Gas price increase BEFORE hurricane hits Texas

[Spider John]

Is anybody else seeing this? I am being told that gas in my small town has gone up .53 cents today. This is gas already refined and in the tank. The production of that gas was in no way affected by hurricane Ike, so why is it going up. Bunch of crooks, I tell ya.....

[Popeye_Card]

Where are you located?

Price will always go up to areas supplied by the gulf coast, in anticipation of future supply being down, but it shouldn't have gone up 53 cents in a day. Sounds like local price gouging to me.

[cardinalkarp]

It only went up .12 here overnight but I'm expecting higher. I've heard a couple places in ILL jacked it up to $5 a gallon. Talk about price gouging.

[TabascoElvis]

We went up about .30 since Tuesday, here in Mich.

Stations have to make enough on what's in their tanks to pay for what's going to be delivered next time.

[Arthur Dent]

It only went up about $0.10 in Austin. I'm guessing small town gas stations have greater freedom to change prices due to lack of competition.

[cards2468]

Stupid investors.

If they received word that somebody at an oil refinery sneezed gas would go up $.25 out of speculation that all the employees have the plague

[number9]

Stations have to make enough on what's in their tanks to pay for what's going to be delivered next time.

This would be correct except for crude oil prices are still dropping (down to $100.66 per barrel as of right now. So as of right now they would be paying less next time, not more.

Yes, it went up about .10-.15 here in St. Louis today but it had already jumped .20 earlier in the week so we're up .30+

I heard them mentioning early in the week that people in KY and IN were opening investigations into the .30-.40 overnight price hikes as oil prices continue to drop.

[Spider John]

Where are you located?

Price will always go up to areas supplied by the gulf coast, in anticipation of future supply being down, but it shouldn't have gone up 53 cents in a day. Sounds like local price gouging to me.

I'm in West Tennessee, so it's likely my supply is from the Gulf Coast area. I understand the law of supply and demand, but an approximate 25% hike in prices, based on the anticipation of what MIGHT happen if refineries receive any damage, seems like opportunism to me.

[stlouie_lipp]

It has gone up about .22 cents in the last week or so here in Northern, IL.

About .12 cents of that in the last two days.

[Popeye_Card]

Stations have to make enough on what's in their tanks to pay for what's going to be delivered next time.

This would be correct except for crude oil prices are still dropping (down to $100.66 per barrel as of right now. So as of right now they would be paying less next time, not more.

Yes, it went up about .10-.15 here in St. Louis today but it had already jumped .20 earlier in the week so we're up .30+

I heard them mentioning early in the week that people in KY and IN were opening investigations into the .30-.40 overnight price hikes as oil prices continue to drop.

The market price of crude isn't impacted by hurricanes. Its a matter of interupted supply, first of crude to refineries, then refined products to retail outlets.

The price jump is in anticipation of shortage in the region (the majority of the midwest is served initially by the gulf coast), when they'll have to get additional supply into the region via untraditional methods (trucks, etc.).