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Little stations engaged in price-fixing is irritating and illegal and should be stopped. But it is small potatoes. The global oil market has been structured as an oligopoly for decades. Corporations within an oligopolistic market don't have to break laws like this in order to defy "natural" competition dynamics or supply/demand. A limited group of companies with overwhelming dominance in terms of share of a market track each others pricing, public statements and reports, and other business actions. Then they can roughly match each others actions. The market equilibrium avoids "destructive" competition this way. They roughly follow each other in restricting capacity and myriad other actions that effect pricing. Oligopolistic markets do not have to set prices according to competition, supply, and demand as in the classical formulations. This is at least part of an explanation for why oil prices are where they are.
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See my car's mod & maintenance thread and my electric bicycle's thread for ongoing projects. I will rebuild Black and Green over decades as parts die, until it becomes a different car of roughly the same shape and color. My minimum fuel economy goal is 55 mpg while averaging posted speed limits. I generally top 60 mpg. See also my Honda manual transmission specs thread.
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