bernardbarbour

I'm just curious. Since the cost of a barrel of oil has come way down as well as gas prices, you'd think the price of a quart of oil would come down as well. I recently did an oil change and Mobile 1 is still $9.00 average at Autozone, O'Reilly, etc. I have not checked Walmart for the big 5 liter bottle. What's up with those $9.00 quart of oil?

Southern Man

Real oil IS down significantly. Mobil 1 is synthetic.

Atrox

Prices may be lower per barrel, but transport and refining costs still maintain on par. For oil companies to break even oil prices per barrel (wti) need to be in the $45-65 per barrel depending on oil play. So regardless if oil prices dropping the cost to get it out of the ground is still expensive. If you look at shale oil plays, they have mostly stopped all active drilling because the cost for extraction is now more than market price.

alpine003

You better not tell BITOG that or else someone might throw a fit.

Mobil1 0w40 is one of the few consumer based OTS oil in the Mobil1 lineup that is mixed between group 4 and 5 base. Most other Mobil1 is created with group 3 base stock making them not truly synthetic in a technical sense.

crashclint

As soon as oil prices drop, refineries have fires, leaks or go down for maintenance to keep the supply low and prices high.

alpine003

+996

It all depends on how many of the CEO's need that extra something in their bonus checks to buy their next island or property.

Don't forget all the train derailments we've been having lately...

Rubik

Why are you concerned about oil prices anyway? Don't you use unicorn semen for your [oil] changes?

All jokes aside, don't hold your breath for motor oil prices to come down. They're only going in one direction and that's up.

crashclint

I have switched to using only pure filtered Sperm Whale Oil in my car. The AOS works perfectly as a blow hole.

5CHN3LL

Have you tried to extract the sperm from a sperm whale? It's messy. And tiring. I will always pay someone to do this in the future.

phil996cab99

Buy low, sell high ...

KrazyK

Driven (JG DT40) is sponsoring a new challenge for Porsche owners using M1 crap oil to swap to their engine specific oils. Maybe try for the limited amount of grants to reduce your oil costs?

crashclint

No, I sub it out to a Asian woman who loves the whale long time.

Dalton Jones

funny, when the price of crude rises, the price of a quart of oil rises. But when the oil comes back down, the quart of oil stays high. I don't think they are connected. It's like a new tax, once you have it, you can't get rid of it. Oil comes down, and price per quart stays high, more profit. Bring in some oil from china. Give mobil some competition.

5CHN3LL

China is a net importer of oil. They use more than they can produce.

Mobil is not the top oil refiner in the US; Mobil only owns 3 of the largest 11 refineries in the US. They have competition.

The way to drive down the price of motor oil would be to bring additional brands to market at a below-market cost. However, petroleum distillation requires a large amount of real estate directly adjacent to ports, pipelines, and highways to bring in unrefined oil and to distribute refined products. This, in addition to the regulatory overhead, makes it fairly difficult for an upstart oil company to start refining and distributing. Small oil producers sell their crude to larger operators; niche oil producers buy refined product from operators and adjust the composition. Standing up a new crude-to-distribution oil operation on a scale that can compete with Exxon-Mobile is almost inconceivable given the size of Exxon-Mobile.

"Someone oughta compete with Exxon Mobil" sounds like a good idea, but it also sounds like something Trump would say on a campaign stop.

Gonzo911

Oil is one of the only true "busts" in our current economy. Prices are low due to several factors including lower usage of oil based products (including gasoline), more domestic production (thank you fracking) and a lessoning of demand from China thanks to their falling economy.

There is also the political impact of lower oil prices that put the squeeze on Miiddle Eastern suppliers and Russia.

So oil prices may get back to $50-$60 a barrel in the short term, but we will never see +$100 a barrel in our lifetimes...