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Brent crude $56.80 and U.S. crude $53.80 A Barrel Now
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Brent crude $56.80 and U.S. crude $53.80 A Barrel Now
March 16, 2012, 03:08:06 am »
Brent crude rebounds above $123 on Iran-West tensions
16 March 2012
, by Randy Fabi - Singapore (Reuters)
* Reuters reports UK, US plan SPR release this year
* Iran taking steps to withstand pressure over nuke work
Brent crude rebounded above $123 on Friday after a sharp sell off the previous session, as rising tensions between Iran and the West fuelled an oil rally that has forced Western leaders to prepare a release of their strategic oil reserves
Brent crude
rose 55 cents to
$123.15 a barrel
by 0302 GMT, after settling down nearly $2 the previous session following a Reuters report that Britian and the United States were preparing to tap into its oil reserves.
U.S. crude
climbed 49 cents to
$105.60 a barrel
"We think that prices probably will continue to grind higher as we get closer to the sanctions deadline," said Jeremy Friesen, commodity strategist at Societe Generale in Hong Kong.
The sanctions vice was tightening on Iran, cutting it out of key global financial networks, but Tehran was taking urgent steps to withstand the pressure over a nuclear programme the West suspects was intended to produce bombs.
New Western sanctions, due to come into effect within a few months, were aimed at further isolating Iran by banning its oil shipments to Europe and prohibiting financial institutions from making oil transactions with the OPEC producer's central bank.
The sanctions have helped boost Brent crude oil prices by nearly 14% so far this year, stoking fears that higher fuel prices could derail economic growth in the United States.
Reuters reported on Thursday that Britain had agreed to cooperate with the United States in releasing reserves in an effort to halt rising oil prices, but volumes and exact timelines have not yet been determined, sources said.
"Now that the seed of a strategic crude oil release has been planted in traders' minds, this may act to impose an imaginary cap on the price of crude with traders wary of taking long positions at elevated prices should the coordinated release come to fruition down the track," said Tim Waterer, senior forex dealer at CMC Markets.
Washington could be tempted to tap the 727-million-barrel U.S. SPR as retail gasoline prices have surged to their highest level ever for mid-March, near $3.80 a gallon, drawing consumer ire during a presidential election year.
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Brent crude rebounds above $123 - U.S. crude above $107 a barrel
Reply #1 on:
March 16, 2012, 06:24:29 pm »
Crude above $107 a barrel, reducing weekly loss
16 March 2012
, by Carla Mozee - Los Angeles (MarketWatch)
Crude-oil prices climbed Friday, with the dollar-denominated commodity finding support from a downturn in the greenback, allowing futures to cut into their weekly loss
April futures for light, sweet crude rose $1.95, or 1.9%, to settle at
$107.06 a barrel
on the
New York Mercantile Exchange
It was the first close above $107 a barrel for a front-month contract since March 9.
Crude futures fell 0.3% for the week, but had been facing a decline of more than 1% earlier in the session.
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Brent crude closed at almost $126 a barrel - U.S. crude tops $107
Reply #2 on:
March 18, 2012, 04:49:31 am »
UPDATE 8-Oil climbs on Iran tensions, weak dollar
16 March 2012
, (Reuters)
* Dollar weakens on tame inflation data, supports oil
* Worries on Iran, supply disruption, lift oil
*Israel Security Cabinet Votes 8 To 6 To Attack Iran
* Saudi sending more crude to United States
Brent May crude
rose $3.21 to settle at
$125.81 a barrel
, surging above its 20-day and 10-day moving averages and reaching $126.10 ahead of the close.
For the week, Brent fell a mere 17 cents.
U.S. April crude
rose $1.95 to settle at
$107.06 a barrel
, reaching $107.25 and also pushing above its 10-day and 20-day moving averages.
For the week, U.S. crude dipped 34 cents.
Israel Security Cabinet Votes 8 To 6 To Attack Iran
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Things That Make You Go Hmmm – Such As $4.00 Gas (Again)
Reply #3 on:
March 18, 2012, 10:56:49 pm »
Things That Make You Go Hmmm – Such As $4.00 Gas (Again)
18 March 2012
, by Grant Williams from 'Things That Make You Go Hmmm' (Zero Hedge)
Excerpt from the Full PDF Article
Whether you are a Peak Oil advocate or not, the issue with oil is clearly one of supply and capacity right now
. In an excellent recent article entitled 'Understanding The New Price Of Oil' Gregor McDonald outlined just why supply is now primary:
Supply, and the recognition of supply, are now the dominant factor in the oil price. A point so obvious, it hardly seems worth making. However, the developed world is still largely operating on the classical economic view that higher prices will make new oil resources available. That is true. But, it's just not true in the way most anticipate.
While higher prices have brought on new supply, these resources have been slow to develop, are more difficult to extract, and generally flow at lower rates of production. As the older oil fields of the world decline, the price of oil must reflect the economics of this new tranche of oil resources.
There are no vast, new supplies of oil that will come online in 2013, 2014, and 2015 at the scale to negate existing global declines. During the entire time that global oil supply has been held at a ceiling of 74 mbpd, since 2005, a lot of new production in the Americas and Africa especially has come online.
But it has not been enough to increase total world supply. And the price of oil has finally started to price in that new reality
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Re: Things That Make You Go Hmmm – Such As $4.00 Gas (Again)
Reply #4 on:
March 18, 2012, 11:19:06 pm »
From pages 108-114 of
Armed Madhouse
by Greg Palast (all emphasis original):
...we really should take a look at the theory that we went into Iraq to get its oil. A ride up "Hubbert's Peak" will allow a clearer view of the real topic of this chapter: the geo-politics of petroleum.
No Peaking: The Hubbert Humbug
On March 7, 1956, geologist M. King Hubbert presented a research paper that would, a half century later, become the New Gospel of Internet Economics, the Missing Link that would Explain It All from the September 11 attack to the invasion of Iraq.
In his 1956 paper, Hubbert wrote:
On the basis of the present estimates of the ultimate reserves of world petroleum and natural gas, it appears that the culmination of world production of these products should occur within a half a century (i.e., by 2006).
So get in your Hummer and take your last drive, Clive. Sometime during 2006, we will have used up every last drop of crude oil on the planet. We're not talking "decline" in oil from a production "peak," we're talking "culmination,"
gone, kaput, dead out of crude--and not enough natural gas left to roast a weenie.
In his 1956 treatise, Hubbert wrote that Planet Earth could produce not a drop more than one and a quarter trillion barrels of crude.
We obtain a figure of about 1,250 billion barrels for the ultimate potential reserves of crude oil of the whole world.
That's the entire supply of crude that stingy Mother Nature bequeathed for human use from Adam to the end of civilization. Indeed, our oil-lusting world will have consumed, by the end of 2006, about 1.2 trillion barrels of oil. Therefore, by Hubbert's calculation, we're finished; maybe in the very week you read this book we'll suck the planet dry. Then, as Porky Pig says, "That's all, folks!"
But the pig ain't sung yet. Planes still fly, lovers still cry and smog-o-saurus SUVs still choke the LA freeway. Why aren't our gas tanks dry? Hubbert insisted Arabia could produce no more than 375 billion barrels of oil. Yet, Middle Eastern oil reserves
today total 734 billion barrels. And those are "proven" reserves--known and measured, not including the possibility of a single new oil strike or field extension. Worldwide, ready-to-go reserves total 1.189
barrels--and that excludes the world's two biggest untapped fields, which could easily double the world reserve. (One is in Iraq, the other we'll get to in Chapter 4.)
In all fairness to the Hubbert Heads, there's a more sophisticated, updated version of Hubbert's theory. This is where the "peak" concept comes in. In this version of the Hubbert scripture, we ignore his dead wrong prediction of total crude available and look only at the up and down shape of his curve, the "peak." The amount of oil discovered each year, Hubbert posited, will stop rising by 2000, then will crash rapidly toward zero when we will have used up our allotted 1.25 trillion barrels.
We haven't crashed or even peaked. Oil production has risen year after year after year and discoveries have more than kept pace. Nevertheless, like believers undaunted by the failure of alien spaceships to take them to Mars on the date predicted, Peak enthusiasts keep moving the date of the oil apocalypse further into the future. In the new, revisionist models of Hubbert's prediction, the high point in the curve of discoverable oil on our planet will come in a decade or so. Though we have a reprieve, goes the new theory, still,
we're running out of crude, dude
! There's only another twenty years left in proven reserves! Oh, my!
"It's true that there's only twenty years' supply left-and that's been true for the last hundred years," Lewis Lapham told me over a decent sauterne at Five Points....Lapham of Harper's magazine is the only editor in the hemisphere with hard knowledge of the petroleum market, insight he inherited legitimately: His family helped found Mobil Oil, the back half of what is now ExxonMobil.
He asked, "Why in the world would oil companies, or any company, announce that there's lots of its product out there? You'd bust your own market. It's better to say the cupboard's bare." As Lapham noted, we have been "running out of oil" since the days we drained it from whales.
OPEC's big headache before the war shut down Iraq's fields was that there was way
too much
oil. We were swimming in it and oil prices stayed low. The last thing oil companies want is more oil from Iraq, any more than soybean farmers want more soybeans from Iraq. Increasing supply means decreasing price.
This war is about the oil, but
about the oil? The Hubbert Peaksters think they know. They are convinced that Dick Cheney in his bunker is panicked that the world's supply of oil is about to run out, and so to Iraq we go, to seize the last of it. Here's the flaw in that argument: To believe that George Bush and Dick Cheney hustled us into Iraq to open up that nation's untapped bounty of petroleum is to believe that these two oil Texans in the White House are deeply troubled that the price of oil will rise unless they get us more crude. But Dick and George get a rise out of the rise.
Have we peaked? The planet is producing today twice as much as the maximum predicted in 1956 by the "Peaking Man." But the political uses of
has yet to peak.
Indeed, Bush and Cheney are more than happy to allow others to promote Hubbert Peak hysteria in the public. "We need Iraq's oil" is used as a good bogeyman to get the public behind an invasion that promises to get Americans a fill-up for the family gas guzzler for less than a hundred dollars. Anti-war progressives seized on the Hubbert humbug as proof that Bush's invasion was a war of "Blood for Oil." Nuns, professors and rock stars were outraged. But the average American thinks,
Blood for oil? That's a BARGAIN
The Shell Game
Hubbert's predictions may have been astonishingly wrong but his little forty-page research report is, nevertheless, astonishingly important in understanding the mindset of Big Oil.
Almost everything you need to know about Hubbert and the agenda behind his crucial 1956 study is contained on its cover page. The oil doomsday pronouncement is "Publication No. 95, Shell Development Company, Houston, Texas." Hubbert was the chief Consultant on general geology for Shell Oil and his "end of oil" paper was presented to the Texas meeting of the American Petroleum Institute. All else flows therefrom.
Every once in a while the landlords of the planet have to remind us to be grateful for their services. In 1956 it was Shell Oil's turn and Hubbert was their man for the job. It was not a happy time for the oilmen of Texas. Shell and the other Seven Sisters, as Big Oil was then known, faced a heck of a problem: crude was cheaper than dirt--$2.77 a barrel, that is, a nickel a gallon-and sinking. Worse, they were finding more of the stuff all over the planet, meaning prices would fall further.
In March of that year, Hubbert presented the solution to his fellow oilmen at the API in Houston. He unveiled this magical chart. [viewable
Look closely. When Hubbert spoke, oil reserves worldwide were zooming heavenward. Despite the tide of petroleum rising around us, Hubbert declared that oil discoveries in the USA had begun to peak "as recently as 1951 or 1952" and that the world's reserves would follow not long thereafter. He didn't need to wink. His oil industry audience understood what oil giant Shell wanted America to believe: Oil isn't abundant, it's a
scarce commodity
and therefore...
1. It's too cheap--so oil companies should, for the public's own good, raise the
to conserve this precious resource.
2. We need to find an abundant
to fossil fuel.
3. We need to protect our
to dwindling sources of crude, by force if necessary.
Shell Oil, through Hubbert, sought, successfully, to change the way America thought of oil's price, alternatives to oil and access to oil.
The problem of falling oil prices was solved for Shell, brilliantly, in four years, in 1960, by the creation of OPEC. On paper, OPEC was created by national governments. If oil
had created this cartel to fix prices, that would have made it a criminal conspiracy--cartels are illegal. But when
conspire for the same purpose, the illegal conspiracy turns into a legitimate "alliance" of sovereign states. OPEC's government cover makes the price-fixing perfectly legal, and Big Oil reaps the rewards....
Have we peaked? Worldwide oil reserves continue to rise even faster than America and China can burn it. Since 1980, reserves, despite our binge-guzzling, have risen from 648 billion to 1.2 trillion barrels. Yet, weirdly, despite the rising flood of discovered crude, its price quadrupled between 2001 and 2005. Supply choked, yet there's no peak in sight....
So please
don't slander Mother Earth
and say she's run out of oil when it's man-made mischief to blame. Evil, not geology, has a chokehold on energy; nature is ready to give us crude at $12 a barrel where it was just a few short years ago.
(Greg Palast on the Alex Jones show)
"Abolish all taxation save that upon land values." -- Henry George
"If our nation can issue a dollar bond, it can issue a dollar bill." -- Thomas Edison
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Re: Things That Make You Go Hmmm – Such As $4.00 Gas (Again)
Reply #5 on:
March 18, 2012, 11:19:38 pm »
The Myth Of Peak Oil
Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones
October 12 2005
Peak oil is a scam designed to create artificial scarcity and jack up prices while giving the state an excuse to invade our lives and order us to sacrifice our hard-earned living standards.
Publicly available CFR and Club of Rome strategy manuals from 30 years ago say that a global government needs to control the world population through neo-feudalism by creating artificial scarcity. Now that the social architects have de-industrialized the United States, they are going to blame our economic disintegration on lack of energy supplies.
Globalization is all about consolidation. Now that the world economy has become so centralized through the Globalists operations, they are going to continue to consolidate and blame it on the West's "evil" overconsumption of fossil fuels, while at the same time blocking the development and integration of renewable clean technologies.
In other words, Peak oil is a scam to create artificial scarcity and drive prices up. Meanwhile, alternative fuel technologies which have been around for decades are intentionally suppressed.
Peak oil is a theory advanced by the elite, by the oil industry, by the very people that you would think peak oil would harm, unless it was a cover for another agenda. Which from the evidence of artificial scarcity being deliberately created, the reasons for doing so and who benefits, it's clear that peak oil is a myth and it should be exposed for what it is. Another excuse for the Globalists to seize more control over our lives and sacrifice more American sovereignty in the meantime.
The lies of artificial scarcity
The crux of the issue is that if oil was plentiful in areas in which we are being told by the government and the oil companies that it is not, then we have clear evidence that artificial scarcity is being simulated in order to drive forward a myriad of other agendas. And we have concrete examples of where this has happened.
Three separate internal confidential memos from Mobil, Chevron and Texaco have been obtained by The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.
These memos outline a deliberate agenda to gouge prices and create artificial scarcity by limiting capacities of and outright closing oil refineries. This was a nationwide lobbying effort led by the American Petroleum Institute to encourage refineries to do this.
An internal Chevron memo states; "A senior energy analyst at the recent API convention warned that if the US petroleum industry doesn't reduce its refining capacity it will never see any substantial increase in refinery margins."
The Memos make clear that blockages in refining capacity and opening new refineries did not come from environmental organizations, as the oil industry claimed, but via a deliberate policy of limitation and price gouging at the behest of the oil industry itself.
The Recurring Myth of Peak Oil
By Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
October 1, 2008
The Peak Oil theory maintains that world production of conventional oil will soon reach a maximum, or peak, and decline thereafter, with grave socio-economic consequences. Some proponents of the theory argue that world oil production has already peaked, and is now in a terminal decline [1].
Although, on the face of it, this sounds like a fairly reasonable proposition, it has been challenged on both theoretical and empirical grounds. While some critics have called it a myth, others have branded it as a money-making scam promoted by the business interests that are vested in the fossil fuel industry, in the business of war and militarism, and in the Wall Street financial giants that are engaged in manipulative oil speculation.
Regardless of its validity (or lack thereof), the fact is that Peak Oil has had significant policy and political implications. It has also generated considerable reactions among various interest groups and political activists.
While environmental and similar activists have used Peak Oil to promote more vigorous conservation and more energetic pursuit of alternative fuels, the oil industry and its representatives in and out of the government have taken advantage of Peak Oil to argue in support of unrestrained extraction of oil and expanded drilling in the offshore or wildlife regions.
Because of its simple logic and facile appeal, Peak Oil has also led many ordinary citizens, burdened by high fuel bills during periods of energy crisis, to support unrestrained or expanded drilling. According to a recent Rasmussen poll, 57 percent of Americans favor more offshore drilling. Misled and misplaced popular perceptions, in turn, play into the hands of the oil industry and their representatives to lobby for the lifting of the Federal ban on oil production in hitherto restricted regions.
Citing voter anger over soaring energy prices, Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican presidential nominee, recently argued that opening vast stretches of the country's coastline to oil exploration would help America eliminate the dependence on foreign oil. "We have untapped oil reserves of at least 21 billion barrels in the United States. But a broad federal moratorium stands in the way of energy exploration and production," he said. "It is time for the federal government to lift these restrictions" [2].
Perhaps the financial giants of New York and London have benefited the most from the misleading implications of Peak Oil:
"As much as 60% of today's crude oil price is pure speculation driven by large trader banks and hedge funds. It has nothing to do with the convenient myths of Peak Oil. It has to do with control of oil and its price. . . . Since the advent of oil futures trading and the two major London and New York oil futures contracts, control of oil prices has left OPEC and gone to Wall Street. It is a classic case of the tail that wags the dog," points out William Engdahl, a top expert on energy and financial markets
Just as Peak Oil plays into the hands of manipulative speculators and beneficiaries of fossil fuel, so too can it be used by the champions of unilateral wars and military adventures, as it implies that war power and military strength are key to access or control of the "shrinking" or "soon-to-be-shrinking" oil. It thus provides fodder for the cannons of war profiteering militarists who are constantly on the look out to invent new enemies and find new pretexts for continued war and escalation of military spending—that is, for the looting of the national treasury, or public money.
By the same token that Peak Oil can serve as a pretext for war and military adventures, it can also serve as a disarming or pacifying factor for many citizens who accept the Peak Oil thesis and, therefore, internalize responsibility for U.S. foreign policy every time they fill their gas tank. In a vicarious way, they may feel that they own the war!
Thus, Peak Oil serves as a powerful trap and a clever manipulation that lets the real forces of war and militarism (the military-industrial complex and the pro-Israel lobby), and the main culprits behind the soaring energy prices (the Wall Street financial giants engaged in manipulative commodity speculation) off the hook; it is a fabulous distraction. All evils are blamed on a commodity upon which we are all utterly dependent.
Not only millions of lay-citizens, but also many scholars and academics have taken the bait and fallen right into this trap by arguing that recent U.S. wars of choice are driven primarily by oil and other "scarce" resources. More broadly, they argue that most wars of the future, like the recent and/or present ones, will be driven by conflicts over natural resources, especially energy and water—hence, for example, the title of Michael T. Klare's popular book,
Resource Wars
As a number of critics have pointed out, this is reminiscent of
Thomas R. Malthus's theory
of "scarcity" and "overpopulation." Malthus (1766-1834), a self-styled British economist, argued that the woes and vagaries of capitalism such as poverty, inequality and unemployment are largely to be blamed on the poor and the unemployed, since they produce too many mouths to be fed, or too many hands to be employed.
In a similar fashion, Peak Oil implies that current crisis in energy (and other commodities) markets is to be blamed, in part, on less-developed or relatively poorer nations such as India and China for growing "too fast" and creating "too much" demand on "scarce" resources. (Similarities between the Peak Oil theory and the Malthusian theory of scarcity are further discussed below.)
"Abolish all taxation save that upon land values." -- Henry George
"If our nation can issue a dollar bond, it can issue a dollar bill." -- Thomas Edison
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Re: Things That Make You Go Hmmm – Such As $4.00 Gas (Again)
Reply #6 on:
March 18, 2012, 11:20:46 pm »
Why The Huge Spike in Oil Prices? "Peak Oil" or Wall Street Speculation?
by F. William Engdahl
Global Research, March 16, 2012
Since around October last year, the price of crude oil on world futures markets has exploded. Different people have different explanations. The most common one is the belief in financial markets that a war between either Israel and Iran or the USA and Iran or all three is imminent. Another camp argues that the price is rising unavoidably because the world has passed what they call "
Peak Oil
"—the point on an imaginary Gaussian Bell Curve (see graph above) at which half of all world known oil reserves have been depleted and the remaining oil will decline in quantity at an accelerating pace with rising price.
Both the war danger and peak oil explanations are off base. As in the astronomic price run-up in the Summer of 2008 when oil in futures markets briefly hit $147 a barrel, oil today is rising because of the speculative pressure on oil futures markets from hedge funds and major banks such as Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and most notably, Goldman Sachs, the bank always present when there are big bucks to be won for little effort betting on a sure thing. They're getting a generous assist from the US Government agency entrusted with regulating financial derivatives, the Commodity Futures Trading Corporation (CFTC).
Source: oilnergy.com
Since the beginning of October 2011, some six months ago, the price of Brent Crude Oil Futures on the ICE Futures exchange has risen from just below $100 a barrel to over $126 per barrel, a rise of more than 25%. Back in 2009 oil was $30.
Yet demand for crude oil worldwide is not rising, but rather is declining in the same period. The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that the world oil supply rose by 1.3 million barrels a day in the last three months of 2011 while world demand increased by just over half that during that same time period.Gasoline usage is down in the US by 8%, Europe by 22% and even in China. Recession across much of the European Union, a deepening recession/depression in the United States and slowdown in Japan have reduced global oil demand while new discoveries are coming online daily and countries like Iraq are increasing supply after years of war. A brief spike in China's oil purchases in January and February had to do with a decision last December to build their Strategic Petroleum Reserve and is expected to return to more normal import levels by the end of this month.
Why then the huge spike in oil prices?
Playing with 'paper oil'
A brief look at how today's "paper oil" markets function is useful. Since Goldman Sachs bought J. Aron & Co., a savvy commodities trader in the 1980's, trading in crude oil has gone from a domain of buyers and sellers of spot or physical oil to a market where unregulated speculation in oil futures, bets on a price of a given crude on a specific future date, usually in 30 or 60 or 90 days, and not actual supply-demand of physical oil determine daily oil prices.
In recent years, a Wall Street-friendly (and Wall Street financed) US Congress has passed several laws to help the banks that were interested in trading oil futures, among them one that allowed the bankrupt Enron to get away with a financial ponzi scheme worth billions in 2001 before it went bankrupt.
The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (CFMA) was drafted by the man who today is President Obama's Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner. The CFMA in effect gave over-the-counter (between financial institutions) derivatives trading in energy futures free reign, absent any US Government supervision, as a result of the financially influential lobbying pressure of the Wall Street banks. Oil and other energy products were exempt under what came to be called the "Enron Loophole."
In 2008 during a popular outrage against Wall Street banks for causing the financial crisis, Congress finally passed a law over the veto of President George Bush to "close the Enron Loophole." And as of January 2011, under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform act, the CFTC was given authority to impose position caps on oil traders beginning in January 2011.
Curiously, these limits have not yet been implemented by the CFTC. In a recent interview Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont stated that the CFTC doesn't "have the will" to enact these limits and "needs to obey the law." He adds, "What we need to do is…limit the amount of oil any one company can control on the oil futures market. The function of these speculators is not to use oil but to make profits from speculation, drive prices up and sell." While he has made noises of trying to close the loopholes, CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler has yet to do so. Notably,Gensler is a former executive of, you guessed, Goldman Sachs. The enforcement by the CFTC remains non-existent.
The role of key banks along with oil majors such as BP in manipulating a new oil price bubble since last Autumn, one detached from the physical reality of supply-demand calculations of real oil barrels, is being noted by a number of sources.
A 'gambling casino…'
Current estimates are that speculators, that is futures traders such as banks and hedge funds who have no intent of taking physical delivery but only of turning a paper profit, today control some 80 percent of the energy futures market, up from 30 percent a decade ago. CFTC Chair Gary Gensler, perhaps to maintain a patina of credibility while his agency ignored the legal mandate of Congress, declared last year in reference to oil markets that "huge inflows of speculative money create a self-fulfilling prophecy that drives up commodity prices." In early March, Kuwaiti Oil Minister Minister Hani Hussein said in an interview broadcast on state television, "Under the supply and demand theory, oil prices today are not justified."
Michael Greenberger, professor at the University of Maryland School of Law and a former CFTC regulator who has tried to draw public attention to the consequences of the US Government's decisions to allow unbridled speculation and manipulation of energy prices by big banks and funds, recently noted, "There are 50 studies showing that speculation adds an incredible premium to the price of oil, but somehow that hasn't seeped into the conventional wisdom," Greenberger said. "Once you have the market dominated by speculators, what you really have is a gambling casino."
The result of a permissive US Government regulation of oil markets has created the ideal conditions whereby a handful of strategic banks and financial institutions, interestingly the same ones dominating world trade in oil derivatives and the same ones who own the shares of the major oil trading exchange in London, ICE Futures, are able to manipulate huge short-term swings in the price we pay for oil or gasoline or countless other petroleum-based products.
We are in the midst of one of those swings now, one made worse by the Israeli saber-rattling rhetoric over Iran's nuclear program.
"Abolish all taxation save that upon land values." -- Henry George
"If our nation can issue a dollar bond, it can issue a dollar bill." -- Thomas Edison
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Crude-oil prices climb further above $107/barrel
Reply #7 on:
March 19, 2012, 05:16:23 am »
Crude-oil prices climb further above $107/barrel
19 March 2012
, by V. Phani Kumar - Hong Kong (MarketWatch)
Crude-oil prices rose in electronic trading Monday amid optimism about global economic recovery and as U.S. stock index futures climbed after broad declines on Wall Street Friday
April crude-oil futures
advanced 34 cents, or 0.3%, to
$107.40 a barrel
during Asian afternoon hours, adding to Friday's $1.95 increase in a regular
New York Mercantile Exchange
May gasoline futures rose 0.3% to $3.36 per gallon and heating oil slipped 0.1% to $3.29 per gallon.
April natural gas futures added 0.3% to $2.33 per million British thermal units.
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Brent crude $123.60 and U.S. crude $105.35 a barrel now
Reply #8 on:
March 20, 2012, 01:54:58 pm »
UPDATE 10-Oil falls as Saudi Arabia seeks to calm markets
20 March 2012
, by Matthew Robinson - New York (Reuters)
* Saudi pumping 9.9 mln bpd, inventories full - Naimi
* Saudi can hike output to 12.5 mln bpd immediately-Naimi
* Germany, France say no need to tap emergency stocks
Brent crude fell
$2.11 to
$123.60 a barrel
by 1:44 p.m. EDT (1744 GMT), off earlier lows of $123.20.
U.S. crude
fell $2.74 to
$105.35 a barrel
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Brent crude $123.53 and U.S. crude $106.35 a barrel now
Reply #9 on:
March 22, 2012, 02:23:01 am »
Oil Declines as Emergency Crude Stockpile Release Studied
22 March 2012
, by Ben Sharples (Bloomberg)
Oil fell in New York for the second time in three days after France said industrialized nations are considering a release from strategic stockpiles and a report showed Chinese manufacturing may contract
Futures dropped as much as 0.9% after French Industry Minister Eric Besson said the country is "studying with its partners all possible options," including the supply of oil from emergency reserves.
Manufacturing in
, the world's second-largest oil consumer, may
decline for a fifth month in March
, according to a preliminary report today from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics.
"The big story at the moment is the Chinese slowdown, the economy slowing down there and how that'll have an effect on demand," Jonathan Barratt, chief executive of Barratt's Bulletin, a commodity markets newsletter in Sydney, said in a Bloomberg Television interview.
Crude for May delivery
slid as much as 92 cents to
$106.35 a barrel
in electronic trading on the
New York Mercantile Exchange
It was at $106.39 at 1:11 p.m. Singapore time. The contract gained $1.20 yesterday to the highest close since March 19. Prices are 7.8 percent higher this year.
Brent oil for May settlement
on the
London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange
declined as much as 67 cents, or 0.5 percent, to
$123.53 a barrel
The European benchmark contract was at a premium of $17.15 to New York futures. The difference was $16.93 yesterday, the smallest in three weeks.
An index of China's manufacturing may drop to a four-month low of 48.1 from 49.6 in February
, according to HSBC and Markit Economics.
A reading below 50 indicates contraction.
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Brent crude $123.53 and U.S. crude $105.75 a barrel now
Reply #10 on:
March 23, 2012, 04:19:20 am »
UPDATE 2-Brent holds above $123, supply worries support
23 March 2012
, by Francis Kan - Singapore (Reuters)
* Oil prices headed for weekly drop
* Brent to average $114.30 in 2012 -Reuters poll
* Major Asian buyers cut Iranian imports
* No plans to release strategic oil stocks -IEA
* Coming up: U.S. new home sales Feb; 1400 GMT (Updates prices)
Brent was steady above $123 a barrel on Friday, as the possibility of supply disruptions put a floor under a market that fell sharply in the previous session on weak manufacturing activity in China.
The potential loss of Iranian crude supplies amid tightening Western sanctions and news that the International Energy Agency (IEA) was not planning to release reserves from strategic storage as of now also supported oil markets.
"The Iran situation has a long way to run and that will keep the market tight and support crude oil," said Tony Nunan, a risk manager with Mitsubishi Corp in Tokyo. "The market had fallen enough yesterday and trading will be locked in a range for now."
Brent crude
rose 39 cents to
$123.53 a barrel
by 0758 GMT. The benchmark is set to fall 1.8 percent this week, after ending flat in the previous week.
U.S. crude
was up 40 cents at
$105.75 a barrel
, and is poised for a 1.2 percent drop this week, its second straight weekly decline.
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Oil up over 1% on report of drop in Iran exports
Reply #11 on:
March 23, 2012, 04:36:18 pm »
Oil up over 1% on report of drop in Iran exports
23 March 2012
, by Myra P. Saefong - San Francisco (MarketWatch)
Oil futures tacked on 1.5% Friday, buoyed by a report that said Iranian oil exports have fallen this month
Oil exports from Iran appear to have fallen in March by around 300,000 barrels per day, or 14%, according to a report from Reuters.
May crude
traded at
$106.87 a barrel
on the
New York Mercantile Exchange
, up $1.52. Prices posted only modest gains before the report was released.
Ahead of the close,
May Brent crude
was up $1.85, or 1.5%, to
$124.99 a barrel
ICE Futures in London
Read the full story: Oil climbs as traders gauge demand, supply outlook
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Brent crude $125.64 and U.S. crude $107.21 a barrel now
Reply #12 on:
March 27, 2012, 11:43:48 am »
OIL FUTURES: Crude Little Changed Ahead Of Fresh Data
27 March 2012
, by Dan Strumpf of Dow Jones Newswires - New York (Dow Jones)
--Crude oil flat as traders await additional guidance from data
--Monday trading volume was lowest all year
--Lack of Iran news keeps traders on sidelines
Crude-oil futures were little changed for the second straight session Tuesday, as uncertainty over Iran and forthcoming U.S. data left traders hesitant to stake big positions
Trading volumes has been thin in recent days, with Monday's trading volume in benchmark Nymex futures at the lowest level all year.
Light, sweet
crude for May delivery
rose 18 cents, or 0.2%, to
$107.21 a barrel
on the
New York Mercantile Exchange
Brent crude
on ICE Futures Europe fell 1 cent to
$125.64 a barrel
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Gasoline rose a whopping 26% quarterly
Reply #13 on:
April 01, 2012, 03:14:01 am »
UPDATE 9-Oil ends quarter up 14 pct on Iran, supply problems
30 March 2012
, by Robert Gibbons - New York (Reuters)
* Brent up 14 pct for the quarter, U.S. crude up 4%
* Obama to move forward on sanctions on Iranian oil buyers
Oil rose on Friday to post the biggest quarterly gain since the beginning of 2011 as the growing threat of a disruption of Iranian exports added to supply concerns.
Brent May crude
traded up 49 cents to settle at
$122.88 a barrel
. Prices were up $15.50 since the end of December,
the biggest quarterly rise since the first quarter of 2011
U.S. May crude
settled at
$103.02 a barrel
, up 24 cents on the day and $4.19, and
up over 4% from last quarter
Despite the quarterly gains, Brent has traded mostly between $122 and $127 a barrel over the past five weeks, as traders balance supply losses against weak demand in the West and worries about the euro zone.
U.S. gasoline futures
, which have been supported by the
shutdown of East Coast refineries
and the
rising price of crude
rose 26% for the quarter
the biggest quarterly gain since the same period in 2011
Heating oil futures were up nearly 8% in the first quarter, despite the mild winter that damped demand.
Trading was light with Brent volumes 18% below the 30-day moving average and U.S. crude 33% below average.
Oil prices got an early boost on Friday when the euro edged up against the dollar and the yen as Spain's budget boosted hopes one of the euro zone's larger economies would tighten its belt.
A weaker greenback can lift dollar-denominated oil by making it less expensive for consumers using other currencies.
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Gas in Northeast to rise 15 to 25 cents a gallon in coming weeks: analyst
Reply #14 on:
April 01, 2012, 04:46:16 am »
Gas in Northeast to rise 15 to 25 cents a gallon in coming weeks: analyst
30 March 2012
, by Steve Gelsi (MarketWatch - Blogs)
Gasoline prices continued their relentless upward move Friday, with the average retail price up about a penny in the last day to $3.93 a gallon, according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report
A month ago, gasoline cost $3.73, and a year ago in the good old days, it cost $3.61 a gallon.
The rise continues even though oil supplies in the U.S. remain plentiful.
When asked about rising gasoline prices against a glut of crude, Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information Service – the outfit that supplies the data for the AAA's daily report — said one culprit could be the more costly refining process for making summer blends of gasoline.
He noted that wholesale gasoline prices "went ballistic" in the Chicago area last week as suppliers switched to summer blends of gasoline, designed to burn more cleanly to reduce smog levels during the intense heat of May, June, July and August.
After Chicago, price jumps are likely in the Northeast, the very place where some big refineries that make summer gasoline blends have been shuttered.
Kloza figures these areas may be facing a jump of 15 to 25 cents a gallon from current levels in the coming weeks.
"Smart people have wagered bets in the futures market that this summer, gas will be in tight supply," Kloza said.
Already, U.S. officials have hinted they may tap in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which could bring short-term relief from gasoline prices ahead of this fall's presidential election.
Experts say U.S, oil reserve release possible.
In the long run, increased use of biofuel and higher fuel mileage standards for cars may ease demand for petroleum, but for now, gasoline prices seem to be headed higher — at least until the start of the summer driving season in May.
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Brent crude $123.43 and U.S. crude $103.31 a barrel now
Reply #15 on:
April 08, 2012, 10:10:03 am »
UPDATE 9-Oil rises as US data, supply fears fuel rebound
5 April 2012
, by Gene Ramos - New York (Reuters)
* U.S. jobless claims drop to near four-year low
* Iraq-Turkey pipelines shut after explosions
* Chinese insurer drops coverage for tankers with Iranian oil
* Coming up: U.S. nonfarm payrolls data for March, Friday
Oil rose on Thursday after two straight days of losses, as a drop in U.S. jobless claims to near four-year lows and fears of Iran-related supply disruptions spurred a rebound from the previous session's heavy losses
Data from the U.S. Labor Department showing first-time claims for state unemployment benefits fell to the lowest level since April 2008 gave U.S. prices an early boost, with further strength coming from short covering ahead of the three-day holiday weekend.
In recent months, new jobless claims have fallen sharply, boosting hopes that the end of a long stretch of heavy layoffs will lead to more hiring, ultimately boosting demand for motor fuel and other energy products.
Fears of supply shrinkage also helped push oil higher, highlighted by a note to clients from JPMorgan that Iran's crude oil production could fall 1 million barrels per day by the end of June to below 2.5 million bpd.
The reason is that refiners have cut oil demand from the Islamic Republic faster than previously expected, the bank said, ahead of a European Union embargo on Iranian that takes effect by July 1.
In London,
ICE Brent crude for May
delivery settled at
$123.43 per barrel
, up $1.09, climbing back from the session low of $121.82. For the week, the contract rose 55 cents, after three consecutive down weeks.
U.S. May crude
settled at
$103.31 a barrel
, gaining $1.84, after climbing to the day's high of $103.40 in a late burst of short-covering. For the week, the contract rose 29 cents, ending three successive weeks of losses.
"The move higher on crude has also liquidated the gasoline crack, which hit a high of more than $40 yesterday, but has fallen to $36.75 today," added Tony Rosado, options broker ag GA Global Markets in New York.
Brent crude's premium against U.S. crude narrowed to $20.12 at the close, after hitting $21.72 on Wednesday, the widest since October, supported by U.S. government data showing oil stockpiles at the U.S. delivery hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, rose sharply last week to hit their highest level since May 21.
Total U.S. crude oil inventories jumped by more than 16 million barrels over the past two weeks, the biggest increase since March 2001.
The rise eased concerns about supplies after a string of outages from the North Sea, South Sudan, and Syria as well as the potential loss of Iranian exports due to U.S. and EU sanctions sent Brent prices up 15% this year.
Wednesday's oil futures slumped more than 2% as a result.
"With oil falling so sharply, traders simply grabbed WTI today, but upside movements on Brent and U.S. product futures were not as strong," said Tim Evans, energy analyst at Citi Futures Perspective in New York.
"Book squaring ahead of the long weekend and short-term technical support also figured in the day's trade," Evans added.
Thursday's Brent crude trading volume was down 4% while U.S. crude dealings fell 24%, both based on their 30-day average, according to Reuters data.
In early trade, supply disruption worries lifted prices on news that a major Chinese ship insurer will halt indemnity coverage for tankers carrying Iranian oil, a move that could seriously complicate Iran's oil exports before the EU embargo comes into force.
China is the top buyer of Iranian crude and the insurance move is the first sign Chinese refiners may struggle to obtain shipping and insurance coverage the4y nee3d to keep importing from OPEC's second biggest producer.
Japanese refiners also plan to cut crude imports from Tehran yet again in April as they shy away from renewing annual contracts.
Adding to supply worries, explosions had temporarily shut on Thursday both of the pipelines bringing about a quarter of Iraq's crude exports from Kirkuk to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean.
News that a rocket fired from Egypt's Sinai desert struck the southern Israeli resort of Eilat on Thursday also fuelled the early rise in oil prices, traders said.
"Geopolitical and supply risk worries are pushing oil prices higher ahead of a three-day holiday weekend," said Gene McGillian, analyst at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.
A report that Royal Dutch Shell will cut production from the Mars field, a major supplier of sour crude from the Gulf of Mexico, according to trading sources, also added to supply uncertainties, particularly for U.S. crude.
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Webster Tarpley's World Crisis Radio about Oil Prices - Audio
Reply #16 on:
April 08, 2012, 04:55:36 pm »
Webster Tarpley's World Crisis Radio about Oil Prices
7 April 2012 - Audio
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Brent crude $118.78 and U.S. crude $104.20 a barrel now
Reply #17 on:
April 17, 2012, 04:37:01 pm »
UPDATE 9-US crude jumps, Brent lags, spread narrows
17 April 2012
, by Robert Gibbons - New York (Reuters)
Brent June crude
edged up 10 cents to
$118.78 a barrel
, having swung between $117.98 and $119.34.
U.S. May crude futures
rose $1.27 to settle at
$104.20 a barrel
, the highest close since April 2, after reaching $105.07. The May contract expires on Friday.
The spread unwinding came as total Brent crude trading volume slightly outpaced U.S. crude turnover. Volume was above the 30-day average for both contracts.
"The Brent-WTI unwind is the primary feature today," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC.
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Crude-oil supplies rose 3.4 mln barrels, API says
Reply #18 on:
April 18, 2012, 07:01:20 am »
Crude-oil supplies rose 3.4 mln barrels, API says
17 April 2012
, by Myra P. Saefong - San Francisco (MarketWatch)
The American Petroleum Institute reported late Tuesday that crude-oil supplies rose by 3.4 million barrels for the week ended April 13
Gasoline inventories fell by 2.6 million barrels, while distillate inventories were 2.4 million barrels lower, the trade group said.
The API data come ahead of the more closely-watched U.S. Energy Information Administration report due Wednesday morning.
Analysts polled by Platts expect data to show a rise of 400,000 barrels in crude stockpiles and an increase of 140,000 barrels in gasoline supplies.
Distillate stocks are expected to be unchanged. Ahead of the API data,
May crude
settled at
$104.20 a barrel
, up $1.27 or 1.2%.
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Brent crude $118.49 and U.S. crude $102.58 a barrel now
Reply #19 on:
April 19, 2012, 08:36:26 am »
UPDATE 5-Oil rises on risk outlook, Spain auction
19 April 2012
, by Simon Falush - London (Reuters)
Brent June crude
gained 52 cents to
$118.49 a barrel
at 1240 GMT after hitting $116.70 in the previous session, its lowest in more than two months.
U.S. May crude
fell 9 cents to
$102.58 a barrel
, after falling more than a dollar in the previous session. The May contract expires on Friday.
Like the Arabs said $100 oil is the new normal so it only can go higher not lower – not below $100.
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More managers trim bets oil futures will go lower
Reply #20 on:
April 20, 2012, 04:43:12 pm »
More managers trim bets oil futures will go lower
20 April 2012
, by Claudia Assis - San Francisco (MarketWatch)
With more managers reducing bets oil futures will go lower, the tide may be turning for oil, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission late Friday
Money managers's bets prices will go higher, or "longs," declined by nearly 3,850 positions, whereas opposite bets, or "shorts," declined by a little over 11,300.
"Short" positions had declined 8,300 positions last week.
Oil ended 0.8% higher on Friday at
$103.05 a barrel
on the
New York Mercantile Exchange
, but prices only added 0.2% on the week.
Brent crude $118.85 and U.S. crude $103.05 a barrel now
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Brent crude $118.59 and U.S. crude $102.97 a barrel now
Reply #21 on:
April 24, 2012, 01:53:22 am »
Brent crude
U.S. crude
$103.03 a barrel now
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Brent crude steady under $119; Europe, Iran eyed
24 April 2012
, by Luke Pachymuthu (Reuters)
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Weekly U.S. crude stockpiles up 4 million barrels
Reply #22 on:
April 25, 2012, 03:34:34 pm »
Weekly U.S. crude stockpiles up 4 million barrels
25 April 2012
, by Jerry A. DiColo - New York (MarketWatch)
U.S. crude inventories rose by more than analysts' expectations last week, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Crude oil stockpiles rose 4 million barrels to 373 million barrels, compared with an average survey estimate calling for a 1.9-million-barrel increase.
The American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, reported a 985,000-barrel draw in its weekly report released late Tuesday.
Gasoline stockpiles fell by 2.2 million barrels to 211.7 million barrels, the department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report, compared with a 1-million-barrel drop forecast in a Dow Jones Newswires survey of analysts.
Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, fell 3.1 million barrels to 125.9 million barrels, compared with analysts' forecast of a 100,000-barrel increase.
Refining capacity utilization rose 0.1 percentage point to 84.7%. Analysts had expected a 0.5 percentage point rise.
API pegged refinery utilization at 82.9% last week, up from 82.3%. The industry group reported stockpiles of gasoline fell by 3.643 million barrels and distillates fell by 3.561 million barrels.
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Brent crude $119.04 and U.S. crude $104.07 a barrel now
Reply #23 on:
April 25, 2012, 03:44:26 pm »
Brent crude $119.01 and U.S. crude $104.07 a barrel now
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Oil edges up, shakes off post-Fed weakness
25 April 2012
, by Claudia Assis and Michael Kitchen - San Francisco (MarketWatch)
Demand for oil and other energy products
continued to be weak, a tad lower on the week and
down 3.2% on the year
, said Tim Evans, an analyst with Citigroup's Citi Futures Perspective, in a note to clients.
Long term, Citi analysts said
market sentiment toward crude and the wider petroleum market is "
robustly bullish
Our base case assumptions for the second half of the year include both
stronger seasonal demand and
lower [Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries] production
," they said.
This would be consistent with either a scenario where Iranian production declines moderately, or one where Iranian production stabilizes but
OPEC production is reduced
to help limit a drop in price on an easing of tensions
," Citi said.
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BASF CEO doesn't expect oil price to drop
Reply #24 on:
April 27, 2012, 04:35:03 pm »
BASF CEO doesn't expect oil price to drop
27 April 2012
, by Heide Oberhauser-Aslan - Frankfurt (MarketWatch)
German chemical company BASF SE doesn't expect oil prices to fall in the foreseeable future, Chief Executive Kurt Bock said Friday
BASF expects prices to remain high, and possibly even to rise, depending on political developments in the Middle East, he said at the firm's annual general meeting.
Whether the company can pass on higher costs to customers will depend on how the economy develops, he said, adding this was only partially possible in the first quarter because of increased customer caution in several markets.
BASF's full-year forecasts are based on a Brent oil price estimate of $100 per barrel.
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Brent crude $119.70 and U.S. crude $104.77 a barrel now
Reply #25 on:
April 27, 2012, 04:36:48 pm »
Brent crude $119.70 and U.S. crude $104.70 a barrel now
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OPEC oil output at highest level since 2008
Reply #26 on:
May 01, 2012, 12:10:56 am »
OPEC oil output at highest level since 2008
30 April 2012
, by Myra Saefong (MarketWatch - Blogs)
Oil production from Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has climbed back to levels not seen since 2008, as Iranian supplies drop to their lowest since 1990, according to a report Monday
April oil output from the 12-member OPEC averaged 31.75 million barrels per day, up from a revised 31.32 million, a Reuters survey of oil companies, OPEC officials and analysts released Monday showed, pegging it as the highest since September 2008.
The biggest supply increase came from Iraq, with production topping 3 million barrels per day, up 230,000 barrels per day from last month, the survey showed.
Meanwhile, industry sources outside of Iran indicated that output there fell to 3.15 million barrels per day in April, which would be the lowest Iranian output since 1990, the survey said, citing data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The European Union announced an embargo on Iran in January that will take effect this summer.
"Most European imports have stopped or will by the end of June," said James Williams, an energy economist at WTRG Economics, in his latest report.
The fall in Iranian supply comes with spare oil production capacity in OPEC on the decline.
The EIA estimates OPEC spare capacity at near 2.5 million barrels per day, down about 1 million from last year, Williams said, adding that there is no spare capacity outside of OPEC.
Iran has the capacity to export 2.2 million barrels per day and a "total halt" to Iranian exports would bring spare capacity below half a million barrels per day, he said.
Still Brent crude $119.19 and U.S. crude $104.70 a barrel now
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Oil trades at best in five weeks after ISM - Traders await for inventories data
Reply #27 on:
May 01, 2012, 12:53:18 pm »
Oil trades at best in five weeks after ISM - Traders await for inventories data
30 April 2012
, by Claudia Assis and Virginia Harrison - San Francisco (MarketWatch)
Crude-oil futures turned higher Tuesday and shot to their highest in five weeks after data showed
U.S. manufacturing expanding at a modestly faster pace in April
Crude for June delivery gained $1.16, or 1.1%, to $106.04 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. A close along these lines would be oil's highest since late March.
Oil gathered steam after the Institute for Supply Management's index showed U.S. manufacturing expanding in April. The index climbed to 54.8% last month, from 53.4% in March.
Analysts polled by MarketWatch had expected the index a decline to 53.3%.
First it was the bad news driving oil (keywords: Iran, boycot, oil shortages) now it's the ' good news' that's driving oil (Keyword: ISM – Institute of Supply Management).
So either way, explained away why oil prices should rise bad or good news. How convenient.
Definition of 'ISM Manufacturing Index'
An index based on surveys of more than 300 manufacturing firms by the Institute of Supply Management.
The ISM Manufacturing Index monitors employment, production inventories, new orders and supplier deliveries.
A composite diffusion index is created that monitors conditions in national manufacturing based on the data from these surveys.
Investopedia explains 'ISM Manufacturing Index'
By monitoring the ISM Manufacturing Index, investors are able to better understand national economic conditions.
When this index is increasing, investors can assume that the stock markets should increase because of higher corporate profits.
The opposite can be thought of the bond markets, which may decrease as the ISM Manufacturing Index increases because of sensitivity to potential inflation
Still Brent crude $119.70 and U.S. crude $106.36 a barrel now
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OPEC ups April output despite Iran's 20-year low
Reply #28 on:
May 02, 2012, 10:36:55 am »
OPEC ups April output despite Iran's 20-year low
2 May 2012
, by Benoit Faucon - London (MarketWatch)
OPEC's crude-oil output kept rising in April, as Iraq offset Iran's production decline to a 20-year low, according to a Dow Jones survey
Crude production from the 12 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was up by 115,000 barrels a day from March, at 31.820 million barrels a day, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey of industry sources and analysts.
The increase came despite Iran's production declining to its lowest level since 1990, at 3.2 million barrels a day, according to data from Vienna-based JBC Energy GmbH.
The Islamic Republic's oil sector is being hit by a combination of sanctions targeting both its fields and exports.
But other OPEC producers in the Persian Gulf have been able to offset the Iranian decline.
Iraq has reached its highest production in 20 years, at 3.060 million barrels a day, after opening a second offshore export terminal.
On a monthly basis, Iraqi production was up 193,000 barrels a day, the survey shows.
Dow Jones Newswires assesses OPEC output from data supplied by primary sources, traders and analysts. Totals may not add due to independent rounding of numbers.
At its Dec. 14, 2011, meeting in Vienna,
OPEC agreed a new production ceiling of 30 million barrels a day applying to all members
but without individual quotas for each country
The new ceiling takes effect from January
Still Brent crude $119.02 and U.S. crude $105.41 a barrel now
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Oil supplies up by 2.04 million barrels, API says
Reply #29 on:
May 03, 2012, 05:55:10 am »
Oil supplies up by 2.04 million barrels, API says
1 May 2012
, by Claudia Assis - San Francisco (MarketWatch)
Crude-oil inventories rose 2.04 million barrels on the week ended April 27, a trade group said late Tuesday
The American Petroleum Institute also reported that
gasoline stockpiles declined 3.9 million barrels
, and
inventories of distillates were down 4.2 million barrels
on the week.
The API report comes ahead of the more closely watched official data from the Department of Energy, due on Wednesday.
Analysts polled by Platts expect crude inventories to rise 2.5 million barrels, gasoline stockpiles down 1 million barrels, and inventories of distillates down 400,000 barrels.
Oil rallied Tuesday, with the June contract settling at a five-week high of $106.16 a barrel after positive U.S. manufacturing data.
Still Brent crude $117.75 and U.S. crude $104.88 a barrel now
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OPEC wants to push oil down to $100/bbl: Chief
Reply #30 on:
May 03, 2012, 06:51:10 am »
OPEC wants to push oil down to $100/bbl: Chief
3 May 2012
, by Benoit Faucon - Paris (MarketWatch)
OPEC wants to push oil prices back down to $100 a barrel by boosting production as it fears demand destruction, the group's chief said Thursday.
The shift in policy by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may help further relieve prices that have already eased amid brimming inventories.
Speaking at an energy conference in Paris, OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem el-Badri said: "We are trying to bring the price down."
"We are not happy" with prices at $110-$130 a barrel, el-Badri said.
"There will be destruction as far as demand is concerned."
Instead, he said OPEC wants prices at "$100, which is good for producers and consumers."
El-Badri said OPEC production increased to 32 million barrels a day in March, two million barrels a day higher than the ceiling agreed by the group in December.
OPEC chief worried about 'patchy' global growth
3 May 2012
, Paris (MarketWatch)
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries remain worried about uncertain global economic growth, its head said Thursday, as oil market concerns shift from supply to demand
Speaking at a Paris energy conference, Abdalla Salem el-Badri said:
"As we head into the second half, there remain many concerns for the market...global economic growth remains patchy."
Oil prices have eased recently as ample Gulf supply relieved markets rattled by fears of disruption to Iranian flows.
But market participants are now getting worried the economy may not be able to absorb current oil production.
Fresh data from the euro-zone countries this week showed the manufacturing sector shrank in April at the fastest pace in nearly three years.
March unemployment in the euro zone tied the record high hit 15 years earlier.
"The euro zone continues to struggle with sovereign debt issues," el-Badri said.
There are also questions on whether problems in industrialized nations could spill over to developing economies if they cut investment or imports, he said.
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Total CEO sees no short-term relief for oil prices, World energy demand growing
Reply #31 on:
May 03, 2012, 06:55:58 am »
Total CEO sees no short-term relief for oil prices
3 May 2012
, by Geraldine Amiel - Paris (MarketWatch)
There are no short term measures that could address the current strength in oil prices, French oil major Total SA's Chairman and Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie said Thursday
Asked about a potential use of strategic oil reserves, de Margerie declined to comment.
Earlier Thursday Maria Van Der Hoeven, executive director of the International Energy Agency, said the organization "stands ready to act if there is a major disruption" and alternatives aren't available.
Eric Besson, France's energy minister, also said "we are ready to intervene if necessary."
De Margerie said that unless geopolitical tensions abate around the world, and notably in the Middle East, "prices will remain too high."
In spite of several attacks over the past two months, which left one of its employees and one local soldier dead, Total remains committed to develop Yemen's gas field, de Margerie also said, adding he hopes a solution would be soon found to avoid Total's employees from being exposed to attacks.
As for the next Iraqi exploration round, de Margerie said he was still waiting to see the documents before reaching a decision on whether to bid.
Total CEO sees world energy demand growing
3 May 2012
, by Geraldine Amiel - Paris (MarketWatch)
World energy demand should grow 25% by 2030, mostly supported by the needs of emerging markets, French oil major Total SA's Chairman and Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie said Thursday
Speaking at a Paris energy conference, de Margerie said that global oil production should increase to around 96 million barrels a day by 2020-2030, noting that fossil energies should still represent 76% of supply in 2030, in spite of the increasing tap into renewable sources.
As oil prices remain high, large investments are required to keep finding new reserves, to develop more fields even in extreme conditions, de Margerie also said.
"There are plenty of extra reserves on this planet," he insisted.
Still Brent crude $117.87 and U.S. crude $104.75 a barrel now
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Oil consumers ready to tap stockpiles if needed
Reply #32 on:
May 03, 2012, 07:04:46 am »
Oil consumers ready to tap stockpiles if needed
3 May 2012
, by Benoit Faucon - Paris (MarketWatch)
Oil consumers could still tap into strategic stockpiles if needed, top energy officials said Thursday, after the scenario appear to lose momentum in the past month
Speaking at a Paris energy conference, Maria Van Der Hoeven, executive director of the International Energy Agency, said the organization "stands ready to act if there is a major disruption" and alternatives aren't available.
Eric Besson, France's industry minister who is in charge of energy policy, said: "We are ready to intervene if necessary."
The scenario gathered steam in March when the U.S., U.K. and French governments said they were looking at releasing some of their strategic reserves, amid mounting fears over loss if supply from Iran.
But the plan lost some of its momentum.
Gulf producers boosted output and filled up commercial inventories while an adviser to Francois Hollande, seen as the likely winner in French presidential election, says he opposes such measure.
Van Der Hoeven, whose organization represents some of the world's largest consumers, said a release should only be used as a last resort.
"We can use the bridge only once," she said.
Posts: 58,615
Know Thyself
Re: Still Brent crude $117.87 and U.S. crude $104.75 a barrel now
Reply #33 on:
May 04, 2012, 06:44:49 pm »
Brent crude $116.18 and U.S. crude $102.71 a barrel now
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Posts: 58,615
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Citigroup's Morse Sees Brent Crude Oil Rising to $130 - Vid
Reply #34 on:
May 05, 2012, 09:47:54 am »
Citigroup's Morse Sees Crude Oil Rising to $130
May 4
(Bloomberg) -- Edward Morse, global head of commodities research at Citigroup Inc. , talks about the outlook for oil markets and his investment strategy.
He speaks with Trish Regan and Adam Johnson on Bloomberg Television's "Street Smart." Jason Schenker, president of Prestige Economics LLC, also speaks. (Source: Bloomberg)
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Money managers add to bets oil will go higher
Reply #35 on:
May 05, 2012, 03:26:25 pm »
Money managers add to bets oil will go higher
4 May 2012
, by Claudia Assis - San Francisco (MarketWatch)
Money managers beefed up their bets oil futures would go higher just before the big price drop this week, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission out late Friday showed
Open interest in crude also rose nearly 4%.
The managers added 22,302 contracts in new "long" positions to nearly 220,000 contracts in net long positions.
They reduced "short" positions, or bets prices will go lower, by about 1,100.
The data is to Tuesday, and oil started its downward spiral on Wednesday.
June futures ended 6.1% lower on the week at $98.49 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest in 12 weeks.
Brent crude $113.20 and U.S. crude $98.52 a barrel now
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Kuwait Petroleum to boost oil, gas output - Leak in Shell Nigerian pipeline
Reply #36 on:
May 07, 2012, 08:17:41 pm »
Kuwait Petroleum to boost oil, gas output
7 May 2012
, by Summer Said - Riyadh (Zawya Dow Jones - MarketWatch)
Kuwait Gulf Oil Co. plans to increase its oil production by 100,000 barrels a day to 350,000 barrels a day by 2014-15, state-run Kuwait News Agency, or KUNA, reports Monday, citing the company's chairman and managing director
The unit of Kuwait Petroleum Corp. is also aiming to increase gas extracted from oil fields to 500 million feet during the same period, Hashem al-Rifaee said, without giving comparative figures, according to KUNA.
KGOC's target is part of KPC's plan to raise OPEC member Kuwait's output to 4 million barrels a day from the current 3 million barrels a day by 2020.
The firm is also involved in several exploration and development ventures for the extraction and treatment of oil-linked gas as part of a wider plan to secure 400 million cubic feet of gas by 2020 and 500 million cubic feet by 2030, he added.
Leak reported in Shell Nigerian pipeline
7 May 2012
, by Alexis Flynn - London (MarketWatch)
A leak on Royal Dutch Shell PLC's Bomu-Bonny oil pipeline in Nigeria has been spilling around 150 liters of crude oil a minute since Monday morning, a local community member said
"Another serious oil spill occurred four hours ago on the pipeline, approximately 200 meters south of the Bomu manifold. About 150 liters of oil is oozing out every minute," said the community member Monday.
The manifold is located on the Bomu-Bonny Trans-Niger pipeline, which normally carries around 120,000 barrels a day. It is unclear if oil transit has been disrupted by attempts to stop the leak.
Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd. is "investigating reports of a leak on a section of the Trans-Niger Pipeline at K-Dere in Ogoniland," a Shell spokesman said.
According to the community member, an SPDC remediation team working in the area has arrived at the scene to address the leak.
Brent crude $113.33 and U.S. crude $97.75 a barrel now
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ICE reports record volume in Brent oil options
Reply #37 on:
May 26, 2012, 12:55:21 am »
ICE reports record volume in Brent oil options
25 May 2012
, by Steve Gelsi - New York (MarketWatch)
IntercontinentalExchange Inc. said it recorded record volume in ICE Brent Crude options of 78,508 contracts on Thursday
The volume level broke the old record of 63,494 on May 2.
The regulated futures exchange, which also handles transactions for clearing houses and over-the-counter markets, said growth in trading in Brent crude has been driven by "rising demand for risk management in regulated energy futures markets."
In recent trades on Friday, Brent Crude rose 45 cents to $107 a barrel.
Brent crude $106.90 and U.S. crude $90.74 a barrel now
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European oil companies face hurdles with Iran ban
Reply #38 on:
May 26, 2012, 01:00:07 am »
European oil companies face hurdles with Iran ban
25 May 2012
, by Gurdeep Singh - Singapore (MarketWatch)
-- EU's Iran sanctions, trading system, may leave companies vulnerable
-- No way to determine if oil offered in Platts window is Iranian
-- Traders contend embargo on blended Iranian fuel tough to implement
A European Union ban on Iran's oil from July could have major consequences for European oil companies in Asia, as little-understood provisions in the sanctions law could see them facing investigation despite their best efforts to stay legal
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Brent crude $97.34 and U.S. crude $83.47 a barrel now
Reply #39 on:
July 02, 2012, 03:20:08 pm »
Brent crude $97.34 and U.S. crude $83.47 a barrel now
Time to keep an eye on oil prices again.
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hi all! this is my first post here at textkit. i am planning to study white's first greek book shortly, and i am glad there is a forum that will help me out!
i have noticed in reading some of the topics here that the greek words are all jumbled up. i suspect you guys are using a greek font of some sort. where can i get the font so that i can read the words properly? thanks for the help!


text:
Bombing victim Marc Fucarile's recovery
Bombing victim Marc Fucarile's recovery
Jen Regan, fiancee of Marathon bomb victim Marc Fucarile, stroked his forehead at Massachusetts General Hospital.
BBs show up in an X-ray of Fucarile, who lost his right leg in the bombing and severely damaged the left leg.
Fucarile's grandmother, Mabel Callahan, visited him in the hospital.
Members of Fucarile's family were anxious after Dr. Jeremy Goverman emerged from the operating room following Marc's latest of numerous surgeries.
Marc Fucarile is the lone bombing victim still at Massachusetts General Hospital.
A bulletin board shows messages of support and well wishes for Fucarile.
Fucarile, who has had seven operations, took pain medication in his hospital bed.
Fucarile's older brother, Eddie Fucarile, sister Stephanie Baron, and fiance Jen Regan talked to a doctor.
Ed Fucarile, Marc's father, stood in the doorway of Marc's hospital room.


text:
SOME dates need a dose of creativity. So we sent Tim and Winnie, both 26, to SoHo's Cupping Room Cafe for Paint Nite NYC. While sipping cocktails, artist Nick Pappalardo helped Tim and Winnie create their own pieces of art fit to hang in their respective places. But did they see more than meets the eye in each other?
He said:
Winnie showed up 10 minutes late, but she was cute with an energetic and witty personality. Both of us were probably overdressed for painting but that happens in NYC.
We talked about how we like to go out and dance and karaoke. We also bonded over Sandy survival stories.
The painting class was an entertaining and light atmosphere. We shared laughs over her thinking the water brush cup was for drinking and me spilling mine. But we both were surprised and happy with the result of our paintings.
Winnie was fun and not afraid to laugh at herself…or me. I always enjoy meeting new people so I think we're open to the idea of hanging out again in the future.
She said:
Just as I sat down, the painting class started. I noticed Tim looked quite spiffy in what he wore from work. I like a man in a suit.
When we began making our masterpieces we joked about getting in touch with our inner-artistes. Tim was easy to talk to. He joked about things from politics to Justin Bieber.
We both had awkward moments with the paint water cups. Me, mistaking it for actual water; Tim knocking his over. We were hot messes, but made up for it with good conversation.
Paint Nite NYC at the Cupping Room Cafe was a great first-date spot. We had a great time, so we exchanged numbers. I hope to see Tim soon.
Let The Post hook you up andsend you out! Sent an e-mail tofor details.


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1987, some like-minded Rogues had an idea to start a "Brew Pub". The next year, a Revolution in beer began in the basement of the Rogue Public House in Ashland, Oregon. The Brewery and Pub opened in October 1988 with the brewery housed beneath a 60 seat Pub. The first beers brewed were American Amber and Oregon Golden.
The brew pub was located in a very pretty and scenic location along a little stream called Lithia Creek. The beer flowed freely and soon Rogue began to seek new land upon which it could grow the Revolution.
In early February 1989, one of Rogue's founders wandered to Newport in search of the perfect place for another Rogue pub. A terrible and unusual snowstorm struck and our founder was stranded in Newport along its Historic Bay Front. He walked the streets and happened upon Mohava Niemi, founder of Mo's Restaurants. Mo extended her signature hospitality, welcoming him to the city with a her famous clam chowder. Over a bowl, Mo shared her dream of living above a bar and described the perfect spot for the next Rogue Ales Brew Pub. Mo had a large building that sported three apartments upstairs, a sweater shop, an art gallery, 1,100 sq. ft. of empty storefront, and an 800 sq. ft. garage that was used to store antique cars.
offered the vacant space and the garage at a very generous price, under two stipulations:
"Feed the Fishermen" Mo's way of saying give back to the local community
Forever display a memorable picture of Mo (it's still there today to the left of the bar)
onstruction began immediately on Rogue's Bayfront Brew Pub. Moving a step up in the world, our brewery, which began in a basement in Ashland, was now operating from a garage in Newport. The front of the house was readied.
A short three months later, in May of 1989, John Maier joined Rogue. A Seibel Institute graduate, John's career prior to brewing for Rogue was engineering. He was a Senior Technician with Hughes Aircraft Co. in El Segundo, CA. for over a decade.
Rogue's Bayfront Pub opened in May of 1989, with a small but enthusiastic crowd, made up of curious locals who dropped by to see what was happening…and then never left. Many of our first patrons were like family – helping with construction, building a community and participating in projects as needed. The names of many of these early pub-goers have been immortalized with brass plaques that grace the bar today. One of our most notable Rogue patrons was Chuck Linquist. Chuck was retired and had a lifetime love of beer. Chuck crafted the shelves that line the bar area, installed our light sconces and bequeathed most of the memorabelia that rests along the shelf above Mo's picture at the bar.
So begins the story of Rogue Ales, enjoy!
ogue is a small revolution, which expresses itself through handcrafted Ales, Porters, Stouts, Lagers and Spirits, and this is the way we conduct our business. The spirit of the Rogue brand, even the name, suggests doing things differently, a desire and a willingness to change the status quo. A Rogue Ale, Porter, Stout, Lager or Spirit is crafted to give it unique character, innovative in its makeup and brewing, a process that has not compromised quality. We believe if a Rogue Ale, Porter, Stout, Lager or Spirit cannot be all of these things, it should not be made at all.
We do what we do to become a meaningful industry leader through the products we create and by building an organization that is successful without being big, bureaucratic, or common. To be a leader doesn't mean you have to be the biggest. The best leaders lead by example and by doing things the right way, even if it means going against the grain. Rogue will stand up to the big guy trying to bully his way into whatever business or territory he wants. Rogue will be David, only this David doesn't really care if the stone hits the giant or not. Just the idea of throwing the stone is exciting. We make products for the connoisseur, the entrepreneur, and the revolutionist.
Over time Rogue has developed principles to guide what it considers to be a revolution in fermentation. The principles start with six statements known as Rogue's "Fundamental Agreement."
The way ahead is clear.
Be honest about the battlefield.
Throw out the old rules that don't make sense.
Get out of the comfort zone.
Go to the front of the fight and stay there.
And most important, cut out all the B.S.
Behavior principles based on the Fundamental Agreement were developed and dubbed
"The Rogue Way."
Listen generously.
Speak straight.
Be there for each other.
Honor commitments.
Give acknowledgement/appreciation.
It requires working with the best, whether it's hops, malts, yeast, water, or people.
To brew the finest varietal ales & spirits in the world with an uncompromising devotion to Quality and the Art of Brewing.
To present the finished work with a touch of educational, entertaining mischief.
To be dedicated to the Rogue in each of us.
To remember it is not simply a matter of profit but a highly personal work of art.
To build relationships, not just ales.
To be like great friends and remember it's what's inside that counts.


text:
Dec 7 (Reuters) - Insurer American International Group Inc on Friday said it expects after-tax losses of at least $1.3 billion from Superstorm Sandy, a much bigger hit than some of its largest peers have reported.
The figure is double what Travelers Cos Inc said it expected to lose from Sandy and 20 percent more than Allstate Corp forecast for its losses.
AIG said the loss, which is net of reinsurance recoveries, would be reflected in the fourth quarter. The company will contribute $1 billion from existing funds to its U.S. property insurance subsidiaries to help cover the losses.
Sandy, which struck the Northeast region on Oct. 29, is expected ultimately to be the second-costliest catastrophe in U.S. history, with insured loss estimates as high as $25 billion. The costliest catastrophe was Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
AIG shares fell 1.2 percent to $33.72 in after-hours trading.


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How would you discipline a child? Likely the last thing that comes to mind is shackling them to a pole or a rail. Shockingly, that is how an alternative school in Mississippi's second-largest school district had been dealing with problematic students, reports The Washington Post.
"We have some students who have gone on record to say it's happened to them three or four days in a row," said Jody Owens, director of the Mississippi office of the Southern Poverty Law Center which had filed a law suit against the district for these extreme disciplining tactics. "We know there are some students who actually had to eat their lunch with one hand handcuffed to a railing," she added.
Plus: Kindergartener Arrested, Handcuffed for Temper Tantrum
The principal of the school in question has argued that they handcuffed students for their own safety. But after a settlement with the Southern Poverty Law Center, district employees will no longer be permitted to handcuff students younger than 13 while older students may be handcuffed only for crimes (add this to the list of surprising things that actually required a law to prevent!). Fixed restraints—shackling a student to an object such as a railing, a pole, a desk or a chair—have been expressly forbidden and the principal and vice principal risk being fired if this method is used. The district has also agreed to record any instance where restraints are used
Plus: 8 Discipline Mistakes Parents Make
According to a report from the U.S. Department of Education, tens of thousands of students were strapped down or physically restrained at school in 2009 to 2010. 70 percent of them were disabled. Advocates for disabled students say restraints are often abused and can cause injury, or even death. Mississippi is one of 13 states with no statewide rules governing restraints and there are presently no federal standards.
Do you think restraining a student is ever acceptable?


text:
I kept thinking Saturday afternoon about a line from an old Clint Eastwood movie. It was one of his Dirty Harry episodes, Magnum Force, a shoot-em up, about a group of vigilante motorcycle policemen who rode the streets of San Francisco killing people who they deemed guilty of some heinous crime.
The leader of this rogue band of policemen, who never got his hands dirty and never straddled a Harley, kept reminding Dirty Harry that, "A man's gotta know his limitations."
I am usually cognizant of that bit of wisdom as I contemplate taking on a task around the house for which I have no training and most likely also lack the proper tools to accomplish. Against all my best instincts and in spite of many experiences that ended badly, I decided Saturday to take on the chore of repairing the irrigation system backflow prevention valve, which was broken back in December as we were hanging Christmas lights on the shrubbery. And no, I was not the culprit who grabbed the PVC pipe and snapped it off at ground level. I will not rat out the culprit, however. She knows who she is.
I had intended to call a plumber. But several neighbors informed me that the job was a snap. I figured I was a fairly intelligent person—you can see where this is going, right?—and should be able to handle a job as simple as cutting a few pieces of PVC pipe and then gluing them together. The sales person at the "fix it on your own" store assured me that, yes, even an English major could repair PVC pipe breaks.
I did admit to him that my plumbing skills were suspect, although I did spend an entire summer working for a plumbing company installing sewer lines for a hospital. Mostly, I dug ditches. And the only things I really learned were new vocabulary words, none of which I can use in anything I ever write.
So the sales guy loaded me up with pipe, glue, primer, couplings, and a PVC pipe cutting tool, which is pretty neat. Now, I can fix this mess, I thought. "A man's gotta know his limitations," did not occur to me at the time.
If you are enjoying reading this article, please check out Southwest Farm Press Daily and receive the latest news right to your inbox.
I surveyed the break. I measured. I measured again. I cut the pipe. Then I measured again and cut another piece of pipe I hoped would fit since I had a limited amount of pipe. I followed the directions on the primer and glue cans to the letter. Apply the purple stuff—primer—and then apply an ample amount of glue and quickly put the pieces together. I did all that. It looked good—straight, tight joints.
"Wait two hours," the glue instructions recommended. I waited three, just to be on the safe side, before I removed the cover to the water cut-off valve and turned it to open.
Somewhere in Yellowstone Park, Old Faithful turned green with envy of the geyser that shot out of the base of the valve, where milliseconds before a connection had come unglued. In fact, all the connections had come unglued. The entire repair simply blew apart and in the process broke another pipe that had previously been undamaged.
Texas A&M Decision Aid to offer farm program analysis
As I wiped water from my face I could do nothing but laugh. "A man's gotta know his limitations," I thought. Monday, I'm calling a plumber.
Also of interest:
Lessons to learn before I hit 65
COTTON SPIN: Recent influence of fund sector on cotton prices


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