Exxon just got a raise!

WASHINGTON -- Oil prices rose for a third consecutive day Wednesday as Tropical Storm Gustav posed the biggest threat to Gulf Coast energy production since hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit in 2005. The price gains and worries about refinery outages likely will lead to an increase in retail gasoline price as Americans hit the road for the long Labor Day weekend. "Between now and Monday, it's clearly going higher," said Tom Kloza, Oil Price Information Service chief oil analyst. The price at the pump could rise as much as a dime a gallon over the weekend, depending on Gustav's path in the next few days, he said. Gasoline prices have dropped this month in response to lower demand and oil costs, but the pace of the decline has slowed in recent days. The nationwide average for a gallon of regular was $3.667 Wednesday, down less than a penny from Tuesday and off 45 cents from the record set July 17, according to AAA. In Indianapolis, the average dropped to $3.719 from Tuesday's $3.764. Although oil prices are off more than $27 from the record hit in early July, they have risen $3.56 this week and are up 64 percent from a year ago. The price of a barrel of crude oil trading for delivery in October rose $1.88 to $118.15 Wednesday. Natural gas prices also rose. Energy prices are climbing as Gustav is expected to gain strength and become a hurricane. It now is aimed at the central Gulf Coast, home to approximately a fifth of U.S. oil and natural gas production, says Kenneth Medlock, a fellow in energy studies at Rice University. That's the same area hit in 2005 by Katrina and Rita, which led to declines in offshore production and destruction at onshore refineries. "The potential for long-term damage is enormous," Medlock said. Oil companies were evacuating some employees from platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Shell said it planned to remove about 300 of its 1,400 workers in the area. In the last three years, oil companies have made changes to try to minimize the impact of hurricanes on production and refining, such as bolstering backup electricity generation and finding ways to better protect equipment, said Sara Banaszak, an economist with the American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group. "There will be some damage, but I don't think you'll see near the problems that we had" in 2005 if a similar storm hits, said Bruce Bullock, who is director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University.

(B. Hagenbaugh, USA Today)Retrieved from Indystar.com


Hurricane Season isnt over, and it looks like the slight relief consumers have been feeling at the pumps. Was more of a temporary situation then a permenant market restabilization. How will both of the canidates advacate new off shore drilling, during a hurricane? This should be interesting, we should see the savings at the pump any day now....10 years from now. How would the congress impliment a drilling procedure that would produce anything to help out the consumers of America? Maybe we should stop driving ridicolously large vehicles like, Excursion, The Armada, or the Hummer. All people who purchaces or currently drive one of these vehicles or vehicles similar, should be required to sign a contract. That clearly lays out the amount of gas they consume and how much that is per year at the rate of $4.50. Then these owners would have no reason to bitch about the high prices at the pump.