Higher Gasoline Prices Coming -- Cue Up Connie Francis

MarketWatch is forecasting higher gasoline prices. Cue up Connie Francis.

Some "Peak Oil" folks predicted this.  Killing the coal industry, subsidizing renewable energy despite the math not working (ask Spain and Denmark how that worked out), harassing the oil and gas industry, promoting the closure of domestic refineries, killing the Keystone XL,  have led to this, I suppose.

[I assume all the wind turbines will be off-line today in the Northeast due to Nemo. I doubt there will be many electric snow plows out there today.]

Back to the linked story.

Gasoline prices at the pump have climbed every day for the past 21 days — and they’re not going to let up anytime soon.

The price has risen 26.3 cents, or about 8%, this year, steeper than the 6.2% increase for the same period in 2012 and 1.6% rise for the same period in 2011.

“Gas prices increased at a blistering pace over the previous couple of weeks,” said Michael Green, AAA spokesman, adding that the jump of 17.4 cents between Jan. 28 and Feb. 4 marked the largest weekly price spike in nearly two years. 

But disregard the hyperbole. There are a lot of data points in that article. Opportunity for any number of stories. 

One data point, helping me understand the Seaway reversal and expansion story:
The market hoped the completion of the Seaway pipeline expansion last month could alleviate the glut, but terminal capacity issues forced the pipeline’s operator to limit the flow of oil. Read Enterprise: Seaway bottleneck to end in Q4.

Enterprise Products Partners LP  said Thursday the bottleneck affecting its Seaway crude oil pipeline should end by the fourth quarter after Enterprise finishes a lateral pipeline connecting Seaway to its ECHO storage terminal.

Enterprise increased Seaway's capacity to 400,000 barrels of oil a day earlier this month. But the company was soon forced to limit the flow to the Jones Creek terminal near Port Arthur to 175,000 barrels a day because the terminal filled to capacity.

Enterprise has said that the biggest reason behind the build up was a cut in demand from Phillips 66's refinery in Sweeny, Texas, a major customer for oil from Seaway.

Seaway should be back to normal by the fourth quarter after Enterprise finishes construction of a pipeline connecting Seaway to its new ECHO outside of Houston, Enterprise Chief Operating Officer Jim Teague said. Enterprise finished construction of 750,000 barrels of storage at ECHO in November and plans to add another 900,000 barrels of storage by 2014.

A big "thank you" to RBN Energy for all the stories they have provided the past year. Because of RBN Energy, I understand the oil and gas industry a whole lot better. Their articles on pipelines along the Texas and Louisiana gulf have been particularly illuminating.

Politically, the president's polls are sinking. Wait until we hit $5.00 gasoline.