The Next Crunch

Oil prices will leap again -- blame Russia - MSN Money

Fortune Global 500

Big Oil Dominates the Fortune Global 500

Turning Frustration into Dollars

CNN story on "oil" entrepreneurs

Cnn: Fueling America

CNN Fueling America portal page

Top 10 Producers and Consumers

CNN: Top 10 List

Quinn: The Price of Our Oil Addiction - Newsweek Business - MSNBC.com

Quinn: The Price of Our Oil Addiction - Newsweek Business - MSNBC.com

After Oil - MSNBC.com

After Oil - MSNBC.com

1 / EN / Mercedes-Benz P. Cars/Concept Vehicles/F 600 HYGENIUS

F 600 HYGENIUS: premiere at the Tokyo Motor Show: Power, comfort and zero emissions: Mercedes-Benz presents new research vehicle with fuel cell drive

The Katrina Crisis

OpinionJournal - Featured Article
The Katrina Crisis: A hurricane produces an integrated energy disaster, by Daniel Yergin

Pricing experts says $4 a gallon gas on the horizon - Aug. 31, 2005

Pricing experts says $4 a gallon gas on the horizon - Aug. 31, 2005
Yep ... Now you, too, can live like a European.

Katrina and Gas Prices

This was passed along to me by a friend who has a friend in Houston ... that friend's husband is a chemical engineer with Shell ... I hope a lot of people in this country understand what's happening. It wouldn't hurt to pass this one on. - R

Hey guys...I think I'm the closest to New Orleans down here...about 5 hours away. We are being inundated with Louisianans here in Houston. It's so tragic, so many lost everything. The city is GONE, the New Orleans that we all think of...Bourbon Street, the French Quarter. It's all under water and it will be a very long time until they can claim it back from the Mississippi. I can't see how it will ever be the same; the damage is tremendous.

They have just started to report on the enormity of it, but ya'll must know this will touch your lives sooner than later. The situation in the refining sector is dire. The National Guard wouldn't let Shell get in to assess damage, so they flew a private plane over their refinery to figure out what is what. There is NO WAY to get to the refinery on the ground. There is NO housing to put employees to send them in to begin opening up the refining. There are TWO oil rigs adrift in the Gulf for Shell alone...that means they have been cut loose and they're floating away. Shell is trying to get tugboats out to capture them and pull them back to position. What this means is the country has lost 25% of its refining capabilities for gasoline. Doesn't matter how much oil there is already in the pipeline if they can't refine it. The cost of damages is enormous. Yes, gas prices will be going up...supply and demand. There were already a lack of refining facilities because they had shut so many down over the last decade due to environmental and regualtory concerns (California/Illinois) so a lot more of the refining capacity had shifted to the Gulf states, and now this. So when you get to the gas pumps and bitch about the prices, realize it's all impacted by Katrina... and the other hurricanes we've had this year (one cause the loss of Thunderhorse platform for BP, which half-sunk). The costs to these companies is in the billions.

So, whatever your political feelings are about oil companies etc, realize that it's not a simple equation of the barrel of oil equals greedy oil company. Everything you touch in your day, from the aspirin bottle to the road you drive on to the energy you cook and heat/cool your house with to the crayons your kids color with and the clothes on your back are possible because of the gas/oil companies. Costs will rise. Bert recommends you fill up your gas tanks TODAY. Of course, that is down here, so maybe it's not going to be immediate for ya'll yet. The interstate is also destroyed in many places so our trucking will be affected here ... meaning goods won't be coming in too easily for a bit. I'm far from a 'chicken little' personality. This is just reality. Thanks Katrina!

Suz