Oil And Gas Prices Hit New Milestones

Gasoline Jumps To Average Of $3.50 Per Gallon; Oil Spikes To $117 Amid Attacks On Industry

(CBS/AP)  Retail gas prices reached another new milestone Monday, jumping to an average $3.50 a gallon at filling stations across the country. Crude oil prices, meanwhile, kept setting records of their own, spiking to a record above $117 a barrel Monday after a Japanese oil tanker was attacked in the Middle East.

Diesel prices at the pump also struck a record high of $4.20 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.

Gas and diesel are expected to keep climing - gas because of the rise in oil and because the summer driving season, when demand is at its greatest, has yet to begin. And diesel, in demand throughout the world because it is used to haul goods of all kinds, shows no signs of halting its own advance.

"I'm not happy but you know I have to drive to work, I have to get around, there's nothing I can really do about it," a driver in Pittsburgh told CBS Radio News. "I don't have a job where I can take the bus everyday."

The attack on the 150,000-ton tanker Takayama came about 270 miles off the Yemen coast in the Gulf of Aden while it was heading for Saudi Arabia, its Japanese operator, Nippon Yusen K.K., said in a statement posted on its Web site.

None of the ship's 23 crew members was injured, but several hundreds of gallons of fuel leaked before a 1-inch hole in the tanker's stern was repaired, the company said.

Kyodo News agency reported that the Japanese tanker was fired on by a rocket launcher from a small boat.

Light, sweet crude for May delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose to a record $117.40 a barrel but fell back to $116.63, down 6 cents from Friday's close. Oil prices had touched $117 on Friday before slipping.

"There's clearly some geopolitical tension in the market," said Mark Pervan, senior commodity strategist at the ANZ Bank in Melbourne, Australia. "This will die down, but the market is pretty jittery at the moment.

Adding to the worries were claims Monday from the main militant group in Nigeria's restive south that it had launched two more attacks on oil pipelines in the region. There was no immediate confirmation.

On Friday, oil prices rose to touch $117 for the first time after an attack on a Royal Dutch Shell PLC pipeline by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta.

Shell confirmed a pipeline leak that it said appeared to have been caused by explosives. It said it had isolated the line for repairs and that a small quantity of production had been shut.

Attacks since early 2006 on Nigerian oil infrastructure by the militant group have cut nearly one-quarter of the country's normal petroleum output, boosting oil prices. Nigeria is a major supplier of oil to the U.S.

Pervan said incidents such as the pipeline and tanker attacks were "one-off" issues that didn't really change the market. "They're not fundamental, they're not going to be sustainable," he said.

Comments over the weekend by an OPEC official that the group isn't likely to increase production also supported prices on Monday.

Abdalla Salem el-Badri, secretary-general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (pictured at left), said Sunday that oil prices would likely go higher and that the group was ready to raise production if the price pressure was due to a shortage of supply - something he doubted.

"Oil prices, there is a common understanding that has nothing to do with supply and demand," el-Badri said on the sidelines of an energy conference in Rome.

Also over the weekend, Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted Saturday as saying crude oil prices at $115 a barrel are too low, and that oil must "discover its real value."

The Iranian president made the remarks during a visit to an oil and gas exhibition in Tehran late Friday.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures rose 2.87 cents to $3.210 a gallon while gasoline prices rose 0.07 cents to $2.99 a gallon. Natural gas futures rose 9.7 cents to $10.684 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude futures for June were up 13 cents to $114.50 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

[ahayday]

prometheust 41,
I love it when you call me a jackass... As far as I remember the Constitution gives me the right to speak out so please do not bother to try and Hush me up.. Maybe you are one of Bushes people or an invester of Opec.. You see Opecs loss of oil during the war is small and operated in more than one country like Iraq in the world. Please do not use the war as a cover for such a reason iy is only a cover and the people or a good portion of them can see through this curtain. Especially if they have been following the History of it all. Even in your statments you have already made it known to be supply and demand and only proves you to be I am sorry to say a hypocrite... Check up on your history before youspeak or are you one of those people designed to cover up such things?? You can try but all people have to do is a little investigating themselves. and realize we do have the power tohit thier pocket books. Last time I remembered The Declaration of Independence allows us the right to speak out and oppose such things if not allow the people to do even more than that. May I remind you the war is on terrorism "hence 9/11" or did you forget?? I sure have not and the soldiers fighhting have not forgotten and truly are fighting for a country''s liberation.. Thank you. I support the war for that reason.. and do the men and women over their risking their lives. The people here need to fight back and strike the oil companies and it is not just OPEC. IN DISCUSSION HERE..

[ahayday]

I THANK YOU FOR CALLING ME A JACKASS and giving me knowledge I already know.. What you did not investigate deeper is that the Bush family and friends that also seemed to become high ranking officials under Bush''s presidency. ARE MAJOR SHARE HOLDERS IN OPEC AND HAVE BEEN SINCE THE 70''S... THIS MEANS THIS CARTEL STRINGS RIGHT INTO THE VERY HEART OF OUR GOVERNMENT. tHESE OFFICIALS ARE SHARING IN THIS PRICE GOUGING... IT WAS PLANNED AND IN MOTION WHEN GEORGE WALKER BUSH AS SOON AS HE BECAME PRESIDENT. hE IS NOT DUMB AS PEOPLE THINK AND WATCH ON TELEVISION THIS MAN AND HIS PARTY TOOK THE OPPROTUNITY TO MAKE THE ULTIMATE BUSINESS MOVE AND ARE MAKING MILLIONS MAYBE EVEN BILLIONS OF DOLLARS OFF THE BACKS OF THE PEOPLE.

[jt_lancer]

prometheus41 - ''There you have it, JACKASS free-market theorists, coming from the secretery-general of OPEC itself.''

Er, do you realize that OPEC is a foreign cartel of GOVERNMENTS that collude to restrict oil production in order to keep prices high?

OPEC is the polar opposite of the free market. It''s the governments that keep prices high through OPEC collusion and nationalization of oil production.

[ahayday]

Its time for the people to rise upand protest.. Everybody in the United States has to stop driving, stop the consumption of fuel.. We all get together and plan for a date so that we are prepared.. We message as much people in the U.S. AND PLAN. if that sounds good lets strike. I have a family myself I know how tough it is and how hard it is to not go to work but the whole point is to strike against Fuel companies. This will stop businessesas well and the are probably innocent but it has to be done . WE have to get together and do this or they will keep ileagally gouging us. We will be protesting against our president as well since his family has great investment in Saudi Arabian oil feilds. Please lets doit. Just do it two weeks of strike will put them in the hole a bit but that would just give them a taste. we demand fuel prices go back down to one dollar for a gallon of gas. contact me at [e-mail]

[ahayday]

As far as the motor companies are concerned the reporters need to look at history in the news. Do some investigative repoting and they will find out the a man back in the 70s invented a throttle body that would make all vehicles travel on 100
miles+ a gallon of gas. When He introduced it to the companies thinking he could get very rich he mysteriously ended up murdered in his own home. and the invention was missing. so 10s of billions of dollars don not need to be spent to upgrade these vehicles because the companies already have the technology to creat such a thing.. So now little by little they work up the miles per gallon and make tons of money as prices go up. This is simple it will boil down to the fact that oil prices will just be too high and it will lesd to war thats inevidable.

[libsrweak]

You know Sparky when you look at the MOUNTAIN of Failure over the last 7 years, to call someone a "whiner" is rediculous!! When you look at the value of the Dollar, which is driving the price of oil and concider we had a BALANCED BUDGET and a SURPLUS when you Nazi''''s took over and then call someone a "whiner" makes you look STUPID! For someone to gain control preaching "Responsibility" and accept NONE is beyond belief!! SIEG HEIL BUSH!!

Posted by MCVet at 07:13 AM : Apr 22, 2008
+ report abuse

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again..the reason why these prices or these oil companies are raising prices IS BECAUSE THEY CAN..you best answer to this is showing your weakness...all you can do is blame and whine...THEN DONT USE GAS..you dumb fu ck..

of course i dont expect a security guard pretending to be a vet to understand economics... NAME ONE INSTANCE IN HUMAN HISTORY that an economy is balanced and in surplus in a war state??? oh i guess you think that 9/11 was done by bush and his ''jewish croonies''..and osama bin laden is actually a nice guy who cares about your dumb arse..
the weak dollar and a strong foreign currency WILL HAVE A POSITIVE EFFECT in our economy...more europeans and asians will be buying american..more products sold more jobs (that is if the liberals and thier big govt control prospects dont scare them away)..more jobs mean more money more money means more taxes..ar eyou getting it?????? not up your arse but through your dumb hollow head

[dredre2k]

The nation has cut back on its gas usage, and oil companies have raised prices as a result. I think an effective national boycott would be to target individual companies such as exxon and shell and encourage everyone to stop buying thier gas, period. This way, people are still buying gas from discounters such as WaWa, shifting profits away from the WORST of the lot.
____________________________________________________
"The motoring public complains to each other about the high gasoline prices, but feels poweless to do anything about it. I contend we do have some power in that by cutting back significantly on gasoline use so that the oil companies and their suppliers are making much less money. The last time I looked supply and demand was still a viable economic theory."

You are correct! Bush and CO can''t be re-elected so they''re going to bring this country to its knees before they leave office... this was planned the second he was put back in office :-X. He''s leaving us with an endless war, reduced civil liberties, a broken economy, high food & gas prices... quite a mess for the next pres. to clean up!
___________________________________________________
Sure we will be inconvienced for awhile, but I believe in the end it will pay off with the decline of prices. After all a company can''''t exsist without selling its products and services.

[lewiston14]

Well the price went up again yesterday now its $3.55 to $3.60 with areas of huge price spikes. I oil industry would love to cut production for awhile to do mantaince on the plants temp lay off a few 100000 people for awhile then make and store up fuels for the next price spike. Im not saying this is good for us but is it bad business either. If you had a very active oil field if only a few wells in your back yard would you not also try to get top dollar for it. Same with a US farmer he is going to plant what makes him the most per acre. I guess what ticks me off were the tax breaks to an industry that did not need them. World demand will never slow down and the price will never go down much if at all. China and other countries will buy what ever we wont. Many of those oil fields are not even in this country so they can do a haliberton and move headquarters there and never pay tax again. There has to be at least one honest person out there to fix this mess as the 3 jokers looking to be a president are not.

[mcvet]

whatever...well when you done ranting..YOU ARE STILL GOING TO PAY THE PRICE..you are a well recognized whinner but that is where it ends..you make cute little quotes but you STILL PAY THE PRICE..

see how futile and stupid you look?


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Posted by libsrweak at 01:33 AM : Apr 22, 2008

You know Sparky when you look at the MOUNTAIN of Failure over the last 7 years, to call someone a "whiner" is rediculous!! When you look at the value of the Dollar, which is driving the price of oil and concider we had a BALANCED BUDGET and a SURPLUS when you Nazi''s took over and then call someone a "whiner" makes you look STUPID! For someone to gain control preaching "Responsibility" and accept NONE is beyond belief!! SIEG HEIL BUSH!!

[rob416]

What has the Bush Administration done to deal with the high cost of gasoline? Nothing so far! President Bush in his previous State of the Union addresses mentioned the Nation needs to cut down on the use of oil, but little if nothing has been done to do so. The President has no real incentives to make that happen.

His previous connections to the oil industry may be one good reason. Another is he does not have to worry about being reelected. Last but not least he can act like a good republican and let the economy take its own course.

The motoring public complains to each other about the high gasoline prices, but feels poweless to do anything about it. I contend we do have some power in that by cutting back significantly on gasoline use so that the oil companies and their suppliers are making much less money. The last time I looked supply and demand was still a viable economic theory.

Sure we will be inconvienced for awhile, but I believe in the end it will pay off with the decline of prices. After all a company can''t exsist without selling its products and services.