Oil market through the roof

[leftchick]

http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/news/business/story.html?id=53dbbb00-9081-434c-aa55-bba6d617378f

<snip>
CALGARY - Oil prices reached another record Friday -- racing towards $44 US per barrel -- as market watchers blamed the increase on unfounded fears that global crude supplies could be disrupted.

Ongoing concerns about a potential slowdown in Russian oil production pushed crude to $43.80 US per barrel, an increase of $1.05.

It was the second time in three days that crude prices closed at heights not seen in the 21 years oil has traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

"There's a great deal of tension in the market," said Jim Steele, a commodities analyst at Refco Energy Markets in New York.

[UpInArms]

1. gosh! think how much the profit can be for

the oil majors with those kinds of numbers!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x719156

[Wednesdays]

2. Indeed...

ChevronTexaco profit more than doubles

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x719156

[concord]

3. I wonder ...

if bushCo knows their days are numbered and are taking what they can get before they melt into the background.

Or is that a naive view?

[soothsayer]

4. no, it's not naive. Their saudi buddies were supposed to bring the prices

down, weren't they? to woo the public, so dumbya would look good. Maybe that is still on schedule for aug/sept/oct. In the meantime, rape and pillage the populace!

[4dsc]

5. Just in time for winter...

I feel sorry for those that have to use heating oil this winter..

[UpInArms]

6. thanks for the sympathy

as I have a diesel dinosaur in my basement.

11 years ago the price of Grade 2 diesel was .68 a gallon

last year it was 1.36

this year?

fortunately when we remodeled our 1921 farmhouse, we put a tremendous amount of insulation in and with the need for heat beginning in October and ending in May we have drastically reduced the fuel consumption (we used less than 500 gallons last year)

[saigon68]

11. POOR SENIORS WILL FREEZE TO DEATH

The CHIMPANZEE will snooze in his Heated Water Bed

[Fovea]

7. 'unfounded fears'

Jezuz onna stick!
What about about the world of oil producing nations
is even vaguely stable right now?

Where ever there is oil, with the exception of the north sea, there is political and cultural instability. Is that an accident? No.
It is how you take a product that is merely starting to fall in supply, and turn it into a huge windfall profit.

A new floor will go along with a higher profit margin built in.
If you are an oil executive, it is only fair. Why should Halliburton make all the easy money?

[concord]

8. Didn't HW Bush make a trip to Russia recently?

Would that have anything to do with the current state of the market?

[jmcgowanjm]

9. Up to 55% of Ghawar production is water

7 million bbls of seawater being pumped into Ghawar.

http://www.energybulletin.net/1269.html

And remember that Sudan has oil. Lots of it.

Face it. The US doesn't care about ethnic cleansing. It's
seeking to dominate the oil producing regions of the world:
to secure its own oil supply; to ensure oil sales continue to
be denominated in US dollars (thus propping up the dollar in
the face of a yawning trade deficit); and to ensure
strategic competitors Japan, Europe and China
remain dependent on the US for access to oil.

http://www3.sympatico.ca/sr.gowans/gazillion.html

[TheFarseer]

10. I've always said if you want the price

of a commodity to increase, just put it on the board of trade. Somehow this doesn't work with corn and soybeans and cattle etc, I'm guessing because corporate assholes don't control the supply of these. But it sure worked with natural gas and it's getting out of hand with oil. The prices of so many things are artificially controlled by speculators that don't care anything about reality, and just believe the reports that will push the market the way they want it to go.

[puerco-bellies]

13. You contradict yourself

If it doesn't work for some markets, it won't work with all. The reason that the energies are trading so high is not the fault of speculators, it is a result of market conditions worldwide. Since for every long position (someone speculation that the price will go up), there is a person with money on the table shorting that position by writing that call option or long futures contract. In layman's terms someone in the market place has a vested interest in the price dropping.

The mere fact that a commodity is openly traded insures that the few corporations controlling the world's oil can't just make a call to each other and say.. "today it's $80 a barrel but before November it's $10 a barrel". On the contrary, if it wasn't for the commodity markets, and the speculators that put their money where their mouth is prices would be much higher. That my suspicious friend is a certainly.

[jmcgowanjm]

15. So a speculator is lubrication

as in, a liquid market-easily traded.

an illiquid market-see when gold was outlawed
by FDR.

[jmcgowanjm]

14. Capturing free energy and then sharing it

What we'll have to be doing more and more of.

[mom cat]

12. There goes Bush's last ace in the hole, The myth about being an energy

president.

[The_Casual_Observer]

16. How long before bush blames this on Kerry?

Because Kerry opposed the ANWR drilling.

[wishlist]

17. Bush will blame it on Kerry for bad mouthing the Saudi Royal Family

since we know nothing bad that happens is ever the fault of Bush or his munchkins.