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In okc many stations buy from the same wholesaler, I know this because when I called this wholesaler to find out if I could get gas from them, they said the only station they sold their 93 and 110 octane to was the shell station, the rest wouldnt buy it they told me. (and I could not fill up my car, I had to put the gas in a container and could fill my car up from that, I tried my best lol) Now how many steps are in the ladder between OPEC and the corner shell station and on how many of those steps does ExxonMobil participate in, I dont know, but I know they do not have a refining-process-to-pump involvement, that is illegal and has been for a long time. And the reason was to prevent unethical price gouging that could not be combatted by the consumer. The reason our current "price-gouging" is not being tackled by gov is because the consumer is not defenseless, but rather indifferent. Consumers can still affect ExxonMobil enough in the retail sector to make a difference. The other retailers arent exactly smalltime. Private citizens dont buy enough gas to affect things at the wholesaler level, but the reason the barrels of oil have become so expensive is because thru our own indifference we have allowed retailers to steadily inch up the price little by little, literally the slippery slope, and now OPEC is cashing in on it from the top not allowing those further down the chain to rake in all the profits. There is only 2 ways to do anything about that.
1) The US and Canada become major suppliers of crude oil through all that mumbo jumbo about arctic oil fields, and break OPECs grip on the world market (which I have never understood why we havent done by now since arabs all hate us and scapegoat us anyway, might as well give them a good reason). 2) Or consumers have to reverse the trend through less consumption (already being done somewhat through the trends in hybrid cars, ever increasing mileage standards, environmentally concious treehugger practices becoming more popular) which can be very difficult and impractical as well as difficult to motivate popular support for. And they can consume as usual but create price competition by not being indifferent to where they get their gas from. It only makes sense to force the largest retailer to lower prices, EM isnt guilty of anything more than being the largest, but if consumers want to see reversal in price trends they would have to get the largest to start it if they want to see results quickest. Even then we are talkng about months/years not weeks.
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