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I wonder....with the gas prices going up, the price per barrel of oil going up...who stands to gain from that? Obviously we as the consumer don't, but what about shareholders/stockholders of companies (exxon,mobile,amoco, etc...) don't they get a big chunk of change in their pocket? I am novice when it comes to gas and stocks, etc...so i am just wondering.....maybe some of you know. Like for example - who is in charge of raising the price per barrel? Why are they allowed to go so high as to make us have to pay over 3.00 a gallon?? Any ideas?? Hell, when they reported it on some of the news channels, they talked with a smirk...know what i mean? They seemed to have restrained jubilation about oil being over 70.00 a barrel and a gallon of gas maybe costing 3.00 or more. What in the hell??

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I can't answer a lot of your questions, but the US market price of a barrel of crude oil actually FELL slightly today on word that the US Government is taking steps to increase supply. The problem now is a) refining the oil and b) distributing the gasoline. We are not on the verge of running out of oil. The market price of crude would have continued to skyrocket today if that was the case. The worries now are keeping up with the demand for gasoline (exacerbated by panicked runs on gas in certain areas) while having fewer refineries to work with and fewer ways to transport the gasoline. That's why, oddly, the price of crude oil could go down again tomorrow, while the wholesale price of a gallon of gas could go up.

The good news is that at least one of those major pipelines (someone posted a link earlier) is at least beginning to start back up, albeit at a lower-than-normal capacity.

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