NEWS: Oil prices continue to rise amid shortage fears

The price of crude oil has risen almost $2 a barrel since February 10, and is not expected to fall any time soon. Refinery shutdowns have added to this problem.

Reuters
"World oil prices rose on Monday as an outage at a large U.S. refinery added to the jitters over potential gasoline shortages that have kept fund money pouring into the energy markets.
"gasoline inventories fell 700,000 barrels in January, when typically they increase by about 12 million barrels "


A week after OPEC announced a cut in oil production this April, two oil refineries in the United States have shutdown. Shell has stopped production at their Deer Park facility near Houston, TX due to technical problems. This is the 6th largest refinery in the United States and can handle 340,000 barrels per day (bpd). Another refinery owned by Marathon, which produces 76,000 bpd, was shut down Monday. This comes after two shipping accidents in the Misissippi have delayed oil shipments to some refineries in Lousiana. Analyst are saying that $3 a gallon gasoline is possible this year if the trend of factory accidents, following this cold season continues. Sean Comey, spokesman for the AAA said, "We are just one refinery accident or one pipeline disruption away from gasoline prices skyrocketing even more." Some parts of California are already experiencing prices over $2 a gallon.



[Edited on 23-2-2004 by Zion Mainframe]

goes to show how "circumstances" may prove a radical motivator to charge on to the caspian reserve?
admittedly..there is no immediate fix for this problem, however, one must keep in mind how close the U.S really is to capturing a large chunk of the world's oil(or what's left of it?)

Yup, only Russia stands in the way now.

Seems as if we will get a good Permanent Fund Dividend check this year. Alaska residents get their share, every man, woman, and child recieves a check annually, and is based on a percentage of oil revenues.We have been hovering around the 2 dollar a gallon mark for quite some time now.

this just gose to show we need to make better gas milege cars, then we need to find another sorce of energey


My parents would have got a hybred, but it was too small to be safe incase of a accedent, anyone know there crash rating??

(PS: i just started driving on friday )

So if I'm an OPEC guy...why do I cut production? Why do you push the US/Europe to look for fuel alternatives sooner than they need to by raising prices so much? This is like the cigarrette companies raising prices so that addicted smokers now see it's time to quit...not a good business move!

Oh well, people need to realize that gas/petrol is going to get more and more expensive...might as well prepare for the big switch to solar/hydro/electric hybrids. Stupid European and US car makers have let Toyota and Honda get a big jump on them.

Hey DMsoldier...tell your parents to buy a Mazda 3! Good mileage, nice car, low price, sporty, and safe.

[Edited on 23-2-2004 by Boogie]

Originally posted by Boogie
So if I'm an OPEC guy...why do I cut production?

OPEC is cutting production because they are afraid of the market being flooded with oil after the winter heating season is over. This would lower the price of oil, and that would make them very, very sad. :-(

Oh no, lets not give the customers a break! Let's sap every #ing cent out of their pocketbook! They don't need to pay for anything else anyway.

It's not like the oil companies run the planet or anything. And it's not like almost every person in a westerized society is almost totally dependant on their products.

Man, this is quite the mess we're in. I wish Bush would've pursued that hydrogen power he talked about before he was elected. If there's one reason I wouldn't vote for him, it'd be that. It really pissed me off.

Latest news on the blocked Mississippi.
Assicociated Press
"About 80 cargo ships were idled, unable to sail downriver to the Gulf of Mexico or upriver to New Orleans and other inland ports, and thousands of cruise ship passengers were stuck at a dock in New Orleans."

Yeah, tell me about it. The gas prices where I live are about $2.15 for a gallon of the low-grade stuff. If there is a short in refineries, why the hell don't they just make more?!?! I'm sure tax payers would be more than willing to pay for more refineries if it made gas prices ease off our asses. This # is getting rediculous now.

I was amazed at the Honda Civic Hybrid. It said that its mileage is something like you can go about 360 miles on one tank of gas. Now that's damn good and the electric battery charges itself. Good stuff, I just wish the car wasn't so ugly. But hey, what am I gonna do about it.