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Highlands Today

Price Of Crude Oil

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Alfred A. Penfield

Published: January 11, 2009

As I sit here typing this little epistle my TV tells me that the price of crude oil on the market is below $40 per barrel. This tells me that the price at the local pumps should be dropping, right? I was right, the price has dropped at some pumps in Avon Park and maybe elsewhere in the county but not in good old Sebring.

I ventured forth to fill my tank and after checking several stations in good old Sebring I say to myself, "Let's try some other town." I drove north to Avon Park and the first station I came to was cheaper than anywhere in Sebring. Another half a mile north I found a station that under sold our locals by 15 cents per gallon. I filled my tank and save about $3, not bad huh? The distance from my house to Avon Park is eight miles.

This note is not to brag about savings, but I would like to know why all of the gas stations in Highlands County don't go up and down with the market whenever it fluctuates? How can one do it and not the other? I realize that many of the stations are company owned and the big oil companies dictate their price, but I also realize that many are privately owned and set their own price.

Just for the heck of it spend a little time one day watching the stock market on Channel 27 and try to figure why the price of oil drops by the barrel and the price at the local pump escalates at the same time. Try it, you'll like it!

Alfred A. Penfield
Sebring

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