How Will the Crisis in Iraq Affect U.S. Gas Prices?

[mystery-ak]

http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2014/06/17/how-will-crisis-in-iraq-affect-us-gas-prices/

How Will the Crisis in Iraq Affect U.S. Gas Prices?
By Kate RogersPublished June 17, 2014FOXBusiness

As the situation in Iraq continues to escalate as Islamic militants continue to advance across the nation, gas prices in the U.S. are set to rise.

The national average for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline stands at $3.65, with the prospect of a five-to-10  cent jump over the next two weeks, according to Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy.com.

The turmoil in Iraq spooked Wall Street last week and left the major market averages in the red.  The markets have taken a bit of a breather this week, as investors shift their focus to oil and gas prices.

“There was a bit of irrationality in the markets last week, but the story is still evolving,” DeHaan says. “A lot of places have already seen [gas] prices go up—for motorists who are paying attention to the pump, there is a ceiling as to how much prices can go up.”

When the news first broke about the al-Qaeda offshoot’s movement in Iraq last week, DeHaan says wholesale gas prices spiked as high as $3.99 per gallon uniformly in places like Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.

“If there is a real disruption in Iraq, I see more potential for price hikes than we do now,” he says. “After [last week], oil hasn’t reacted that much, its only up a whopping seven cents per barrel.”

President Obama announced on Monday that the U.S. will send 275 military personnel to provide support and help secure U.S. assets. The oil market failed to react on the news, because the U.S. has been out putting its highest levels of oil in years, DeHaan explains.

“If this were 2005, we would have seen a 20-to-30 cent jump in gas prices. But it’s lower today because our domestic production is so much higher.”

If oil exports are stalled in Iraq, which accounts for about 4% of the world’s oil exports, DeHaan says drivers can expect a hefty price jump at the pump.

“It is a significant risk, and I am not sure what kind of security there is on the ground,” he says. “If no one is guarding the port, that is a concern. It depends on how well they are protecting that infrastructure. If the pipelines are vulnerable, any attack would disrupt the pipeline, and it would depend on the severity of the attack.”

If it weren’t for this escalating situation in the Middle East, DeHaan says Americans would have enjoyed a summer of reasonably-lower gas prices.

“June is usually when gas prices go down,” he says. “Unfortunately, you never know when the Middle East will evolve into a full-blown situation. There’s forecasting, and then there is trying to forecast world events into your forecast. The crystal ball is never able to predict this stuff.”

[PzLdr]

Fifth Dimension: "Up, Up, and Away".

[truth_seeker]

I listened to commentary recently that states Saudi Arabia has reserve capacity to make up for Iraq. But no more than that.

Thinking short, medium and long term, I believe one of the very most important strategies for our wellbeing, safety, freedom, prosperity is to be energy self-sufficient.

Let the other countries that need to import energy fight, to get oil from the crazy middle east and the crazy muslims.

Anybody who pays attention knows we have the resources and technical knowhow to be self-sufficient, using coal, natural gas, heavy oil and tar sands, fracking, directional drilling, conservation, alternative energy etc.

Overall we lead the world and should be able to sell our expertise, while the backward lazy muslims sit on their butts, hiring third country workers, western engineers, etc.

[alicewonders]

I listened to commentary recently that states Saudi Arabia has reserve capacity to make up for Iraq. But no more than that.

Thinking short, medium and long term, I believe one of the very most important strategies for our wellbeing, safety, freedom, prosperity is to be energy self-sufficient.

Let the other countries that need to import energy fight, to get oil from the crazy middle east and the crazy muslims.

Anybody who pays attention knows we have the resources and technical knowhow to be self-sufficient, using coal, natural gas, heavy oil and tar sands, fracking, directional drilling, conservation, alternative energy etc.

Overall we lead the world and should be able to sell our expertise, while the backward lazy muslims sit on their butts, hiring third country workers, western engineers, etc.

It seems so obvious, doesn't it?  Yet, there are those who insist on keeping us energy-dependent on a part of the world that is still barbaric.  If the United States of America is unable to do this, then I think all hope is gone. 

 

[Oceander]

I listened to commentary recently that states Saudi Arabia has reserve capacity to make up for Iraq. But no more than that.

Thinking short, medium and long term, I believe one of the very most important strategies for our wellbeing, safety, freedom, prosperity is to be energy self-sufficient.

Let the other countries that need to import energy fight, to get oil from the crazy middle east and the crazy muslims.

Anybody who pays attention knows we have the resources and technical knowhow to be self-sufficient, using coal, natural gas, heavy oil and tar sands, fracking, directional drilling, conservation, alternative energy etc.

Overall we lead the world and should be able to sell our expertise, while the backward lazy muslims sit on their butts, hiring third country workers, western engineers, etc.

good luck selling that to the greenies/eco-fascists.

[truth_seeker]

It seems so obvious, doesn't it?  Yet, there are those who insist on keeping us energy-dependent on a part of the world that is still barbaric.  If the United States of America is unable to do this, then I think all hope is gone.   

I believe the foreign policy paradigm centering on oil availability stems from a time period when we really were vulnerable, and didn't have or see options.

It was a combination of known resources, known technology at that time, etc. All that has changed and in a few years we could truly be self-sufficient.

We won't need to play nice to the arab middle-east. We can tell them to pound sand.

If we merely stated today our ability and intention to become self-sufficient, it could/would alter ideas around the world.

We lead the world in technology, and have done so since the beginning of the oil era. Others should be paying us a lot more, to benefit from our abilities.

During the 1950s Americans had to send American technicians to the USSR, to maintain the equipment, because their own people could not or would not do so.

The middle east has depended on American technology for drilling, production and refining. If refineries and surface facilities are damaged, chances are American firms will be involved when/if they get repaired.

The other countries would be far more respectful if they heard a full-throated policy statement about our future direction, and the cost of getting in our way.