Surprise! Gasoline Prices in the US are Rigged

By Gordon Duff, Senior Editor

You don’t have to be a genius to know that gasoline costs around $3.50 per gallon in the US.

What most Americans don’t know is that the only thing keeping the price above $2.00 is the fact that our oil companies are exporting our gasoline at bargain basement prices to their own foreign subsidiaries subsidized by high American prices.

You see, gasoline usage, around the world, has fallen dramatically.

Gas is a liquid. Imagine a glass of water. You fill it to the top, you add more, it overflows.

Same with gasoline. Tank farms fill up, the rusty pickup truck in the driveway has gas in it, the BP station is full to capacity, everything that can hold gasoline except for your bath tub is filled to capacity. Normally, this would crash prices.

Instead, America exports gas, dirt cheap and in huge volume, 480,000 barrels per day. But this is an export you say, a good thing. Is it now?







Hmmm.

Let’s look at some facts:

American refineries are the most expensive in the world with the highest wages

The gasoline exported was made from crude oil shipped halfway around the world

To gain market share, America would have to compete with refineries closer to oil supplies, refineries with cheap labor, most of which are owned by governments or government controlled corporations

This means America’s exports are subsidized. By “subsidized,” we mean “fixed” or “rigged.” I think it is safe to say we have known this for a very long time, I don’t expect anyone to have a heart attack reading this.

Ah, but there is more. A while ago, oil hit $70 bucks a barrel. Even that was high, high enough for gas to go to $1.79 a gallon though the price never moved an inch, not up to $1.79 or would that be “down?”

Below is a graph showing imported oil hitting $37.00 per barrel after the economic crash. Today oil is over $100.00 per barrel and the economic crisis has spread to Europe and actually gotten much worse.

Today, the AP explained to us why oil is only down to $100 per barrel, brought about by the crisis, now decades old, tied to Irans claimed nuclear threat, something nobody has ever seemed to present anything resembling even hard evidence about. Please read this excerpt from AP. It is actually quite amusing, to me anyway:

Oil prices fall as concerns about Iran retreat By CHRIS KAHN, AP Energy Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices started the week lower after analysts said that nations should have ample supplies regardless of Iran’s threats to block exports from the Persian Gulf. Benchmark crude on Monday fell by 84 cents to $100.72 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, which is used to price foreign oil varieties that are imported by U.S. refineries, fell 80 cents $112.26 per barrel in London. Prices climbed last week on fears that Iran could try to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz in response to international sanctions. One-sixth of the world’s seaborne oil passes through the narrow strait, and traders feared that a conflict in the region would slow down crude shipments out of the Persian Gulf. Morgan Stanley analysts pointed out over the weekend that producers can always bypass the strait by transporting oil through pipelines in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Libya also has been ramping up oil fields that were idled during last year’s rebellion, and its exports will help replenish stockpiles. Also, Morgan Stanley analyst Hussein Allidina said, Europe’s soft economy will further depress the world’s energy appetite this year. “If tension in the Mideast recedes, the premium that has been built into crude prices is likely to fade, sending crude prices lower,” Allidina said in a research note. Europe’s flagging economy remains a major source of concern for oil traders. Less government spending is expected to constrict economic growth and possibly send the eurozone into recession this year. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy met Monday to work on ways to boost the continent’s flagging economy.

Please excuse my repetition. Oil crashed into the $30’s when the US economy was being bailed out by President’s Bush and Obama.

There has been no job recovery yet and we have kept running record deficits ever since. In fact, though employment figures are slightly less horrific, nothing has changed at all or has it?

Now it seems, out of nowhere, Europe is trillions in debt, the EU is coming apart, the Pound is unstable, the Euro hopeless, all facts unknown to analysts in the oil trade who set prices at $37 dollars.

Europe was just fine then and America was as it is now, pretty much.

Get the picture?

Oil should be at $20 dollars, gasoline here should be at $1.35, the US would have no trade deficit because of this, our economic recovery would be spectacular, everyone would go out and buy a new SUV, employment would be up, spendable income would increase dramatically or are there signs that this is simply “not allowed.”

Can the manipulation of oil prices be seen as a sign of the collective economies of the US and EU as being systematically pushed into debt for the profit of banks, with oil companies fully participating and no government saying a word.

Worse yet, governments, so many of them, seem to be enjoying destroying themselves as though it were some kind of sick game.

Let’s add two more factors to this:

New oil discoveries have placed “inventories” worldwide at 40% above last year’s estimates. Oil is being found everywhere, West Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean, in fact oil companies are now actually afraid to look. It seems the planet is floating on oil

World natural gas supplies are the same, supplies are infinite, cheap to deliver and wholesale prices are collapsing.

Energy technology, including “cold fusion,” long presented and “junk science” are turning out to be “suppressed science” instead. Surprise, Surprise.

What should we be asking?

The big question, why has nobody said anything about this? Why isn’t President Obama screaming from the rooftops or Ron Paul standing on a milk crate on some lonely corner in New Hampshire?

For the average family, the savings are enough to pay rent or a house payment, fuel costs are that much. If we add a 75% reduction to heating bills, which is where the natural gas market really is, what would that do?

Oh, did I forget? Last year we had the highest increase in food prices in history.

Food prices are driven, primarily, by the price of diesel, which should almost be free except for market manipulation. Currently, the Bush family has taken a position in “corn” which means “ethanol.”

Imports of corn for ethanol will crash the market, this is already in motion and has been for months.

Food should nearly be free, not going up 2% per month.

This is all being rigged too.

We don’t need ethanol for gasoline, in fact we probably won’t need gasoline in 3 years, not if we use new technologies. I saw my first 100 mpg gasoline engine, powerful and conventional two years ago. It puts out more horsepower than most hybrids and has no batteries, motors or other such wasteful expense. It was so “green” that you could pump its exhaust into an incubator.

We have a hundred suppressed technologies, have done everything possible to kill mass transit in the US and have worked, day and night, to make it impossible for Americans to survive.

The cash for a nationwide mag-lev train system sits in the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, one trillion dollars of private funds, held up for years.

This is 400,000 jobs.

The project, and I have seen the court filings, the bank transfers, the pay orders, has been held up for years now, a project that would end much of America’s unemployment and make national travel at over 300 mph dirt cheap and totally clean.

The game?

We are going to send “the fleet” to threaten Iran, pretend that oil should be $100 per gallon when we don’t need it at all, keep putting the $3.49 per gallon signs at the gas stations and keep selling hamburger for $2.89 per pound instead of $1.39.

Electric bills will stay triple what they should, natural gas even more.

Cell phones, internet and television will always cost equal to half your rent with every source priced within pennies of the other although all use government paid for resources resold to the public.

Some call it slavery. Eventually, some may call it a time for war.

Editing: Jim W. Dean

Author Details Author Details Gordon Duff, Senior Editor Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. He is a disabled veteran and has worked on veterans and POW issues for decades. Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues. Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology. Gordon’s Latest Posts