Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Oil Tumbles After Inventory Report
CNN ^ | September 8, 2005: 10:40 AM EDT | staff

Posted on 09/08/2005 8:01:19 AM PDT by kellynla

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Oil futures fell below $64 a barrel Thursday after a report showed a smaller-than-expected drop in petroleum stockpiles following major disruptions in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Crude stocks fell by 6.4 million barrels, gasoline stocks fell by 4.3 million barrels and stocks of distillates decreased by 800,000 barrels, according to the The Energy Information Administration.

Analysts were looking for a drop of 6.4 million barrels of crude, 6.2 million barrels of gasoline and 2.6 million barrels of distillates, according to Reuters.

Free Oil Futures Price Quotes and Charts Barron's Commodity offers free crude oil quotes and charts. Get API data, news... www.barronscommodity.com

Free Crude Oil E-Guide Learn to trade oil futures and receive our free CD-rom. www.hamiltonfutures.com

Free Oil Future Information Free oil future information with technical analysis by using different technical... www.futuresfacts.com

Oil Future Slipka Trading offers 1-2-3 chart updates, low account minimums and substantial... www.slipkafutures.com

U.S. light crude for October delivery slipped $1.27 a barrel to $63.10 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Business/Economy; Extended News
KEYWORDS: energy; gasprices; oil
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120121-125 last
To: atomicpossum

By putting some in a balloon.


121 posted on 09/12/2005 4:46:34 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: kellynla

Hope Soro's and his pals lost a bundle.


122 posted on 09/12/2005 4:48:06 AM PDT by Dustbunny (The only good terrorist is a dead terrorist)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: atomicpossum

#6 for your home page:

Calvinism vs Armenianism


123 posted on 09/12/2005 4:48:22 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: GraniteStateConservative
My wife decided to grocery shop twice a month instead of every week. I'm sure lots of women are making that choice.

Exactly what I am doing but I am going once a month because I have to drive 50 miles to get to a decent grocery store.

124 posted on 09/12/2005 4:51:20 AM PDT by Dustbunny (The only good terrorist is a dead terrorist)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: Radioactive

WND Exclusive
BLACK-GOLD BLUES
Big Oil's secret strategy
to gush profits exposed

Memos purportedly show refiners sought to limit ops to spike price of gasoline

Posted: September 8, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Joe Kovacs
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

A consumer group is publicizing a series of memos marked "highly confidential" alleging major oil companies – including Mobil, Chevron and Texaco – intentionally limited their refining capacity in order to raise gasoline prices and increase profits.


Map shows path of Hurricane Katrina. Oil rigs are marked in black, with refineries as colored barrels (courtesy iMap Data Inc.)

The revelation comes as Americans have seen a major spike in prices at the pump in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, while "the oil industry blames environmental regulation for limiting number of U.S. refineries."

The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights released three memos that purportedly demonstrate a nationwide effort by the American Petroleum Institute to encourage major refiners to close refineries in the 1990s.

"Large oil companies have for a decade artificially shorted the gasoline market to drive up prices," said Jamie Court, president of the FTCR, who successfully fought to keep Shell Oil from needlessly closing its Bakersfield, Calif., refinery this year. "Oil companies know they can make more money by making less gasoline. Katrina should be a wakeup call to America that the refiners profit widely when they keep the system running on empty."

The internal memoranda themselves have been made public before, in a 2001 investigative report by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who this week said the primary reason for sky-high prices is that "the government isn't in the consumer-protection business anymore."


Much of U.S. paying at least $3 per gallon in wake of Hurricane Katrina

The memo from Chevron states: "A senior energy analyst at the recent API convention warned that if the U.S. petroleum industry doesn't reduce its refining capacity it will never see any substantial increase in refinery margins. ... However, refining utilization has been rising, sustaining high levels of operations, thereby keeping prices low."

It continued to discuss how major refiners were shutting down their refineries.

The Texaco memo disclosed how the industry believed in the mid-1990s that "the most critical factor facing the refining industry on the West Coast is the surplus of refining capacity, and the surplus gasoline production capacity. (The same situation exists for the entire U.S. refining industry.) Supply significantly exceeds demand year-round. This results in very poor refinery margins and very poor refinery financial results. Significant events need to occur to assist in reducing supplies and/or increasing the demand for gasoline. One example of a significant event would be the elimination of mandates for oxygenate addition to gasoline. Given a choice, oxygenate usage would go down, and gasoline supplies would go down accordingly. (Much effort is being exerted to see this happen in the Pacific Northwest.)"

The state of Washington subsequently did away with its ethanol mandate, requiring greater quantities of refined fuel to fill the gasoline volume occupied by ethanol.

FTRC says the Mobil memorandum from 1996 evinces the company's successful plan to keep smaller refiner Powerine from reopening its California refinery. It notes much of the hardships created by California's refinery rules came at the urging of the major oil companies, not the environmental groups blamed by the industry. The other alternative plan discussed in the event Powerine did open the refinery was "... buying all their avails and marketing it ourselves" to insure the lower price fuel didn't get into the market.

Meanwhile, the API is urging Americans to adjust their driving habits to consume less fuel.

"We know that Hurricane Katrina's effects on our industry are having a nationwide impact through skyrocketing prices for gasoline and other fuels," API president Red Cavaney told the House Energy and Commerce Committee yesterday.

But he warned, "Congress should not repeat the mistakes of some past energy policies by trampling the structures of the free marketplace by imposing new controls, allocation schemes, or other obstacles, which will only serve to make a bad situation much worse."

 

U.S. refineries were thrust into the spotlight after Hurricane Katrina plowed through the Gulf of Mexico last week, impacting operations for at least four refineries.

"Those four that appear to have suffered major damage, it will be a matter of months [for repairs]," said Guy Caruso, head of the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Bob Slaughter, president of the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, is hoping the refineries can return to service as soon as possible, but he told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, "Employee safety and overall safe startup and operation concerns are paramount. Significant flooding and damage still affects some facilities.

"However, some refiners with operating facilities have indicated that they will be able to ramp up production from currently reduced levels at refineries near the affected areas, which should have a positive impact on product supplies."

Regarding reports of price gouging, Slaughter said, "Each alleged situation should be thoroughly investigated by the appropriate state and federal authorities and prosecuted when the law has been broken."

According to the Minerals Management Service, oil output from the Gulf of Mexico has been cut by 861,000 barrels per day, a 57 percent reduction from before Katrina's arrival Aug. 29.


125 posted on 09/12/2005 4:58:33 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120121-125 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson