Libyan Unrest Fuels Oil Price Rise

Weekly gas prices skyrocketed, according to the Department of Energy, driven by the popular revolts spreading across the Middle East.

The U.S. weekly average price per gallon is $3.19, up 54 cents from a year ago, and slightly higher than last week's $3.14. This was the highest price posted during the month of February since 1990, when the data became available. The most expensive regions again are New England at $3.23 and California at $3.56.
Oil settled at $93.57 in New York trading, up 8.5 percent since Friday's close, the biggest one day jump in nearly three years.
Daniel O'Connell, vice president of energy at MF Global, said he does not suspect gas and oil prices to continue to accelerate for very long.
"It's going way up way too fast," said O'Connell. "We're not going to break any new level as far as $94 is concerned. I suspect it will return to that $88 range sooner than later."
And why are gas prices going up?
"In a word: Libya," says petroleum expert Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston. He has been following gas prices one way or another for more than 30 years.
As protests seemed to subside in Egypt, anti-government unrest continued in Bahrain and Libya. In a speech today, defiant Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi said he maintains control of the country despite the spread of anti-government protests from the city of Benghazi to the capital, Tripoli, yesterday.
Unlike Egypt and Bahrain, Lipow says, Libya is a significant exporter of light sweet crude.
Most of that gets exported to Europe: Italy, Germany, France and Spain. So, how does it affect the United States? We import 40 percent of our crude from Europe, refine it, and then export back to them the distillates, including gasoline and diesel. So, any disruption in Europe gets felt in the 50 states.