Can anyone explain why oil prices dropped to the lowest in many decades and gas prices fell until I paid barely over a dollar a gallon for gas a few months ago yet the price of actual OIL has continued to rise and never go down? I choose to use Optimax DFI 2-cycle oil in my Pro XS 250 and that stuff never stops going up. Picked up some at Rockwall Marine they sell in gallon jugs from bulk for $26 a gallon. Cheapest I can find. Some places are asking over $40 a gallon. Anyway, why has the price of actual oil not gone down? Way down? (I know, because they can?).

Go look at Evinrudes XD100. Almost $60 a gallon at Academy and $89 at the dealer. Makes Merc's DFI oil seem like a bargin.

Refineries and distributors have to make a profit and pay employees. If sales reflected the actual cost per barrel, the entire system would have collapsed. Layoffs are rampant in the upstream and service sectors now and increasing. Mergers and acquisitions are kicking off too. Ripple effect could be pretty bad unless OPEC agrees to boost prices. Russia and the saudis saw a chance to screw over the US back in March and they went for it. Welcome to the global economy.

It's called supply and demand. Crude oil is over supplied, gasoline stocks are high, thus low prices. Marine oil is in demand due to more boating caused by CV-19 thus a high price.

Good points Cuervo. I got my drivers license in the late 70’s so I’m just old enough to remember the huge gas crunch(crisis) of the late 70’s/early 80’s when we had “gas rationing”, even/odd days to purchase fuel, 55mph maximum national speed limits......all caused by the fact that we were going to reportedly run out of fuel and more so because we were dependent on foreign oil. We simply used more than we produced. The definition of DEPENDENT. I’m neither an expert(in anything) nor an economist( though I do have 9hrs of economics as a degree prerequisite and stayed at a Holiday Inn Express) but my understanding is we produce more oil in the US than we use. Way more. I understand it’s a complex question but why in hades would we allow ourselves to be in any way dependent on any global policies concerning a fuel that we produce more than we use?

Exactly correct 361v, were victims of our own success. For years the rallying cry was “Drill baby drill!” Well, we did. And engineering got better and we found more oil. We flooded the market. Many companies require $45.00/ barrel or higher to make a profit. Lots of geologists, accountants, engineers, computer scientists, and others are getting axes now. That has major implications for future profits and production. Oil prices are kept artificially high to keep the economy afloat. People love cheap gas, but they don’t love when their jobs (which are directly or indirectly supported by oil) go away. It’s a mess right now and only major government intervention is keeping prices high. Russia and the Saudis could flood the market more if they wanted to. Then we’d see the US economy really crash and burn. Hopefully cooler heads prevail and they recognize that screwing over the US has major impacts on them too. Already the saudis have been feeling it since pretty much al they have is oil to generate $$$.

I like how the local gas stations raise the price of gas at the beginning of the weekend and slowly lower it during the week. 1.89.9 on Friday , 1.79.9 by Thursday then back up.

Plus #1.

Wrong answers above, the OP wrote the correct answer. Because they can...Need (Demand) for DFI is dropping with the new 4 strokes.

The outboard motor company use have always made a very high profit margin on oil. Just look at the difference between Lucas or Penns oil and the major brands. The is actually not any difference in the oils themselves. They are approved formulas from the same marine association.

While that may be partially true, there is still a demand for 2 stroke oil the manufactures still must supply it. So a shrinking market will rise in price, not "because they can".

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Marathon Petroleum (MPC.N) plans to permanently close two small U.S. oil refineries in Martinez, California, and Gallup, New Mexico, the company said, eliminating 800 jobs in response to lower fuels demand.

The largest U.S. refiner by volume had earlier idled the two facilities following weak demand due to COVID-19 outbreaks in the United States. U.S. refiners on average idled about 20% of total processing capacity on falling vehicle and air travel.

Wait yall saw cheap gas. Havent seen it less that 1.70 something

Corona-Cation has driven 2 stroke oil prices up

Bucees last weekend was $1.39. So I topped off, then went inside and bought $12 worth of junk I didn’t need. Lol. Trap.