Fire at Biggest US Midwest Refinery Threatens Fuel Supplies
Accident season is upon us once again.
While I work on my next Beyond Mathematical Odds, world events don’t stop, and so I don’t disrupt the overall flow and theme of that piece, I decided to publish a smaller one here.
Weeks ago we had this.
It impacted the capacity to export LNG to Europe among other domestic factors in the US. An “accident”. In fact, this is a small list of coincidences and accidents. They kept growing both on frequency and “impact”.
Of course, after the tragic assassination of Dugin’s daughter, anyone with a functional brain would expect some “accident” to happen State side.
Fire at Biggest US Midwest Refinery Threatens Fuel Supplies
Wholesale diesel and gasoline prices jump throughout Midwest
BP still working to assess damage and determine unit restarts
An outage at the largest US Midwest refinery is raising wholesale fuel prices regionally just as the agricultural sector gears up for its busiest time of year.
BP PLC shut two crude units at its 435,000 barrel-a-day Whiting, Indiana, refinery after a fire Wednesday, Wood Mackenzie’s Genscape said. The fire occurred in the power house and caused a loss of cooling water, which could lead to damaged equipment, according to a person familiar with operations.
A prolonged shutdown of the plant, which supplies gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to most of the region’s major distribution centers, could tighten fuel markets just as farmers in the nation’s breadbasket prepare for harvesting season. Diesel demand typically starts to rise this time of year because it’s used for heating and to fuel big machinery.
Mid-continent distillate inventories, which include diesel, are at their lowest seasonally since 2006, and gasoline stockpiles are the least since 2014, according to government data. Diesel for prompt delivery traded at a 5-cent per gallon premium over early September deliveries, according to a broker. Gasoline delivered into Michigan jumped 10 cents a gallon on news of the outage as well.
Talk about precise and coincidental timing. Not only does a refinery suffer a disruptive accident impacting production, but close to when the region and farmers need diesel the most, and while I won’t delve into this subject in this piece (will leave it to the next one) doesn’t bode well for food costs, inflation and especially harvest, because the erratic and severe weather affects crops all around the US, per my forecasts.
What is left to see is how much yield the world will lose at the end of this year, you will understand the importance of this loss in the next piece, but you could revise older ones if curious.
At the same time the refinery shut down, the OPEC said they are open to cutting oil production. If you are a long-time reader you will be aware of how much this can impact the oil market, its byproducts, and energy prices globally, and how much inflationary pressure this creates.
On a personal level, I don’t expect this to be the only accident we might see in the next few weeks, nor unexpected outbreaks of new diseases.
The next Beyond Mathematical Odds might be coming later today or at some point tomorrow, a rather long one.
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Wow. The Hits keep coming. Look here, no look there! It's everywhere!! Too much bad news and maddness, INTENTIONALY!!
Don't be surprised by another high profile assassination, not "somebody important's relative," but another world recognized name, probably a stauncher ally, if we have any left, or perhaps someone closer to home.