Omaha Forums

Looks like it may finally be falling in the Omaha area. Most stations were $2.29 as of this evening.

So has anyone else noticed a jump in the last 5 / 6 days. Last week near the end of the week Gas in Gretna went from 2.15 where it had been for a fair amount of time to 2.24. Today when I got back in to town it was at 2.37.

Any idea what is driving this?

nebugeater wrote:So has anyone else noticed a jump in the last 5 / 6 days. Last week near the end of the week Gas in Gretna went from 2.15 where it had been for a fair amount of time to 2.24. Today when I got back in to town it was at 2.37.

Any idea what is driving this?

I noticed that also. It got down to $2.17 here but I filled up at $2.27 yesterday...

Crude futures spiked yesterday, but the run-up has been in progress since last weekend.

Omababe wrote:Crude futures spiked yesterday, but the run-up has been in progress since last weekend.

KFAB must have read this yesterday because this AM they are reporting that the spike is do to scheduled and unscheduled refinery shut downs serving the area.


Wasn't that long ago the projections were to see under $2. Not going to happen, the oil companies won't let it.

Like I have said tons of times before....it is absolutely ridiculous that when oil goes down from the $140/barrel that it was in 2008 when gas was $4/gallon to the $49/barrel that oil is now, gas is $2.37. Gas should be around $1.40/gallon right now. When oil prices go up just for one day, gas seems to follow suit rather quickly, just wish it was reciprocal when oil goes down.

skinzfan23 wrote:Like I have said tons of times before....it is absolutely ridiculous that when oil goes down from the $140/barrel that it was in 2008 when gas was $4/gallon to the $49/barrel that oil is now, gas is $2.37. Gas should be around $1.40/gallon right now. When oil prices go up just for one day, gas seems to follow suit rather quickly, just wish it was reciprocal when oil goes down.

When gas was up to $4, it dually functioned as a probe to find out just how much we were willing to pay for gas. Now that they know that, there's no good reason for it to ever be as cheap as it was.

skinzfan23 wrote:Like I have said tons of times before....it is absolutely ridiculous that when oil goes down from the $140/barrel that it was in 2008 when gas was $4/gallon to the $49/barrel that oil is now, gas is $2.37. Gas should be around $1.40/gallon right now. When oil prices go up just for one day, gas seems to follow suit rather quickly, just wish it was reciprocal when oil goes down.

When oil first broke $50 a barrel back in 2004, gas prices in the area spiked around $2/gallon. The pricing environment is in the ballpark when you factor in inflation and increased capital costs.

Overall though, I've found it pointless to reason with the sizable percentage of the population which believes that there's a giant conspiracy behind gas prices.

jessep28 wrote:

skinzfan23 wrote:Like I have said tons of times before....it is absolutely ridiculous that when oil goes down from the $140/barrel that it was in 2008 when gas was $4/gallon to the $49/barrel that oil is now, gas is $2.37. Gas should be around $1.40/gallon right now. When oil prices go up just for one day, gas seems to follow suit rather quickly, just wish it was reciprocal when oil goes down.

When oil first broke $50 a barrel back in 2004, gas prices in the area spiked around $2/gallon. The pricing environment is in the ballpark when you factor in inflation and increased capital costs.

Overall though, I've found it pointless to reason with the sizable percentage of the population which believes that there's a giant conspiracy behind gas prices.

Come on now..... stop using logic!

For some reason this time, the price spike does appear to be centered around the upper Midwest, The Talking Heads said some drek about "refineries shutting down to switch to winter blends" as contributing to the sharp unexpected spike, as well as the turbulent crude futures market.

I dare not say "conspiracy" in local price setting, but there is evidence of what I might call "cooperation" among dealers in our market, when compared to other markets I frequently visit. In Omaha, when prices spike, all but a few of the dealers will very quickly jump to the same exact (higher) price. In the Omaha market it's rare (right after a price jump) to see stations with signs in sight of each other to have significantly different prices.

In other markets (Houston, Las Vegas, Chicago, El Lay, which I've personally observed recently) it's quite common to see stations across the street from each other with prices varying $0.10 or more. Only with rare exception does this happen in Omaha.

Council Bluffs seems to be the exception in the area, with two areas (south 24 and north 25) appearing to be far more competitive. These two areas are often (not always by any means) lower in price than most. Council Bluffs has a handful of "pay inside only" stations which are consistently lower than anything else in the immediate area.

I agree with you on that Omababe. I recently went down to Branson and all along the way stations right across the street from each other could vary greatly (from $1.98 to $2.16). The other thing I hate about gas prices in the Omaha area is that NE gas taxes are lower than Iowa's yet prices in Omaha are still as much if not more than they are in CB. And I bet that once NE's gas tax goes up, the prices in CB will as well.

Yes Buckys mission is to have a monopoly so they can manipulate the gas prices. Final Answer.

skinzfan23 wrote:I agree with you on that Omababe. I recently went down to Branson and all along the way stations right across the street from each other could vary greatly (from $1.98 to $2.16). The other thing I hate about gas prices in the Omaha area is that NE gas taxes are lower than Iowa's yet prices in Omaha are still as much if not more than they are in CB. And I bet that once NE's gas tax goes up, the prices in CB will as well.

Two very interesting maps are here:

http://www.omahagasprices.com/Price_By_County.aspx

This first one is continuously updated, and you can zoom in to county, then to zip code, and then to stations. You can see the "reddening" in the upper Midwest quite clearly.

It's very interesting to compare that map to:

http://www.omahagasprices.com/USA_Tax_Map.aspx

In some places, the price map follows the tax map, a good example being Californica and Nevada.

However, today (the map may look quite different if you're not viewing it early Friday morning) Nebraska and Iowa look about the same, even though Iowa's taxes are higher. Surprisingly, Illinois and Missouri are far more similar today than they usually are. More surprisingly, New York and Pennsylvania (typically very high) are "cooler" than the Ohio region.

Historically, Omaha prices have usually been lower than the national average, but since late July or so they have been higher.

Down in Tampa for a few days and it is $1.99 almost everywhere.

The Kum and Go on Fairview Rd in Bellevue is the cheapest I have seen in the area. They are currently $2.09, which is weird b/c usually they are the last station to lower their prices when others start to go down. Most other stations are $2.19.

Some of the stations in Gretna had dropped to 2.09 last night. Didn't look if the rest had followed suite by this morning.

nebugeater wrote:Some of the stations in Gretna had dropped to 2.09 last night. Didn't look if the rest had followed suite by this morning.

I have seen a few at $2.11 in Omaha but most are still $2.13 as of this morning. I did look on gasbuddy and most of CB is $2.09.

skinzfan23 wrote:

nebugeater wrote:Some of the stations in Gretna had dropped to 2.09 last night. Didn't look if the rest had followed suite by this morning.

I have seen a few at $2.11 in Omaha but most are still $2.13 as of this morning. I did look on gasbuddy and most of CB is $2.09.

With the Iowa gas tax increase CB has not been normally lower than Omaha for the last few months either as far as I have seen.

That is what I mentioned previously. I am wondering when NE gas taxes increase, if they will just increase the gas prices in CB as well since Omaha will be more.

skinzfan23 wrote:That is what I mentioned previously. I am wondering when NE gas taxes increase, if they will just increase the gas prices in CB as well since Omaha will be more.

From my experience before the hike in Iowa they were always lower by a few cents so I would guess the CB price would not be impacted as a reaction to a Nebr tax increase.

Many stations have lowered to $2.03 as of this morning.

skinzfan23 wrote:Many stations have lowered to $2.03 as of this morning.

When I filled up last night and saw it was under $40 total I had a thought that the pump stopped early!

I saw a few $1.99 on the way in this morning.

Omababe wrote:I saw a few $1.99 on the way in this morning.

Same here

$1.99 at Kum & Go at I80 and Hwy 370 near Walmart

Gas is $1.88 a gallon in central Nebraska. But I paid $1.66 at Baker's today.

nativeomahan wrote:Gas is $1.88 a gallon in central Nebraska. But I paid $1.66 at Baker's today.

I take it the Bakers is with a discount card.

Sapp Bros was $1.85 last night. They seem to be about the most competitive around.

Omababe wrote:

nativeomahan wrote:Gas is $1.88 a gallon in central Nebraska. But I paid $1.66 at Baker's today.

I take it the Bakers is with a discount card.

NativeOmahan said that they had a gas secret special at Bakers over the weekend...

I filled for 1.79 at Flying J yesterday. Exit 432. I80.

nebugeater wrote:I filled for 1.79 at Flying J yesterday. Exit 432. I80.

Sapp Bros was $1.79 for a while yesterday, but $1.85 when I passed it this morning. Most everybody jumped to $1.95 overnight. Happy Thanksgiving!

Just traveled to SDak today. Filled up in Elk Point SD for $1.89...great deal I thought. Then 50 miles later, in my hometown, just outside Sioux Falls, it is $1.79.

Fill up today. Prices will be going up tomorrow with the tax increase.

Paid $1.59 at the BP on S 24th St in CB today.

skinzfan23 wrote:Paid $1.59 at the BP on S 24th St in CB today.

The price has been $1.59 at the Flying J off I80 ny Gretna since last Wed or Thursday.

Sapp Brothers was actually $1.55 for a while on Saturday but went back up to $1.59 around noon or so.

Omababe wrote:Sapp Brothers was actually $1.55 for a while on Saturday but went back up to $1.59 around noon or so.

So was Flying J for the initial drop last week. I actually filled up at that price. Think it lasted about a day.

Fremont has had $1.41 gas for about two weeks now. I always thought that stations only made $.05/gallon. Is Omaha is intentionally keeping prices higher then they should be?

Trips wrote:Fremont has had $1.41 gas for about two weeks now. I always thought that stations only made $.05/gallon. Is Omaha is intentionally keeping prices higher then they should be?

My wife works in Fremont.

There is a new station that opened in front of the WalMart. They have been driving a mini gas war in Fremont for a few weeks. It dropped about $0.25 the at the time they opened and has stayed there.

$1.98 all over the Metro this morning.

Yep, it seems to be jumping up in 9-11 cent increments every week now. Average bottomed out around $1.49 about 4-5 weeks ago.

Still don't understand why gas is that high. With the price of oil being only around $41/barrel. Oh well, can't do anything about it.