Gas below $1/gal in MN

The Alberta heavy crude (Western Canadian Select) is now under US$5 per barrel (42 gallons) at the terminal in Hardesty, Alberta. Figure in transport costs and it's actually negative at the refinery...the oil producers must pay the refinery to take it.

In parts of the U.S. where the refineries get a lot of crude oil from shale formations the gasoline price might start to rise. The oil shale producers are being driven out of business by the very low price of crude oil due to the reduction of demand from the world wide Coronavirus shutdown and the increase of supply by the Saudi/Russian price war. This shale oil was very light with a high refined output of gasoline.

There is a lot of variability in grades of crude oil around the world. Some is so heavy & viscous that it must be cut with a dilutent before it can be pumped or carried in a tank ship--Alberta tar sands, Venezuela Orinoco tar sands, etc. Other crude is very light, gassy, with a high yield of high value refined products. Some is very high sulfur...sour. Some is very low sulfur...sweet. Refineries are built to handle certain types of crude and cannot be readily switched to other types. Certain types of crudes cannot be mixed. The result can be black gum.

Here is a listing of types of crude oils around the world and today's prices. Not listed, but known to everyone in the industry, are the terminal locations the prices are set at for specific crudes...Hardesty, Alberta, Cushing, Oklahoma, other places...then transportation costs are added. Oil Price Charts | Oilprice.com The wholesale price of gasoline on this listing is $0.66/gallon (42,000 gallons at NY harbor).

 

Why can't they put a tariff on imported oil?

 

This is why I like plugin hybrids....they are 'flexible fuel'...and you can decide which fuel you want...on your terms!

 

This is misleading. A station had a 99 cent cost for a few hours.
The average price of gas is about $1.80. So the price of gas in MN is $1.80 although you can find isolated cases of low and even extremely low prices.

SA did us a big favor with their price war. Oil, being a globally traded commodity, prices everywhere are affected by any supply surge or demand shortfall anywhere in the world. It is just a question of how big and effect.

 

Not enough to buy one though.

 

It is one of those several fluids mentioned in your Maintenance Schedule that needs to be changed periodically. A little different than others, it needs only a partial drain & refill annually.

 

With gas prices dumping, & folks being at home due to the virus ... what are the poor utility companies going to do about all us PV solar folks ... turning the meters backwards and NOT using it by going in to work. Makes one wonder how big a hit the major power utilities are going to take, now that there's so much solar back feeding into the grid - and making user's meters run backwards.

.

 

Saved by those of us who don't (yet) have plug-in cars. Retired, so we weren't burning anything at work even before. Actually using more electricity at home because the lights and heat are staying on, laundry and dishwasher and computers and TV consuming more.

So I likely won't be having any PV surplus to export for a while. You can feed the homes I used to feed while I was traveling away from home.

 

While the US may have become an net energy exporter, our domestic oil isn't in places where it can easily get to where it is needed. Shale oil areas were already running into lack of pipeline capacity issues before this.

Then, as @PT Guy stated, oil refineries can't handle just any oil. Most US refineries in the Gulf region are designed for heavy, sour crude. They can't process the light, sweet crude from shale formations efficiently, and they can't run it 100%. It has to be mixed with heavier stuff for the refinery. Shale producers were regularly giving those refiners discounts on the oil in order for them to take the oil.

The US may produce more oil than we need, but logistics means we aren't oil independent. Most of our imports come from Mexico and Canada, so a tariff won't hurt those driving the price down.

 

I don't think you are addressing the issue, which is the price of a barrel of oil needs to be above X to be profitable for the domestic oil industry. Tariffs would raise the price of of a barrel of oil in the US, and would enable domestic oil to compete effectively vs. importing cheaper oil. It won't solve the short term demand problems caused by the coronaviris, but it would be a lifeline to the domestic oil industry. I don't want to see us again dependant upon the middle east for oil because this current debacle drove all of our domestic producers out of business.

 

Alright, I wasn't clear. I'm saying tariffs wouldn't work.

Yes, it would raise prices within the US, but there is other things to consider. Most of the Golf Coast refineries, which is region our shale oil can easily be shipped too, are designed for heavy crude, like Venezuela produces. The majority of their input needs to be that type of crude, so they aren't going to buy more shale oil if it's cheaper. The shale oil producers were discounting their product under market price to get them to take it before this happened.

We simply don't have enough refining capability for shale oil where it can be piped, nor ways to cheaply get it to such refineries if we have them. Most of it ends up exported, where a US tariff won't change the price. This is why the US a net oil producer, but not oil independent. Then there would be the question of storage. We are running out of space with the low global demand. Wells will be capped with higher prices if there is no where for the oil to go.

Tariffs will likely just piss Canada off; they supply about half our imports. Mexico is our next biggest, with below 10%. NAFTA2 was just signed. Canada might go along with a block tariff since their tar sands are hurting, and our refineries will take that oil, but that won't address the above for our oil.

1. Canada: US$66.3 billion (50.1% of total US crude oil imports)
2. Mexico: $12.3 billion (9.3%)
3. Saudi Arabia: $11.5 billion (8.7%)
4. Iraq: $7 billion (5.3%)
5. Colombia: $6.5 billion (4.9%)
6. Nigeria: $4.4 billion (3.3%)
7. Ecuador: $4.3 billion (3.3%)
8. Brazil: $3.7 billion (2.8%)
9. Russia: $3.5 billion (2.6%)
10. United Kingdom: $1.54 billion (1.2%)
11. Libya: $1.45 billion (1.1%)
12. Venezuela: $1.4 billion (1.1%)
13. Norway: $1.3 billion (1%)
14. Kuwait: $1.1 (0.8%)
15. Trinidad/Tobago: $921 million (0.7%)

US Crude Oil Imports by Supplier Countries 2019

Shale oil was heading for trouble before this. Fracked wells have short lives, and can see a major drop in production within a month. So you need to keep drilling new wells just to keep production level. Which leads to the mother/daughter issue of oil drilling; wells close to old wells produce less. This all adds to the already higher price of fracked wells.

Instead of just aiming for level, US shale oil drillers went for output growth, driven by greed and investors, with aid from politicians. Their combined output outstripped pipeline capacity. Now they were paying higher transport costs to just get their oil to the Gulf. I don't know if pipeline capacity ever increased. As mentioned, the refineries really didn't want shale oil. I know one refinery is being built for shale oil, but that isn't a quick fix. Lobbying got the law against exporting domestic oil repealed.

The industry was able to weather earlier disruptions with continued investment from outside. Some companies go bankrupt, but their assests are bought out by others, assuming our bankruptcy laws simply just shelter them. Before COVID19 and this price war, the outside investment was drying up, and not just because of a general divestment from fossil fuels. It seems much of what shorters were touting about Tesla actually applied to these fracking oil companies. Investors got tired of not seeing measurable returns.

 

Can you give me the station(s) of the under $1/gal station? The cheapest I've seen in the Twin Cities is $1.5x/gal. Thanks

 

Gasbuddy

 

The $1.5x/gal is from Gasbuddy. I think the under $1/gal, probably in rural MN or midwest so NOT in the city at this point.

 

Says lakeville stations

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.twincities.com/2020/04/01/coronavirus-gas-prices-mn-below-1-stations/amp/

that’s similar to around here in Wausau most stations are $1.69 or higher but not far away it’s a $1.24 a gallon for 88 octane,

(I try to only buy fuel when I’m in Appleton but on lockdown it’s been 3 weeks since I filled and I’m regretting I did it then)

 

Look here:
Best Gas Prices & Local Gas Stations in Minnesota
Scroll down to drill down by county or city.

 

Haha...Touche sir! Maybe once we get out of this current CV mess! Or...I might as well just wait till 'next gen' .

 

I tried to size our PV to handle the prime for 25 miles a day. Right now in social isolation we are driving 25 miles a week.We just had the yearly "true up" with the power company, they won't let you roll kWh credits month to month past a year. They made us cash out at .026 kWh. That's after not hanging out clothes and using the mini splits for all our heat all through March. I can't believe we are trying to consume more electricity, weird.

 

You can pay more for gas if you like. A tarrif is a regressive tax on the poor. How about you pay extra to support the oil industry. After years of corporate welfare and subsidies to oil companies they want more money from the government.

I would not care if the oil companies were moving towards renewables but the oil companies want business as usual. They didn't bank the money they got in the past.

Now lets blame the real reasons for the oil prices.
1. Russia
2.OPEC
3. Reduced demand

Russia and OPEC are in an oil war. Nothing we can do.

My solar right now provides 100 percent of my home power and charges my Prime.

Tarrifs are paid by Americans. They are not paid by foreign companys.

Blue