Mark Routt Quotations

What you're seeing is more refineries coming online and this is slowing the inventory build as they process the oil into more products.

I think you're going to see isolated price spikes as we work our way through the traditional demand high of August/September .. so it could be a long, hot summer.

Supply is meeting demand. The real question is at what price.

My rule of thumb is that the national average pump price will typically be 65 cents higher than the NYMEX price, ... Most of that will get passed to consumers within three weeks.

We're climbing from here. I think in some places we could see almost $3.50.

We are on the cusp of change, ... Looking back over the last year, Americans have had a taste of higher oil prices that have only gone up, and now they are starting to dial in lifestyle changes.

Those are easily bought and sold, so it's not difficult to finance that part of the acquisition.

There are adequate supplies relative to demand, ... There are 19 days of gasoline relative to demand.

The rise in prices has been driven by concern about future supply, not the present situation.

The sooner we help our neighbor put out his house fire, the better we'll sleep at night. It's an opportunity to stop what could have been a spike in prices, and to assure that the rest of the country won't have a supply disruption they could have had.

Once the refineries start making the product you have to transport it. We have to watch the pipelines to the Midwest and the Northeast. The Northeast is less of an issue because we can get cargoes from Europe. Florida has a big problem because 60 to 70 percent of their gasoline is barged across the Gulf.

I'm not convinced it's going to have the lasting effect Katrina has, ... ... A lot more capacity could go down, but it'll come back sooner. It's better protected.

In the second quarter of the year, demand is at its lowest. If they continued pumping when demand eases they could be accused of crushing the market.

Gasoline stocks are rising because it needs to happen. Refiners know that they have to store supply for when they aren't operating and turnarounds are right around the corner.

You won't see the extended flooding flooding that you did in Louisiana, ... You have larger refining capacity but out for a shorter period of time.