Edalgiere
New member
BY TOM INCANTALUPO
STAFF WRITER
September 3, 2005
Crude oil and gasoline futures fell in trading Friday and there were promises of emergency supplies from abroad, all hopeful signs that gas price runups and shortages will be temporary.
But some analysts are predicting things will get worse before they get better, with still higher pump prices and tighter supplies because of damage, flooding and power outages at gulf oil facilities from Hurricane Katrina.
"The next couple of weeks are going to be very, very difficult," said energy analyst Seth Kleinman of the Washington-based consulting firm Petroleum Finance Co. Pump prices still were rising Friday. The AAA's daily survey showed regular unleaded averaging $3.011 on Long Island, 24 cents higher than a day earlier. The city average was $2.894, the AAA said. The Web site gaspricewatch.com, which collects data informally from motorists, showed prices as high as $3.83 a gallon for regular within a 10-mile radius of Melville and $3.77 within 10 miles of Kew Gardens.
A similar Web site, gasbuddy.com, showed prices in the New York metro area as high as $3.99 for regular gas Friday afternoon - that in Westhampton - and nothing lower than $2.73 a gallon - at a station in Kew Gardens Hills.
Long lines have formed at filling stations in several states, including Georgia, North Carolina and Mississippi. Locally, though, a relative few stations have run out of product and, in most cases, it was temporary, said Ralph Bombardiere, executive director of the Gasoline and Automotive Service Dealers Association, representing 1,500 downstate gas retailers.
Tom Collins, spokesman for the state Energy Research and Development Authority, agreed. "Right now, we're not finding any major supply problem in New York," he said.
Still, motorists are worried. "We've gotten a lot of calls from our members," said New York Auto Club spokesman Robert Sinclair. He and Collins said some stations whose fuel comes from the tight "spot" market, where major oil companies sell surplus gasoline, are having difficulty obtaining product.
Meanwhile, eight gulf refineries shut down by the hurricane still were offline, representing about 10 percent of the nation's refinery capacity.
But crude oil futures fell by $1.90 to $67.57 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and gasoline futures fell by almost 23 cents to $2.18 a gallon - both on word that the 26-nation International Energy Agency would release 30 million barrels of crude oil and refined fuels such as gasoline from reserves, mostly in Europe, to the U.S. market over the next 30 days. Another 30 million barrels of crude are expected to be sold from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the U.S. Energy Department said.
The AAA had forecast before Katrina struck that 28.8 million Americans, 100,000 more than last year, would drive 50 miles or more during this three-day Labor Day weekend. It's unclear whether high prices will decrease that and, if so, by how much.
Further, Kleinman says, the flow of gasoline from abroad will be restricted by a shortage of tankers that can carry refined products. "There are just not enough of them," he said.
Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc.
STAFF WRITER
September 3, 2005
Crude oil and gasoline futures fell in trading Friday and there were promises of emergency supplies from abroad, all hopeful signs that gas price runups and shortages will be temporary.
But some analysts are predicting things will get worse before they get better, with still higher pump prices and tighter supplies because of damage, flooding and power outages at gulf oil facilities from Hurricane Katrina.
"The next couple of weeks are going to be very, very difficult," said energy analyst Seth Kleinman of the Washington-based consulting firm Petroleum Finance Co. Pump prices still were rising Friday. The AAA's daily survey showed regular unleaded averaging $3.011 on Long Island, 24 cents higher than a day earlier. The city average was $2.894, the AAA said. The Web site gaspricewatch.com, which collects data informally from motorists, showed prices as high as $3.83 a gallon for regular within a 10-mile radius of Melville and $3.77 within 10 miles of Kew Gardens.
A similar Web site, gasbuddy.com, showed prices in the New York metro area as high as $3.99 for regular gas Friday afternoon - that in Westhampton - and nothing lower than $2.73 a gallon - at a station in Kew Gardens Hills.
Long lines have formed at filling stations in several states, including Georgia, North Carolina and Mississippi. Locally, though, a relative few stations have run out of product and, in most cases, it was temporary, said Ralph Bombardiere, executive director of the Gasoline and Automotive Service Dealers Association, representing 1,500 downstate gas retailers.
Tom Collins, spokesman for the state Energy Research and Development Authority, agreed. "Right now, we're not finding any major supply problem in New York," he said.
Still, motorists are worried. "We've gotten a lot of calls from our members," said New York Auto Club spokesman Robert Sinclair. He and Collins said some stations whose fuel comes from the tight "spot" market, where major oil companies sell surplus gasoline, are having difficulty obtaining product.
Meanwhile, eight gulf refineries shut down by the hurricane still were offline, representing about 10 percent of the nation's refinery capacity.
But crude oil futures fell by $1.90 to $67.57 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and gasoline futures fell by almost 23 cents to $2.18 a gallon - both on word that the 26-nation International Energy Agency would release 30 million barrels of crude oil and refined fuels such as gasoline from reserves, mostly in Europe, to the U.S. market over the next 30 days. Another 30 million barrels of crude are expected to be sold from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the U.S. Energy Department said.
The AAA had forecast before Katrina struck that 28.8 million Americans, 100,000 more than last year, would drive 50 miles or more during this three-day Labor Day weekend. It's unclear whether high prices will decrease that and, if so, by how much.
Further, Kleinman says, the flow of gasoline from abroad will be restricted by a shortage of tankers that can carry refined products. "There are just not enough of them," he said.
Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc.