Mississippi Floods Heighten Concerns About Oil Refinery Operation

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures closed higher Tuesday, topping $103 a barrel as gasoline futures climbed 3% on growing concerns that flooding along the Mississippi River will hurt refinery operations.

“Gasoline is spiking higher on low inventories and fears that Mississippi River flooding will have an impact on oil refineries along the river in Louisiana, and this is pulling the rest of the market higher along with it,” said Tim Evans, energy analyst at Citigroup’s Citi Futures Perspective, in emailed comments.

“We expect gasoline stocks to start improving with more refineries back online from maintenance, but this time of year, the market seems to think there won’t be enough gasoline for summer,” he said.

I heard this being talked about on Fox news a few minutes ago. I dont remember who the person being interviewed was, but they said that what happens along the Mississippi in the next few days will determine what happens to the oil price. They said some speculators were thinking gas will drop 50 cents by June as long as nothing happens, but they also said this situation may actually raise the gas prices by 50 cents.