MARK HANSON, Bismarck Tribune

How the war will affect the energy industry will depend on how long the conflict lasts. If it appears the United States is in control after just a few days, it likely will bode well. However, prices will likely fluctuate.

"If we take care of business quickly, with a high rate of success, then we could see a short spike and then possibly see them drop," said Russ Hanson, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Marketers Association, referring to gasoline prices.

Oil prices already have dropped a bit, but if war drags on and we get into the peak driving season of summer, gasoline prices could climb.

"Markets essentially react to what's going on in the world," said Ron Ness, executive director of the North Dakota Petroleum Council. "But oil has dropped the last couple of days. The fear of war often has more negative impact than the event itself. Hopefully we get this resolved before we get into the driving season."

The American Automobile Association is urging drivers to refrain from unnecessarily filling half-empty tanks. There's plenty of supply in the United States, but that supply could be in jeopardy if people panic and buy more gas, which happened after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The United States gets only a little more than 2 percent of its oil supply from Iraq, and OPEC has indicated it will make up the difference if Iraqi exports are halted. The biggest impact, however, continues to be the lack of oil production in Venezuela, which is coming out of a long-term strike. It's the world's No. 5 oil exporter and key supplier to the United States. A lot of Venezuelan crude oil makes its way to refineries in Mexico before coming into the United States as gasoline.

And with less crude oil supply, the price has risen, which in turns increase the price of gasoline.

"The rise in gas prices is directly related to crude oil price," Ness said. "If these crude oil prices were in place with high demand, we would have much more severe changes in the price of gasoline."

The high oil prices have also had an impact in the natural gas market. Montana-Dakota Utilities spokesman Dan Sharp said many large industrial users can switch between natural gas and oil. When there's a price spike with oil, those users would switch to natural gas, and vice versa.

"There already are some large users in the United States who have gone to natural gas because of the strike in Venezuela," Sharp said.

So even through we're heading into spring and warmer temperatures, demand on natural gas may remain strong because of more users switching away from oil.