Oil Jumps Above $100 on Refinery Outage

[Roland99]

Source: AP (via Yahoo)

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil futures shot higher Tuesday, closing above $100 for the first time as investors bet that crude prices will keep climbing despite evidence of plentiful supplies and falling demand. At the pump, gas prices rose further above $3 a gallon.

There was no single driver behind oil's sharp price jump; investors seized on an explosion at a 67,000 barrel per day refinery in Texas, the falling dollar, the possibility that OPEC may cut production next month, the threat of new violence in Nigeria and continuing tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela.

The fact that there was no overriding reason for such a price spike could be a bad omen for consumers already bearing the burdens of high heating costs and falling real estate values. Many recent forecasts have said oil demand growth this year will be less than initially expected, yet prices continue to rise. That suggests they may continue rising as the weakening dollar attracts new investors to the futures market.

...

Light, sweet crude for March delivery rose $4.51 to settle at a record $100.01 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after earlier rising to $100.10, a new trading record. It was the first time since Jan. 3 that oil had been above $100.

Read more: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080219/oil_prices.html

[dweller]

1. price at the pump here in mid-NC

$2.97/gal to $3.08/gal in less than one week, some stations changed twice today.

dp

[bhikkhu]

2. The headline makes no sense

A refinery converts crude to gasoline, etc, so a refinery down reduces crude demand. Any better explanations?

[focusfan]

3. i don't think it's right that we are having to dig in our pockets

to buy gas and those s.o.b is making a killing profit.

[hunter]

4. Exploding Refinery = $$$ Profit $$$

Is this the way markets are supposed to work???

We are far, far, far down the rabbit hole if anyone can claim that with a straight face.

[Javaman]

5. And away we go!

last time it topped 100 bucks on jan 3rd, the news services when ape poopie, now, it's just old news and that makes it far more troublesome.

The gates are now wide open psychologically for the price to go as high as the oil pigs want.