Oil prices leap, outage adds to fears

[robertpaulsen]

Oil prices leap, outage adds to fears


LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices leapt to more than $53 a barrel on Tuesday after news of a big refinery outage in the United States added to fears about a shortage of refined products and offset the impact of swelling crude supplies.

U.S. light crude was trading $1.02 higher at $53 a barrel. Brent crude oil in London gained $1.07 to $52.36.

News that ConocoPhillips' 250,000 barrels per day refinery in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, was shut down because of a power outage added to the bullish mood. The refinery is one of the largest in the state and has gasoline-making capacity of 104,000 bpd.

U.S. unleaded gasoline, led the gains and was trading 4.27 cents higher at $1.5300 a gallon.

more...

http://money.iwon.com/ht/nw/bus/20050510/hl_bus-l10514868.html?PG=home&SEC=news

[Newsjock]

1. A power outage? How conveeeenient

And unless we all decide to stop driving to work tomorrow, there ain't squat we can do to effectively respond.

[phantom power]

2. amusing. Oil is an input to refineries, not a product.

there's no actual reason that a refinery outage should affect the price of oil. It would be more reasonable for it to affect the price of gasoline.

[Geo55]

4. makes sense to me,

no refining = less demand = price of raw product INCREASE.

another logical scenario

John Q public buys Hybred vehicle...less demand = price INCREASE.

[AndyTiedye]

6. It Should Push the Price of CRUDE Oil Down A Little

Because the refinery is not consuming any crude oil while it is down,
crude oil inventories might go UP a little bit (but still, we are
talking about ONE refinery, so it shouldn't really affect it much at all).

[whatelseisnew]

10. Exactly!!! These lousy reporters have been failing to point this out

for a few weeks now.

They are complicit and/or outright propagandists

[Julius Civitatus]

3. CNN was praising Bush this morning for lowering gas prices

by three cents a gallon. They were cheerleading as fast as they can.

Well, guess what...

[TheFarseer]

7. Then I hope to God they are bashing his brains in

when gas prices are around $2.50 this summer.

[robertpaulsen]

9. Tools. That makes me sick.

Especially here in LA, where gas went down a whopping 5 cents a gallon. Yeah, major reduction CNN.

[indepat]

5. Amazing what cranking up little supply fear can do to the markets

[cliss]

8. Like I said, a blip on the radar screen,

an oasis in the desert, etc etc. Everyone at the office was relieved recently, when the price of gas went down a little bit.

I knew better, because I read the DU.

[Skarbrowe]

11. Do you think ONE * voter will notice that gas has been UP since election?

The 2004 fiasco, obviously. And it will stay up as long as "oil people" are running this country.

[fasttense]

12. I remember when brush was appointed president by the

Supremes in 2000, I was paying .99 cents a gallon for gas in Georgia. I now pay $2.19 in TN. I guess it will be going up again, and again, and again, and again.....

[gizmo1979]

13. how shallow can they get

they need to find more create reasons to gouge us a power outage come on!What did their profits fall into the double digits?

[osaMABUSh]

14. Yesterday, US gov. said gas prices will fall all May

I believed that for about a second. Gas always goes up in the summer.

I believe gas will never, ever get below $2 a gallon again

[CatholicEdHead]

15. It is below $2 in Minnesota right now

This weekend I saw the range for regular from $1.92 to $1.99.

[sarcasmo]

16. In Michigan gas shoots up in the summer to gouge the Tourists.

I can't wait to hear the belly aching when it hits three bucks near Labor Day.