Oil Prices Could SkyRocket

They reported tonight on the Dallas news that ExxonMobil is putting a freeze on prices refusing to raise them at their locations. Of course, the prices already went up to as high as $3.29 in D/FW today before this declaration was made, so who knows (Gov. Perry says they are going to crack down on gouging).

The ExxonMobil people said that supplies would not be interrupted, so it doesn't sound like they, at least, are planning on shutting any refineries down.

 

No refineries will be shut down. Business as usual, although I wouldn't mind a few days off!

We do have a lot more security than usual here though.

 

Why would the refineries be shutdown?

It is not a trivial task and is probably rather expensive.

It will take more attacks for the country's various business units to go to a complete lockdown mode.



Mango

 

Wink, let me re-iterate...I am right now sitting in the middle of the largest refinery operated by my company, and the second largest on the ship channel, and we are NOT shutting down, nor are there any plans to shut down. Not gonna happen.

 

I went to get gas earlier this evening and the place was packed. Each pump had a minimum two car wait. I saw several gas stations the same way tonight.

I think word is spreading of a possible increase in gas price and its causing people to rush out and get gas now...like me.

 

Smokey, I filled up this evening at the Chevron on 35 and 290 cause I only had a little gas left after driving up from Houston. Had a two car wait there, and I saw some big Hispanic dude who was filling up like 5 or 6 gas canisters with 87 octane, in case of a shortage...

Exxon on Riverside and the one on Oltorf and 35 packed as well, but now calmed down.

 

I went to the Exxon on Guadalupe and MLK around 11:30 PM. After waiting to get gas, the lot of so crowded it took me several minutes to get out. I don't want to increase people's worries or exaggerate the situation, but I've never seen it this bad.

 

More gouging. In a time when most Americans are pulling together to help each other, some Americans decide to try and make the biggest profit they can off the tragedy.

Gas price rumors abound

From staff and wire reports

Rumors of gasoline price spikes sent some Amarillo and Canyon residents to the pumps Tuesday, where prices were similar to those of recent days.

Prices in Wheeler rose to the $3.50 to $3.75 a gallon range at several stations, the Wheeler County sheriff's office said.

The lines in Wheeler started about 1 p.m. after a price-increase rumor spread. The station with prices that remained at $1.75 had a line around the block.

"I've seen nothing to get us nervous or upset about the supply situation," said David Johnson, vice president of Toot'n Totum. "We may have some supplies tightening. Futures trading, when it resumes, is affected by emotion and fears."

Susan Hahn, a spokeswoman for the American Petroleum Institute, said the most recent measures of crude oil and gasoline supplies indicated plentiful resources.

For the past week, API estimates indicate crude oil inventories rose by 22,000 barrels nationwide and gasoline stocks, which had been dropping in recent weeks as refiners switch production from summer formulas for gasoline to heating oil and winter gasoline blends, rose an estimated 159,000 barrels.

In Borger, Phillips Petroleum Co. spokesman Bill Mills said officials implemented stepped-up security at the perimeter and gates of all refineries and plants in the area.

While officials were monitoring the situation, Mills said no workers were sent home for the day.

"We're a continuous operation," he said.

Amarillo resident Claudia Loya was in her 1992 Oldsmobile Bravada waiting to get gas in a line of 18 cars Tuesday afternoon at Target Gas No. 4 at 3001 E. Amarillo Blvd. Loya said she heard gas prices were going to rise higher than the posted price of $1.55 a gallon for unleaded regular.

At work Tuesday, Loya heard gas was almost $5 a gallon in Oklahoma. But the Associated Press in Oklahoma reported that such prices were isolated and the subject of price-gouging investigations.

Janine Atkins and her husband got gas at H&L Discount Food Mart 4 at 803 N. Polk St. on a trip from their home in Arizona to the Carolinas. They said they had heard rumors of rising gasoline prices.

Five vehicles were in line Tuesday afternoon at H&L Discount, where the price was $1.53 a gallon.

Ed Commons, an Amarillo financial planner, was en route home Tuesday from Lubbock when he witnessed long lines at two service stations in Dimmitt.

"They were lined up eight or nine deep at several pumps," Commons said. "We had heard rumors in Lubbock about gasoline prices jumping way up, and I guess they were trying to get gasoline before the price shot up."

Some of the lines were blocking the streets, Commons said.

Gasoline was a concern for the Randall County Sheriff's Department.

The department was on alert, which meant all patrol car tanks were filled and were carrying larger weapons not normally used, said Danny Alexander, spokesman for the department.

As cars filled the parking lots of gasoline stations, spilling onto streets, officials notified deputies to be alert to the possibility of flaring tempers on the part of drivers.

 

That really sucks Mr. Paige. They haven't raised prices in Austin yet, and I'm hoping that people don't start panicking and hoarding gas. My Ranger gets 16 mpg in the city and only has a 13 gallon tank cause it's a flareside

 

Gas prices were normal here this evening. Some of them did have lines, but I haven't seen any price gouging at all yet. It looks like those towns that have seen it are seeing someone trying to play on the public's fears and get away with it.

I thought about adding more gas to my tank, but it would only be putting off the inevitable. One of my jobs is an hour's drive away. I have to go there twice a week no matter what it costs - there's no way around it. Hopefully, nothing like this will happen here or I'll essentially be spending every bit of money I make from that job on gas, and maybe more. Hopefully, for the sake of us who have to drive, the government will crack down on that stuff.


(sigh... I can't sleep.)

 

There are a few companies that are attempting to gouge. It will not work, and the PR backlash will be disastrous, I expect, to those companies. One refiner (won't name it, but it's a 3-refinery company) raised prices by $.20/gal within 30 minutes of the attack. The FTC is already looking at sanctioning them.

Most of the major companies - Shell/Texaco (Equilon), Conoco, Exxon, Tesoro, etc. have frozen prices through tomorrow. Your price today will be the same for two days. The trading floor for crude was apparently across the street from the WTC, and has naturally stopped its operations, since many are liikely dead there. As that is a vital function, word is that those operations will continue elsewhere when it can be arranged. Soon.

OPEC has also pledged that it will not withold crude production for the duration of this crisis, i.e. they will not attempt to artificially drive up crude prices as they normally do.

Your gas should be as cheap (or expensive, depending on how yuou look at it) tomorrow as it was today. If it's more expensive, then just drive to one of the stations I mentioned - their prices are frozen.

 

Of course, it was kind of sleezy to freeze the prices after already raising them (if the freeze is that prices will be the same on the 12th as they were on the 11th. Prices went up at least 20 cents per gallon around my house during the day on the 11th. Some more than that) and then pretending that was some grand gesture. If they rescind their increases they put in on the 11th, I'll be a little impressed by their gesture of freezing prices. But not increasing more than they already have isn't really "freezing" prices.

 

Back during the Gulf War there was the same panic1 Remember?!
It just ain't gonna happen.
They even talked about it last night on the news. Don't worry, theres plenty of gas reserves left for everyones' Explorer...and then some!
Simply an overreaction.

 

Gotta love four cylinder engines...

 

I live in Omaha,Ne and gas is up to $2.00 a gallon and expected to go higher

 

I heard that it was up to 6.00 a gallon in OKC. Some people are always about money.

 

There was a 5 car wait at each pump at a Texaco and Diamond Shamrock on William Cannon and Brush Country last night at 11. I filled up later that night when the lines dissapated. Fortunately the prices have held at around $1.34 for reg unleaded.