September 11, 2001, Tuesday, 4:47 pm (Indiana East)A fax I sent to my wife at work:
There was just a report on the news showing some gas prices in Indianapolis as high as $4.00 a gallon. They said the Shell station just raised their prices to $2.00 a gallon. They did say that it should only last for a couple of days, and that most places in Indiana have not raised their prices yet.From USAToday.com:
Oil prices surge after attack on U.S.
LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices surged Tuesday after aircraft attacks destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon in a terror attack on the United States. London Brent Blend futures hit a peak of $31.05 a barrel, its highest level since December last year, before closing at $29.06, up $1.61 or nearly 6% on the day. "This has heightened uncertainties around the Middle East," said Tim Noest of brokers ADM in London. "Brent just went through the roof." The attacks presented no immediate threat to world oil supplies, but dealers said investors had been forced into the market because of the uncertainty surrounding the attacks, and because commodities presented a safe haven for jittery equity investors. U.S. President George W. Bush called the deliberate aerial assaults an "apparent terrorist attack," and traders said there was speculation they could be linked to the recent explosion of violence in the Middle East between Palestinians and Israel. Early speculation about the source of the attacks centered on Saudi-born dissident Osama bin-Laden. U.S. companies unable to trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, which closed after the attacks, had funneled their purchases through London's International Petroleum Exchange. "We're seeing a flood of orders which have been exacerbated by the close of the New York exchange. International tension means oil up, gold up," said broker Christopher Bellew of Prudential Bache in London. The Secretary-General of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries Ali Rodriguez said that the Arab-dominated cartel would ensure world oil supplies and price stability. "OPEC member countries are committed to their promises to guarantee sufficient oil supplies and their policy of strengthening market stability," Rodriguez said after the attacks. "Furthermore OPEC's members are prepared to use their spare capacity, if deemed necessary, to achieve these goals." Rodriguez said there was no chance that any cartel members would threaten to use oil as an economic weapon in the Middle East situation. OPEC is due to meet on September 26 and had been expected to leave oil supplies unchanged after cutting output from the beginning of the month by a million barrels a day. Rodriguez said OPEC countries had substantial spare production capacity and were prepared to use it in order to achieve their goals.
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