Oil Jumps to $113 on Saudi Attacks, and Diesel Country Feels It
· MuddySouth Music
If you run a diesel truck, a tractor, a skidder or a delivery route, Thursday's oil news hit close to home. Brent crude, the world benchmark, jumped 4 percent to settle at $113.17 a barrel on October 22, its highest close since May, while U.S. crude finished at $99.47, according to a market report from Nation Thailand. The spark was a fresh round of Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude exporter.
What happened overseas
Reuters reported that Saudi Aramco told staff to evacuate its headquarters in Dhahran and work remotely as fighting with Yemen's Houthis grew, and that the U.S. State Department ordered some diplomats and their families to leave Saudi Arabia. The National reported that debris from an intercepted drone fell near a processing plant at Shaybah, a field that pumps about one million barrels a day. The Saudi Energy Ministry said operations there were not affected. Traders call it a risk premium: prices climb on the fear of lost barrels, even before any barrels go missing.
Where working folks feel it
Diesel was already the sore spot. AAA put the average retail diesel price around $6.32 a gallon in recent days, after a record $6.52 last month, according to Reuters. Diesel moves the freight, the crops and the timber, so it ends up in the price of nearly everything on a store shelf.
Washington's answer this week was small. The Department of Energy offered an exchange of up to 315,000 barrels from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, and companies that borrow it must pay it back with a premium. Deliveries are due by November 13. One energy analyst, Tom Kloza, called the move "puzzling and probably inconsequential" for prices, Reuters reported. So for now, budget for the fuel bill to stay heavy.
From the studio
We were wrapping up a long interview with a MuddySouth Music producer, one that had wandered from taxes to turbo on a busy studio day, when I read him the price of a barrel off my phone. He did not talk about markets. He asked me whether Heaven runs cold, seeing as Hell runs hot. Then he grinned and said he is not the man with an answer for every question that comes down the road, and he will not fake it. The one thing he is sure of, he said, is that good people have lived their whole lives, and laid them down, so this country keeps moving, stays free and stands under God. Gas high or gas low, headline good or headline bad, he told me, that part is not going anywhere.
Before you go
Fuel prices are out of our hands, but this part is not. MuddySouth Music has a big year of outreach and fan get-togethers lined up, and the folks on our contact list get the word first, before it shows up anywhere else. Signing up is free, costs zero gallons and takes about a minute. Put your name down today, and tell somebody at the pump to do the same.