Last week’s report showed that there was 2.802 trillion cubic feet in storage, which participants have apparently judged to more than adequate for the remainder of the season.

Rita is set to knock off 26 percent off the U.S. refining capacity, which is going to push gasoline prices upwards of three and four dollars a gallon in the coming days.

It now looks like the next hurricane will miss the Gulf refining region. The storm may do significant damage to Florida though, which would further hit the economy.

This is a very nervous market that needs every single incremental barrel the market can put out and produce,

We’ll be paying attention to gasoline because there is a question about supplies as summer approaches.

We’re going to keep on marching higher here. The next stop is the $41.15 it hit on the heels of Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait and from there I would expect another spike higher. Once...

Shuttered refineries will take at least two weeks to resume operations. Natural gas inventories, already challenged prior to Katrina and, now, Rita, will be constrained further and 15 dollars (per BTU) natural gas is likely,...

As much as Katrina has taken (the oil) supply off the table, there’s also demand it has taken off the table.

These are newer, bigger worries for the energy market.

Natural gas is the one commodity here that I have very little to say about in the way of good news.

There was a late wave a selling at the end of the day.

You can never underestimate the potential for OPEC to do the wrong thing and push prices with their rhetoric or actions.

The continuing rhetoric out of Iran over the weekend helps to keep it supported and poised to go higher.

Oil at $60 wears on consumers. If prices continue to fall demand will rebound.

If there is a direct cost of the Iraq war to consumers besides the impact on the federal budget, it’s certainly being seen at the gas pump,

Iraq is slipping further towards civil war.

Even though [natural-]gas prices don’t have a direct link to current geopolitical uncertainties, it has to make those holding short positions more than a bit anxious.

Remember, the power outages are what bedeviled recovery efforts after Katrina,

With winter speeding by, there isn’t much time left to generate significant demand. Unless several weeks of sustained cold materialize over the next two months or so, supply should be more than adequate. This could...

Natural gas consumers are having their prayers answered.

There were very weak fundamentals before this sell-off. The failure to make above $10 generated a lot of selling.

The moderate weather is really helping push prices lower. As long as the oil keeps coming and demand languishes I see no reason for prices to rise.

They are going to be record, blockbuster, huge, given the fact of where these commodity prices are going.

Prices in the coming weeks will remain extremely reactive to the various weather forecasts, especially the changes in the forward-looking six-10 day forecasts.

We’re forecasting oil will grind higher up to $33, … with an ultimate spike up to $40 a barrel on the outbreak of hostilities.

Prices fell off markedly from last weeks highs, so clearly there is a significant amount of spillover from the rest of the complex.

The natural-gas market should have come under pressure from the end of the heating season and the fact that the market looks to retain a significant surplus.

It’s the uncertainty on the storm’s track. We’re still quite a nervous market, and a substantial fear premium has already been priced in at this point, … We’re hanging on every report.

Crude oil supplies are at an almost eight-year high. The price is obviously not reflecting that. It’s reflecting the worries about the future.

Participants are making the calculations that these elements (rising inventories and mild weather) must recede in importance as the potential for supply disruption increases, and demand, in the absence of widespread economic contractions, will be...

Apparently, the market does not believe a turn to colder temperatures will boost heating demand enough to make a significant dent in supplies. Obviously some other supply disruption may have to occur to take the...

With almost 14 percent of productive assets in the Gulf still idled, the approaching hurricane season will prevent prices from retreating too far.

It is likely to be the first of many attacks.

Tropical Storm Arlene helped spur the rally. As the storm passes, prices will fall. It’s not headed for the main producing areas and it’s not that powerful.

There’s no telling how high prices of gasoline prices could go, at least for a time. Four dollars or higher is not out of the realm of possibility.

The separatists in Nigeria could further disable crude- oil output in that country at any moment, increasing the supply- fear premium.

The threats remind us of how tight the supply-demand balance is. These threats can’t be dealt with; there just isn’t enough spare capacity, so prices are moving higher and will continue to do so.

The LOOP is incredibly important right now. If it is not up soon there will be a spillover for refineries in the Midwest, which could run out of crude quickly. This could lead to gasoline...

You have to believe at this point that the new Iranian president is willing to use oil as a weapon, if only for a symbolic week or two to create a crisis, exact some concessions...

Oil should move lower because of the build in product supplies and the rapid disappearance of winter-weather worries. The continued fall in natural gas should also help pull all energy contracts lower.

Basically, some easing of the tension vis a vis the Iran situation helped to take some of the worries out of the market in term of potential supply disruption from that country.

What we’re hearing sounds similar to the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.

In the absence of a new supply threat or dangerous geopolitical shift, holders of length will become increasingly nervous and reluctant to hold positions much longer. This is the core of our belief in a...

Currently, there is adequate supply to contend with what remains of winter, particularly if mild weather persists.

It’s a silver lining, but it’s not positive enough to get traders to stop staring down Rita.

St. Croix is a major supplier of gasoline to the U.S.. There are already some worries about gasoline this summer.

OPEC would like to see lower prices and is doing what it can. The OPEC ministers left open the prospect of a rollback in quotas at the March meeting.

Demand destruction fears are trumping fears about damage to oil facilities. It’s not just Katrina that is hurting demand. High prices have strained economies, especially in Asia, and demand is being curtailed as a result.

You are getting paid to store crude oil and products. Historically, this should spell the end of the rally at some point but inventories haven’t been the dominant factor in the market for a year...

We’re worried about two things as we sit here at the beginning of November: natural gas inventories and heating oil inventories, which make up part of that distillate number,