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

[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.

[Joe]

My wife's grandmother passed away in October of 04, she lived in NC.
She was a very cheap person - she moved down there to save money - she lived in a trailer, in New Bern.
I went down there to clean out the trailer and get it ready to sell. We sold her trailer for 7K - which is about the going rate for a used double wide. It cost another 150 per month to park it on the lot. It was about 1/2 hour from the open ocean and maybe 10 mins to Palmico Sound.

[UserRemoved1]

I pre-bought all my oil this year at 2.19 a gallon so the heat hasn't been concerning me as much this year as last. We locked in last year too but the bills in the winter stink so I prepaid it in the fall and got a good price.

WEEWEE Get programmable thermostats and use them on every zone. Get the ones with the highest number of program cycles along with 7 day. Use it aggressively and you will see significant savings. We saved over a tank of oil last year alone and that was before we did the last zone upstairs. The nice thing is you can set it to go to all different levels in multiple times during the day and then drop to 60 at nite if the zone isn't needed or during the day if it's not needed then.

[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.

[BigFish]

You didn't think they were gonna "UNDERESTIMATE"......did you Mike? Thats reason number one why I will never own gas ever again!

[NIB]

My bill was the same way estimate.off last yrs' usage?
This way they get all kinds of surpluss cash an bankroll it into more money.Meanwhile heating degree days are less than half of last yrs.says it right on the bill.

[Redsoxticket]

How about calling in your own gas meter reading. Its accurate but the gas co. would probably prefer to have it inaccurate, go figure.

Originally Posted by 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.

[5/0]

Originally Posted by Redsoxticket

How about calling in your own gas meter reading. Its accurate but the gas co. would probably prefer to have it inaccurate, go figure.

It's funny you mentioned that how they would prefer to have it in there favor,Well It's true!

Four years ago we switched over to gas for heat,we have it for stove & water heater anyway that first winter was record cold,not to mention our bills were record high!I called and tried to talk with them bill after bill.(phone line metering)they told me it's a cold winter & you have an old house.I got fed up & did some digging on the bills I went out side to my meter & read it myself & compaired it with the bills they were off by a country mile!WTF!

Also in there defense they told me that their metering based on last winters heating bill.
Really!Tell me how can that be?I had oil last year!!!
Then I get the...O-maybe your meter is faulty we'll come out and take a look @ it.Well it was faulty and they replaced it.They would come out each month and take a reading.
Our bill was fixed but WFT If i said nothing at all we would still be paying through the nose,but If it was anything to do on my end they would cut us off