Seems that Opec has decided to cut production by 4% or roughly 1 million barrels of oil per day.  What does that mean??  You guessed it, an increase in gas prices once again.

Word from the Whitehouse is that when asked to step in the President declined saying they didn't want to get involved.

Not want to get involved????  Translated to me that means doesn't give a rat's hiney about us.

I don't care who is running against Bush, they have my vote.  I am sick and tired of all this crap and hitting us directly in the pocketbook time after time.

When will this ever end??????

OPEC could double the output and would not mean a hill of beans.

Refineries are running at 98% capacity. It's deeper than output quotas.(which OPEC members consistantly cheat on anyway)

Sure, the media wants to make it look like it is all W's fault that fuel is high.

Honestly there is never a simple answer to anything that has to do with the Whitehouse and oil.

His hands are tied by many, many rules, regulations, and politics.

There is more here than a simple, "I don't want to get involved." And look how he is being BLASTED now for getting involved in helping Iraq.

Personally, someone as wishy, washy as Kerry would never get my vote.

I won't even pretend to know if BUSH is somehow making money off all this oil stuff, all I know is that he's cleaning up  messes that should have never been his to clean, and that is how it goes with our presidency... four years isn't long enough and it's time, in my opinion to turn the Presidency back into a JOB and not a Hollywood appointment.

Fuel prices are a very deep GeoPolitical issue.

Summertime brings higher driving demand. Almost all 50 States have a differenet blend of gasoline to meet their own EPA requirements. Most States have cities in them that can even have different blend requirements for clean air standards. Therefore refineries have to run a certain type of gas for customer A and then shut down, clean the system and run a different fuel for customer B and on and on.

Time consuming and costly.

Our Government, under everyone's hero Bill signed the world wide EPA agreements (in which we are the only country sticking to them) that come into effect in the next few years.

The Big Bad profit seeking(how dare they) Oil Companies have not reinvested the millions of dollars in profits into building new refineries that meet current and future EPA requirements. WHY?? Because they need those Millions of dollars to go in and revamp the current refineries to meet all the new EPA requirements imposed on them.

Do we want clean air or $1.00 gas? These companies cannot provide $1.00 gas and  build new plants and rebuild old plants all at the same time.

Plus, these same Big Bad Profit Seeking Oil Companies know that at any given time, Venezuala, Mexico, half of the Middle Eastern Countries and South African countries that are currently below production levels because of worker unrest and or political struggles can make amends with the squabbling and jump right back into the production mode.

Personally, I wouldn't go and invest real quick to double the size of my shop just because my competition is shut down because they didn't pay their light bill, because I know that as soon as they do, they'll be back in operation and Ill go out of business.

No other country in the world pays it's workers what we do. Yet the product we give is cheaper than anywhere in the world. I think they do a good job of providing at a reasonable price.

Why open a new plant that may have to be shut down in 5 years because Mexico opened a new plant right across the border and then you have to pay severance and unemployment for all those workers?

In all fairness, the amount of Oil in the Refuge is not even enough to run this country for 10 years. It would be a short term "help" in the supply, but not really an answer.

Originally written by lynn 3 on 2004-04-01 9:29 AM

I agree with Mac. Remember, they shut down alot of the refineries in the nineties. I don't remember who "they" is. Look also at what is happening to the price of steel. It is going to skyrocket they raised the tarrif after shutting down steel factories. I say conspiracy.javascript:smilie('2','');javascript:smilie('2','');

The mass refineries shutdown started in 1991 with new EPA requirements. Many of these plants were built in the 50's and needed to be shut down due to tragically hazardous operating conditions.

     No pres. is perfect & yes there are some things I was unhappy with regarding W,but all in all I feel he's done the best job he could do.I shiver to think what would of been if Gore had been in office on 9/11.And yes that would of happened even if Gore would of been in office. As far as Scarry Kerry,well I would really like to be allowed to keep my guns,I am no nut case with them & I find it hard to trust someone who is such good friends with Jane Fonda.Whats worse is Kennedy backing him.Now thats scarry

While I don't think the Bush Whitehouse has a plan to get the Government make Oil companies build new plants and produce Gas cheaper, I have yet to hear any plan from the other side to provide this either.

I see no way of it being Constitutionally sound for Government to make a company conform to certain standards and then also make it sell it's product at a cheap price.

So true!!!  I'm glad you said this because once again, we need to be reminded that the media is very liberally biased, and in an election year, they will go all out to get the uninformed to believe their twisted, poison pen.  People...DON'T believe everything you read in the paper, or see on the TV news (except FOX network, most of the time).  Do your research!  The only reason I even get a Sunday newspaper is for the coupons. 

Originally written by Belinda on 2004-04-01 10:23 AM

I just heard this morning  on the news President Bush just asked Kwaitt " NOT" to do slow down oil production. I sinsed he is trying to do all he can to prevent oil increases. I also heard that some countries overseas want him out so they are raising oil prices to make us mad & vote him out!

I guess we could send in Marines and take over the countries and force them to produce more. But then again, with Gas, it's all about refining capacity and production standards.

I'm with Mac here....No one realizes how many "capped" wells there are in Texas that were producing just fine. The RR comission here has the stats. Bush's hands are tied.

I do have a gripe though....I worked at the Texaco refinery in Port Arthur,Tx for 2 years in the early 80's right before the big layoff's there. Diesel fuel is a throw off fuel and is not really refined. The price only went up when people started buying diesel trucks and cars.

And lastly, Kerry's wife is a Heinz heir. He keeps yapping about all those jobs going overseas and blaming Bush....well guess where 50 something of the 70 something Heinz factories are located? 

                      Mac for President!

                          Pickle for Vice-President!      

                                 Pam for Senator!

On a serious note...Thank You for the info...I knew there was a very intelligent man underneath all that red hair!

Thanks for the replies everyone!!  Seems I accomplished my mission to get more info.  It's always nice to hear from people who live and work in this industry as to what is really going on.  The most I know about oil production is what I've seen J.R. do on Dallas!!

I know there's always more to the story and that's what I wanted to hear about.  Really, WI has been pretty good on gas prices compared to other parts of the country and yes, whoever said that W had asked for an increase in production was right, he did.

Thanks again, and keep the info comin'!!!