Gasoline Price Spike

[Hulkein]

Katrina disabled around 25% of our production, not 10%.

It dropped our refining capabilities by 10%, you must've confused the two.

[Edited on 8-31-2005 by Hulkein]

[Gan]

I just heard word today that Bush is going to open up distribution of the US oil reserves that has been building in order to help stabilize the supply (CNN HN).

Here's an awsome article explaining how this supply shock involving Katrina is affecting the US.

"The Sum of All Fears
Hurricane Katrina was a catastrophic event with a human cost than cannot yet be fully evaluated. It was also exactly what oil market analysts feared the most this summer. Analysts contemplated what might happen should a severe hurricane impact oil production and refineries at the height of summer driving season at a time when gasoline inventories were low. Heading into the final week before the Labor Day weekend, inventories were very near the bottom end of the average range in absolute terms, but given growth in gasoline demand over the comparable year-ago period (gasoline demand is 1.2 percent above last year’s level over the last four weeks), the gasoline inventory situation was even tighter. With oil prices rising throughout the year, analysts wondered what might happen should a supply shock occur as well...

There are several factors currently inhibiting refinery production. First, employees that were evacuated from their homes need to return to work. While some refineries may have skeleton crews already, it may be some time before authorities let people back into the most severely impacted areas. As many companies have stated, the safety of their employees is of primary concern. Another factor impacting refinery production is the supply of crude oil. The Capline, a major crude oil pipeline that feeds many Midwest refineries with crude oil from the Gulf of Mexico, is currently shut down due to lack of electricity at many of its pumping stations. As a result, one refinery in the Midwest has already reported that it has reduced its production due to a loss in crude oil supply. With the recent Government decision that crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) will be made available to those affected by the hurricane, there may be some relief for refiners that have reduced their production due to loss of crude supply. However, they will need to find a way to get the crude oil from the SPR to their refineries."

Another factor impacting refinery operations is the loss of electrical power. Refineries are dependent on electricity to run and in some areas it may take some time to get power restored. How quickly power can be restored to affected refineries will be a key factor in determining how quickly they can return to normal operations. Finally, refiners will need to perform damage assessments to determine what, if any, repairs are needed. Some refineries reportedly have been flooded, which could do serious damage to some of their units. The extent to which flooding may have caused damage to refineries will be a key barometer that market analysts will be waiting to hear in the coming days.

(more of the article at this link: SOURCE: DOE)

[Androidpk]

Regular unleaded here is 2.50, though after today the price is jumping by half a dollar.

[DianaBanana]

Regular at Mobile was $2.99 a gallon and right down the street Gulf was charging $3.20 a gallon.

[DeV]

$3.31 for regular now.

[GSTamral]

Diana,

get gas on the turnpike. They change their prices on Fridays, so they should still be charging last week's prices. Gas out here in Atlanta is up over 3 a gallon by Glen lake

[DianaBanana]

I dont live anywhere near the Turnpike. Besides, my job is 2 minutes from my house so I'll have to fill up maybe twice a month. I'm glad to work so close to home.

[GSTamral]

That's always nice. It sucks living in Somerset and having to commute to either Morristown, Mahwah or Paramus on a daily basis. My only saving grace right now is that when I'm travelling, they pay for the car and gas.

[AnticorRifling]

2.55 a gallon this morning here in Indy.

[Sean of the Thread]

Saw a 40 cent price increase in 87 regular today in Tampa Bay area. To make matters fucking worse 4 of the 5 stations I went to this evening were sold out of every grade and the 5th station had like a 50 car line. People over react and fuck the supply of fuel here every god damn year.