preview

Introduction The United States is the largest consumer of crude oil in the world. Gas prices

Better Essays
Open Document

Introduction The United States is the largest consumer of crude oil in the world. Gas prices rose when hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast area in 2005 due to the damage of the refineries in the area that supply most of the United States with their gasoline supply. But since 2005 gas prices have pretty much remained in the same price range, and it is nine years later. There is evidence that the oil companies are making record breaking profits, accusations of price gouging, and an angry society that is accusing the government of taking advantage of them during a long and hard recession. In the United States most of us rely on our cars to get us from work, school, to other places as most families in this country have at least one …show more content…

There is also farming for other fruits, and other crops, dairy farms, and livestock farms. Being in such a remote locale compared to the rest of the state, we need to be able to transport what we produce out of the area to sell, and we transport into the area what we need to sustain the production at these farms.

Literature Review The United States is the largest consumer of gasoline in the world. Not only do we use more than any other country in the world, but our usage is almost twice as much as the second largest consumer in the world. We need gasoline to power our cars, boats, and the modes of transportation we use to transport the goods we produce from one place to another. But what determines the price we pay for this precious commodity? Gasoline is produced from the refining of crude oil. We import and produce oil by the barrel. One barrel of unrefined oil produces approximately 19 gallons of gasoline. The crude oil we import is a commodity, and the world market is what determines the price of these barrels of oil, along with demand. The world demand can be controlled in a couple different ways. First, The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which is an oil cartel whose members are some of the largest oil producing countries in the world, control the amount of oil that is put into the world market. By controlling the amount available they can control the demand from countries that mainly rely on this import. The

Get Access
Related
Get Access