Posted on 02/25/2011 5:12:42 AM PST by FromLori
Oil production in Libya is expected to shut down completely and could be lost for a prolonged period of time, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said on Thursday.
"We expect Libyan production to be shut down completely and we might lose sweet crudes from Libya for a prolonged period of time," Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Sabine Schels told Reuters.
Schels said that the world faced the prospect of real supply shock in which the loss of 1.6 million barrels per day of sweet oil could potentially trigger a steep rise in prices and force a sharp reduction in demand to balance the system.
"Some of the supply can be replaced with Saudi light crude and some from SPR, but if the disruption is prolonged, we will need demand to drop to balance the system," Schels said.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
What’s the SPR hold again? 90 days?
Darn. Just as the Recovery was really starting to kick in. [/s]
Libya only produces 2% of the world’s oil supply, so I don’t think this is too much of a problem...Saudi Arabia can easily increase their production to offset this loss. However, there are rumors of a “Day of Rage” in Saudi Arabia in March and if things get out of control there...the situation could get very difficult.
Kick their ass and take their gas.
In my humble opinion, its too early to consider releasing oil from the SPR. The president should hold off in case Saudi Arabia’s “Day of Rage” doesn’t have an impact on their ability to continue producing. In the meantime, higher prices will serve as a temporary demand destruction tool.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCRIMLY1&f=M
The SPR holds 767 Million Barrels.
http://fossil.energy.gov/programs/reserves/index.html
So that would replace our Libya imports for 574 days.
Libyan oil is light sweet crude (not very common) and goes principally to Europe, which generally lacks capacity to refine other grades of oil. In terms of volume, Libya's 2% is somewhat small, but it will have an outsized impact.
Europe is in tough shape. Greece, Portugal, Italy, etc are still shaky, and a big hit in the energy sector is going to hurt.
uh-oh.
A hundred fifty bucks a barrel, six bucks a gallon at the pump, get those bicycles out and find your local bus stop.
This is just what the liberals want. A crippled rickshaw economy. And you out of your truck and SUV.
Obama and the JCOS are too busy feminizing and queerifying the troops to bother to deploy them into Libya to secure the oil fields and surrounding waters against these rabble rousers.
It’s more important to keep a presence in Afghanistan, the cat litter box of the world, than it is to prevent tinpot garbage bags from holding the world’s oil markets hostage.
But since the U.S. military would probably be under strict orders not to fire upon any Muslim nationals anyway, it’s probably cheaper this way.
What an ass.
For three days the Saudis have been saying they'd pick up the slack from Libya - and oil prices finally responded and started trending back.
Now this ass gets his megaphone out to stir up the speculators.
Is this to his trading benefit, I wonder?
looks like the price of Molotov Cocktails is going up in Greece again.
-——Europe is in tough shape-——
My thought....
That is why there are unseen Europeans with bags of money nosing around Libya bribing tribal leaders to bring order.
Absolutely. The man is a shill for higher prices.
The SPR is only good for about seven days. SPR is not intended for civilian domestic consumption. It’s a national emergency contingency plan, and you not being able to get to work is not considered a national emergency. And it is not pertinent to the discussion that only a MINISCULE percentage of America’s oil comes from Libya. The world oil market is cartelized. Any drop in production or availability from any one oil-producing country will spike the price everyone pays. Look at the map of OPEC members, and see which non-Middle Eastern oil producers we purchase heavily from are ALSO included in that billionaire’s club:
http://www.mapsofworld.com/images/world-opec-members-countries-map.jpg
All these years we’ve been told, ‘oil is FUNGIBLE! It doesn’t go anywhere!’ yet we have graphs showing exactly where it goes.
The stupid sheep worry more about Charlie Sheen because the fools are brainwashed by Obama TV and this inlcudes anyone who watches. Fox is no better.
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