"What I do NOT understand is: when the price of a barrel of oil rises, due to trading & speculation, why does the pump price for fuel rise immediately? That oil the refiner had to pay more for will not be near my tank for many months."

The way I've heard it explained is that the folks at the stations have to raise their prices to be able to afford the next shipment that will be at a higher price. Of course this doesn't explain why when oil prices go back down it takes months to see the results at a gas station and it never seems to return to the low prices previously seen.

I can't understand the mathematics of it. Oil at $53.00 a barrel had gas at $1.35. Oil at double the price, $106.00 a barrel has gas at over $3.00 instead of $2.70.