Oil and gasoline prices snapped back to levels seen before Hurricane Harvey disrupted about a quarter of U.S. refining capacity, but another incoming storm could cut fuel demand and weigh on prices, analysts said on Tuesday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 3.3 percent and was last trading at $48.83 as refineries sidelined by Harvey started processing oil into fuels. WTI closed at a seven-week low of $45.96 last Wednesday. U.S. gasoline futures for October delivery fell 3.2 percent to $1.6913 per gallon after the September contract rose as high as $2.17 a gallon last week. Oil and gasoline prices snapped back to levels seen before Hurricane Harvey disrupted about a quarter of U.S. refining capacity, but another incoming storm could cut …show more content…
gasoline futures for October delivery fell 3.2 percent to $1.6913 per gallon after the September contract rose as high as $2.17 a gallon last week. About 3 million barrels a day, or 16 percent of U.S. refining capacity, remained offline or in preliminary restart mode on Monday evening. That cut about 1.2 million gallons per day of gasoline supply, roughly equal to consumption in California, Oregon and Washington combined. Refineries were mostly up and running in Corpus Christi, Texas, where Harvey made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane. Plants in Lake Charles, Louisiana, near Harvey's second landfall last week, were also churning out fuel after briefly reducing activity. Major pipelines that move fuel from Houston to Dallas, St. Louis, Tulsa and Chicago were back in operation. The critical Colonial Pipeline that runs from Houston through the Southeast and up to New Jersey fixed a partial outage on its diesel line and expected its gasoline line to be running on Tuesday. But outages lingered at five facilities in the hard-hit Houston area, as well as at four plants just southeast in the Port Arthur-Beaumont, Texas, refining hub. Both areas saw devastating flooding. Average U.S. retail gasoline prices, however, would likely peak sometime this week at roughly $2.70 per
Hurricane Harvey is located in Houston, Texas. It was the first major hurricane to make landfall in the United States since Wilma in 2005, ending a record 12- years period with no major hurricanes making landfall in the country. The sprawling and soaked Houston metro area and other deluge towns in southeast Texas braced for devastating floods and pummeling rainfall on Sunday as tropical storm Harvey stalled over land and drenched dogged searchers and anxious residents. Houston, Texas has set up shelters for people to stay out of the weather with good food, clean and fresh water, and dry, clean clothes. It is getting bigger and it has been confirmed that there will be more flooding close by to that area.
One of the largest oil producing areas of the world is located in West Texas.
Brent crude, the main international benchmark, was trading around $48 a barrel. The American benchmark was at around $45 a barrel (Clifford Krauss). Regular gas nationally now averages around $2.65 a gallon, compared to $3.45 a year ago. Now the law of demand states consumers will buy more of the product if the price falls; of course when gas was at it's lowest peak everyone was driving around with there a/c on. They would use gasoline more often since it was not hurting their pockets as much. Now there is some instances where other goods and services can drop from gasoline prices. This can include a lawn mowing services and automotive business.
Oil provided new fuel for transportation and manufacturing, even railroads were able to convert to oil. Oil helped manufacturing plants and farms move to a cheaper source of energy. Another significant factor of oil is that it helped encourage automobile production as well as roads. The production of the Interstate highway led to the movement of people and goods (Champagne, Harpham 13). Rapid industrialization of the Gulf Coast region sparked. By 1929 in Harris County, 27 percent of all manufacturing employees worked in refineries. By 1940 the capacity of the refineries had increased fourfold. The oil and gas industries carried a boom-and-bust mentality (Oliena 1). The economy flourish at times and failed other times, because the prices would rise and fall. When new oil was discovered in a particular place it brought about more people, overcrowding the schools and new housing. Yet a couple years later the town could experience a bust creating poverty and making the town a ghost town. The oil and gas industry transformed the government and its role with the economy. The Texas Railroad Commission was extended to regulate energy and to promote well-spacing rules. Higher education benefitted through the oil and gas industry ( Munch, Francis, and Rundell 604). In 1923 oil was discovered in the West Texas Permian Basin on university land. The Permanent University Fund was split up between the
Hurricane Harvey was one of the most devastating hurricanes to strike the United States in several years. Harvey resulted in over eighty fatalities and over 150 billion dollars in damages. This proves to be one of the most destructive hurricanes to be recorded. The overwhelming damage was caused by many different aspects; however, three of the greatest aspects are: varying weather patterns throughout the storm, the city structure of Houston, Texas, and the lack of evacuation. Each of these factors affected the city in a different way, but all resulted in a common outcome, devastation.
...oline is affected by many different factors. The biggest factor is crude oil, but the supply and demand of crude oil will ultimately determine the price of gasoline. The supply and demand of crude oil and gasoline are also affected by several factors. The price is continually increasing and the supply is becoming harder to produce and deliver. So it seems we, the United States, need to find a way to slow down our fuel consumption and decrease our demand. This may be the only way to bring down the price of gasoline. I know I would not mind, because then I could use the extra $40 to buy a couple more DVDs for the kids to watch while we are running around town in the Expedition.
Gasoline is thought to be a helpful substance to all countries worldwide. However, the negative effects are far greater than the positive. A diversity of clean fuels is vital for the political, environmental, and economic health of America. Although gasoline is a product depended on by the United States of America and many other countries, the negative effects are unbearable, dangerous, and unnecessary due to the opportunity to use alternative fuels.
U.S. Energy Information Association. "U.S. Total Crude Oil and Products Imports." Eia.doe.gov. Web. 26 May 2011. .
Currently, the most important factor in the rise of gas prices is the increasing cost of crude oil. Unfortunately, the United States has three percent of the world’s oil reserves. (Horsley) In 2009, the United States was third in crude oil production as well as the world’s largest petroleum consumer. (e. I. Administration) Such consumption required and still requires the United States to import petroleum/crude oil from other countries.
Hurricane Maria was destructive and caused a large amount of damage to the entire island of Puerto Rico. Maria hit on September 20 and was a category four hurricane, nearly a category five. Hurricane Maria has had a tremendous impact on the lives of Puerto Ricans and even the world.
The category four tropical storm, Hurricane Harvey, destroyed Houston, Texas late last week, becoming a major contemporary issue in the United States. Hurricane Harvey is a major concern for multiple cities because it has left people homeless, stranded, and scattered throughout the cities and states.
There are certainly pros and cons to the falling gas prices. I can only sound very selfish when speaking about this topic since my family is constantly on a budget to make ends meet. My father suffered an unexpectedly heart conditioned in 2010 called Neuro-Cardio Genic Syncope, that forced the cardiologist to discontinue him from working and abruptly end his working career. This was very devastating to not only my dad, since he was always the breadwinner, but to us as a family.
Economic: Gasoline prices, along with rising energy prices are the major concern. Jet fuel prices are at $2.80/gallon! However, many people would rather have items shipped rather than spend money on gas to go and buy the item.
Energy consists of more than just fuel. It is your hot water, electricity, heat, as well as gas. All of these factors are considered energy sources, and the prices of them have significantly increased. "Energy supplies and prices are major economic factors in the U.S. and energy markets are volatile and unpredictable." (Glover and Behrens, Energy: selected facts and numbers) This just shows how important energy is to the United States, which makes sense that oil companies would attempt to overcharge and swindle us because the U.S. is dependent on it. Like the spoiled Americans that most of us are we use energy every day, and if all of a sudden we couldn?t access it things would be chaotic, for instance, the California blackout. Like most issues there is always two sides, just as in this one, and while oil companies ?observe? the energy price crisis, they blame the consumers.
As the driver pulls up next to the gas station to fill his car up with gas, he sees a small piece of paper with writing on it taped to the old rusty gas pump. Surprised, he gets out of the car to read the paper, “Due to the gasoline shortage, we will not be selling gas at this time.” According to the EIA.gov website, there are over 200 million vehicles being used today, and gasoline is the number one transportation fuel used in the United States. We can safely say that gasoline is a pretty important. If there was a shortage of gasoline, it would have a huge effect on this country. First a gas shortage would affect the price of fuel and then suburbs would become less attractive; it would also increase the use of cars that are less expensive to fuel and the use of public transportations.