"Frank Boettcher" wrote in message
...

I have said this time and again. When the oil companies started to merge
they cut out 1/2 the competition. If pricing was truly the result of
supply
and demand we all would have been sitting in lines to gas up like we did
back in the 70's.

Since I was one of those working in the industry and became part of
the "competition" that was eliminated, I would agree wholeheartedly

Speculation and "What the market will Bare" is what's going on here. US
oil
consumption was down 6 months before prices shop up to $4.00 per gallon.
The demand began it's decline in the fall of last year.

I still think you are confusing crude supply/demand curves with
refined product costs. U. S. Oil consumption is only one part of the
demand curve. When you buy that Chinese whatever in Walmart, you are
living in the USA and driving up crude demand in China.

Well I probably blur the lines occasionally however my son has been studying
world economies in college and has learned that China has been hoarding oil
for the Olympics. Thier demand should deminish. Either way I see and have
seen no shortages of any thing oil related.