$100 Oil Is Coming, and This Time We're Ready

[dkf]

Nearly three years ago, on the first business day of 2008, the price of oil rose above the symbolic mark of $100 a barrel. Later in the year, the price spiked to $147 a barrel, with gas prices surpassing $4 a gallon. That event dramatically shifted consumers toward hybrids and other fuel-efficient cars. The possibility that gas could return to $4 a gallon continues to linger in the minds of car buyers.

As we approach the beginning of 2011, a number of analysts are now predicting that the coming year we'll bring back $100 oil. January crude futures ended last week at a two-year high of $91.51 a barrel.

Strategists from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Merrill Lynch all see rising global demand pushing oil to $100 next year. Some are ringing the warning bell even louder. Joe Petrowski, CEO of Gulf Oil and the Cumberland Gulf Group, told CNBC that crude oil could reach to $150 by summer. Economist Dian L. Chu wrote in her blog that crude oil could hit $110 to $115 a barrel as soon as March. "At that level, gasoline at the pump could hit $3.70-$3.80 a gallon range," Chu wrote.

http://us.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUS221081443820101227?ca=rdt

--well some may be ready...not me though.

[hobbit709]

1. Same crowd of suspects as the last time.

[MrTriumph]

4. Response for Obama & the Weak Dollar is just like Bush & his Weak Dollar Policy

Higher demand is NOT the immediate issue. It is the continuation of Bush's Weak Dollar Policy.

[cutlassmama]

20. +1

[DJ13]

2. Im sure everyone with stagnant wages and SS recipients with no COLA for 2 years

Are ready to get screwed over .........again.

I swear theres a concerted effort between the government and their corporate owners to completely undermine the average American's standard of living.

Theres no other explanation for things the last 3 years.

[dkf]

3. OPEC?

[DJ13]

7. OPEC doesnt price the product directly

The price is determined in the speculative commodities markets known as the NYMEX and ICE.

The reason I posted it was a collaborative effort between the government and corporations was because the price of oil is manipulated higher on those two commodity exchanges by the big financial firms, but that could be stopped if the government was willing to investigate and prosecute the manipulation.

[DCKit]

22. RT (Russia Today) is doing an excellent segment on how the owner of Lukoil...

scammed billions off the backs of the little people.

It is my considered opinion that the rising price of oil is due to speculation, and the U.S. government is squawking about the conviction in Russia because Lukoil demonstrates one of the main methods Wall St. and the Banksters are using to drive up and maintain the price of oil.

Additionally, they've been using the money the Fed and Treasury loaned them to carry out this speculation - borrowing money from us, then using it against us by driving the cost of living through the roof.

[msongs]

5. not a supply demand thing at all. oil companies are not losing money nt

[dkf]

9. EIA says we may have passed Peak Oil a few years ago.

Prices didn't go up as the recession tempered demand. But if demand increases, we may have supply Problems.

Of course if you believe the abiotic theory where oil is produced by the planet and is Plentiful and waiting to be found then you can cry foul.

[social_critic]

18. I'd like to see you go find abiotic oil

Confusion is so entertaining. What stops believers in abiotic oil from finding it and producing it in large quantities? Nothing, other than the fact that abiotic oil is bs.

The oil price, as we all know, is driven by the market. And the market is driven largely by the supply-demand balance - not by speculators. If you believe it's speculators, then speculate the price will go down. It's easy. Take your market positions, boys and girls.

Opec does have some influence over the market, because it has some ability to increase supply. But the gorilla in this game is Saudi Arabia, so the question is, which price do the Saudis want?

[Andy823]

6. So let me see...

When Bush and the republicans came to office we heard the same old BS about "rising demand" and every single year he was in office big oil made record profits, even in 2008 when prices shot sky high, yet dropped like a rock after the summer was over and they once again made "RECORD" profits! Prices dropped when Obama was elected, and now republicans have taken back the house, oil prices are going UP, and we hear the same old BS about rising demand!

I say its plain bullshit! Once again prices are going up because of the "SPECULATORS" who are stock piling oil so price will go up and they can make a killing, once again, at the expense of the people who have to have gas to get to work! In 2008 there was talk by the democrats about new regulations on the speculators, yet here we are today with no regulations that would have prevented it all from happening again, and once again prices are going up, speculators are "predicting" $100 dollars a barrel or more, and congress will do NOTHING to prevent it from happening! Once again the public gets screwed and the big oil companies get richer!

[former9thward]

8. Prices did not drop when Obama took office.

They were at an average of $1.83 a gallon in Jan. 2009 and have gone up slowly ever since. Unless you think the Dept. of Energy is making it up. http://www.eia.doe.gov/petroleum/data_publications/wrgp/mogas_history.html

[Andy823]

16. You didn't read my post

I said when he got "ELECTED" that was in November 2008. Check out this link:

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/2008/11/gas-prices-1.html

National average was $2.07 on the 17th, DOWN from the previous week! If you check the records from the end of summer on you will see that prices did start going down once the republicans knew they ahd no chance of winning the WH! From the link I posted till your date in Jan. 2009 alone the average price dropped 24 cents. Can you explain why prices were so high in the summer of 2008, in my area they hit $4.35 a gallon. When November 17 hit it was down to around $2.50 a gallon around here, a drop of $1.85. Sorry, but price did go down once the right knew Obama was going to win!

[former9thward]

23. I would guess the drop occured because that is when

the wall street economic melt down occurred and the Great Recession was upon us leading to a reduction in demand for oil. If your theory was correct why did prices begin to go up as soon as Obama took office and have continued in that manner. Tying gas prices to political events has been tried many times in the past but it never works out.

[Fumesucker]

10. It took about two months after gas prices dropped again for the F150 to regain most popular vehicle.

I watched a relative of mine buy a Tahoe not too long ago (at least it was used) and the entire time I was thinking "Five dollar gas and you'll be crying the blues and won't even be able to give the damn thing away".

Americans have the shortest memories of any civilized peoples, I'm convinced of that.

I was driving an Expedition during the last gas spike (no, it wasn't mine, long story) but at least it had a real time MPG meter and I learned how to hypermile, the owner of the truck averaged about 11.5 MPG and I could easily squeeze 18 MPG out of it and break 20 if I really got serious about it.

[Warren Stupidity]

11. "Strategists from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co."

Well they would as these are the same gangsters that pushed the prices up and made a killing last time. They are engaged in commodity speculation on a global scale.

[dkf]

12. You take a look at gold?

[Warren Stupidity]

14. uh no, did you have a point there?

My point was that the run up in oil prices last time was not 'peak oil' demand v supply, as there was no supply problem. The run up was commodity speculation, run out of GS et al, on a scale not seen since the early 1930's.

We may in the future see an actual demand driven peak oil crisis, we just haven't seen one yet, what we've seen instead is market manipulation by a gang of crooks nested in huge buildings with mahogany board rooms on wall street. Oh, by the way, some of the biggest clients of GS, MS et al are the sovereign wealth funds of certain middle eastern fucknuts, and those SWFs are the chief beneficiary of commodity price runups in the oil market.

[dkf]

15. My point is that gold has seen a similar run up so it's not unique.

I think you were making that point also.

[Warren Stupidity]

17. right

[BobbyBoring]

21. Greg Palast did an interesting article

It told of speculators that were placing orders thus diminishing "Supply" but the actual oil never went anywhere. Paper oil I believe was the term~

[Skink]

13. tap the strategic reserves.

prices should go down with increased demand.

[social_critic]

19. Don't have enough reserves to bias the market

That would be silly, using the oil up to try to dampen prices. It makes more sense to let the price go up so people use less, and encourage people to buy hybrids vehicles.