Crude oil soars to record ( US$44 )

[TrueStory]

CRUDE oil prices soared to a record high above $US44 a barrel today after OPEC said it could not immediately boost production.

The rise in prices was also fuelled by fears of terrorist attacks in the United States, disruptions to Iraqi crude exports, and uncertainty over the fate of troubled Russian oil giant Yukos.
The September light sweet crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose US$0.42 about 0700 GMT (1600 AEST) to trade at $US44.24 a barrel - the highest level since crude futures began trading on Nymex in 1983.

Since June, oil prices have leapt to record levels, but Tuesday was the first time prices breached the $US44 a barrel barrier.

Today, the president of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries said the cartel could not immediately increase output to help bring prices down.


http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,10335266%255E1702,00.html

The same story on Toronto Star, more explanation:

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1091484609257&call_pageid=968350072197&col=969048863851

[dbt]

1. Gasoline prices were coming down too much, weren't they?

bu$h's handlers know the boy is Toast In November, so they're moving into Last-Ditch Profit Mode now. Gotta squeeze out every possible bit of payback to the Big Boys who bankrolled the campaign--foremost among them the oil companies.

Nothing like a Terra Lert to ramp up the price of a barrel of crude, now is there?

:freak:
dbt

[theoceansnerves]

2. someone help me out here

these are futures right? so when does "record high" begin to affect prices at the pump?

[htuttle]

4. The $44 price is for September delivery

There are different prices for different delivery dates. In an environment like this, it usually ends up that the farther out the delivery, the higher the price. But not always.

For example, last winter the September futures contracts on unleaded gas were much, much lower than they are now, since everyone seemed to think that the price of gas would come down for the election. Whoops!

[lapfog_1]

12. This is really bothering me too

how can crude be going up so much, but yet the pump price is
dropping moderately?

I wondered about this so much that I googled around yesterday
to find either a graph or raw data that tracks the price of
light sweet crude and the avg pump price of all grades...

amazing...

For the last 8 years, they track like they are the same thing
EXCEPT for a small spike in mid 1997, and a more substantial
spike in, drum roll, mid to fall 2001, and a MUCH MORE pronounced
deviation right now.

Don't know what to make of this... but it bothers me.

Here is the ref:

http://www.dallasfed.org/eyi/usecon/0405gasoline.html

Any thoughts?

[0007]

3. ....and it will go higher

[JCMach1]

5. A Short Conversation in Rural Oklahoma yesterday

Local: Never thought I would pay more for a bottle of water than a gallon of gas.

JCMach1: Don't know how much longer that will last though...

Local: ROFL


Gasoline is a BIG issue.

[rman]

6. could this be the dawn of the final oil crisis?

-

[Eurobabe]

7. Perfect Storm is coming

eom

[Geo55]

8. Any terrorists thinking on a grand scale

could bring this high wire act crashing to the ground.
OPEC is pumping flat out...just subtract a few million barrels a day by way of a well planned attack...instant crises

[jmcgowanjm]

9. There's no Act 2, no Plan B

“All of these fields are old,” he pointed out, “but Saudi
Aramco has managed them in a ‘gold standard’ fashion
by instituting careful and rigorous water injection to maintain
very high reservoir pressures. They’re effectively sweeping
the reservoirs until the easily recoverable oil is gone. In so
doing, they have defied the standard decline curves. With
water injection, they’ve maintained reservoir pressures
above the bubble point. The trouble is, once they finally finish
the sweep, they’ve done both primary and secondary
depletion.
There isn’t any Act 2.”

http://www.petroleumnews.com/pnads/238338932.shtml

Want a real opposition platform? Okay, here it is:
     -- Do everything possible to prepare this country for a
lower energy future.
     -- Begin at once to plan a new generation of
nuclear generation plants.
     -- Begin at once the rehabilitation of the national
railroads.
     -- End all government subsidies for suburban
development.
     -- End support for corporate agriculture and shift it to
small scale farmers.
     -- Assign the US military to close the border with
Mexico.
( I have trouble w/ this. 1-I think the SW US is already
majority Hispanic/Latino. 2-We haven't the resources)

   -- Prepare for an era of asymmetrical
warfare.
     -- Join other civilized nations in the effort to reduce
carbon dioxide emissions.

http://www.kunstler.com/mags_diary11.html

[Barrett808]

10. More delusional optimism

I like this:

The group's self-imposed limits exclude Iraq, where exports tallied about 1.5 million barrels per day in July and are expected to rise to between 1.7 million and 1.8 million this month, if no more sabotage attacks hit key pipelines.

And monkeys wil fly out of my butt!

[Barrett808]

11. Oh, the excruciating irony: "Pipeline blaze cuts exports via Turkey"

Bombings across Iraq, pipeline ablaze cuts exports via Turkey
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=725078&mesg_id=725078&page=