Oil May Stay High
The government’s energy forecasting agency looked at the big question of whether oil prices will fall due to a slowing economy and came up with a big shrug of the shoulders. However, at the same time the Energy Information Administration’s economists were avoiding predictions, the same agency’s weekly report on petroleum inventories were telling a pretty stark story. Crude oil stocks jumped 7 million barrels last week, nearly triple what analysts expected. Even the inventories of distillates, which include both heating oil and diesel fuel, rose by 100,000; analysts thought they would fall by 1.8 million barrels, following their usual pattern of winter decline. If the stocks are building at a high rate, market analysts believe that means demand is weakening, and that caused the price of oil to drop to $87.14. We’ll see if that trend continues and leads to lower pump prices in the weeks ahead, instead of the same kind of spring run-up we’ve seen for several years.
One person who thinks that a recession will ease prices this year and possibly next year is Charles T. Maxwell, senior energy analyst of Weeden & Co., who has been watching the oil market’s ups and downs from Wall Street for 40 years. EnergyTechStocks.com has this interview with the dean of energy analysts, in which he explains that the fall in demand and prices we are likely to see will be only a prelude to a global nightmare scenario of scarcity that will begin in 2010.
Tools: 
Share
|
| Comments (1)
Reader Comments
Add your thoughts
Your comment will be posted immediately, unless it is spam or contains profanity. For more information, please see our comment guidelines.advertisement
Oil prices at the pump
The Oil Oligarchies of the world need to stop being so greedy. This game was never about who could make the most money of the oil. I don't have a problem with fair profit, but when a company like Exxon/Mobil and other Oligarchies like them can post record never seen before "PROFITS" there is something seriously wrong and the powers and responsibilities are being abused in this country. I just wish more people would wake up and smell the coffee. Why doesn't congress start a full scale investigation on them? Why doesn't Exxon come clean with it's business strategies. Why do we have to stay stuck in this Katrina Syndrome of purposely holding back the oil reserves to make Wall Street think there really is a shortage. The #'s have gone so far in so many different directions that no one knows what to believe anymore. There is gonna come a point when people just can't pay for gas/oil for their cars anymore. I work in Transportation sector (truck dispatch) and the drivers are really feeling it already. Many simply won't even leave the house now. There has always been competition for pricing on loads from customers, but there is down right piracy right now. Some companies literally attempting to put themselves out of business in order to move a load today only, not caring what happens tomorrow. They will underbid a load from another carrier. The recession is bad enough, but couple w/that high gas prices and you have a recipe for disaster. High fuel prices are also driving people to look for other means like Ethanol which science has proven will have very bad and detrimental effects on both our economy and our enviroment. The big wigs at Exxon and the other Oligarchies don't care about this. They keep refineries in repair mode (shutdown mode) so it keeps the inventories for refined fuel low, which keeps their profits higher. There is even websites out there on how to take oil from McDonalds and process it into Diesel fuel for cripes sake...! "Gee where is the French Fry?" as the next truck drives by...
The greed in this world (our society) will be our downfall. Taxation w/o representation, everyone charging it all back to the end consumer. This bathtub is running out of water people and sooner or later it will be all gone. I'm not an economist or financial planner, but I do know when things are hitting rock bottom as do many people around me. There are so many effects around us from inflation and taxation, all you have to do is open your eyes.
I wish our society alot of luck since it can't wake up and smell the coffee....
Feb 11, 2008 19:21:09 PM [permalink] [report comment]