Oil slumps $5/bbl to lowest in more than a year as banking fears mount
Source: Reuters
HOUSTON, March 15 (Reuters) - Oil prices plunged more than $5 a barrel on Wednesday to their lowest in more than a year as unease over Credit Suisse spooked world markets and offset hopes of a Chinese oil demand recovery.
Early signs of a return to market stability faded after Credit Suisse's largest investor said it could not provide the Swiss bank with more financial assistance, sending its shares and other European equities sliding.
"It doesn't matter what your risk asset is, at this point people are pulling the plug across different instruments here," said Robert Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York.
"Nobody wants to go home with a big position on anything today ... you have nowhere to hide really." Both crude benchmarks hit their lowest since December 2021 and have fallen for three straight days.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/oil-prices-bounce-back-helped-by-stronger-opec-outlook-china-2023-03-15/
I had grabbed a snapshot of this about 10 minutes ago before it updated to about $1 more but still!!!! I had seen something about a sudden sell-off of oil.
DOE was supposed to start buying oil back in December to refill the Petroleum Reserve when it had dropped into the low-mid $70s or less and this was after selling some of our reserves for $96/bbl to feed the market to get the prices down,
= new reply since forum marked as read
Than lower oil prices.
You get down down to brass tacks, really think about it ... and its very difficult to come down on one side or the other on the issue.
Very unlike, say ... Civil Rights or similar social causes, where it's pretty easy 
This one's a toughie, just sayin.
YES we did!
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142983099
Remember it's not just us doing it but some EU countries have released reserves and NOW you have this interesting ditty that has been going on somewhat under the radar (although I have been following it) -
Robert Rapier
Senior Contributor
Feb 21, 2023,11:23am EST
According to the 2022 BP Statistical Review of World Energy, Venezuela has more proved oil reserves than any other country in the world. Venezuela’s 304 billion barrels of proved reserves just edges out Saudi Arabia’s 298 billion barrels. Both are far ahead of U.S. proved reserves of 69 billion barrels. But the Top 3 oil producers in 2021 were the U.S. at 11.1 million barrels per day (BPD), Russia at 10.5 million BPD, and Saudi Arabia at 9.4 million BPD. Venezuela was way down the list, at #25 with 605,000 BPD.
Venezuela’s heavy crude oil is especially prized by U.S. refiners. How is it that a country with so much oil produces so little? And why has the country seen its oil production plummet by more than 75% over the past decade? One reason for the decline of Venezuela’s oil industry is that many countries — including the U.S. — have placed various sanctions on Venezuela over the years. Most recently, the Trump Administration placed Venezuela’s oil sector under sanction in 2019.
(snip)
This production decline has particularly impacted U.S. refiners. Venezuela’s oil is heavy, which means it requires more processing by refiners. But U.S. refiners have invested billions of dollars into processing heavy oil. This oil sells at a discount to lighter oil, and as a result refiners make more money processing this crude oil into finished products. But, the U.S. government recently loosened the sanctions a bit, allowing Chevron to expand production in a joint venture with PDVSA, and to ship that oil to the U.S. Reuters reported last week that Chevron obtained a license from the U.S. Treasury Department that will allow it to ship more than 100,000 BPD of Venezuelan crude to the U.S. this month.
This deal may finally help Venezuela grow its oil production after more than a decade of decline. On paper, Venezuela alone could meet global oil demand for nearly a decade. The country could grow wealthy in the process. But it’s got some work to do.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2023/02/21/inside-venezuelas-contradictory-oil-industry/?sh=28f077127c13
These markets are usually based on "future", not "current" so that gets priced in. When you have a "there may be more where that comes from" stuff going on (and that even means Iran as well - although the latest news of their cooperation with Russia might delay those backroom discussions), there is still that potential of a dump of oil out there coupled with a possible reduction of China's usage of it if the world heads closer to a recession and pulls back on purchasing all the stuff they sell.
So down $3.72 from yesterday.
(during the Saudi-Russia price/production war)
had some... words...
Of course they made up for all those losses of having to pay to store what they were pumping out as fast as they could... handily.
is not necessarily reflective of the price of that specific refined product (gasoline), which is up to those "middlemen" (in quotes) who further process it and distribute it, although a good chunk of them are from the same companies that drill for the crude and refine it too.
When I was out yesterday running some errands and taking the car out on its "5 mile drive" to keep the battery charged ( ) I saw prices around where I am in Philly and the closet rim county, running about $3.37/gal.
This type of pricing strategy always has that sharp "peak" at the front end and has a looooooooonnnnnnngggggg tail at the back end when it comes to getting the price back down again. 
although the degree that they do it can vary. There have been times during high prices where a station in some random locale, will suddenly "announce" they are selling 99 cents/gal gas and that might result in a line of cars stretching around and then down a block for a mile. So it's an individual decision for how much they plan to charge at any given time.
I hate to see what is going to happen ahead of summer when some states switch to "summer blend" which costs more due to the types of additives included in it. 
