Peter Beutel Time Quotations

Right away, nationwide, we're going to see an increase of gas prices of 12 cents. We'll see it almost everywhere by Tuesday. In addition, sometime between St. Patrick's Day and the end of the month, I expect to see an additional 12 cents. This is extraordinarily bad news for the consumer.

Price declines could be slow this week, maybe with a bubble burst at some point in the future. It does appear we've turned the corner here in this market. I don't think we'll see prices at these levels again anytime in the next five years.

It's going to take a long time before we know exactly how to look at this, what effect Katrina is having long-term. I would like to say for now at least the worst is behind us. What tomorrow brings, particularly on the weather front, remains to be seen. We're still in a tight situation.

Still, the middle of October is the time for us to look at a top. A number of fundamentals that used to move higher are getting pretty stale. The drop in production from the U.S. Gulf, the Nigerian strike, a lot of these factors aren't getting any worse.

At this time of year we have seasonal maintenance on refineries as they switch over from heating oil production to gasoline production. Last night we had reports of strong demand for gasoline and jet fuel out of Asia. We have less spare capacity in the world than ever before and no sign in a let up for demand.

It does appear we've turned the corner here in this market. They're reacting to the fact that there was less damage than expected, rather than the amount of damage that did occur. Yes, it's going to take time to repair these refineries, and yes there will be at least one day we'll see prices run up. But I think we've probably seen the highest gasoline prices behind us.

Every time energy prices triple we have a major recession in 1½ to 2 years.

We don't know how much of the refinery is down or for how long. But not to negate the human tragedy, it happened at the worst time of the year seasonally. And it happens at a time the market is nervous and looking for reasons to go higher anyway.