WXIA: Hill on Oil and the Suez Canal

Can consumers expect a change at the pump if current protests in Egypt lead to a shutdown of the Suez Canal — one of the busiest sea lanes in the world? Not really, Goizueta’s Ray Hill told WXIA-TV in Atlanta.

Hill, an assistant professor in the practice of finance, specializes in energy economics.

“Only about two and a half percent of the world’s production or consumption, daily consumption, passes through the Suez Canal,” Hill told WXIA. “Even if it were shut down for a long period of time, it would still have only have a temporary effect on oil prices until the routes were changed, and add a few more cents to a barrel of oil delivered to the United States, but not a lot.”

Hill added a bigger factor on oil prices is rising demand in countries like China.

The professor said if the canal were taken over by a rebel faction or shutdown for another reason oil producing countries would simply get their product to market by taking the “long way” around Africa and into the Atlantic Ocean.

Click here for the full interview.