Later, a supposedly homeless guy showed up at the office saying that he got off the train at the wrong stop, and needed money to get to Rockville.  Well, we're at the end of the line.

On the way to PA, I saw a large cloud of black smoke over I-70.  A large pickup truck was on fire, completely engulfed in flames, on the southbound on-ramp.  My first thought was all these people topping off their tanks and filling up gas cans to beat the rising prices.

We had bought a coal/wood stove at a yard sale, but my wife talked me into a pellet stove instead.  The local dealer said he had already sold seventy of them this month and was running ragged.  He was expecting higher prices and fuel surcharges on his next delivery.  Now my brother-in-law wants one.  

I've got to put more insulation in the basement.

Here in California they seem to have stabilized at $3.05-$3.15 per gallon for unleaded regular, for the last couple of days.

We got a wood-stove installed just a week or so ago.
I've bought some wood,
$155/cord for cut & split oak, delivered
$120/cord for cut (not-split) maple, delivered.

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/003425.html

I come back into town and top off the tank for 3.25/gallon.

Later that day, my partner goes out to by grain for the animals and get a can of kerosene for our old fridge. He says gas in town is now 3.69.

I am not going to rest assured for the winter until we have our three tons of coal in the bin. This year it's 226 a ton. Last year's coal was nasty, with lots of "finings" in it. Our dealer says his supplier in PA was selling off coal to China for $20/ton over the going rate. When our dealer asked the supplier what his customers in the north were supposed to do, the supplier said, "Freeze."

We're building an extra bin this year so we'll have three more tons on hand.

This will be the winter of our discontent.

Michael Parenti's How the Free Market Killed New Orleans

Pierre Chomat's Oil Addiction: The World in Peril - 16

Industries around the country and the world are keeping an eye to the port situation in Louisiana.

Randall Gordon, a spokesman for the National Grain and Feed Association, a trade group that represents about 900 companies that operate grain handling facilities across the country, said the closure could affect barge rates and the ability to quickly transport barges between the Gulf region and the Midwestern grain producing states during the approaching shipping season.

David Phelps, president of the American Institute for International Steel, said steel importers already are facing major hurdles. New Orleans is a leading port for steel imports.

With most of that cargo being rerouted to Houston, he said, there are concerns that the Texas port will run out of capacity. What's more, he said, Houston, isn't able to provide the major rail services to move the cargo.

"Members are very much scrambling to see what's going to happen," Phelps said.

The port is asking its employees and those who work in port-related jobs to call 1-866-476-7866.

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_09.html# 076408

Interesting to see how even the people who shop at Whole Paycheck (Foods) and eat out several times a week are willing to wait to save .30/gallon.  

http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/katrina/090E29M_KATRINA.HTM

Also, the Green Party tried to bring in food and water directly to the Superdome and were turned away for lack of enough food for everyone!

And, finally, Haliburton is getting the contract to rebuild NO.

I'm crying.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090300571.html

What I found interesting was this paragraph:

Shihab-Eldin added that there could be different crudes making up the possible 500,000 bpd increase.

"There are a number of countries that have 50,000 (bpd) other than Saudi Arabia, (countries) that have 50,000 barrels, 70,000 barrels, or they are planning to bring on line from their expansion of facilities ... that could go to contribute to this 500,000," he said.

These relatively small numbers from all over the place don't prove, but do lend support to, the notion that supply capacity is very close to peak at least at current.

Takeaway annual depletion and where are we next year...

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Two major fires blackened the skies over New Orleans Saturday, one of them engulfing an industrial stretch on the riverfront northeast of the downtown area and another burning at a fashionable mall.

Thick clouds of black smoke from the Louisa Street Wharf area covered the city skyline Saturday morning, where there was no sign of firefighting efforts to to put out the blaze.

Nine stockpiles of fire-and-rescue equipment strategically placed around the country to be used in the event of a catastrophe still have not been pressed into service in New Orleans, CNN has learned.

Department of Homeland Security spokesman Marc Short said Friday the gear has not been moved because none of the governors in the hurricane-ravaged area has requested it.

http://www.mms.gov/ooc/press/2005/press0903.htm

These evacuations are equivalent to 30.03% of 819 manned platforms and 29.10% of 137 rigs currently operating in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). The number of manned platforms that are evacuated declined 25 percent from yesterday.

Today's shut-in oil production is 1,184,747 BOPD. This shut-in oil production is equivalent to 78.98% of the daily oil production in the GOM, which is currently approximately 1.5 million BOPD. This represents a 10 percent improvement from yesterday's figures.

Today's shut-in gas production is 5.779 BCFPD. This shut-in gas production is equivalent to 57.80% of the daily gas production in the GOM, which is currently approximately 10 BCFPD. This represents a 21 percent improvement from yesterday's figures.

The cumulative shut-in oil production for the period 8/26/05-9/3/05 is 9,872,662 bbls, which is equivalent to 1.803% of the yearly production of oil in the GOM (approximately 547.5 million barrels).

The cumulative shut-in gas production 8/26/05-9/3/05 is 53.232 BCF, which is equivalent to 1.458% of the yearly production of gas in the GOM (approximately 3.65 TCF).

BAGHDAD, Sept 3 (Reuters) All exports of Iraq's Kirkuk crude oil through a major pipeline to Ceyhan on Turkey's Mediterranean coast were stopped today after a bomb blast set the pipeline on fire, an oil ministry source said.

''The blast halted all exports, it stopped them completely,'' the source told Reuters.

The bomb set the pipeline ablaze this morning, but a few hours later an official at the fire department of the North Oil Company said the fire had been contained.

http://www.deepikaglobal.com/ENG4_sub.asp?ccode=ENG4&newscode=116173

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, D-La., Saturday accused the Federal Emergency Management Agency of failing to accept offers that would have eased post-hurricane problems in New Orleans -- including a plan for the Forest Service to douse fires in the city with aircraft used to fight fire.

On Friday, Landrieu asked President Bush to appoint a cabinet-level official to oversee Hurricane Katrina relief and recovery efforts. She reiterated that request on Saturday.

"Yesterday, I was hoping President Bush would come away from his tour of the regional devastation triggered by Hurricane Katrina with a new understanding for the magnitude of the suffering and for the abject failures of the current Federal Emergency Management Agency," Landrieu said. "Twenty-four hours later, the President has yet to answer my call for a cabinet-level official to lead our efforts. Meanwhile, FEMA, now a shell of what it once was, continues to be overwhelmed by the task at hand.

Landrieu said that FEMA has inexplicably failed to take advantage of offers of help.

"I understand that the U.S. Forest Service had water-tanker aircraft available to help douse the fires raging on our riverfront, but FEMA has yet to accept the aid. When Amtrak offered trains to evacuate significant numbers of victims - far more efficiently than buses - FEMA again dragged its feet," Landrieu said. "Offers of medicine, communications equipment and other desperately needed items continue to flow in, only to be ignored by the agency.

Landrieu said that her "greatest disappointment" is the lack of progress fixing the breached 17th Street levee.

"Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast - black and white, rich and poor, young and old - deserve far better from their national government," Landrieu said.

Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, which is directing FEMA in its recovery efforts in New Orleans, has said that the federal government is committing more and more resources to what is the worst natural disaster in the nation's history.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/09/03/sections/news/news/article_660962.php

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/28/tsunami.diver/index.html

Katrina seems a clear indicator that without policy change and deep changes to the US government's thinking, any global peak oil scenario will be meet in the US with the same lack of preparation.

Unacceptable from any point of view.

I don't know if these are related to the reported oil spill, but these photos from NOAA show oil slicks in the Port Fourchon area. The site has some fascinating shots of the damage.

Clearly oil on water:

http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/storms/katrina/24414295.jpg

http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/storms/katrina/24414291.jpg

Boats helter-skelter, in oil slicks: Also WHAT the hell is that hulking THING stuck in the road in the TOP CENTER of this pic?:

http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/storms/katrina/24414291.jpg

Object in the ocean off Port Fourchon and plume of oil:

http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/storms/katrina/24413865.jpg

Oil slick:

http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/storms/katrina/24413922.jpg

Damaged marina, center:

http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/storms/katrina/24416460.jpg

Zoom in on cleanup operation, lower right:

http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/storms/katrina/24414295.jpg

If anyone has knowledgable comments about these images, PLEASE comment.

NOTE: the orientation in these photos is uncertain and changes throughtout.

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1886932005

Is the Scotsman a rag?  I can't imagine such a thing being true.

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09.html#076771

RIYADH (Reuters) - Two suspected militants and a policeman were killed in clashes in the eastern oil city of Dammam on Sunday, security sources said.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-09-04T205438Z_01_BA U460274_RTRUKOC_0_UK-SECURITY-SAUDI-MILITANT.xml

Venezuela donates 1 million barrels of oil to the United States of America

Speaking on his Sunday radio show, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias has announced that Venezuela will send 1 million barrels of oil to the USA to attend the emergency caused by Hurricane Katrina.

The donation came after a telephone conversation with Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) US subsidiary, Citgo, president Felix Rodriguez.

According to Rodriguez, Citgo has escaped Katrina's ravages and is at the peak of its productive capacity.

Citgo's refinery in Lake Charles (Louisiana) is currently refining 398,000 bpd compared to 230,000 bpd that was its average in Q1.

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=45807

Opec likely to raise output
Tehran - The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries will likely raise its output ceiling by 500 000 to 1 million barrels a day at a meeting in Vienna this month, Iran's Opec governor said on Sunday.

http://www.finance24.com/articles/economy/display_article.asp?Nav=ns&lvl2=econ&ArticleID=151 8-1785_1764928

OPEC president Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah has reaffirmed the cartel is producing 30.4 million barrels per day (bpd) - 1 million bpd over market needs - in a bid to curb soaring oil prices.

"OPEC is currently producing 30.4 million bpd ... This production is more than the market needs to allow the building of strategic and commercial stocks in order to stabilise prices," Sheikh Ahmad said.

He adds there is 1 million bpd of overproduction in the market.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200509/s1452895.htm

OPEC exerts efforts to stabilize oil price: president

KUWAIT CITY, Sept. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is exerting all efforts to stabilize oilprice, OPEC President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah said on Sunday.

    Sheikh Ahmad, also the Kuwaiti energy minister, said the OPEC isproducing 30.4 million barrels of crude oil a day and production levels exceed market demands to increase the market's strategic andcommercial oil reserves, Kuwait's official KUNA news agency reported.

    The hike of oil price is related to some psychological factors in addition to other factors, he said, affirming that OPEC was doing its best to resolve the crisis and meet US demands for oil by-products.

    He linked the hike of oil price to geopolitical and climatic changes, fluctuations on the international oil market and shortage in crude refining process across the globe.

    "These factors have substantially contributed to pushing the prices high," he said.

    The climatic catastrophe now taking place in the United States, the globe's top oil consumer and high demands for oil products, such as kerosene and diesel, affirmed the fact that there is a major shortage, he said, adding oil refineries have also been affected.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-09/05/content_3443400.htm

<Industry analysts continue to debate over how and when global oil production will peak. But there is probably a consensus that the easy oil has been found and that we can expect a fall from worldwide peak levels at the very latest by 2050. Production in non-OPEC areas, and by Major operators, may fall even earlier, perhaps by 2025.>

I'm not totally sure which planet they are on as their forecasts seem even more optimistic than USGS.  I'm curious enough to go ahead and register for a ticket to attend; if I do manage to sit in on the conference I'll report back later in the week.

Here is the link for conference agenda: http://www.offshore-europe.co.uk/conference%2Dmeetings/programme.aspx

Chris

The three states with the highest prices for regular grade are:

(1) New York     $3.24
(2) Rhode Island $3.24
(3) Delaware     $3.23

The three states with the lowest prices for regular grade are:

(1) Alaska       $2.74
(2) Louisiana    $2.74
(3) Mississippi  $2.77

http://www.fuelgaugereport.com/sbsavg.asp