Get Your Heating Bill Yet? Is It Making A Dent In Your Tackle Purchases

[fishweewee]

Steve,

As I understand it, natural gas is closely correlated to crude oil prices.

I don't know why.

Now, as far as the evil oil companies - I mean it sucks but there is the law of supply and demand to deal with (constrained supply because we haven't built new refineries to process high sulfur crude, increased demand from China etc) and the fact that we have these !@#$ing speculators pushing oil futures up into the stratosphere.

Anyhoo, it's funny (or sad) that I'm thinking of my bills in terms of whole van staal reels.

One of my neighbors, who uses natural gas to heat her home, had a whopping $700 gas bill ... for the month of December.

[spence]

That's just evil

Has anyone installed programmable thermostats and noticed a big difference?

We have 4 zones and are pretty good about making sure they are turned as low as possible when not in use...but I've been a thinking...

-spence

[Moses]

Cost are definitely up this season. Programmable thermostats used to help but now that the wife is home full time with the kids, they need to keep the heat at a steady state. When I arrive home, I always drop it a few degrees and they're all getting used to wearing sweatshirts, at minimum, around the house.

[fishweewee]

freakin oil is creeping up to $70/bbl again.

[TheSpecialist]

I am in the same boat as Moses. There was a story in the paper about the NG demand not being so great cause of the mild temps. This is just price gouging plain and simple...

[Mike P]

Ben, I can't buy the supply and demand argument any more. I can't help but conclude it's pure price gouging and windfall profit-taking.

Why does the price of crude today result in an immediate spike at the pump, when the oil purchased on those futures might still be in the ground over in Saudi?

Prices went up $1.50 a gallon in the 3 days after Katrina, well before the extent of refinery damage was known and before any adverse affect could have occurred to gas supplies. Yet, in the next 6 weeks, when any shortages that occurred would have had their greatest effect, prices fell to below where they were right before Katrina Could it have had something to do with Katrina hitting the week before Labor Day, after people made their final vacation plans (seeing how prices had remained relatively stable since Memorial Day when they usually rise) and the oil barons saw the opportunity to take some quick windfall profits?

Home heating oil? Most of what's currently in the supply line was refined months ago. And it's been a mild winter. Yet, they cite the need to divert crude supplies to heating oil production as one rationale for the prices spiking after the first week of December.

Sorry--I'm not some wild-eyed lefty, but I ain't buying Big Oil's bullscheit any more

[fishweewee]

Mike,

Prices are heavily influenced by the futures market. Hell, I'm not happy, but if you look at how prices fluctuate around the times gov't inventory reports are released, you'll see some correlation.

Anyways, what's propping oil up right now, after a time of relative calmness, is geopolitical uncertainty.

Iran is stirring the pot and people are worried about supply constraints.

I don't doubt that there may have been some gouging at the retail level at the time of Katrina, but equilibrium supply and demand are dictating the prices right now.

I had a fascinating discussion about oil with an energy trader.

There is more than enough crude to go around.

It's just not the light sweet variety (i.e., low sulfur) that our refineries are accustomed to refining into gas. We need to revamp our refinery capacity. Something tells me that there is an economic incentive to do that right now, but new capacity doesn't exactly turn on a dime.

Anyways, getting back to fishing - if prices trend as they are now, I think I'm gonna be fishing local a lot more this season.

[fishweewee]

One more thing - #2 home heating oil is really nothing more than low sulfur diesel with a red die to mark it as a tax-exempt fuel.

So if they're diverting heating oil for other distillate than that makes sense.

The other thing that most people don't realize - is that when warm weather hits, the wholesale cost of heating oil usually goes down, but the RETAIL PRICE HAS TO GO UP. Heating oil companies have to raise prices to meet the per-gallon profit targets, because they're shipping fewer gallons when it's warm.

You know Mike, I'm kinda wondering if I should move to S. Virginia or N. Carolina where the fishing might be a bit less rocky but the weather a lot warmer. I'm getting tired of this tri-state madness.

[NIB]

Originally Posted by Mike P

Ben, I can't buy the supply and demand argument any more. I can't help but conclude it's pure price gouging and windfall profit-taking.

Why does the price of crude today result in an immediate spike at the pump, when the oil purchased on those futures might still be in the ground over in Saudi?

Prices went up $1.50 a gallon in the 3 days after Katrina, well before the extent of refinery damage was known and before any adverse affect could have occurred to gas supplies. Yet, in the next 6 weeks, when any shortages that occurred would have had their greatest effect, prices fell to below where they were right before Katrina Could it have had something to do with Katrina hitting the week before Labor Day, after people made their final vacation plans (seeing how prices had remained relatively stable since Memorial Day when they usually rise) and the oil barons saw the opportunity to take some quick windfall profits?

Home heating oil? Most of what's currently in the supply line was refined months ago. And it's been a mild winter. Yet, they cite the need to divert crude supplies to heating oil production as one rationale for the prices spiking after the first week of December.

Sorry--I'm not some wild-eyed lefty, but I ain't buying Big Oil's bullscheit any more

I'm with ya on this.The oil company's are enjoying record profits this yr.Enough said.We need a goverment to take control of these situations unfortunatley there in on the windfalls also.The US economy cannot run on a 100 percent oil increase for long.There will be ramifications as Slip Stated the trickle down effect will snowball to our next recession.Then what will it cost us an our kids.

[Mike P]

Just got the new KeySpan bill---$481.81 for last month

The bastards aren't even coming to read the *&^%$#@ meter--ESTIMATED usage. I know we haven't used that much.

[chris L]

Im independantly wealthy so it doesnt affect me at all . Ill smoke them oils at that price