Is the price of gasoline being fixed in New Jersey and maybe nation wide? As I drive around my area of Central New Jersey I have started to notice that a large number of gas stations are selling regular octane gasoline at the same exact price. If you looked around you will find that the brand name gas stations have different prices and yet everyone selling the non-name (generic) brand sell it at the same exact price within a certain area.

Now I know for a fact that there are selling regions that have been setup by the gas companies and the gas prices do vary between these regions. So I find it very strange that apparently there is a scheme to fix the price of gasoline and no one is doing anything about it. Even when two different gas stations are near each other the price of the gas they are selling is the same. And when one raises or lowers the price, the other very quickly prices their gasoline at the same price as their competitor. This is called price fixing and why has no one from the State of New Jersey or the Federal Government noticed this and looked into it?

It used to be that when two gasoline stations were near each other they would compete for customers by one lowering the price for gas and the other would counter with an even lower price. This is the normal way of doing business and it does not seem to be happening between the non-name brands (generic), yet the name brand station do seem to still seem to compete for business with each other. What is causing this?

Part of the reason that this is happening is that they all get their gasoline from the same refinery. Did you ever look at the tanker that delivers gasoline to your favorite station? If you did what if anything has changed from yesteryear? What you should have noticed is the tanker is no longer showing the gasoline company logo of the station it is delivering to. It is just a generic tanker and more than likely comes from the same refinery; even for different brands.

If you look at the map from the US Energy Information Administration you will notice that there are only two areas that supply New Jersey’s gasoline. The first area is in Linden New Jersey home of the Bayway Refinery. This is where most of the gasoline comes from for North and Central New Jersey. Anyone who has driven on the New Jersey Turnpike knows where this refinery is from the smells emanating from it. And the other area is near Philadelphia Pennsylvania called the PES Philadelphia Refinery which supplies Southern New Jersey in addition to the greater Phili area. So there seems to be a kind of monopoly here on the production of gasoline. The major oil companies used to each have their own refinery, but due to the costs involved in the production of gasoline some of these refineries were sold or closed. Now it seems that there are only a few that make gasoline for the different gas stations.

Do any of you who live in New Jersey notice what I have described about the pricing of gasoline between non-name (generic) brand stations? If so, please do leave your comments about what your observations are.

That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike