Gas At Record Highs, How Can You Save Gas? |
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Barry Share
13 May 2008
Gas prices have now hit record highs the price of gasoline in the U.S. is heading for $4 gallon while the U.K. are looking at £1.20 a litre
This has caused motorists to look for more and more ways to save gas and reduce their gas bills as much as they can.
The International Energy Agency energy forecast for 2008 has projected world oil demand would grow by 1.7 million barrels per day compared to 0.9 million barrels per day in 2007.
The world's refineries are working round the clock 24/7 to meet the ever-increasing demand of an average of 83.5 million barrels a day.
However, the projected world oil demand is expected to reach 87.5 million b/d in 2008, which is a record.
The demand for oil world wide is driving up gas prices to record highs Developing countries like China have increased their imports of crude oil year on year to more than 12%, and the trend continues.
While our oil supplies are on the decrease, experts are now suggesting many of the major oil fields in countries around the world such as Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and North Sea have reached their peak.
Oil discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico hit a 10-year low in 2007 and research firms, like Wood Mackenzie are reporting that companies found the equivalent of 553 million barrels of oil in the Gulf last year, this is half as much as in 2006 and the lowest figure in a decade.
The oil import bill for the U.S. has skyrocketed 300% since 2002 and the oil import bill in 2007 was $327 billion and could reach $400 billion in 2008.
Well, putting it simply the demand for crude oil now, is far greater than the supply. This can only mean one thing for motorists like you and I, the price of gas at the pump is going up. The days of filling your tank for $10 has gone, and to reduce our motoring cost we must save gas as we will never see $30- $40 oil prices again and we cannot do a thing about it.
What we can do and in fact, what we should be doing, is learning new ways, techniques and changes so we can reduce our gas consumption and in doing so save as much as we can on our gas bills.
Changes include driving less and car pooling, ride share or using public transportation when possible, even switching to hybrids or smaller cars with better gas mileage.
Telecommuting is becoming the vogue as more and more people try to cut their transportation costs.
We are going to have to adjust our driving habits to conserve gas. Most people are amazed to discover the amount of gas you can save by yes, going slower on the freeway.
Driving faster may get you where you want to go in less time, but it also means more trips to the gas pump.
We are now instinctively keeping our eyes open for low gas prices, but if we are not careful, we fall into the trap of wasting gas driving to a distant station to save a few cents.
Even getting lost has now become more expensive as it wastes gas as well as time. We are all going to have to plan our route so we know exactly where we are.
Keeping up on your vehicle maintenance will be of the utmost importance as wear on mechanical parts and tires increase fuel consumption tremendously.
Also reducing the weight you carry in a vehicle means better mileage and more savings.
Buying gas at the right time of day and checking your local gas stations for the best price possible before you turn a wheel, will become, if not already the No1 motoring rule of the 21 century.
So start today, find every way you can to start cutting your fuel consumption and saving as much as you can at the pump, as oil prices are going higher and inevitably gas prices will too.
The thing is, even if oil prices do retrace slightly and come down, it does not mean gas prices will too. I have never known gas prices come down after they have gone up: have you?