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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures fell over $4 a barrel Wednesday, leaving crude with its biggest two-day drop in 17 years, after government data showed a surprise increase in U.S. petroleum inventories. U.S. crude inventories rose 3 million barrels to stand at 296.9 million barrels in the week ended July 11, the Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts surveyed by energy-information provider Platts were expecting a drop of 3 million barrels. "If there is anything that should keep the bulls in the corral while the bears feed in the berry patch, this EIA report is it," said James Williams, an...

Fall baby fall.

Oil prices fell sharply Tuesday on concerns that a slowing U.S. economy will decrease demand for oil. The price of crude oil in New York at one point fell more than $9 a barrel in New York trading, the biggest one-day drop in dollar terms in 17 years. Oil later eased up from its low, but still closed down 4.5 percent at $138.69 a barrel. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke warned lawmakers Tuesday that the U.S. economy faces the dual threat of slowing growth and inflation. Analysts say that points to lower U.S. demand for oil going forward.

While all American oil users' eyes are focused on the supply/demand distortion nationally, as well as worldwide, it may be surprising to learn that California, until recently, has been the fourth-largest energy-producing U.S. state, trailing only Louisiana, Texas and Alaska. In the not-so-distant past, California's production of more than one million barrels a day was a mainstay of America's energy independence, along with the better-known oilfields of the Southwestern United States. Despite the severe attrition of the past decade, record prices, eclipsing the $140 per barrel mark, have resulted in many previously used-up wells being brought back into production, according...

Sen. Obama's plan to attack the "oil speculators" who are "driving" up the price of oil by regulating futures contracts on American oil may not be pandering (America certainly cannot, for example, regulate oil futures on Nigerian crude in Switzerland), but it is sure close, and here is why, and I'm sure all those people who helped him draw up this plan know it.

Crude prices jumped over USD 3 to hit a fresh all time high of USD142 per barrel in intra-day trade. The surge comes after OPEC President said he expects prices to be between USD150-170 per barrel in a few months. However, he added that USD200 per barrel might not become a reality anytime soon. A weakening dollar is also giving support. Prices retreated a bit after the US House of Representatives approved a Bill aimed at curbing excessive energy-market speculation but continued above USD139 per barrel. What has caused the sudden jump in prices? Manisha Gupta, CNBC-TV18 It was really...

Limiting speculation would push prices to fundamental level, lawmakers told WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The price of retail gasoline could fall by half, to around $2 a gallon, within 30 days of passage of a law to limit speculation in energy-futures markets, four energy analysts told Congress on Monday. Testifying to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Michael Masters of Masters Capital Management said that the price of oil would quickly drop closer to its marginal cost of around $65 to $75 a barrel, about half the current $135. Fadel Gheit of Oppenheimer & Co., Edward Krapels of Energy Security Analysis...

Armed youths blew up a Nigerian crude oil pipeline operated by U.S. major Chevron, a militant group said on Saturday, cutting more output from the world's eighth largest oil exporter. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it was contacted by youths claiming responsibility for Thursday's attack on Chevron's Abiteye-Olero crude pipeline. The military said about 120,000 barrels per day of crude oil production was shut by the sabotage. "For production to have stopped, this shows the damage was serious," said the government's Army Brigadier-General Wuyep Rintip, head of the Joint Task Force in the western...

If you’re wondering who owns “Big Oil,” chances are good the answer is “you do.” If you have a mutual fund account, and 55 million U.S. households do, there’s a good chance it invests in oil and natural gas stocks. If you have an IRA or personal retirement account, and 45 million U.S households do, there’s a good chance it invests in energy stocks. It’s a common misperception that oil executives are the only benefactors of industry success. Instead, the bulk of ‘Big Oil’ benefactors are hardworking men and women across America who boost their retirement portfolios through oil and...

Exxon Mobil is getting out of the retail gasoline business, a market where profits have gotten tougher because of high crude oil prices. The world's largest publicly traded oil company said Thursday it will sell its 820-company owned stations and another 1,400 outlets operated by dealers to gasoline distributors across the U.S. The Irving-based company didn't disclose financial details but said the transition will take place over a "multiyear period."

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- July crude dropped $4.41, or 3.4%, to close at $126.62 a barrel Thursday, its lowest closing level since May 16. The Energy Department reported a hefty drop in last week's crude supplies. But analysts said the drop was temporary due to a delay in tanker off-loadings. Traders were also concerned that high gasoline prices may be starting to cut into gasoline demand

At the time of the 1972 OPEC oil embargo, the domestic production of crude oil in America peaked at about 10 million barrels per day. This domestic production accounted for almost 2/3’s of our total needs, resulting in about 1/3 of our needed crude to be imported. The chilling effect of the embargo on our economy, and ability to provide for the national defense, resulted in our political leadership pledging that the government would work to allow America to achieve energy independence in 10 years. What have we achieved so far?

President Bush yesterday characterized Capitol Hill Democrats as hypocrites for demanding that Saudi Arabia pump more oil while blocking attempts to increase domestic drilling in such places as Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico. Saudi Arabia announced on Friday that it would meet Mr. Bush's request to increase oil production, though the jump of 300,000 barrels per day was less than the president had wanted. But rather than criticize the Saudis, Mr. Bush — after a round of meetings with Middle East leaders at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheik — instead heaped blame on congressional Democrats for skyrocketing...

Saudi Arabia granted President Bush's request for an increase in oil production yesterday, while the Bush administration heeded calls from Congress to temporarily stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Both moves are aimed at easing tight world oil supplies, but the relatively small steps failed to prevent oil's ascent to another record high over $127 a barrel in New York trading before settling at $126.29 yesterday. Analysts expect pressure on oil prices to remain high as China increases its consumption of diesel to fuel rescue efforts and rebuilding after a devastating earthquake. With regular gas prices nearing $3.80 a gallon...

As Senate Republicans today completely abandoned him on the issue of suspending deposits to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, President Bush reversed himself and said he will consider a suspension, which he only recently outright rejected.

With gas prices topping four dollars a gallon in some regions of the country, now may not be the best time to say something positive about "big oil," but here goes anyway. Where is it written that the cost for a product or service should be frozen in place and in time, never to rise again, or to rise at a pace commensurate with our incomes? People who think this way know little to nothing about supply and demand and less than nothing about the profit motive. That's because at least three generations have been raised on the notion of...

The starting point of any discussion of America's energy future has to be this: Shortsighted politicians have created the current energy crisis. For decades left-leaning politicians have advocated higher prices and less energy. They were going to save the environment by punishing Americans into driving less and driving smaller cars. Now their policies have succeeded with a vengeance. The very left wing politicians who favored a policy of no oil and gas exploration, no use of coal, no development of nuclear power, and no aggressive development of new technologies are now panic-stricken that their policies of higher prices have led...

Some people think that the reason the public misunderstands so many issues is that these issues are too "complex" for most voters. But is that really so? With all the commotion in the media and in politics about the high price of gasoline, is there really some terribly complex explanation? Is there anything complex about the fact that with two countries-- India and China-- having rapid economic growth, and with combined populations 8 times that of the United States, they are creating an increased demand for the world's oil supply? The problem is not that supply and demand is such...

President Bush said Monday that when he meets Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah later this week, he'll bring up the effect that high oil prices are having on the U.S. and global economies. "Of course I'll bring it up to him," Bush said in a CBS News radio interview. However, he added that the capacity of the Saudis to raise production — and thus help lower prices — is limited. "When you analyze the capacity for countries to put oil on the market it's just not like it used to be," Bush said. "The demand for oil is so high relative...

TEHRAN (RIA Novosti) - The price of oil could reach $200 per barrel if current market conditions persist, Iran’s oil minister said on Thursday. “If the current conditions remain the same, a period when oil is supplied at $200 a barrel is not out of the question,” Gholamhossein Nozari told the IRNA news agency. He said the weak US dollar and supply concerns from Nigeria were the main reasons behind the surge in oil prices. On Wednesday, crude prices hit a record high of $123.53 a barrel. “The US dollar has weakened ... Another reason is related to problems in...

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Pete Domenici, ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, today introduced legislation intended to dramatically increase domestic production of oil and natural gas in order to lower prices and make America less dependent on foreign sources of oil. The American Energy Production Act of 2008 (S.2958) was introduced today by Domenici and nineteen co-sponsors from across the country. By expanding production offshore and in Alaska, the legislation will produce up to 24 billion barrels of oil-enough to keep America running for five years with no foreign imports. In addition, billions more barrels of...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- With $120 oil not seeming to follow the fundamental law of supply and demand many are wondering if the market is broken. The Federal Reserve has been cutting interest rates, saving Wall Street but sinking the dollar and driving up food and fuel prices. Investors, also called "speculators" by some, have been pouring money into commodities of all sorts, artificially driving prices higher in an attempt to squeak out healthy profits in the face of falling stock values. But to many, all the financial voodoo is merely a distraction. The fundamental reality of oil - and...

It would be more amusing had I not been personally involved. Three years ago I was a lone voice outrageously predicting $100 oil, debated on many occasions on national TV by those predicting $50 or even less. The tapes are still available. Now, $100 seems conservative, others have jumped on that number by the carload and the OPEC president said last week that oil may climb to $200. This, by the way, is the same organization that four years ago was insisting that the “official” price was between $24 and $28, while we were paying $50. Clearly they hoodwinked us....

Talk about bad timing. Gas prices are spiking and U.S. energy policy is contributing to skyrocketing food costs, yet environmentalists apparently want to make it even more expensive to live in America. And they’re trying to use the polar bear to do it. A federal judge in California ruled last week that the Bush administration must decide by May 15 whether to list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act because of global warming. The upcoming deadline is fueling fears that Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne could cave to left-wing environmentalists. Listing the polar bear as a threatened species would...

OIL SPRINGS -- The oil fields serenade Charlie Fairbank. From his home, or from anywhere he walks near town, a network of chains rattles, wooden jerker arms groan on their metal hangers, and the pump-jacks squeak as they extract oil from the swampy ground. They pump at 11 strokes a minute, about the same rate as relaxed breathing. "They sing," Fairbank says of the endless rhythm. "It's like living by the sea." For four generations -- since 1861, and longer than anyone on the planet -- the Fairbank family has pumped crude oil. This year is the 150th anniversary of...

Oil prices ease as crude supplies jump more than expected in latest weekly inventory report. Gasoline inventories fall. More soon.

High gas prices can prompt political hysteria in the best of times, but when they soar during an election year, the fumes rising from candidate stump speeches can make a person sick. Of the three candidates and the president they're out to replace, only one is telling the truth about oil -- and he may suffer for his political courage. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) unveiled his nonsensical solution to $4-a-gallon gasoline two weeks ago when he proposed suspending the federal excise tax on gas during the peak-travel summer months. Not to be outdone on the pandering front -- and no...

Crude oil prices and the value of the dollar have been marching in different directions for months. But that may shift if the Federal Reserve signals on Wednesday that its rate-cutting campaign has come to a close. One factor that has sent the dollar down and oil up recently has been the Federal Reserve's months-long round of rate cuts. In an attempt to stimulate the ailing U.S. economy, the central bank has cut rates by three percentage points since September. But the rate cuts are also inflationary, weakening the dollar and sending oil prices higher. "The weak dollar is a...

EDMONTON - TransCanada Corp. alone plans to ship more than one million barrels a day of oilsands production to the United States with an expanded pipeline construction program unveiled today. The Alberta oil and gas delivery mainstay added a second leg to its new Keystone export service that would more than double the system's capacity and extend it to the Texas coast of the Gulf of Mexico. TransCanada president Hal Kvisle said the added route is a companion instead of competition for projects underway by Enbridge Inc., which is also advancing more than one million barrels daily in new oilsands...

Hundreds of workers at Scotland's only oil refinery on Sunday began a 48-hour strike that has forced BP PLC to shut a pipeline system that delivers almost a third of Britain's North Sea oil. BP said it had completed the closure of the Forties Pipeline System by 6 a.m., when 1,200 workers at the Grangemouth refinery in central Scotland walked off the job. The pipeline brings in 700,000 barrels of oil a day from the North Sea to BP's Kinneil plant, which is powered from the Grangemouth site. Energy industry group Oil & Gas U.K. said the strike, over pension...

Mumbai: The oil boom is on its last leg and may last a few months before a clutch of new refineries start operations amid slackening economic growth across the world, consultancy firm and investment bank Lehman Brothers has predicted in a report. The report said supply is in fact outpacing demand growth even as inventories have been building up for quite some time now. This announcement must surely come as a huge relief for consumers reeling under high oil prices for some time now. Tellingly, this news comes only two days after Thomas Boone Pickens, an American billionaire who made...

Several Democratic senators are threatening to hold up valuable arms deals with Middle Eastern countries if OPEC members don't increase oil production to help ease the cost of gasoline. With gasoline prices topping $3.50 a gallon nationwide, several senators on Thursday called on President Bush to exert pressure on members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to boost oil supplies. ...

U.S. lawmakers grew louder Tuesday in calling for an investigation into oil-market speculation as prices rose to new highs, but they offered few concrete ways to give Americans immediate relief from high prices at the pump. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D. Wash.) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, (D. Minn.) made a case for a federal probe as crude-oil prices rose 1.6% to $119.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gasoline prices across the nation averaged almost $3.51 a gallon last week, government data show, and are projected to rise even higher as the summer driving season gets into full swing....

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices rose Tuesday to a new record above $119 a barrel supported by concerns about crude supplies from some key producers. Light, sweet crude for May delivery rose $1.89 to $119.34 after briefly touching a record $119.74 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The new record eclipses the previous high of $117.83 set Monday The May contract expires at the end of trading Tuesday. In London, Brent crude futures added 28 cents to $114.71 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. A Royal Dutch Shell PLC joint venture in Nigeria...

Get used to emptying your wallet or purse at the gas station, is the advice coming from the White House. A spokesman today told WND that there is no quick fix for the problem of high fuel costs. Spokesman Tony Fratto was responding to a question from Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent at the White House. He asked: "Could you briefly summarize the White House reaction and proposed solution to reports from California of gasoline now selling at $4.00 a gallon or more?" ""Briefly summarize? No, I don't think that's possible, and you're not going to have immediate short-term solutions on...

BAGHDAD -- Oil giants Chevron Corp. and Total have confirmed that they are in discussions with the Iraqi Oil Ministry to increase production in an important oil field in southern Iraq. The discussions are aimed at finalizing a two-year deal, or technical support agreement, to boost production at the West Qurna Stage 1 oil field near Iraq's second-largest city of Basra. Chevron and Total confirmed their involvement in the discussions in e-mails received Saturday by The Associated Press. "Chevron is interested in helping the Iraq government's objectives to develop its oil and gas industry," Chevron spokesman Kurt Glaubitz said in...

The world is now in a period of sky-high oil prices that will last a long time—probably until 2020, according to the world's largest investment bank. Senior analyst Gioavanni Serio in Goldman Sachs, visiting Norway, told participants in an energy seminar that the oil industry moves in 20-year cycles, reports finance industry newswire E24. The price for American raw oil rose to a record-high USD 112 per barrel this week after new figures revealed a surprising decrease in storage the week before. Brent oil from the North Sea also rose to new highs, selling for USD 109 per barrel. In...

News item: ScienceDaily (Apr. 8, 2008) — Researchers have made a breakthrough in the development of "green gasoline," a liquid identical to standard gasoline yet created from sustainable biomass sources like switchgrass and poplar trees... While it may be five to 10 years before green gasoline arrives at the pump or finds its way into a fighter jet, these breakthroughs have bypassed significant hurdles to bringing green gasoline biofuels to market... "Green gasoline is an attractive alternative to bioethanol since it can be used in existing engines and does not incur the 30 percent gas mileage penalty of ethanol-based flex...

NEW YORK — Retail gas prices surged to another milestone, rising above $3.30 a gallon Friday, and appear poised to rise further in coming weeks as supplies tighten. Oil prices, meanwhile, supported the gas price rally by jumping more than $2 a barrel after a dismal employment report sent the dollar lower. At the pump, gas prices rose 1.4 cents overnight to a national average of $3.303 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. That's the latest in a series of records, and about 60 cents higher than a year ago. In Ventura County, the average...

OTTAWA -- After fruitlessly urging OPEC to boost production to ease red-hot oil prices, the International Energy Agency is now convening a closed-door session with market experts to determine whether supply and demand fundamentals are actually responsible for record crude prices. The Paris-based group - which represents the world's industrialized energy consumers - confirmed yesterday that it will bring in financial and oil trading experts, as well as executives from the production and refining companies, to discuss the recent string of record-setting price hikes. Simon Wardell, a London-based analyst with Global Insight Inc., said the IEA normally steers clear of...

Many energy analysts view the ongoing waltz of crude prices with the mystical $100 mark -- notwithstanding the dollar's anemia -- as another sign of the beginning of the end for the oil era. "[A]t the furthest out, it will be a crisis in 2008 to 2012," declares Matthew Simmons, the most vocal voice among the "neo-peak-oil" club. Tempering this pessimism only slightly is the viewpoint gaining ground among many industry leaders, who argue that daily production by 2030 of 100 million barrels will be difficult. In fact, we are nowhere close to reaching a peak in global oil supplies....

The pending global food crisis is due, in part, to a rich twist of irony: One of the factors driving up the price of T-bone steak, a dozen eggs and a carton of milk is a perfectly edible vegetable, a staple of many diets --corn. Adding to the irony, we're growing more corn than ever before. We're just not eating it. Corn is being diverted from human consumption, kicking off a domino effect of problems tied to food prices. It starts with ethanol produced from corn, which optimists hope will help solve the U.S. reliance on foreign oil, as well...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices hit new record highs Tuesday as a Texas refinery fire and fears of an OPEC production cut pushed crude to settle at over $100 a barrel for the first time ever. U.S. crude for March delivery jumped $4.51 to settle at $100.01 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, topping the previous settlement record of $99.62 set Jan. 2. Oil also hit a new all-time trading high of $100.10 a barrel, besting the previous high of $100.9 set Jan. 3. A weekend refinery explosion in Texas and the possibility that OPEC will cut...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Greed is driving oil prices to $100 a barrel. That's a common feeling among the general public, which sees record profits for investment banks that bet on oil prices - making wealthy oil companies even wealthier - while drivers shell out $3 and more for a gallon of gas. It's also a common refrain from OPEC states. Having to defend themselves against charges their production quotas are responsible for the high prices, they point to near-average crude oil supplies and say speculation is what's behind the frenzy. But industry experts offer mixed opinions on speculative investment's...

MEXICO CITY: President Felipe Calderón of Mexico is delivering a grim message: The largest oil producer in Latin America is running out of crude. "Our oil reserves have been consistently falling," and the decline is "severely threatening" government finances, Calderón told a nationwide television audience in an address last month at the National Palace. That is the same place where seven decades earlier Lázaro Cárdenas cemented the anti-U.S. legacy of his presidency by nationalizing the oil industry. Mexico was the sixth-biggest producer last year, after Saudi Arabia, Russia, United States, Iran and China, down from fifth in 2005, according to...

CALGARY -- With U.S. demand for Canadian crude forecast to double within eight years, investment in Alberta's oilsands is expected to snowball in the next 18 months with several multi-billion dollar projects in the queue. A report from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers shows U.S. refiners looking for 3.1 million barrels of heavy oil by 2015, maintaining the pressure on Alberta companies to develop new projects. And with Petro-Canada laying out its plans for a $26-billion project in northern Alberta last week, oilsands spending is forecast to continue to rise -- an estimated $35 billion in 2007 and '08....

It was more than six years ago that George W. Bush first was sworn in as President of the United States, and one of the first items he presented to Congress was for a sweeping energy bill. It covered many things, of course, but one of its primary goals was to make America less dependent on foreign oil, and especially less dependent on oil from the middle East.

LONDON (Reuters) -- Oil tumbled more than $2 a barrel Friday, weakened by the stock market selloff earlier this week that raised doubts about energy demand and after a storm that halted exports from Oman lost power. U.S. light crude for July delivery tumbled $2.17 to settle at $64.76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a drop of more than 3 percent. Video More video Alleged JFK terror plot raises questions about the security of U.S. oil and gas pipelines. CNN's Jeanne Meserve reports. Play video Prices for base metals also fell sharply, as traders predicted demand for...

Opportunity hidden in the wide spread between WTI and Brent crude. The crude market may be trying to tell us something, and here's the biggest hint: The price difference between crude traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange and the IntercontinentalExchange has touched its widest level ever. Despite concerns over tight-gasoline supplies and production uncertainties related to the Middle East and Nigeria, crude futures on Nymex fell almost 5% during the month of May, with the July contract unable to climb past $68 a barrel. But prices for July Brent crude climbed as high as $71.80 that month. "There has...

A new crude oil pipeline stretching 300 miles from Clearwater, Minn., to the Twin Cities received final approval from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, which voted 4-0 in favor the project Thursday. Construction of the Minnesota Pipe Line Co.'s $300 million line will begin in early summer, and the company expects to have it operating by March 2008. The line is expected to pump up to 165,000 gallons of Canadian crude oil per day to the Flint Hills Resources refinery in Rosemount and the Marathon Petroleum Co.'s St. Paul Park refinery. "This is crude oil coming from a friendly nation....