Oil Breaks Over $53, Gasoline Hits Record

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil prices rose to a fresh four-month high over $53 a barrel Wednesday as refinery problems in Texas propelled gasoline up to an all-time peak.

U.S. light crude futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange touched $53.09 per barrel, a level not seen since late October, before settling up $1.37 to $53.05. London Brent on the International Petroleum Exchange advanced $1.11 to $51.22 a barrel.


The gains tracked a surge in U.S. gasoline futures to a record high of $1.4850 a gallon. "This market simply wants to go up," said Kyle Cooper, an analyst with Citigroup Global Markets.


"Gasoline is up because of the refinery issues in Texas, which means there will be a scramble for product in the (U.S.) Gulf Coast," said Ed Silliere, an analyst at Energy Merchant.


An early morning fire at Western Refining Co.'s refinery in El Paso, Texas, shut a gasoline production unit for an undetermined amount of time, a refinery spokesman said.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&ncid=749&e=2&u=/nm/20050302/bs_nm/markets_oil_dc

is important!

and that means most of us will pay for it worse than practically any other state because of our long distances and relative lack of mass transit capability.

You'd think it'd be cheap there.

the most duress of anyone (having had to live under the fink for 8 years already). No fur coats in Texas implies a luxury item for the elite.

NOT!

look at this report from the ASPO, pay special attention to section 504 written by the U.S. Department of Energy. You won't see this on mainstream media anywhere. Move along...nothing to see.

http://216.187.75.220/newsletter51.pdf

Olaf

Fasten your seatbelt, it's gonna be a bumpy ride. And our govt says there's no way out. So THAT'S what iraq was all about.

and looks mighty close. It's not a panic situation, but it's also the reason you see a lot of alternative energy advertisements from BP, Exxon, and Mobil etc. They'll be the companies getting federal welfare for research and developement, and they'll still be controlling the energy supplies for decades, if not centuries to come.

I can't say that the current energy giants continuing to control energy when it doesn't come from oil is really so bad.. as long as it's giantS and not giant.

Futures for April were already at or above a record last month (at least .10 - .15 above March)

Seems these refineries are always going up in smoke. Doesn't OSHA ever look at any of them or anything? You'd think any other industry that had such a lousy safety record would have feds crawling all over the place.

only have enough time to check for paperwork errors.

We have a massive deficit. Why aren't we taking some of those windfall profits the oil business is making and using it to pay for Bush's war for oil?

Why aren't the Democrats even talking about this???

We did it in the 70's, why not now/

At 10 miles to the Gallon those Hummer Drivers must be stewing in their Suburban Humvee-wanta-bes rip off vehicles.

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Get the high price of crude publicized and we can make a fortune. Of course what the price of crude is today doesn't make a lick of difference to what actually comes out of the pump today, but who cares...we rule!!!

Saudi Arabia. I've read several articles that claim that Saudi Arabia does not have as much oil as was previously thought. In fact, a few articles said that if Saudi Arabia tries to pump oil faster than is possible, it runs the risk that the oil will turn into a sandy sludge, thus making it much more difficult to refine.

Also, these are not PROVEN reserves. I've read that Saudi Arabia does not have any kind of system which documents how much oil they actually have (help me out here). Which makes its estimates more or less conjecture.

Now, apparently, SA appears more sketchy. I've actually read accounts that credit Iran with the world's #1 proven reserves.

Coincidence?

With oil prices going up and salaries (supposedly) going up, why are inflation fears declining and people less fearful of rising interest rates, as per this article? Hmmm... I'll have to ponder a while.

Inflation Fears Cool, Job Growth Expected

41 minutes ago Business - Reuters


By Ellen Freilich

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Economic data released on Thursday reflected a favorable inflation outlook, solid U.S. economic growth and a firmer labor market.

A decline in new jobless claims and a jump in the employment component of a U.S. service sector industry survey helped to fortify already entrenched expectations that the Labor Department (news - web sites)'s February employment report on Friday would show solid jobs growth.


A government report that U.S. productivity was faster than expected in the fourth quarter last year suggested that inflation in the longer term remains subdued, analysts said. For the fourth quarter, the revised jump of 2.1 percent in non-farm productivity helped push unit labor costs down more sharply than economists had expected.

"This makes the market less fearful about inflation and the Fed raising rates faster," said Gemma Wright, director of market strategy at Barclays Capital in New York.

Complementing the news on well-controlled inflation, an industry survey showed that the huge U.S. services sector, comprising about 80 percent of the economy, grew in February. Hiring in the sector also accelerated, reaching its highest level in the seven-year history of the Institute for Supply Management's (ISM) non-manufacturing survey.

The government also reported that weekly jobless claims fell by 1,000 last week, suggesting that the labor market continues to show a steady recovery. "The (data) reinforce the belief that we may see decent gains in payrolls on Friday," said Kevin Logan, economist at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.

<snip>

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&ncid=749&e=2&u=/nm/20050303/bs_nm/economy_dc