Plants do often times shut down for maintenence which used to make maybe a few cents difference. Stockpiles are up, consumption is down but yet prices are up.

It is indeed speculators in the markets driving the price. Not supply and demand.

We just went through this and we saw what $4.00 gas does to the economy. Some people will never learn though. What's worse is that the large investors areusing YOUR money to drive up the price. Goldman Sachs got 16 billion in bail out money which went right into the markets. Yes, they paid it back but only aftermaking gobs of money off us. They also are getting basically "free" money right now to invest. It's free becasue interest on it right now isbasically 0%. That low interest is also driving the dollar down which in turn drives more investors to oil.

So remember, every time you pay 25 cents more, you are actually paying far more than that. You are going to end up paying back much of this money that wasprinted to give to banks to use recklessly again.