How Are Gas Prices Fixed?

January 2008 Gas
Pump Price In Nanaimo

The above picture was taken for this blog back in January of 2008. When I checked the price of crude oil for that time the price was a little over $100 per barrel.

This week crude oil is just over $60.00 per barrel, yet in Nanaimo we are still paying $1.08 per litre for regular gasoline. So, how exactly do the oil company executives go about fixing, and I do mean fixing, the price we will pay at the pump?

I realize that the oil companies need to make a fair profit, the emphasis of course being on fair. However, I have trouble reconciling the fact I am paying 21% more for gas now than in Jan. '08 while the oil companies are paying 40% less for crude oil.

Remember that today in our nations capital of Ottawa they are pumping for .86 per litre.

There seems to be little stomach to hold the oil companies accountable by any level of government, after all, the higher the pump price the higher taxes which get siphoned off to provincial and federal governments.

In spite of all the 'plucking' that old goose seems most reluctant to even hiss these days. Perhaps it is just not the Canadian-way to complain in the summertime.