I heard about a refinery blast on CNBC, but there is scarce domestic news about this morning's Indiana oil refinery blast and fire. If anyone finds more, please post it. I can't find details and wonder if TPTB are keeping it mum.
Oil at New High After U.S. Refinery Blast
August 13, 2004 11:53:00 AM ET
By Richard Mably
LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices set new highs on Friday, underpinned by fresh evidence of strong Chinese demand, worries about sabotage in Iraq and fears of unrest in Venezuela ahead of a weekend referendum on the rule of President Hugo Chavez.
News of an explosion at the U.S. Whiting, Indiana refinery spiked U.S. light crude futures to a record $45.93 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. London Brent set a record $43 a barrel, up 71 cents. (snip)
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/breaking/breakingnewsarticle.asp?feed=OBR&Date=20040813&ID=3911849
First off, I have a confession to make: I'm an editor at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Can you believe it, a conservative editor?! Yes, we do exist ... in fact, a co-worker of mine was the one who initially turned me on to Free Republic. (Don't paint all journalists with the same brush ... you'd be surprised how many conservatives there really are in our business.)
I'm actually at work right now. I didn't really want to leave my family alone at home, but my wife - a wonderful trouper - insisted that I do my duty for the company. And I feel better knowing that her cousin and his family (who live in Bradenton) and some friends of his will be staying at our house. If my wife and kids had been alone, I wouldn't have gone to work.
We had to come into work at noon, because the affects of the storm are supposed to start appearing around 2 p.m. They wanted us in early so we wouldn't be in harm's way while driving to work. Once we're here, we can't leave. We're stuck through the duration.
... more coming in another posting ...
I'm suspicious that the pump prices haven't followed the general trend in crude prices. It seems like it almost used to be instantaneous that pump prices followed oil commodity prices up, but very sluggish to go down when crude moderated. Could it be that the reserves are being tapped, and we aren't aware? Election year politics would make it an attractive political move. I know we were building reserves earlier this year, but I haven't caught any recent news about it.