Sometimes You Win One...

Every now and then I get to thinking that maybe I should just quit doing this predicting stuff and just "let it be", you know, let it slide and take it all as it comes.

Then I woke up...

When I'm tracking daily spot prices for gasoline and heating oils I am often to think of everyone else who might be a little worse off than myself. I'm thinking back almost a week and a half ago when I noticed the big drop in spot pricing that occurred immediately after the start of the Middle East ceasefire and the threat of attacks against US airliners from England.

I noticed in the daily numbers that oil happened to be going through a little "troubled period" and prices were in a precipitous decline.

I used it for a test...

I decided that, after the news broke that I would see how many of these independents out there would drop back their prices before the Petroleum Pricing Office would and that I would challenge "Big Oil" with the opportunity to compete- you know, let them know we were watching them.Gawd love the Open Line radio shows for giving the opportunity to do so because everyone who listenedout there heard it. NTV came calling and they gave opportunity to tell the numbers again...I had them and they do too.Anyone want to chance dropping pricing?...Nope...

Spot pricing for gasoline-for the time period in question from the 8th of August to the 17th fell by almost nine cents a liter and this was not being reflected in the prices anywhere at the pumps around the Province.

Because the PPO set pricing based on the past months activity as of the 11th of the month allowing for that three day time period for notification to the oil companies I said,"Let's see what the companies do...". Spot pricing from that day (11th) averaged 67 cents for the whole month and we saw a 2/10ths of a cent drop that, according to my numbers, was warranted for time period measured.

However...

August 10/06 numbers showed a 58.81 cent per litre cost and that number trended like that for the next couple of business days. I knew they had leeway and plenty of it but the companies never took the chance to avail themselves of capturing their "market share".

Somewhere along the line, someone was making a hell of a lot of money...almost 23.5 cents a litre over and above the basic costs for the stuff in the first place.

I knew the numbers would be there for the PPO to interrupt the regular time period for setting of pricing but a quick call to the local Open Line radio shows and an appearance on a local TV station may have set the Petroleum Pricing Office into acting what I was thinking-that this was an extraordinary downwards pricing measurement that was gross in the extreme and that it had to be addressed- the sooner the better.

They did act earlier than the anticipated and the result is a 9.6 cent a litre decrease this morning and one "pissed off" retailer in the Grand Falls area that supposedly "lost thousands".

Lost?...

Let me say this...

Since the eigth, you made in excess of what was the acceptible under the rules and had plenty of room to maneuver and lower prices but failed to do so, and you say you "lost thousands"?...

What a crock!...

What you told us was that you took the consumer for as much as you could while the arse fell out of the basic cost over the intervening nine business days and you tried to fleece us for a few more days up to the Tuesday re-adjustment time right?

Uh uh..

Sorry...The world doesn't work like that any more. The fact is is that, if a hurricane brewed up in the Gulf of Mexico tomorrow morning and world supply got disrupted, you'd be the first to say that you need an immediate upwards adjustment to pricing to allow for that and we'd all have to give in to that.

Don't hand me that melarchy that you "lost thousands" and try to pass that one off on me.

I got the figures to back me up.

If you're reading this blog, have a look at the latest spots yourself and judge...

August 07/06...68.03/Lt

August 08/06...66.93

August 09/06...64.93

August 10/06...58.81

August 11/06...60.73/Lt

PPO steps in and re-adjust pricing to reflect past months activity.new pricing based on 67.46 cents a litre or $1.22.3 cents a litre to the consumer.

August 14/06...58.81/Lt

August 15/06...59.67

August 16/06...58.84

August 17/06...57.49

August 18/06...58.37/Lt

PPO step in and re-adjust pricing to the consumer by 9.6 cents a litre down to reflect market conditions. My new fix is 58.63 a litre.

I got my numbers.

Show me yours....

(p.s) Thanks to the PPO for rolling pricing back when they did.