How high will gasoline go in 2012

$4 tops.

Every year I hear the chicken little predictions, usually started by oil speculators to cash in on the fear.

Not to be arrogant, but I don't really care, and in some ways it would be a good thing to see $5 gas. If it would stay there! Usually what happens is it hits the low 4's, alternatives come on line, the price drops, the alternatives go off line.

It smells scammy to me.

 

I'm curious how some of you are figuring only $4 because I'm paying $4.09 now for gas and its not a cold winter by any stretch actually pretty warm for ny.

PG41200 ?

 

Psst, you live in New York. Since there are areas of the county that are high gas prices and some that are low, they use a national average. Hawaii is a really high one. The two standards seem to be AAA Fuel Gauge Report or Gas Buddy. Today is $3.40

Daily Fuel Gauge Report--national, state and local average prices for gasoline, diesel and E-85.

 

I paid $3.6999 (don't forget the fourth significant digit!) two days ago in Nassau County. This was for 87 octane. Find another gas station..

 

I'm sorry...but I actually care what my cars drink, especially seeing as how two of my cars (my Legend and my 4runner) are very thirsty all the time and require 93 octane ( I only use BP or Shell religiously)

I'm not complaining, just pointing out the pink elephant in the room

 

Well, David, you picked a correct but boring gaso molecule.
I picked C2H5OH for making at home, because we can at least drink any off-spec ethanol
:tea:

 

Really disgusting article quote in BOLD below:

Yikes, I do not want to be like Calfiornia.
This is in reference to recent shut down of approx. 1,000,000 barrels of east coast refinery capacity including a 350,000 barrel per day refinery in St. Croix. The east coast refineries are losing money due the higher cost of Brent crude vs. West Texas. Possibility is that East coast gaso prices will now go up markedly.

News Headlines (Re: shut down of East coast refineries)

Note to Maryland drivers - may want to alert your state politicans to go easy on the proposed add'l 10+ cent/gallon state gasoline tax. Even if you agree with increasing the tax, your favorite polico may get voted out of office if they try this when East coast gaso prices are already getting a double whammy.

 

US fuel price discussions always bring home the differences to this side of the pond...
The *cheapest* fuel I can get locally is £1.299. Per litre.
At 4 litres to a (US) gallon, and $1.50 to the pound... I make that about $7.80 per gallon. Predictions are that it will head up to £1.50 per litre this year, so around $9...

 

But you guys are used to those prices. We are used to a lot less, which is why us as Americans have grown comfortable driving 8mpg Cadillac escalades. I'm not saying it's right it's just what we are used to.

 

How high will gasoline go in 2012? Assuming we are talking about the continental United States and only automobile gasoline, the answer is 14,130 feet on the Mount Evans Scenic Byway. Actually it will be a couple of feet higher, given the height of the engine over the ground.

Tom

 

The price of gasoline fluctuates at varying percentages of the cost, which has always been high. Strange how Economics 101 is so widely ignored.

 

US gallon is 3.78, so it is $7.36/gal

That aside you are not driving 2,500mi a month in 17.4MPG avg vehicle.

 

Erm, assumptions on both sides here I fear.

Two years ago petrol was £1 a litre (£3.78/$5.95 US gallon), but now it's £1.32 a litre (£5.01/$7.89 US gallon).

So we've all experienced a sharp increase in relative petrol costs in recent years. And it's gonna get worse.

 

Well, you're comparing champaigne to beer, because when people talk about gas prices, they're talking about the price of regular. Especially in a forum for the Prius, which is built for regular and doesn't need premium.

It's not that alternatives come online. If you're including unconventional sources, like the tar sands from Canada, those are profitable at about $70/barrel, and we've been above that pretty much all along. It's that high prices drives the economy down and people stop driving as much, and then gas prices follow.

I would love to see more natural gas vehicles, since that is cleaner burning than gasoline, less expensive than EV vehicles, and no need to import fuel. But there's a lot of foot dragging going on there, it's still in the area of fleet vehicles, usually trucks or buses.

I've been keeping track of what I pay on each fill-up for a number of years now. I broke it down roughly by my previous car and my current car. You can see a trend of higher prices in the summer, and you can see that this is the highest January ever, so just by that I'd say $4.60 is quite likely this summer, assuming the economy hangs together. What we've seen is that it gets to $4.20 and then people drive less for whatever reason (unemployed or by choice, I'm not sure).

 

3.78, yes, I should remember to calculate rather than rely on (fallible) memory - The imperial gallon is almost exactly 20% bigger than the US one, so it's not even difficult! :-(
Any FX is going to be appoximate in any case. If I was serious, I'd probably have to relate the relative costs to take home pay for similar jobs, or something like that...

 

Here's a cute little video that helps explain some of the differences between 'price' and 'cost' as it applies to gasoline.

 

My guess, and pure speculation here... Is over $4.75 at some point this year.

Time will tell, but I do agree gas will only go up and not down.

 

I say about 3.5 metres above the ground

 

I wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole

 

Grumpy- It looks like a big cost increase for you. Does that imply that both the fuel cost and the added tax both went up? I think in the USA the added tax is +xx cents per gallon, so the tax does not go up if fuel cost component goes up.