Barrels

Like fat metal soldiers, they stand in tidy rows on a long-abandoned loading dock in Bridesburg. For months, the bright yellow barrels have been silent lords of a scruffy industrial lot near the Delaware River. There are hundreds of them, all shielded from mischief by an eight-foot chain-link fence bearing three shiny strands of barbed wire. To the west sits a green mobile home, where a solitary guard posts a 24- hour vigil. When not making rounds, the guard inhabits a room of spare furnishing, fending off boredom with a portable black-and-white TV. Years ago, before fire reduced it to ruins, this lot was home to a small trucking terminal.

Oil tumbled below $90 a barrel in New York Wednesday, erasing gains through 2011, as U.S. supplies increased to a 22-year high and European leaders met to discuss the euro region's debt crisis. Futures fell 2.1 percent after the Energy Department said stockpiles rose 883,000 barrels to 382.5 million barrels last week. The European Union summit is the 18th since Greece was shaken by debt and the first since an anti-austerity campaign carried Francois Hollande to France's presidency.

Mayor Goode has extinguished an attempt to once again allow Italian Market merchants to burn wood in barrels to keep warm, but City Councilman James Tayoun has vowed that he won't let the decades-old practice go up in smoke. Two weeks ago Council approved a Tayoun-sponsored ordinance to allow fire- barrels to continue burning on Ninth Street between Wharton and Christian, from Oct. 1 to April 30. The city banned the practice last December. Since then many merchants have disregarded the ban. Goode vetoed Tayoun's ordinance Thursday, saying the barrels pose a fire and pollution hazard and violated state and federal fire codes.

Thousands of barrels of radium-contaminated dirt will remain in North Jersey until a three-judge panel decides which court has jurisdiction over a controversial plan to move the barrels to a wildlife preserve in Ocean County. That decision could come as early as Monday, when a three-judge appellate panel begins its review of the case. Appellate Judge Melvin P. Antell's decision yesterday to call for a full review was in response to a request by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Crude-oil futures were higher in trading yesterday after Department of Energy figures confirmed a steep decline in U.S. supplies due to a drop-off in imports. Inventory levels are at their lowest since January, when prices for crude oil were significantly higher, said Tim Evans, an energy analyst with IFR Pegasus. Prices topped out at $34 a barrel in March, a nine-year high. September crude climbed 47 cents to $28.26 a barrel yesterday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. After the close of regular trading Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute reported that U.S. crude oil supplies had plummeted by 9 million barrels, to 284 million barrels, from the previous week.

OPEC agreed yesterday to boost oil production for the first time in more than a year, concerned that near-record prices might damage a world economy already suffering from weakness in the U.S. housing industry. Saudi Arabia, the largest member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, led the group to add 500,000 barrels a day to its current production level, starting Nov. 1. The new target will be 27.2 million barrels a day, Kuwait's acting oil minister, Mohammed Abdullah al-Aleem, said in an interview.

Friday's editorial gave the wrong statistic for Alaska's oil exports in 1999. It was 28 million barrels.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, is quietly increasing production to make up for the boycott of crude oil from Iraq and occupied Kuwait, according to U.S. oil analysts. Analysts said Saudi output rose 250,000 to 400,000 barrels per day after U.S. forces landed last week and that within a month it could total up to 2 million barrels a day more than before the invasion on Aug. 2. Saudi output in July averaged 5.45 million barrels daily. The Saudis "are increasing output, albeit slowly," said Foster Mellen, of Energy Security Analysis Inc., of Washington.

OPEC's crude output in August rose to the highest since November 2008, led by Saudi Arabia, which pumped the most oil since at least 1989, a Bloomberg News survey showed. Total OPEC production increased by 90,000 barrels, or 0.3 percent, to an average of 30.03 million barrels a day, according to the survey of oil companies, producers, and analysts. Daily output by just the 11 members with quotas - that is, all except Iraq - climbed 130,000 barrels to 27.35 million, 2.505 million barrels above their target.

NEW YORK - Reaction in the oil market to the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was muted Tuesday, with the price of crude rising slightly in electronic trading in New York. Chavez, 58, battled cancer for two years. In December, he underwent what officials described as a complicated six-hour, cancer-related surgery. The full impact of his death on the oil market may not be known until Venezuela elects new leadership. In the short term, analysts expect the country's long decline in oil production to continue.

PBF Energy Inc. said it expects to receive its first train delivery this week of North Dakota light crude oil at its Delaware City Refinery, and also announced that it will double the amount of heavy Canadian oil-sands crude it can receive by rail by the end of this year. The refinery can now receive 70,000 barrels of light crude a day and 40,000 barrels of heavy crude. The heavy crude capacity will double to 80,000 under a $50 million plan to expand the unloading facility. PBF is also securing an additional 2,500 rail cars through 2015 to transport the crude oil. PBF and other East Coast refiners are scrambling to incorporate lower-cost domestic crudes from new discoveries into their mix to reduce their production costs, which typically have been higher because of their reliance on expensive imported petroleum.

Crate + Barrel marks its 50th anniversary with a collection of limited-edition teapots. Twelve contemporary artists were commissioned to put their stamp on the ceramic Arzberg teapot, a staple of its inventory since the company opened in 1962. For December is this one from Janine Rewell, combining Scandinavian design with Slavic folk art. Only 200 of each design will be produced. Arzberg Teapot for December, $200, online only at crateandbarrel.com . - Maureen Fitzgerald A simple tart This fun little kit, created by Michelin-star French chef Jacky Dallais, contains most everything you need to put together an impressive 6-inch tart - except the fruit, of course.

NEW YORK - U.S. oil output is surging so fast that the United States could soon overtake Saudi Arabia as the world's biggest producer. Driven by high prices and new drilling methods, U.S. production of crude and other liquid hydrocarbons is on track to rise 7 percent this year to an average of 10.9 million barrels per day. This will be the fourth straight year of crude increases and the biggest single-year gain since 1951. The boom has surprised even the experts. "Five years ago, if I or anyone had predicted today's production growth, people would have thought we were crazy," says Jim Burkhard, head of oil markets research at IHS CERA, an energy consulting firm.

The whiskey gospel has gone global. Just taste how India's Amrut Fusion and Sullivan's Cove from Tasmania (each featured in meet-the-distiller events at restaurants this week, as well as Thursday's Whiskey Fest) emphasize how traditionally made spirits take on distinctive terroirs. For Amrut , a Bangalor distillery that began as rum producer for the Indian army, copper pot-stilled northern Indian malt ages at a significantly faster rate than in Scotland in India's warmer climate (a max of seven years)

Who knew that the economic solution for the region's beleaguered oil refineries would arrive on a slow train from North Dakota? Delta Air Lines, the new owner of the Trainer refinery that is scheduled to reopen later this month, on Thursday became the third fuel producer in the Philadelphia area to announce plans to bring in crude oil by rail from the Bakken oil field in the upper Midwest. Edward Bastian, the airline's president, told an investor conference in New York that Delta plans to replace some imported oil at Trainer with domestic crude brought in by rail.

Oil tumbled below $90 a barrel in New York Wednesday, erasing gains through 2011, as U.S. supplies increased to a 22-year high and European leaders met to discuss the euro region's debt crisis. Futures fell 2.1 percent after the Energy Department said stockpiles rose 883,000 barrels to 382.5 million barrels last week. The European Union summit is the 18th since Greece was shaken by debt and the first since an anti-austerity campaign carried Francois Hollande to France's presidency.

It's been 139 years since they served beer in Haddonfield's Indian King Tavern. But that will change Saturday when barrels of Colonial style beers will be tapped at a fund-raiser for the museum and historic site, meeting place of the New Jersey Rebel Assembly in 1777. Since Haddonfield has been dry since 1873, organizers have obtained a special permit from the state to sell beer to help pay for renovations at the tavern. Philadelphia's Yards Brewery is supplying the beer and food will be served.

The mere mention of a truffled beer is enough to incite shudders and raised eyebrows. Even accomplished brewer Scott Morrison conceded that the "terrible" task of melding such a powerful savory flavor with beer brought trepidation: "How am I going to pull this off?" But with his recent return to Dock Street Brewing Co., he knew this first of several planned seasonal collaborations with the Four Seasons Hotel had to be ambitious. So Morrison didn't hold back, crafting a sturdily malted English strong ale, then sending it off to the hotel to be aged in used chardonnay barrels, after which it was blended with a measured dose of truffle-steeped vodka.