Gasoline Prices Highest Since 2008

National gasoline prices reached an average of $3.14 a gallon this week, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That means gas prices today are 53 cents more per gallon compared with a year ago and the highest prices we’ve seen since October 2008.

Gas prices vary by region (see chart below), with some as high as $3.45 a gallon in California and as low as $2.99 in Texas. So what gives? Mainly it’s because the global economy is running full-speed, again, but oil production isn’t keeping up with demand. Recent turmoil in the Middle East and some short-term logistics constraints also are affecting the traded price of oil.

According to USA Today, there’s a bottleneck with crude oil supplies coming out of Oklahoma. This one focal point happens to supply some of the physical oil typically used in selling futures and options of oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange, which is a major player in futures/commodity trading.

The EIA’s own short-term energy outlook suggests we should expect national regular-grade gasoline prices of around $3.15 a gallon for 2011 and $3.30 a gallon in 2012. The EIA points out there is “significant uncertainty” with its modeling predictions. The agency states that there is a 35% chance that national averages may exceed $3.50 a gallon this summer and a 10% chance they will exceed $4 a gallon nationwide. Given the regional nature of gasoline prices, that means, worst-case scenario, some West Coast communities could reach $4.25 average prices within the next few months.

 

Visit www.saveyourgreen.goxft.com to save money on gas!

Syntek Global: Driving Toward Green

One hundred and forty billion gallons. According to the U.S. Energy Administration’s most recent numbers, that’s how much gasoline Americans use annually. Aside from the huge costs to consumers, this staggering number also affects the environment. As consumption continues to rise, more and more harmful chemicals are emitted into the atmosphere.

Eighteen years ago, Curt Ence began selling a fuel additive that reduces harmful emissions and pollutants. Packaged in 55-gallon drums for commercial use, companies around the world have come to depend upon Xtreme Fuel Treatment (XFT). That’s because XFT improves mileage, decreases emissions, increases horsepower and extends engine life.

Over time, as evidence of the product’s benefits piled up, Ence determined to bring the product to consumers. From the start, Ence knew he wanted to market the product using a direct selling model. Before he’d begun selling XFT commercially, Ence had had a successful career as a distributor in direct sales.

In 2007, Ence brought his idea to three other men—John Winterholler, Kirk Newman and Joel Theler. Together, they began to explore founding a direct selling company to distribute the product to consumers. Just two years later, in October of 2009, Syntek Global officially launched.

Syntek’s founders are convinced they’ve got a product that will change the world—and they’re collecting the evidence to prove it. Syntek continually gathers data demonstrating the product’s effectiveness. That includes technical and industrial reports from commercial clients who have used XFT for many years.

“The convenience and multiplicity of XFT’s benefits are unlike anything else on the market today,” Winterholler says. “The product was first patented in 1986, and has been re-patented several times since. It’s registered with the Environmental Protection Agency. There’s a lot of scientific proof behind XFT.

“Our biggest user is PAMA, an international mining conglomerate based out of Jakarta, Indonesia. They treat about 160 million gallons of fuel a year,” Winterholler says. “They’ve done so for the last nine years. PAMA and other companies who’ve been using the product on a long-term basis give us confidence in the testing and data collected over the last 17 years. We know that the product does what we say it does.”

Syntek’s founders challenge all of XFT’s users to do their own scientific research, as well. “Every time we sell the product, we include a tracking chart,” Winterholler says. “We want you to know what kind of fuel mileage you were getting before you used the product. We want you to compare the before and after and prove to yourself that there’s a financial benefit to using XFT.”

Two principles drove the decision to take the product to consumers. The first was economic—XFT could reduce the cost of fuel consumption. “Every time you use this product, it will put money back in your pocket,” Winterholler says. The second was ecological. “We want to do everything we can to preserve the environment. This product reduces emissions by between 20 and 60 percent each time we use it. There’s a huge green component.”

But why direct selling? Doesn’t it make more sense to place a fuel treatment in gas stations? The founders of Syntek don’t think so. “There’s a story that has to be told about why XFT is a superior product,” Winterholler says. “That story doesn’t get told by setting the product on a shelf.

“If you go into an auto parts store, or even a Wal-Mart, and go down the fuel additives aisle, you usually see 12- to 16-ounce bottles that cost between $5 and $10,” Winterholler says. “Typically, they’re very reactive treatments—for if you’ve got water in your fuel line or your engine’s sputtering and so on. Each one of those bottles treats about 12 gallons of fuel. Our product treats 20 gallons and it’s 10 milliliters—2 teaspoonfuls. From a cost perspective, it doesn’t look like you get as much for your money. But, in actuality, XFT’s high concentration gives you a lot more benefit.” And at a cost of only about $2.50 per treatment for distributors, it’s less expensive, too.

Winterholler comes from a large corporate business background, working for companies such as Goldman Sachs, U.S. Bankcorp/Piper Jaffray and American Express. He’s started, run, consolidated and funded large businesses. And since the other founders have backgrounds as successful direct sellers, it’s not surprising that direct sales is the only model they considered.

“Rather than take XFT to the marketplace and spend large advertising dollars to earn brand awareness and the public’s respect, we thought direct marketing was a much more powerful method,” Winterholler says. “We decided to pay all of those revenues that we would otherwise use for advertising and marketing back to the distributors in the forms of bonuses and commissions.”

Early Successes

Early on, Syntek made two seemingly counterintuitive choices, but, already, the company is reaping the benefits. The first was writing Syntek’s commission accounting and back-office software instead of going with an off-the-shelf system. “In the long run, it’s turned out to be a huge benefit because it saved in overall costs and gives us ownership of our own system,” Winterholler says.

Changing the product packaging has also made a huge difference. In the early days, Syntek sold XFT (then known as Syntek Engine Boost 2.0), in 2-, 4-, 8- and 16-ounce bottles. Though a 2-ounce bottle treats eight tanks of fuel, it doesn’t look like much. Syntek’s executives came up with a better plan: single-use foil packages. “We found several vendors who were able to take XFT and put it in a very convenient secure foil pouch,” Winterholler says.

Now distributors can share the product inexpensively. Instead of giving away $30 to $40 bottles, they can hand out a couple of samples for a total of $5. They can get a prospect to try it and become interested in the product or the opportunity, or both.

A Supersized Opportunity

Because XFT began as a commercial product, it is available in the large quantities needed by industrial entities. Distributors are not only allowed to sell commercially, but they’re encouraged to do so. Curt Ence will maintain his previous commercial customers, but all new commercial clients will be solicited by Syntek’s distributors.

Selling to industrial customers provides distributors with an amazing opportunity—the ability to make commission on very large sales of XFT. Whether selling to an individual or a commercial entity, distributors participate fully in the compensation plan. Distributors make a 25 percent upfront bonus on every sale—no matter the size.

“On the surface, it may look distracting,” Winterholler says. “The sales cycle is longer, and commercial sales are more difficult. But, for many people, it’s an opportunity to dream big. Some distributors who’ve spent about 20 percent of their time pursuing commercial accounts are beginning to see the fruits of their labor, both domestically and internationally. They’re starting to see some very big sales.”

A Different Mentality

Syntek’s founders knew they faced some challenges in choosing a direct selling model to market a fuel additive. “So much of the direct selling industry is invested in health and wellness. A lot of distributors may not want to leave their comfort zone—consumable body treatment products,” Winterholler says. “A fuel treatment has a whole-different mentality that surrounds it.”

But they haven’t been disappointed with Syntek’s distributor base—far from it. Already, they’re approaching 10,000 distributors. The caliber of distributors makes the executive team happy as well. “I’ve never met a more sincere group of people in my life,” Winterholler says. “They want to do good.”

On the whole, the salesforce is largely blue-collar. “We’re attracting a new breed of direct seller—people who drive cars, trucks, snowmobiles, four-wheelers—who have a passion for being behind the wheel,” he says.

Each new distributor is given a free 30-day trial of the fully functional Web site, including all the back-office tools. They have access to dozens of data reports as well as a virtual library of everything Syntek produces. “All of the videos, all of the training modules, all of the conference calls—everything is put in the back office on the Web,” Winterholler says. Whether or not they choose to purchase access to the full Web site after their trial, all distributors get a free site with the shopping function where their customers can purchase products.

To support growth and training, Syntek executives offer weekly webinars, conference calls and training calls. “We try to cover the whole gamut of what a distributor might need,” Winterholler says.

Winterholler and the other executives travel frequently. “Our size and our interest in being hands-on mean we spend a lot of time in local meetings across the country,” he says. In lieu of a national convention this year, Syntek will hold six regional conventions in different parts of the country.

And they’re not neglecting their own development, either. Syntek applied to the DSA and is awaiting final approval. “I’ve been to several of the Direct Selling Association conferences, and I’ve been involved in VideoPlus University and SUCCESS Symposium. We’re trying to do our best to keep up with the rest of the industry as well as being an active participant,” Winterholler says.

Future Plans

Visit Syntek Global’s Web site, and you can’t miss the cute little tree frog that peeks from behind products and brightens up the page. “We started using the frog just because we liked it, but it’s become a moniker for the company. It fits in with—and actually has come to represent—the green aspects of Syntek,” Winterholler says. “We’ve named the frog Eeko.”

As Syntek expands—both by adding products and markets—the executives are committed to holding true to their “green roots.” “At our October launch, we introduced Eco-Mist, a waterless carwash. You spray it very lightly on a panel of your car about the size of a door. You wipe it with our high-tech microfiber cloth. It not only cleans your car but puts a shine—almost a wax—on it,” Winterholler says. “Each time you use Eco-Mist instead of washing your car in the driveway using a hose, you save upward of 120 gallons of water.”

And that’s the litmus test for any product Syntek will consider selling: Does it complement the existing products? Syntek is only interested in adding products that fall in line with its mission as a company.

“We feel very confident that we have global implications with XFT,” Winterholler says. So confident, in fact, that Syntek plans to open two new markets soon: Australia and the United Kingdom. “We’re in the process of formalizing the business now. We’ve already got a lot of activity brewing in those areas from a pre-market standpoint. We’re confident that there’s a big market. In the UK today, gas is just shy of $10 a gallon.”

And that, in a nutshell, is why Winterholler believes his company is one to watch. “I think the real power of what we have here is our demographic: It’s anyone who drives. We’ve got a very, very broad perspective.”

Xtreme Fuel Treatment (XFT) SHORT VIDEO

Here is a very short video explaining what Xtreme Fuel Treatment is all about!

Visit www.saveyourgreen.goxft.com for more information!

XFT is about CHEMISTRY not CHEMICALS

Proprietary Chemistry

The driving component, or primary active ingredient in Xtreme Fuel Treatment organo-metallic fuel catalyst, has been evaluated utilizing some of the most stringent testing procedures by reputable and reliable laboratories and government entities. This organo-metallic chemistry is an important component in Xtreme Fuel Treatment and has been evaluated by the following reputable entities:

SAE Paper 900154 concluded that the active ingredient included in Xtreme Fuel Treatment improved fuel octane qualitiy, reduced emissions dramatically, while improving fuel efficiency.

U.S. Dept. of Interior; Bureau of Mines Paper RI 9438 determined that the active ingredient utilized in Xtreme Fuel Treatment catalyst reduces emissions significantly.

Southwest Research Paper Diesel Engine Emission Control Technologies; Appendix B, subsection B.3.5 describes the active ingredient in Xtreme Fuel Treatment as a component that increases cetane and reduces burnout time and temperature requirements in new Diesel Particulate Filters (DPF).

Southwest Research Paper, Hydrocarbon Fuel Chemistry provides documentation that the active ingredient in Xtreme Fuel Treatment reduces compression ignition emissions as much as 20% and improves fuel efficiency as much as 10%.

NIOSH IC 9462, Department of Health and Human Services Paper; subsection 2.3.3 indicates that the active ingredient incorporated in Xtreme Fuel Treatment reduces smoke particulate by 25% and reduces burnout time and temperature in new Diesel Particulate Filters (DPF).

Canadian Environmental Protection Agency Paper; subsection 5.2.4.1 determined that the active ingredient utilized in Xtreme Fuel Treatment reduces Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) filterable matter by 23% and reduces total particulate matter by 22%.

California Air Resource Board (CARB), 3D Air Quality – Emissions Report; appendix B states that the active ingredient contained in Xtreme Fuel Treatment reduces burnout time and temperature in new Diesel Particulate Filters (DPF). Tests show reductions of particulates by 20% without the DPF and two-fold reductions with the DPF.

Olsen Laboratories determined that Xtreme Fuel Treatment reduced emission during the EPA Highway Fuel Economy Test (HFET) and Federal Test Procedure (FTP).

There are many more such tests available documenting the performance of the organo-metallic active ingredient which is a vital part of the success of the Xtreme Fuel Treatment. For this reason, critical thinking entities, such as those mentioned in this document, have evaluated this organo-metallic component many times to insure qualitative and quantitative performance.

The organo-metallic that is in Xtreme Fuel Treatment was created by two Nobel prize winning scientists.  Their names are Ernst Otto Fischer and Geoffrey Wilkinson.

Ernst Otto Fischer

Ernst Otto Fischer (November 10, 1918 – July 23, 2007) was a German chemist who won the Nobel Prize for pioneering work in the area of organo-metallic chemistry.

Early life

He was born in Solln, near Munich. His parents were Karl T. Fischer, Professor of Physics at the Technical University of Munich (TU), and Valentine née Danzer. He graduated in 1937 with Abitur. Before the completion of two years' compulsory military service, the Second World War broke out, and he served in Poland, France, and Russia. During a period of study leave, towards the end of 1941 he began to study chemistry at the Technical University of Munich. Following the end of the War, he was released by the Americans in the autumn of 1945 and resumed his studies, graduating in 1949.

Career

Fischer worked on his doctoral thesis as an assistant to Professor Walter Hieber in the Inorganic Chemistry Institute, His thesis was entitled "The Mechanisms of Carbon Monoxide Reactions of Nickel(II) Salts in the Presence of Dithionites and Sulfoxylates". After receiving his doctorate in 1952, he continued his research on the organo-metallic chemistry of the transition metal and indicated with his lecturer thesis on "The Metal Complexes of Cyclopentadienes and Indenes". that the structure postulated by Pauson and Kealy might be wrong. Shortly after he published the structural data of ferrocene, the sandwich structure of the η⁵ (pentahapto) compound. He was appointed a lecturer at the TU in 1955 and, in 1957, professor and then, in 1959, C4 professor. In 1964 he took the Chair of Inorganic Chemistry at the TU.

In 1964, he was elected a member of the Mathematics/Natural Science section of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. In 1969 he was appointed a member of the German Academy of Natural Scientists, Leopoldina and in 1972 was given an honorary doctorate by the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy of the University of Munich.

He lectured across the world on metal complexes of cyclopentadienyl, indenyl, arenes, olefins, and metal carbonyls. In the 1960s his group discovered a metal alkylidene and alkylidyne complexes, since referred to as Fischer carbenes and Fischer-carbynes. Overall he published about 450 journal articles and he trained many PhD and postdoctoral students, many of whom went on to noteworthy careers. Among his many foreign lectureships, he was Firestone Lecturer at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1969), visiting professor at the University of Florida (1971), and Arthur D. Little visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1973).

He has received many awards including, in 1973 with Geoffrey Wilkinson, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on organo-metallic compounds.

Death

He died on July 23, 2007 in Munich. At the time of his death, Fischer was the oldest living German Nobel laureate. He was succeeded by Manfred Eigen, who shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1967 and is nine years younger than Fischer was.

                                      
Geoffrey Wilkinson

Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson FRS (14 July 1921 – 26 September 1996) was a Nobel laureate English chemist who pioneered inorganic chemistry and homogeneous transition metal catalysis.

Biography

Wilkinson was born at Springside, Todmorden, in Yorkshire. His father, also a Geoffrey, was a master house painter and decorator; his mother worked in a local cotton mill. One of his uncles, an organist and choirmaster, had married into a family that owned a small chemical company making Epsom and Glauber's salts for the pharmaceutical industry; this is where he first developed an interest in chemistry.

He was educated at the local council primary school and, after winning a County Scholarship in 1932, went to Todmorden Secondary School. His physics teacher there, Luke Sutcliffe, had also taught Sir John Cockcroft, who received a Nobel Prize for "splitting the atom".

In 1939 he obtained a Royal Scholarship for study at Imperial College London, from where he graduated in 1941. In 1942 Professor Friedrich Paneth was recruiting young chemists for the nuclear energy project. Wilkinson joined and was sent out to Canada, where he stayed in Montreal and later Chalk River Laboratories until he could leave in 1946. For the next four years he worked with Professor Glenn T. Seaborg at University of California, Berkeley, mostly on nuclear taxonomy. He then became a Research Associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and began to return to his first interest as a student - transition metal complexes of ligands such as carbon monoxide and olefins.

He was then at the Harvard University from September 1951 until he returned to England in December 1955, with a sabbatical break of nine months in Copenhagen. At Harvard, he still did some nuclear work on excitation functions for protons in cobalt, but had already begun to work on olefin complexes.

In June 1955 he was appointed to the chair of Inorganic Chemistry at Imperial College London, and from then on worked almost entirely on the complexes of transition metals. Imperial College London named a new hall of residence after him, which opened in October 2009.

He was married, with two daughters.

Work

He is well known for his invention of Wilkinson's catalyst RhCl(PPh₃)₃, and for the discovery of the structure of ferrocene. Wilkinson's catalyst is used industrially in the hydrogenation of alkenes to alkanes.

He received many awards, including the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1973 for his work on “organo-metallic compounds” (with Ernst Otto Fischer). He is also well known for writing, with his former doctoral student F. Albert Cotton, "Advanced Inorganic Chemistry", often referred to simply as "Cotton and Wilkinson", one of the standard inorganic chemistry textbooks.

Visit www.saveyourgreen.goxft.com for more information. 

Science Behind Xtreme Fuel Treatment (XFT)

Remarks by the President in State of Union Address - January 25, 2011

Remarks by the President in State of Union Address (Excerpts)

This is our generation’s Sputnik moment.  Two years ago, I said that we needed to reach a level of research and development we haven’t seen since the height of the Space Race.  And in a few weeks, I will be sending a budget to Congress that helps us meet that goal.  We’ll invest in biomedical research, information technology, and especially clean energy technology -– (applause) -- an investment that will strengthen our security, protect our planet, and create countless new jobs for our people.

That’s what Americans have done for over 200 years: reinvented ourselves.  And to spur on more success stories like the Allen Brothers, we’ve begun to reinvent our energy policy. We’re not just handing out money.  We’re issuing a challenge.  We’re telling America’s scientists and engineers that if they assemble teams of the best minds in their fields, and focus on the hardest problems in clean energy, we’ll fund the Apollo projects of our time.

We need to get behind this innovation.  And to help pay for it, I’m asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies.  (Applause.)  I don’t know if -- I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but they’re doing just fine on their own.  (Laughter.)  So instead of subsidizing yesterday’s energy, let’s invest in tomorrow’s.

Now, clean energy breakthroughs will only translate into clean energy jobs if businesses know there will be a market for what they’re selling.  So tonight, I challenge you to join me in setting a new goal:  By 2035, 80 percent of America’s electricity will come from clean energy sources.  (Applause.)

Some folks want wind and solar.  Others want nuclear, clean coal and natural gas.  To meet this goal, we will need them all -- and I urge Democrats and Republicans to work together to make it happen.  (Applause.)

Short-Term Energy Outlook (U.S. Energy Information Administration)

• This edition of the Short-Term Energy Outlook is the first to include forecasts (monthly, quarterly and annual) through December 2012. 

• EIA expects the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil to average about $93 per barrel in 2011, $14 higher than the average price last year.  For 2012, EIA expects WTI prices to continue to rise, with a forecast average price of $99 per barrel in the fourth quarter 2012.  EIA's forecast assumes U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) grows 2.2 percent in 2011 and 2.9 percent in 2012, while world real GDP (weighted by oil consumption) grows by 3.3 percent and 3.7 percent in 2011 and 2012, respectively.

• EIA expects regular-grade motor gasoline retail prices to average $3.17 per gallon this year, 39 cents per gallon higher than last year and $3.29 per gallon in 2012, with prices forecast to average about 5 cents per gallon higher in each year during the April through September peak driving season.  There is regional variation in the forecast, with average expected prices on the West Coast about 25 cents per gallon above the national average during the April through September period.  There is also significant uncertainty surrounding the forecast, with the current market prices of futures and options contracts for gasoline suggesting more than a 25 percent probability that the national average retail price for regular gasoline could exceed $3.50 per gallon in the June through September period in 2011 and an 8 to 10 percent probability that it could exceed $4.00 per gallon in August and September 2011.

Crude Oil and Liquid Fuels Overview.  EIA expects a continued tightening of world oil markets over the next 2 years.  World oil consumption grows by an annual average of 1.5 million barrels per day (bbl/d) through 2012 while the growth in supply from non-Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (non-OPEC) countries averages less than 0.1 million bbl/d each year.  Consequently, EIA expects the market will rely on both inventories and significant increases in production of crude oil and non-crude liquids in OPEC member countries to meet world demand growth.  While on-shore commercial oil inventories in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries remained high last year, floating oil storage fell sharply in 2010, and EIA expects OECD oil inventories will decline over the forecast period.

Crude Oil Prices.  WTI crude oil spot prices averaged over $89 per barrel in December, about $5 per barrel higher than the November average, as expectations of higher oil demand, combined with unusually cold weather in both Europe and the U.S. Northeast, lifted prices.  EIA has raised the first-quarter 2011 WTI spot price forecast by over $7 per barrel from the last month's Outlook, to about $92 per barrel.  WTI spot prices rise to an average $99 per barrel in the fourth quarter of 2012.  Projected WTI spot prices average $93 per barrel in 2011 and $98 per barrel in 2012.