[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')url=http://www.peakoil.com/post213733.html#213733]Kunstler's ClusterFuck Nation Chronicle (link)[/url]
The American public's failure to pay attention reached supernatural levels this week as our mass media gloated over falling gasoline prices -- down 24 cents, average, to pre-hurricane levels. The news media took this to mean that all the end-of-the-summer trouble is over with and things can now get back to normal, including especially an economy based on trade in suburban houses.

What they failed to notice is this: since the hurricanes shredded our Gulf of Mexico oil and gas capacity, Europe has been sending us 2 million barrels of crude oil and "refined product" a day from its collective strategic petroleum reserve. The "refined product" includes 800,000 barrels of gasoline, plus diesel, aviation, and heating fuel. Meanwhile, US domestic production has fallen to around 4 million barrels of conventional crude a day. America uses close to 22 million barrels of oil a day. Bottom line: post-hurricane, total imports have accounted for 80 percent of America's oil consumption..

Now, the important part of all this is that last week the International Energy Agency (IEA), Europe's energy security watchdog, declared that it would now end the 2 million barrel a day shipments to the US. Not because they are hateful meanies, but because, after all, it is Europe's strategic reserve and they can't sell it all to us because, well, some strategic emergency might come up for them, too.

It will take a few weeks for the last of Europe's tankers to offload supplies and for the various fuels to work their way through the US fuels retail system. With US production and refining still crippled, we can look forward to watching the price of gasoline, heating oil, diesel and aviation fuel kick back up through Thanksgiving and on into the heart of the Christmas shopping season. At the same time, homeowners will be getting their first substantial heating bills of the season.

This will be very bad news to the guys in charge. The Hooverization of George W. Bush will resume and accelerate.

[BabyPeanut]

Well that was easy.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nb20051105a7.htm]Oil release to be extended again (link)[/url]
Japan will extend for a third month the release of oil reserves held by the private sector in a coordinated effort by members of the International Energy Agency to hold down prices, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Friday.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BabyPeanut', 'W')ell that was easy.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nb20051105a7.htm]Oil release to be extended again (link)[/url]
Japan will extend for a third month the release of oil reserves held by the private sector in a coordinated effort by members of the International Energy Agency to hold down prices, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Friday.

[MacG]

I've said it befor and I'll say it again: It was rightout cruel to push the crisis into the winter. An extremely mild winter could save the show, but it is cruel to gamble so much on the weather.

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MacG', 'I')'ve said it before and I'll say it again: It was rightout cruel to push the crisis into the winter. An extremely mild winter could save the show, but it is cruel to gamble so much on the weather.

[MacG]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BabyPeanut', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MacG', 'I')'ve said it before and I'll say it again: It was rightout cruel to push the crisis into the winter. An extremely mild winter could save the show, but it is cruel to gamble so much on the weather.

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MacG', 'I')t would have been better to face the shortage as soon as it appeared. People would have had more time to prepare for the winter. Not that it's much that can be done, but the little there is is easier to do in Oct than Jan.

[emersonbiggins]

Further pontifications from Kunstler in today's blog entry:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'E')urope -- France and Germany in particular -- have enjoyed the luxury of laying back since 9/11 and allowing the US to rumble with the Islamic world, while the Europeans enjoyed a comfortable sense of moral superiority about their supposed peaceableness. Those pretenses seem to be reaching an end. So now that Europe has gallantly spent down its strategic petroleum reserve for our sake, it will be interesting to see how soon they may need it themselves.
I wouldn't venture to guess whether the young rioters of France are getting help and encouragement from somewhere outside, but there certainly are enough Jihadi professionals and cheerleaders on the sidelines to support this new frontal action in Old Europe. It is going to be an interesting holiday season all around the western world.

[fossilnut2]

"I'd like to see how they are going to get out of this one."

There is no 'they'

Doomers and gloomers and conspiracy theorists need to ween themselves off of the word 'they'.

[MacG]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BabyPeanut', 'H')uh? Are you saying that if the US had crashed economically in the autumn that would have made the winter better?

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MacG', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BabyPeanut', 'H')uh? Are you saying that if the US had crashed economically in the autumn that would have made the winter better?

[katkinkate]

Buy blankets and quilts, warmer clothes and shoes, insulate the home, block off drafts and leaks ...

[Permanently_Baffled]

I can understand oil and distillates going down as imports from strategic reserves from Europe and Japan kick in.

However, I cannot understand natural gas prices. I realise they go down this time of year anyway (as there is a lull before winter) , but prices were at this level this time last year WITHOUT the disruption caused by katrina and rita.

Now as I understand it , you cannot import gas as easily as liquid fuels and oil , so how come the price decrease (they have gone from $14 to $8?)

Any ideas?

PB

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('katkinkate', 'B')uy blankets and quilts, warmer clothes and shoes, insulate the home, block off drafts and leaks ...

[AdamB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')
The tanker carrying Russian natural gas that’s been sitting outside of Boston Harbor for days will probably land over the weekend, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. The Gaselys carries liquefied natural gas originally produced in Siberia, according to vessel tracking data. The ship, poised to dock at Engie SA’s Everett import terminal, would be the first LNG shipment from anywhere other than Trinidad and Tobago in about three years. “It is expected to be in the port over the weekend,” Luke Pinneo, chief petty officer at the U.S. Coast Guard in Boston, said in a telephone interview. The delay in bringing the ship into the harbor “is not unusual,’’ according to Pinneo. Inspections can take as long as three days, depending on the time line for getting a Coast Guard boat with a boarding team to it and the specific safety concerns .