Spot Price for Crude Oil
The Graph of the Week comes from the Energy Information Agency's "This Week in Petroleum" Report
The Second Hurricane Punch Softer than Feared The United States took a one-two punch to the petroleum sector from back-to-back early-September Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, coming just 12 days apart. Hurricane Gustav’s center made landfall along the Louisiana coast September 1, just as the petroleum industry was drawing down summer gasoline inventories to replace them with winter-grade volumes. Both crude supplies and refinery production were knocked out, and gasoline inventories fell well below the typical range for this time of year. Before the industry could recover from Gustav, Hurricane Ike swept through the Gulf Coast, making landfall at Galveston, Texas on September 13. At this point, in contrast to the impacts of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, it appears that the petroleum industry did not experience much damage. Nevertheless, supplies have been affected.
The EIA's report is linked every week in the NABE Economic Calendar. This week's calendar is always on the NABE Home page, and previous weeks are available here.