as my grandmother used to say
"Fuck them mother fucking fuckers!"

Sun, 03/01/2015 - 21:23 | 5844219 thetruthhurts
thetruthhurts's picture

Bing!

Buy low.....build inventory......slow refining.......increase profits.

Brillant.

Sun, 03/01/2015 - 22:40 | 5844424 dickizinya
dickizinya's picture

New CA carbon tax hit wholesalers Jan 1

Sun, 03/01/2015 - 23:06 | 5844491 IronForge
IronForge's picture

"Stattion owner Frank Scotto"

This Man was Mayor of Torrance.  Towing Service Owner as well.  They should be more upfront with this...

http://www.torranceca.gov/CableTV/1555.htm
http://www.smartvoter.org/2006/06/06/ca/la/vote/scotto_f/bio.html

Sun, 03/01/2015 - 23:55 | 5844590 IronForge
IronForge's picture

IIRC, I think I saw a Teenager/ Earler 20s version of him (his son, perhaps and a few City Interns) at the Torrance Library one time - he was telling passerbys and staff that "I had sex as a teenager" (I was actually engaged after HS; but why that (and other aspects of my personal life) becomes a his or his associates' problem (I keep in touch with my ex-fiance once in awhile) or a matter of public discourse is a mystery for me.

Hope this serves as an example as to how bizzare, sociopathic, micromanaging Cults operate their own form of "religious apartheid". 

That's Torrance/Gardena, California, BTW.  Home of Nissan's, Honda's, and Toyota's US HQ until recently.  Nissan left town after the Renault Buyout; and Toyota just recently announced that they were leaving for TX.  Honda won't stick around for long...

California as a "land of fruit and nuts" is an understatement.

Mon, 03/02/2015 - 08:25 | 5845071 Nikola
Nikola's picture

Yep, the new "Cap & Trade" carbon tax is good for about 25 cents a gallon as of Jan. 1 in Kali.

The spread: http://www.FresnoGasPrices.com/retail_price_chart.aspx?city1=USA%20Avera...  

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