Thanks to Japan.

Some of you may remember that a while ago I posted a blog entry about why oil and gas prices have fallen so much since the spike which followed Katrina. I mentioned in that blog entry that the shipment of oil reserves from the international community were about to stop--but I was thankfully wrong.

Now, there is substantiated proof that at least some of the shipments to the US will stop. I wasn't aware that we were getting petroleum products from Japan--as they do not produce petroleum domestically... But we were. And now we ain't gunna be no more. Not sure if what they were sending us will be replaced by domestic production coming online in the gulf or by imports from another nations' reserve stockpiles, or not at all. I won't be so bold as to suggest prices will start going back up. But it certainly wouldn't surprise me...