The reason the oil prices spiked briefly during Hurricane Irene is because the supply of oil nationwide was going to reduce because of the closure of some oil refineries that were along the path of the hurricane. The closed refineries at that time had a production capacity of approximately a million barrels per day. This meant that the market supply of oil reduced significantly, causing the oil prices to soar because of a shortage in oil supply. After the refineries were opened, when Hurricane Irene had passed, the supply steadily went back to the normal market supply, this resulted in the gradual price reduce of oil. There are other products that experienced an increase in prices as the oil prices increased. This class of products are products