Knoxville — An oil industry analyst with the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga says several factors are resulting in rising prices for oil and gasoline.
According to Dr. Ziad Keilany, Iraq is withholding 2.5 million barrels of oil everyday from the world oil market, and claims the United Nations violated an agreement for food and supply shipments to Iraq.
Keilany says the normal wintertime increase in oil usage, along with stockpiling of oil reserves for Y2K emergencies, is adding to the price increase.