Bringing it all back home: In an interview with The Associated Press, Popeyes CEO Cheryl Bachelder dishes on the chicken served up by competitors such as Chick-fil-A and KFC—where she was formerly president before being fired in 2003—and why she pushed for the company to change its name from Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits to Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. “The brand is from Louisiana, so it’s true,” she says. “Our founder created these recipes out of the Cajun and Creole heritage of that state. It’s the most interesting American food there is, and we’re an international brand so it exports really well, too.” Read the full interview.
To the brim: The United States has so much crude that it is running out of places to put it, and that could drive oil and gasoline prices even lower in the coming months. The Associated Press reports that for the past seven weeks, the United States has been producing and importing an average of 1 million more barrels of oil every day than it is consuming. That extra crude is flowing into storage tanks, especially at the country’s main trading hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, pushing U.S. supplies to their highest point in at least 80 years, the Energy Department reported last week. If this keeps up, storage tanks could approach their operational limits, known in the industry as “tank tops,” by mid-April and send the price of crude—and probably gasoline, too—plummeting. Read the full story.
Reading the tea leaves: Get ready for an L-shaped oil recovery. Bloomberg reports a growing consensus is emerging from the likes of BP, the International Energy Agency, shale wildcatters and even the Saudis that a near-term recovery to $100-a-barrel crude isn’t in the cards. Instead, expect a range of $50 to $60 for at least the next few years. When oil prices plunged sharply in 2008, they rebounded almost as quickly. Several months ago, industry and government touted the same U or V-shaped recovery this time out. On closer examination, a new factor in the marketplace—shale oil—has changed their minds. Read the full story.
