PJ Media: Gasoline prices had fallen for 100 days until the last week in September when refinery issues resulted in supply problems. A refinery in Ohio that produces 160,000 bbl closed because of a fire that killed two workers, and that closure came on the heels of a fire at a refinery in Indiana producing 440,000 bbl.
There have also been scheduled — and unscheduled — refinery closures on the West Coast. Taken together with the recently announced cut in production of 2 million bbl by OPEC+, the critical shortages in supply would be a problem regardless of who the president was.
The OPEC cut will hit the U.S. especially hard. Analysts believe it will add between 15 and 30 cents a gallon to the price of gas at the pump. Meanwhile, oil prices are headed to $100 bbl and will stay there indefinitely. And there are more price increases coming after the election when the EU begins its boycott of Russian oil, adding to the shortages.
The price of oil, the primary input for gasoline, is also having an impact. Brent, the global benchmark, rose more than 2% to $93.90 on Wednesday. Exports of U.S. crude oil, OPEC+’s production cuts and limited capacity for additional releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve have essentially backstopped global oil prices from falling below $80 per barrel, putting a floor on domestic gasoline prices, said Frederick Lawrence, a director at research firm Capital Alpha Partners. “You don’t see these stresses fading away tomorrow.” Read More …
Opinion: I signed up for 1 free article from (left-leaning) Bloomberg, and finally got some clarity on the Biden Administration’s decision to drain the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The article is from June 22, 2022:
Bloomberg: If Washington sticks to its current pace, the reserve will shrink to a 40-year low of 358 million barrels by the end of October, when the releases are due to stop. A year ago, the SPR, located in four caverns in Texas and Louisiana, contained 621 million barrels. As the oil market looks today, it’s difficult to see how Washington can halt sales in October. Removing that additional supply would mean commercial inventories quickly deplete, putting upward pressure on oil prices.
In theory, what’s going to be left beyond October would still allow the White House to sell more crude in November and December, and into next year. But there’s an important catch: Not all of the crude set aside is equal, and what’s left is, increasingly, far less useful than what’s already gone.
Broadly speaking, the SPR contains two kinds of crude: medium-sour, and light-sweet. The first adjective refers to the oil’s density, the second is about sulphur content. Typically, US refiners prefer medium-sour crude, which is denser and has more sulphur but is a variety they can easily process into gasoline and other products thanks to their highly sophisticated plants.
As the White House fed American refiners with their preferred variety, those sales have reduced the amount of medium-sour crude inside the reserve dramatically — and it’s set to decline further over the next four months. OilX, a consultant, estimates that by the end of October, the SPR will hold only 179 million barrels of medium-sour crude. To put that into perspective, during the period June 2021 to October 2022, the US is likely to sell about 180-190 million barrels of medium-sour crude from the reserve. Clearly, Washington is running out of firepower to repeat that exercise. (read more)
Hyperinflation is prophesied in Revelation 6:5-6, and it may be triggered by the very commodity that the left is working overtime to eliminate … oil:
“When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.”
A quart of wheat, representing one person’s food for the day, will cost a day’s wages. But many will be forced to buy barley, a less expensive food usually used for animals. Three quarts of barley will also cost a denarius, but only the 1% will still be able to afford the luxury of oil and wine. Affordable access to economic commerce will be strictly limited.
Excerpts from “The 1% and Revelation: Do Not Harm the Oil and Wine” Here
