Premium Gasoline Price Will Get Even More Expensive
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Ever since the globe began awakening from its COVID-19 slumber, the price of energy, including that of gasoline, has risen to great heights. Now, it seems as though premium gasoline will be getting unproportionally more expensive as compared to its lower-octane counterparts.
According to a report from Bloomberg, the reasoning behind is unfortunate phenomena is related to several different aspects, including the Russian-Ukrainian war, U.S. environmental regulations, and a lack of refining capability. The report specifically points to U.S. regulations as the main culprit behind rising premium prices.
More specially, it comes down to octane levels. The U.S. “Tier 3” environmental regulations, which came into effect in 2017, require lower sulfur content in gas, which makes it difficult to maintain a high octane concentration. In order to stay in compliance with these regulations, gas corporations need to perform more stringent refining processes on the gasoline, which results in lower octane levels. While gas prices plummeted during 2020 due to lowered demand from the COVID-19 pandemic, the rebound in demand has since made it clear how drastic the difference in price between regular and premium gasoline really is.
“Meeting lower sulfur requirements comes at the expense of octane levels, which likely contributed to soaring prices for high octane blending components,” Bank of America Corporation analysts were quoted as saying. “This dynamic should continue in 2023 and may lead to similar explosive upside in gasoline prices this summer.”
A smaller piece in this dynamic relationship is related to refining capacities. Gas corporations lowered their output during 2020 due to the lower levels of demand. However, they have not reached fully capability yet, and due to this factor, there simply aren’t enough refineries online that are capable of raising octane levels. That being said, this may change later this year, as production continues to ramp back up to pre-pandemic levels.
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like how they ramble off excuses first then list the main reason “U.S. regulations as the main culprit” at the end
Instead of all this subsidized EV crap, if the government put the same amount of effort into bio fuels like biobutanol, cellulosic ethanol, and wider availability of b20 bio diesel, fuel would be less expensive, less susceptible to geopolitical issues, engines could have more performance, and there would be lower emissions. But it’s all a political game of let’s just electrifry everything and brain wash the public into thinking we are saving the world, so the oil industry fights back and all us minions suffer.
Right, because the oil industry doesn’t already enjoy generous federal incentives.
They really don’t. Evidently you know nothing about the oil industry, how they get fined daily by the EPA, how they pay royalties to the federal government per acre of land used, and again for every ton of oil extracted, more royalties. When you see the cost of a barrel of oil, half of that goes to the government, and oil costs about half what you pay at the pump, the rest is all taxes.
Oil companies
Farmers
Industry
Construction workers
We’re all under attack from the feds.
Then explain to me why gasoline is far cheaper in the US than other countries? Clearly you don’t know what you are talking about. Canada, practically all of Europe, etc., all pay far more than we do. You conservatives are literally the dumbest people on the planet.
Then food commodities skyrocket. It’s a rob Peter to pay Paul solution. And the ethanol blends have lower energy content than standard gasoline, as well as the characteristic of absorbing water from the atmosphere which creates issues. And I would not say it’s any more reliable of a supply chain, now you’re reliant on the weather for your fuel. It’s no where near a magic bullet
“Ever since the globe began awakening from its COVID-19 slumber, the price of energy, including that of gasoline, has risen to great heights”
Really???? Really???? Do you think we’re stupid? Is GMA hosted by Amazon servers? Is cohesion behind this? You you start lying, how can we trust your evaluations of media drive events? Or insider information leaks? Big disservice
Why, yes, we do think you’re stupid, otherwise you wouldn’t post such nonsensical drivel.
It makes me cringe when people blame the petroleum price hikes on the Russia/Ukraine war. Gasoline in the US had already risen to approximately $3.75 per gallon two months prior to Russia raging war on Ukraine.
The very day that Biden took office, he put a halt to almost all of US oil drilling. This had a two-pronged effect: It set the wheels in motion of prices going through the roof, due to having to purchase oil from Russia, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. Plus, it put 5-6k US pipeline workers out of a job. In 2020, the US was the largest oil producer in the world and was selling millions of barrels to European countries. This isn’t rocket science: When the US was supplying their own oil, the price of gasoline was $2.19 per gallon. Now that they are having gasoline shipped in from the other side of the planet, the price is ~$3.75 per gallon.
Lastly, with diesel going from $3.00 per gallon to $5.00 per gallon (and since 99.99% of all good are transported via 18-wheeler at one point or another), that price hike has been passed onto the consumer. It is why your groceries, clothing, electronics, vehicles, etc. all cost so much more than what they did in 2020. 🙁
Turn off that nonsensical plastic box that sits in your living room and open your mind.
You forget the part about a global pandemic driving down global demand to historic levels, and production not rising fast enough to meet demand. But Trumpers gonna Trumpet.
Ad hominem: The telltale sign of a weak-mind. Best of luck to you.
Not ad hominem. Supply and demand is actually central to the economic debate here. Again, Trumpers using terms they don’t understand.
^^ Racing Jake actually understand basic supply and demand
Like how shutting down Anwar somehow didn’t reduce supply, therefore straining demand?
I believe its ANWR, but I’m going to need more explanation because your comment doesn’t make sense.
I’d be willing to bet if you didn’t add “Trumpers gonna Trumpet” you would have gotten upvoted lol. You’re right but many people have a difficult time separating what is actually going on here and politics.
Couldn’t honestly care less about upvotes or downvotes. They mean nothing to me. I don’t get any rewards or satisfaction from them. I also don’t give a crap what Trumpers think of me, especially as they think that January 6 was just a normal day. They are incapable of logic.
Haha, I don’t either. I actually voted for him once. Wouldn’t consider myself one though lol. You’re right though problem solving and understanding root cause is definitely not their strength.
There’s almost no events in the world like this with 1 single cause…..yes oil investment in the US was lacking. But also yes, oil producers wrote off billions of dollars of capitol that was stranded in Russia at the start of the war. And also yes, demand was suppressed during COVID, which masked the lack of US investment. And there’s probably more factors I’m not aware of either
Bottom line… Big Oil made $220 Billion in profits, which is at record levels. We could blame covid, the government, the war, the cat next door, whatever. But in the end, big oil made that record, because they can, as they know too well they have all of us by the gonads.
It’s clear we are dealing with price gouging. So what solution do we have to not feed Big Oil? That’s the question we should ask instead of bickering with each other on who to blame.
Fair point.
Good point