The Factors That Affects The Gasoline Prices

By Wayne Truter

Gasoline prices seem to be one of the most looked after index in recent months. People seem to be wary of the rising gas prices and have become more concerned on how this will affect the other aspects of every day life. Of course, with such an essential necessity as gasoline, there would be many things that would in fact be affected in the worse sense.

As the sudden rise in gasoline prices have made people become more concerned, it would also be very important to know about the different factors that give rise to such increases in the first place. There are four main elements that affect the pricing of gasoline in the retail market, primary of which is the price of crude oil in the world market.

Crude oil is the initial raw material from where gasoline is refined and derived from. Crude oil, a majority of it, is sourced and supplied from Middle East countries. It is these countries that have control over the price of crude oil in the world market. Countries that get their crude oil supply from these oil producing countries are the most affected by the sudden increase in crude oil prices. Overall, crude oil pricing affects about 75 percent of the price tag for gasoline in the retail market.

Refining costs also can affect gasoline pricing. Different countries as well as areas have certain regulations when it comes to the gasoline products that they acquire fro the retailers. Some places require less polluting gasoline than others. Some have higher standards than others. This usually means that the refining process for gasoline may be different from those following less stringent standards. Although this may prove to be helpful in some sense, added refining requirements can also be considered as additional costs for gasoline. The costs are eventually passed on to the consumers in the guise of higher gasoline prices.

If most think that the electric car is a recent invention, then they are mistaken. The electric vehicle is in fact one of the earliest vehicles known to exist. Small electric powered vehicles even predate the development of the diesel and gasoline engines. The earliest electric carriage was built between 1832 and 1839. The development of other electric cars also increased for some time during the 1860's along with the improvement of the storage battery. It was even the electric cars that held many of the speed and distance records during this time. But unfortunately, the advent of the internal combustion engines came during the early 1900's, which led to the decrease in the use of electric cars.

In an area having just a few gas retail stations available, the gasoline prices would tend to be higher. The reason for this is that the demand would still be a bit greater with only a few retail stations able to provide the supply. In some cases, the consumer may be made to choose- whether to buy cheaper gasoline to a retail station location many miles away or buy gas from a nearer station offering more expensive gasoline prices.And will this rising casoline prices effect cars quotes in the future? - 29952

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