As oil prices flirted with the $70 per barrel mark, more than 95 percent of the Gulf of Mexico’s normal daily oil production was shut in Tuesday because of Hurricane Katrina, a federal agency said.
The U.S. Minerals Management Service said 645 of the 819 staffed production platforms in the Gulf were shut down, delaying production of 1.43 million barrels of oil. On a normal day, the Gulf produces 1.5 million barrels.
The shutdowns also delayed production of 8.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas, or 88 percent of the Gulf’s normal daily gas production of 10 billion cubic feet, the MMS reported from a survey of 68 companies.
Since Katrina first threatened Gulf platforms, 4.63 million barrels of oil and 25.4 billion cubic feet of gas have been delayed from reaching market.
Storm-related production delays in the Gulf, which accounts for about a third of nation’s domestic oil production, have figured increasingly into energy price jumps. In July, three Gulf storms interrupted production.
In Michigan, we are hovering at $3.00/gallon. How about you?
Ours is close its $2:95 and i,ll bet the enviromentalist wackos will be blathering this earth mother gaia nonsenses just you wait for them tos start their idiotic babbling and new age hogwash or they will yell ITS GLOBAL WARMING
See the above post snowy!
$2.49 for the lowest grade, but I imagine that is going to change real quick. Glad I filled up over the weekend so I’m good at least through Labor day weekend.
tofu- That’s not too bad. Was that today? I think we will get hit again before the week is out.
Gas went up $.40/ gallon today- I paid $3.10/gal today.
It’s official- count me among the 60% or so now not happy with Bush’s jon performance. He is simply the worst President since Carter, and even worse than Clinton.
I will be happy when he is out of office.
5, and just how is Bush supposed to keep down gas prices? Let’s see your vaunted logic, not shiloh’s socialism in your answer, Ted.
I would love $3 a gallon. I just paid $3.29 at a discount station.
We just wernt to $3.19. But the roads aren’t packed. People are going out on a need to basis!
6.
Sure- I’ll do my best.
We know that the stock market is driven by emotion and speculation PCD. People are naturally cautious with their money and rightfully so.
I think that it was Peejz that said initially that the rise is gas prices are caused by speculation in oil futures, and I contradicted her saying that two other factors are involved- China’s demand for oil and the fact that we haven’t any modern refinery facilities. Well, I was partially right, but so was she.
Speculation in crude is going ape because of all three of these factors, which in turn is driving prices through the roof. There was a 40 cent jump in prices today alone, and that is due to the hurricane. We have had hurricane before though and this never happened.
Looking at China’s demand on oil, there is no discernible pattern. However looking at the war in Iraq, there is definitely a pattern, and here it is:
http://www.wincoast.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6051&stc=1
The difference is instead of crude prices being $51/bbl it is $70/bbl.
The one factor that Bush controls is the Iraq War. His failure to stabilize the region is directly effecting our economy via the stock market. I know that oil is flowing at a 97% clip, but investors don’t care. They see the region as unstable and thus as an opportunity.
We all know what happened during the energy crisis in the late ’70- the price of fuel effect the inflation directly, and prices and cost of living skyrocketed as things like single income families became a thing of the past. Our quality of life decreased.
If Bush doesn’t get a hold and stabilize the region, then this is going to be the result once again. He needs to deflate speculation and quell fears of supply.
Well said Ted. I am curious and ask for anyone that can answer this. Can the POTUS step in and stop this pricing or at least curb it until we are through this crisis?
11.
I know the state governors can, and I thnk that the POTUS can through an executive order- it would be considered an lift of habuis corpus, basically installing a form of martial law.
11- Okay. That would make sense. I have heard local channels asking us to conserve.
In reality, the environmentalist have shut us down, along with the anti-capitalist/socialist. uhhh, is there a difference between the two? Anyway, there hasn’t been any “new” refineries since the early 80′s. Environmentalist say “refineries are bad for the environment” blah, blah, blah. Now we are in a pickle. It takes YEARS to build a refinery.
I wonder how the hollywood celeberties pay for their gasoline prices or what do they pay for fueling their private leer jet? while traveling around the nation lecuturing us all on how to save the earth:twisted:
Our refineries even when all of them are working, are running at 98% capacity and are still not able to produce enough. We need more refineries to handle the supply we do have. We also need to drill in ANWAR to insure a steady flow of non-imported oil. Returning to using COAL to produce electricity would dramatically improve oil availability as well as lower cost. Coal produces substantially more electricity than oil while costing about 60% less. A ton of coal produces more electricity than a barrel of oil and is probably only around $20. We also have a 120 yr supply of coal. One problem we will have is that due to the environazis, we have closed and sealed a bunch of mines due to lack of demand. These mines are now filled with water, methane, and carbon monoxide. All three of these will have to be pumped out before the mines will be safe to operate again. Can you tell Dad was a coal miner for 30 years? We will simply need to update the technology at the power plants to burn coal more efficiently. Most of the oil fired power plants were converted to oil in the 60s and 70s to make the environazis happy. Time to convert them back and make them clean burning.
As for gas prices. I’m a courier and between Monday and Today gas prices went up at least 20 cents a gallon with some places over $3.00 for regular. The prices have gotten so high that the company announced today that it is going to increase our pay $50 a week to start and maybe more to help offset the expense. I drive 200 miles a day and at 22 MPG it’s not cheap.
One positive thing to look at from the disaster in the South is that any home rebuilt will be safer, and more energy efficient as many of the homes destroyed were old and poorly insulated. My home was built in 1936 and my electric bills dropped around 30% when my windows were replaced with dual sash double pane windows. For Phoenix, that’s huge in the summer.
One asset that FEMA may not be aware of but shoud utilize is the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office depot in Battle Creek, Michigan. It’s just amazing what you can find there that’s been turned in as serviceable excess by frontline units. I’m almost betting that they could get a few older high capacity generators out of Battle Creek as well as probably hundreds of blankets and cots.