Doug MacIntyre Quotations

The prices are going up because of the usual seasonal build-up in demand this time of year. The reason we still have prices going up when inventories are seemingly abundant is that there's a lot of uncertainty about gasoline supplies in the future.

I would expect (demand) to be lower ... than what we were saying before.

We may see another week or two of increases.

Just like we were citing supply and demand as the reasons why prices went up, it's the same reason they're going down. It's pretty much followed with what we would be expecting.

I think there's a chance of getting above $3 this summer. I don't think we would expect it to stay up there unless there's a long-term Iranian embargo, or a long-term refinery outage.

Just as we were saying high prices were lessening the demand growth we would normally see, but not as much as some people would think, the lower prices are having some impact on making demand higher.

Our imports of gasoline averaged close to 1.0 million barrels per day in the last four weeks, which is very high for February.

Retail prices may stabilize more than fall in the next couple of weeks. We're not ruling out further price increases should spot prices increase, but the retail price should be stabilizing over the next several weeks.

We don't see prices going as low as $2.50 any time this summer. They could bottom out much higher than that.

We probably are OK (with gasoline supplies) to get to Labor Day, but the question is how much is demand going to fall off (after the holiday) and what's crude going to do and how does that impact the gasoline price.

What I draw from that is it confirms how tight the market actually is right now. To us, the big picture is we are in a situation globally and here in the U.S. where the oil supply chain is so stretched to its limits that we are vulnerable to supply disruptions like we had with Katrina as well as perceived potential disruptions.

We think they're going to likely continue to rise for a few more weeks at least.

We've got a lot more down now than normally would be. If gas markets are already tight to begin with and you lose 5 percent of the supply, prices are going to increase.

Even before Katrina we felt the market was on edge, a very tight market, with very little spare (refining) capacity anywhere along the chain.

There's still crude out there that can make up for any loss in production.

Normally we'd expect to see a decline of about 400,000 barrels a day from August to September just for seasonal reasons, as people stop taking vacations.

Demand growth has become so strong that these higher supply levels don't represent the same daily demand coverage they used to. SUVs are making up a bigger percentage of the fleet and the average American tends to drive more miles.

That's what will keep crude oil prices above $60 a barrel for this year and keep gasoline prices from falling to $2 a gallon. We are forecasting prices to go back up this summer ... above $2.50.

That's just starting to be felt at the pump. We know there's likely to be more price increases before they start coming down.

You've got to weigh the economic benefits and the pressure to produce against what's prudent and safe.

There may be certain parts of the country that see that, but for the U.S. average I don't think we have anything nearly that low.

There's a lot of uncertainty about the summer.

It's playing a role, but it's not the only thing affecting gas prices, and it's probably not the most significant factor right now.

Then it really depends on how the summer unfolds with demand and summer vacations.

That sort of gives an indication of the price impact. It's a big decline.

It's difficult for me to envision (the OPEC offer) having too much of an impact. Crude inventories here in the U.S. are looking pretty good.

If you haven't already (hit $2), it looks like you never will. This is probably just the start of the seasonal rise.

Being close to a refinery is more helpful than not being close to one. But other factors would include how much competition is in that area and also the demographics.

How high prices rise and how long they stay elevated is still up in the air because we don't know what the ultimate damage is going to be.

The market feels fairly comfortable with the crude it has at these prices. It's difficult for me to envision (the OPEC offer) having too much of an impact. Crude inventories here in the U.S. are looking pretty good.