Between Hess’ plant closing and scheduled maintenance, the squeeze appears to be on the refining space and wholesale gasoline prices are smashing higher. Along with flares in geopolitical risk (Ankara today and Israel/Syria earlier in the week) driving underlying crude prices, Gas prices (at the pump) are surging – to record highs for the first week of February as per AAA, hitting an all time high of $3.465 for this day and just surpassing last year’s price of $3.455; and based on where wholesale prices are (given the lag), we could be seeing $4.00 gas at the pump in the next few weeks.
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The “squeeze” is quite deliberate because refining capacity on the east and Gulf coasts of the US was systematically gutted about 10-20 years ago to, I would think, create such a scenario.
While we’re talking about oil… while “peak oil” is a scam to justify higher prices, fracking is all about destroying the environment so we can no longer grow stuff or get clean water. Think DCD and GE DNA in your milk is bad? Wait til it has fracking chemicals in it. Did I mention cadmium or glyphosate yet?