Then we had the hurricanes that knocked 1-2% off the total.
What is interesting is that even with the 1.5 MM off the market in the USGC, OPEC didn't produce as much as in May and the price still fell. Demand destruction is real.
NO + the surrounding areas are only about 2 million people. That's less than 1% of US population. We've already seen many of them were too poor to have cars and use much fuel. Also just because people were displaced doesn't mean less driving a priori. Where ever they went, they'll still be driving once they find work.
As for real problems in winter, I doubt it unless we have a terrible winter (which always causes price spikes). We had 131 million bbls of heat in storage when Katrina hit. That was what we had in Dec the year before. Mogas season had been good and margins stayed up on heat as well so refiners made lots both as a byproduct of mogas production and just because they could hedge in a nice margin. Nat Gas is more worrisome although stocks there are reaching reasonable levels again.
Now what will happen this winter is still an open question. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Idle hopes, I know. guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper
