In the event that you have not noticed.

Price dips have happened many time in the past in the oil/fuel markets.

One thing that is certain.

Price goes up quickly.

Price goes down slowly.

Reason: What is in the tanks at the delivery point and the differential between the cost of their next delivery.l

Luckily where I live gas is usually cheaper than most of the country.It was strange how long it took the price to drop when oil took it's last nosedive.Will be watching closely this time.

Nothing fishy going on. Gasoline at the pump is set by individual retailers who gauge the demand for their product and the amount they expect to have delivered and set a price based on that regardless of what they paid for it.

If they set a price too low, they will run out of product and no one will come in to buy their over priced cokes and coffee. If they set a price too high, no one will buy it and they'll see all their customers at other stations, buying over priced cokes and coffee.

FYI for other commenters, I work at a gas station part time. We don't make anything off gasoline sales, like 0.04 a gallon at best. Gas is used as a ploy to get people in the store, and anything made off gas sales is gravy. All it takes is for one idiot to run off with a tank of gas w/o paying and we'll be in the red for the day.

The greedy "gouging" does not occur at the station level.

Well, like I said several times over last few years, Half of US problems are greed...... just look at AIG.....wants too pay even more Bonuses With noo valid reason....and price of Gas is ridiculous....But we ,as consumers just Grin and bear it......It's time too stand up and say "NO MORE" .......Join me, a poor Ol' Red-Neck ,in writing your elected representatives and Bitching.....We need too help each other.....

Why would we expect that. Heck I own a half acre of mineral rights in OK. I expect them to drop equivalent to the 60% drop in prices from 07/17/09 to now, 51 weeks ago. The people are being ripped off by oil companies and I say this as they pay me royalties when they pull it out the ground from the wells around my 1/2 acre. I want to apologize for their greed.

Prices are dropping here in Denver. Over the last month they have dropped at least .20 per gal.

By the way, 5 years ago it was 40dollars a barrel. in 1992, it was around 20 dollars a barrel. Why the rapid run-up? I have the empirical data from my royalty checks to prove what I'm saying.

it was 147.27 on 07/17/08, today it's 59.39 as of this moment. That's something like a sixty percent drop over 51 weeks. It topped out at about $4.57 a gallon here last year, noiw its about $2.50. The difference is not 60 percent. My question is why not?

If oil rises by 1 buck today , gas will increase in price the same day, if oil decreases by 1 buck today , why does it take 3 weeks to drop in price, IF, it ever drops ? Where do I get on the gravey train....

According to my calculations, it should be selling at $1.84 a gallon to match the drop in price per barrel over the last year.

Don't kid yourself. The oil companies are going to continue to rip off the consumer. Why, we need gas and they are greedy bastards. When they said the price of a barrel of oil was going up because of the wars, hence the price at the pump, they were making record profits. They really raked it in when gas was over $4.50 a gallon.
Refineries not running at full capacity? Another good joke. And congress does nothing. Why. You got it. Their pockets are full of oil money. Write your congressman? That's the funniest joke of all.

I watch the financials many times during the work
day, When oil prices go up that day, The next morning the gas companies have raised thier prices according to the close the night before,
The very companies that us Tax payers have bailed
out are helping to drive up the price of oil by
bying it, storing it out in the ocean somewhere,
And why not, they are buying it with money from us at 2-3 percent and making a 40 percent profit,
Don't you wish the government would set us up like that.

To one of the commenters Mike,
I'm curious about something, In my area I drive by the gas station after work after the stock market closes, The next morning the price of gas at this same station is up reflecting the oil close the day before but the gas they are selling that day (at a higher price ) is the same gas they purchased 3 days before at a lower
price, So your arguement does not hold water, But feel free to enlighten me.

Why do the drop's in gas prices take so long, the increases seem to hit based on the latest ticker across the brokers desk. The stations have 1.98 gas in the tanks in the ground, they raise the price to 2.10, its still the same gas. But on reductions they clear the tanks before putting the lower priced fuel in. Just isn't right!

Reliable,

I own mineral rights in Oklahoma and Mikes comment or the currently inflated price at the pump make on sense to me either.

What does the oil slide mean for wages? Last year many people received raises as did businesses to compensate for the high cost of energy. So this year what happens to those raises? This slide in oil can be just as harmful to our economy as the quick rise was. Too much swinging back and forth will cause chaos in a system that is already strained. The Saudi's already noted that if they didn't get the price they need to produce the barrel they were going to slow down on production which will cause oil to rise quickly again. We need to stablize oil for our economy to recover and re-hiring to begin.

Patience letting the cheap price work into the system...ha...they increase the price as soon as oil goes up!

This needs comments??? The price of oil goes up instantaneously the price of gas at the pump goes up.
No two or three week lag. The price of oil goes down.
Yea, the price of gas goes down. Sure, hold your
breath it goes down. We are being played like puppets
and the media is helping. What a bunch of chumps
we all are at this stage of the game. Oil companies
have us by the butt and we go along with it.

What parts of the gas pump prices are the various taxes imposed by state and federal governments? Here in Minnesota we have a habit of taxing everything, and doing it more than once. Being our state has one of the highest tax base of any state, I always factor in 40-50 cents for taxes per gallon. And I know here it will only get worse because our state government is in the red, budget wise.