Oil prices down?

[Torsten]

Hi, has anyone noticed that the fuel prices seem to be falling? I've just seen a petrol station that is offering diesel for less than 1 EUR per liter. This is quite strange as I'd already gotten used to seeing diesel prices grow rather than fall.
What is going on here :-)?

TOEIC listening, photographs: The laptop on the round table

[Nami]

In Georgia, $2.17/per gallon

[Jacobkell]

I dont use car so i dont give a damn.But i was notice people talk about lower gas prizes around.

[FangFang]

Hard to give all the reasons, Mr Torsten. I wonder where you are located. Because here (China) the oil price doesn't give a quick response , though the international oil prices are seemingly getting down.
Many uncertain factors may explain why it is so, like the peace in the Middle East or Americans have found abundant oil resources in Mexico...... People think there won't be an urgent need for oil.
But it isn't all the case. Who knows that? :D

[Torsten]

[Jamie (K)]

The gasoline prices in the US have gone down about a dollar per gallon in the past month, so right now it's going for between $2.14 and $2.29 a gallon in Michigan. It's still higher than normal, but it's better than it was.

There are a number of reasons for this, and I don't know all of them. I believe that some of the American drilling and refining facilities near the Gulf of Mexico that were damaged during last year's hurricaines are now operating at a higher capacity again. Another reason is that, due to the high gas prices, fewer Americans drove as far, or at all, during vacation season, so there was an unexpected surplus of gasoline here.

Another reason is that some new oil is coming out of the ground now. When oil was cheap, it wasn't cost-effective to develop some of the more complicated sources of oil. When oil got expensive, it became worth it to get some of it out of the ground. For example, the Canadian tar sands in Alberta have about as much oil as Saudi Arabia, but it wasn't profitable to get it out. Now it is, so that oil is expected to reach the market early next year, if it hasn't already.

As usual, if the government doesn't artificially lower oil prices, or excessively tax the oil companies to punish them, prices eventually go down, because they can bring more oil to market. A lot of experts think oil will get even cheaper in the next months.