Better Fill up today

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Wild market today, Oct-08 crude settled at $114.59, down $6.59, Sept-08 Natural Gas Settled at $7.843, down $0.409.
Here is an excerpt from Bloombergs analysis for the day.:

Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil fell more than $6 a barrel, dropping the most in percentage terms since December 2004, as the U.S. dollar strengthened and BP Plc restored shipments on a Caspian Sea pipeline through Turkey.

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Oct-08 Crude is up in overnite trading, currently trading at $115.075, up $0.485, Sept-08 Natural gas is trading at $7.71, down $0.133. Crude is said to be trading higher due to Russian-Georgia tensions.

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In overnite trading Oct-08 Crude is trading down at $113.475, off $1.635 and Natural Gas for Sept -08 is trading at $8.025, up $0.20.

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I thought this was a good article on all of the different world happenings that can impact the price of oil.
Oil Falls as Dollar Strengthens, BP Resumes Caspian Shipments

By Grant Smith

Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Oil fell as the dollar strengthened to a six-month high against the euro, limiting the appeal of commodities as a hedge, and shipments of Caspian crude resumed after a pipeline fire.

Crude, gold and wheat dropped as flagging business confidence in Germany boosted the dollar against the single European currency. Two tankers at the Turkish port of Ceyhan are loading crude pumped through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline for the first time since the one million barrel-a-day link was shut by a fire on Aug. 5.

``Futures are under more pressure this morning following a strong recovery in the dollar and after reports that the Baku- Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline was operating again,'' said Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst at London-based Sucden (U.K.) Ltd.

Crude oil for October delivery fell as much as $2.31, or 2 percent, to $112.80 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract traded for $112.90 at 11:01 a.m. London time. Prices are up 57 percent from a year ago. Yesterday, futures rose 0.5 percent to settle at $115.11.

The euro slid to $1.4609, the lowest level since Feb. 14, and was trading at $1.4617 by 9:25 a.m. in London, from $1.4754 yesterday in New York.

A tropical storm, Gustav, strengthened to become a hurricane as it blew through the Caribbean Sea toward Haiti and the Dominican with 80-mile (128-kilometer) per hour winds. The system was heading northwest at 9 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in an advisory posted on its Web site shortly before 5 a.m. Miami time.

``Gustav's direction and wind speed over the next 24 to 36 hours will be key,'' said Robert Laughlin, senior broker at MF Global Ltd. in London. ``It's too early to predict whether it will churn into the Gulf of Mexico but it could well pose a threat to offshore production and ultimately onshore refining.''

U.S. crude-oil inventories probably rose 1.1 million barrels last week because refinery operations are lower than in previous years, a Bloomberg News survey before tomorrow's Energy Department report showed. Refineries operated nearly 14 percentage points below full capacity, according to the survey.

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Crude and Natural Gas are both up considerably, due to the threat of Hurricane Gustav, which may move in to the Gulf of Mexico later this week. Aproximately one-fifth of US production is in the Gulf of Mexico.

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Oct-08 Crude settled at $116.27, up $1.16 for the day, Natural Gas for Sept-08 settled at $8.278, up $0.453 on the day, Natural Gas was up almost 6% just on the Hurricane hype. I filled up my pickup this A.M for $3.29 a gallon, here in Bartlesville.

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Oct-08 crude is trading at $117.225, up $0.955, Oct-08 Natural Gas is trading at $8.75, up $0.363. The Hurricane concerns are the main reason the Crude and Natural Gas are trading up. Approximately one-Fifrh of US Production is in the Gulf of Mexico.

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The trend continues the end of an era. When i started with Phillips they had just completed acquisitions tp enable them to Merket in all 50 States and now the have just completed sales to end marketing everywhere. Kind of a sad happening to me.


ConocoPhillips is latest to sell its gas stations

Big oil companies have been saying goodbye to the troubled business

By BRETT CLANTON

Aug. 27, 2008, 11:00PM

ConocoPhillips on Wednesday became the latest major oil company to exit the troubled gas station business and pass on the guardianship of familiar store brands to new owners.

The Houston-based oil company agreed to sell its 600 remaining stores to PetroSun Fuel, a privately held Seattle company, in an $800 million deal that puts a bookend on an effort announced in 2006 to unload the company's fuel stations.

The move follows similar ones recently by Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP, which announced plans to jettison U.S. gas stations amid higher fuel costs, increasing competition from low-price rivals and slumping profits.

It also heralds the end of an era in which the name on the big neon sign on the highway told drivers where their money was going.

Today, fewer than 2 percent of the 115,157 convenience stores selling motor fuels in the U.S. are owned and operated by major oil companies — although many retain the brand names, according to the Association for Convenience and Petroleum Retailing in Alexandria, Va.

"Every day it gets closer to zero," said Jeff Lenard, a spokesman for the trade group.

Most of the stations included in the ConocoPhillips deal are on the West Coast. Only one is in Texas.

All will continue to carry their Conoco, Phillips 66 or 76 brands.

But once the deal is closed, the stores will have a more distant relationship with their former parent.

ConocoPhillips will act solely as a wholesale fuel supplier to the sites, as well as to other stores that are not part of the deal, said Terry Hunt, a spokeswoman for the Houston-based oil company. She called the arrangement a "more sustainable business model."

With retail pump prices topping $4 a gallon earlier this year and still often more than $3.50, customers might assume gas stations are big moneymakers. But the slowing economy and falling U.S. fuel demand this year have made it difficult for retailers to raise prices enough to cover the wholesale price of gasoline they sell.

The convenience store association estimates that retailers made a penny or two per gallon in pretax profit last year, despite high pump prices. The group has not released profit estimates for 2008, when gasoline prices climbed still higher.

Bruce Bullock, director of Southern Methodist University's Maguire Energy Institute, said the deal announced Wednesday suggests ConocoPhillips and its rivals don't see the gas station business improving anytime soon.

"I think this is a pretty good indication that most of the companies continue to believe that prices are going to be either stable or increasing," he said.

On Wednesday, regular gasoline sold for an average $3.67 per gallon nationwide and $3.41 in Houston, AAA reported.

Amid higher prices, U.S. gasoline demand was down 1.5 percent during the first six months of this year, according to the U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration.

If the trend continues, the U.S. could register its first full-year decline in gasoline demand in 17 years.

But Sam Hirbod, chief executive of PetroSun, said his company sees opportunity where the major oil companies see a drag on earnings.

"We are very much interested in participating in the consolidation that's happening in the retail gas station sector," he said, adding that his company is working on two other deals that could add as many as 200 more stores by next year.

The deal Wednesday will make PetroSun, which now has about 120 properties on the West Coast, one of the nation's largest independent petroleum and convenience store operators. The company agreed to acquire the ConocoPhillips properties through a newly formed affiliate called Pacific Convenience & Fuel.

The 600 stores in the deal are spread over 10 states and represent more than 1 billion gallons of fuel sales each year.

Most are in urban areas in California, Oregon and Washington. Others are in Denver, Salt Lake City and Albuquerque, N.M. A Dallas store is the only Texas site.

In Houston, ConocoPhillips sells fuel through Phillips 66 and Conoco stations, but the deal doesn't affect them because they are independently owned.

One way PetroSun aims to offset rising operating costs is by upgrading the ConocoPhillips properties with better in-store products and services, Hirbod said.

In some cases, that will include the addition of fresh deli sandwiches and salads, healthier snacks and perhaps even financial services, he said.

Yet SMU's Bullock said current market conditions will likely test any fuel retailer.

"It's a question of whether a company with a different focus can make money doing the same thing that someone else has already tried," he said. "My sense is that's going to be a tough road."

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Oct-08 Crude is trading at $119.525, up $1.375 and Oct-08 Natural Gas is trading at $8.665, up $0.057. One would be wise to fill up now as a Hedge against Hurricane Gustav coming into the US Gulf at a category 3 or worse. Lots of things can happen when a big Hurricane comes into the Gulf, Tankers Carrying Foreign Crude can't Lighter or Unload, Refineries are shut down and offshore platforms are shutin.

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Oct-08 Crude Oil settled at $115.29, down $2.56 on the day, Oct-08 settled at $8.050, down $0.558 on the day, the reason given for the Crude Oil drop was a Statement out of the IEA saying they would release crude from the SPR if Hurricane Gustav  shuts in the Gulf Production, Natural Gas was down due to an unexpectedly  big increase in the build and inventory that came out today.