Crude Oil Surges to Record $59.18

[sabra]

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http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050620/APF/506200514

Crude Oil Surges to Record $59.18


By GILLIAN WONG
Associated Press Writer


SINGAPORE— Crude oil futures hit a record high Monday, reaching $59.18 a barrel in Asian trading on concerns that demand will outpace refineries' ability to produce diesel and gasoline in the second half of the year.

The kidnapping last week of six oil workers, including two Germans, in Nigeria, Africa's largest producer, also contributed to the commodity's rise.

Nymex crude for the July contract reached the mark mid-morning in Singapore, a rise of 71 cents from Friday's close, the second straight day oil has set intra-day records. After reaching the high, it fell back slightly to $58.94 a barrel.


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[aquart]

1. Georgie's rich friends must be in raptures.

[warrens]

7. It doesn't work that way

Crude is what his buddies have to buy. The higher it goes, the harder to make a profit. He fucked up. That is why they are turning on him. They want CHEAP crude.

[WI Independent]

8. Not sure about that...

Aren't they still making record profits?

Maybe they mark it up x% (we all know there's no real competition any more, they all go up together). x% at 3.00/gallon is double what it is at 1.50/gallon...

[aquart]

10. Wait. Didn't they sabotage

Some attempts to make more oil available which would lower the prices?

[lastliberalintexas]

15. Not all of them

Some of his buddies sell the crude, some of them refine it. Either way, they are making out like bandits.

It's a sham that they actually want lower prices, crude or otherwise. The demand for gasoline/oil is about the most inelastic one in economics, if not the most inelastic. They know they aren't really hurt by higher prices, like most other suppliers are.

[Supersedeas]

14. Caribean Tax Shelters....here we come =)

[LynnTheDem]

2. 2.85 American lives per day.

http://www.icasualties.org/oif/

[Kmarx]

3. Thank heavens that we have a president that was a one time oil man.

Do you remember when jackass said that it would be goos for the US to have a president that was in the oil business? Well both he and his asshole old man were oil men look at what they did to this country: each asshole had his own recession; each had his own war; each saw to it that the rich were well taken care at the expense of everyone else. Again I say, that heaven that we have an ex-oilman in Washington!

[cliss]

4. Yikes. This is really hair-raising news.

I've read that by September, oil could hit $100.00 per barrel. When that fateful day arrives, expect our economy to

slow
slow
slow

slow down and come to a grinding halt.

We're going to have to re-tool our economy to fit the new Dynamics of scarce oil. I've read that we need about 15 years to make the switch. Europe is already used to high gas prices, so they will be OK.

But the Hummers driving down on Main Street? Well.....

[NEOBuckeye]

9. We probably don't have 15 MONTHS. Much less 15 years.

Peak Oil is here, folks. And it's no longer just banging on the door anymore. It's ramming its way through that door and about to make itself an unannounced, uninvited guest at every American's dining room table.

Think $3.00 per gallon is high? You ain't seen nothing yet.

[Warren Stupidity]

11. 100 by september is not likely

There is already a clear linkage between crude oil price and economic growth. Increases in crude oil prices result in slowdowns which temporarily reduce the demand-driven price increases, and actually result in crude oil price reductions. In addition, there are supply hoarders out there who dump on the market when the price rises, causing temporary downward pressure. (For example, anytime he wants, that moran in the white house can dump some or all of the strategic reserve, which will cause the price to fall.) As the shortage of cheap oil is real, and as there is a built in increase in demand due in part to population growth if nothing else, the trend is ever-upward, but it is a 'stochastic walk' with an upward trend. That is just math-talk for the fact that there will be a random series of data points - crude oil prices - that will wander above and below an upward sloping trend line.

To make things more complicated, sources of non-cheap oil and alternative energy sources start to become competitive as the price of crude goes up. I don't think anybody really knows where the next stability point is going to be. What I found interesting is that OPEC has moved its crude oil target price from $25 to $50. If one views global currencies as denominated in barrels of oil, that would indicate that the mighty dollar has suffered a 50% depreciation over the last two years.

[Coastie for Truth]

5. Wrong Team for Peak Oil

Oil men Bush and Cheney - blinded by a tunnel vision view of "Peak Oil" ("just drill in more places and drill deeper") don't have a clue. And the only people they talk to are oil company execs with even more severe tunnel vision. It's only going to get worse.

We are going to go into the Malthusian world of James Howard Kunstler's "The Long Emergency..." by default and inaction because we lack the foresight to jump into the world of Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins' "Natural Capitalism."

[Deja Q]

13. So we're at their mercy then... pity they've got none...

[Straight Shooter]

6. Wow. I wonder who in the world is expert at kidnapping.

And I wonder who would pull such a nasty stunt that would inevitably line the pockets of a very few, very elite, very privileged parasites on society.

I wonder, I wonder.

:sarcasm:

[Deja Q]

12. When it goes up to $70, the previous value being $58, then it's a surge.

Just as they use overbloated dialogue regarding the Dow. "Today the Dow plummets 30 points to..."

Gotta love that media.

:eyes: