Although "BP" changed their name to "Beyond Petroleum" in its marketing, it never officially changed the name of the company. That's because the company all about "listening to the concerns and criiticisms of real people" is still chained to that ol' carbon fuel source o' oil. Now, due to what's being called "corroded lines" in the company's primary Alaskan oil field, they're needing to shut down distribution of all crude from the state with a bridge to nowhere. And that accounts for somewhere around 8% of US crude production, or 2.6%. of American oil supply. Markets aren't reacting so well to the news, with oil surging $1.53 a barrel to $74.57. How much do we wanna bet BP will still have record profits this next quarter? The quarter after that? Perhaps the quarter after that one?
But the bigger point is nobody should expect price drops ever again. When will folks remember oil's a commodity that doesn't just appear out of nowhere. Two and a half this summer was an easy target, we're thinking three bucks next summer, four bucks the summer after that — the sky's the limit really. Hmm, glad we filled up last night.
BP shutdown to remove 8 pct. of US crude [Yahoo! News]
Related:
Five Ways To Save Gas This Summer [internal]