Airlines Face Growing Fuel Shortage Risk

peakoil.com -> forbes.com :

Lost luggage, bad weather and now ... no fuel?

While fliers haven't yet had to add that problem to the list of headaches associated with air travel, it may not be far away. Airports in Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada recently came within a few days - and at times within hours - of running out of jet fuel.

Because of supply bottlenecks, airlines were forced to fly in extra fuel from other markets and scramble for deliveries by truck. But these are expensive, short-term fixes that do not address what airline executives consider to be the underlying problem: with passenger traffic rising above pre-9/11 levels, the nation's aviation business is slowly outgrowing the infrastructure that fuels it ...

A few days before this news hit the headlines, user AirlinePilot had already posted this on the peakoil.com forums:

"Went to work a few days ago and saw a warning on our operations alerts page about shortages of fuel along the Gulf Coast and in some Florida cities due to Dennis. The possiblity could have existed for us to make alternate fuel stops because of it. Supplies at the tank farms were low and we were having a problem due to this. We didn't disrupt the schedule as far as I can tell.

I haven't seen anything like this in my 16 years at Delta. A rather ominous sign IMHO."

Random notes

Well what's new? Just went for one of those regular company meetings. So they say we're number #1 in our area. Also good to note that it's not of those #1 in a "niche within a niche" kind of definition like *cough* certain other companies might have done. As always, the time difference is kind of entertaining, it's more or less past their dinner time, and we over here just arrived at the office in the morning.

Before the meeting, I went to pump petrol at Caltex. Took a look at the pump figures. The prices are in uncharted territory - $1.754/L for mid-grade RON95?!! That's even higher than the $1.50+/L for *premium-grade* RON98 just a couple of years back. The premium-grade stuff is now at $1.80-something - absolutely stratospheric. And, of course, as a member of the "Peak Oil Community", I'm pretty sure that "we ain't seen nothin' yet". I hand over my $25 petrol voucher (courtesy of HSBC Visa and LTA) to the cashier, and the total bill comes down to just $22. Well, that was the last of 2 vouchers, and the discounts probably won't last long, with crude oil prices hitting (USD) $65 a barrel in recent days.

Gwunwai is grousing about the "quick holiday" - quick, as in, "gone in a flash". Good to hear that Jas's mother is recovering fine. Well, yeah, that was a certainly fast one. Didn't take leave the day before (trying to conserve my pro-rated annual leave, you see). On that day, my YM tag was "I find your lack of flags disturbing". Colleagues and friends who "got it" had a laugh. Actually there is also a photo gallery to prove the point.

Had lunch with a colleague. Actually, supposed to be with colleagues but as is sometimes the case, there was a bit of a "co-ordination problem" and they probably went to the *other* eating place instead. Well, he's the "installer guy", without which the customers would be messing with *nix installation scripts instead, heh heh. Recommended this sgfunds.com forum. Marvelled at the price of housing over here in Singapore (yep, the lowly typical 5-room flat in far-flung suburbia can buy a standalone bungalow in Malaysia or Indonesia, or at least a nice big private condo in the more urban areas - urban, as in, "the heart of the capital city").

(2005-08-11 13:16:06 SGT) [Musings] Permalink

$65.20

It's noon-time over here, and the Asian markets are doing brisk business.

Crude oil for Sep 2005 delivery has hit $65.20.
And prices for Feb 2006 delivery have reached $67.70.

reuters.com :

Oil prices surged nearly two dollars on Wednesday after a U.S. government report rekindled fears that resilient demand from summer drivers and a spate of refinery outages could trigger a gasoline supply crunch. The gains came against the backdrop of rising tensions in the Middle East after the United States temporarily closed its diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia this week due to the threat of attacks by militants.

U.S. light sweet crude futures soared $1.93 to hit $65.00 a barrel, the highest on record, before settling at $64.90. London Brent jumped $2.08 to new peak of $64.06 a barrel, before settling at $63.99. Crude oil producers and refiners have struggled to keep up with demand growth over the past two years, reducing the cushion of spare capacity needed to make up for any sudden shortfall ...

See also :

1. Oil prices holding above $60
2. $60.00 !!!
3. Oil : another day, another record (Oct 2004, when it was in the $40's and $50's)

(2005-08-11 12:39:57 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

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