As late as yesterday, forecasters believed that powerful Hurricane Ike would hit south Florida. Projections from the weather man now put its path straight over Cuba and into the Gulf of Mexico. The would make its U.S. landfall in either Texas or New Orleans. It would also bring it close to refineries and oil platforms that where threatened by weaker storms that ended up doing very little damage.
Ike, on the other hand, is a Category 4 storm, and that means the its damage could be exponentially greater than any storm that has hit the Gulf in three years. That leaves the potential of a real interruption in oil production and an increase in crude and gas costs.
So far, the price of oil has been immune to the weather, but OPEC may lower production and, combined with a big storm, crude begin to move back up toward $120.
The prevailing wisdom is that oil is on its way to under $100. But, prevailing wisdom has been wrong before.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-07-2008 @ 4:31PM
Chris K. said...
I supposed Peter Cohan will soon be blogging how a former lobbyist for Hurricane Ike is on John McCain's staff...
9-07-2008 @ 5:50PM
cindy said...
Good, more rain. I won't have to water for days. My plants and grass love hurricanes.
9-07-2008 @ 9:10PM
Mike Drescher said...
Of course fools like McSame and Palin say global warming doesn't exist therefore Americans shouldn't inconvenience themselves by doing anything. Like Bush their economic plan is, drive to Walmart and buy more plastic junk that says made in China. Intelligent people should start moving from coastal areas as nothing will be done about the increase in storms and they are projected to just get worse.