WorldWithoutOil.Org

I kid you not. "Get Your Wallet Ready For $4 Gas" - on the front page, above the fold, of the San Jose Mercury News. SJMN is one of those snotty thou-shalt-register sites, so I won't link to it, but here are some Snips:

The article quotes Chris Mennis, a petroleum broker in Aptos, saying there have been "six refinery glitches in one week across the country and now there's a threatened strike in Belgium that could shut down 600,000 barrels and the threat of a strike in Latin America.

"All this is happening while our gasoline stocks are at very low levels. It looks like gasoline will go through the roof."

Prices have risen steadily over the past two months, but eased earlier this week. Then came a report Wednesday from the Energy Department showing a large, unexpected drop in U.S. gas supplies of 2.8 million barrels when a gain of 200,000 barrels had been expected.

Inventories are at their lowest since October 2005, the month after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and oil facilities in the Gulf of Mexico.

"We all saw the impact that hurricanes had on fuel prices in 2005," said Sean Comey of the AAA. "As bad as that was, it was actually a relatively minor event compared to some of the possible worst-case scenarios."

On the flip side, there's Big Oil.

Chevron announced earnings of $4.7 billion during the first three months of the year. This followed similar profit reports from BP, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil.

"Glitches." "Strikes." "Threats." "Unexpected." "Worst-case scenario," Nico was on to something - no doubt in my mind now.

Edits:
Here's a link to a similar, even more ominous story. Gotta love it when they talk about refineries blowing up!