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Although oil prices have tumbled by almost half since approaching $150 a barrel in July, it looks like black gold still has further to fall... "...OPEC will need to revive demand. “We now know that the global economy couldn’t really handle prices above $100 and OPEC will have to figure out a price the economy can handle,” Lebow said."

NEW YORK - The stunning collapse in oil markets accelerated Friday, sending a barrel of crude plunging below $78 as investors grow more pessimistic about resolving a mushrooming global economic crisis. Oil hasn't been this cheap in 13 months — a rare silver lining for consumers amid a rapidly imploding financial landscape.

Crude Oil down to $84.66 @ 7:10 PM EDT. Gas at $3.19 here. That's a dime less in 2 days.

News from Reuters OPEC would cut oil output at below $80: source 08/10/08 DUBAI (Reuters) - OPEC is unlikely to cut output at its meeting in December unless the price for crude produced by its members falls below $80 a barrel, an OPEC source said on Wednesday. The price for OPEC's basket of crude stood just above that threshold on Tuesday, at $80.04 a barrel. U.S. crude, which trades a few dollars higher than OPEC oil, slid to a 10-month low on Wednesday on concern that the international financial crisis would have a major impact on demand for energy. "The...

Crude oil prices decline Wednesday Published: Oct. 8, 2008 at 5:45 PM NEW YORK, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- A falling dollar Wednesday failed to prop up crude oil prices, which sank below $90 per barrel for the second time this week. Crude oil prices lost $1.28 cents to $88.78 per barrel. Heating oil prices dropped 0.0057 cents to $2.50 per gallon. Reformulated blendstock gasoline fell 0.0394 cents to $2.023 per gallon. Natural gas prices fell 0.015 cents to $6.753 per million British thermal units. At the pump, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was $3.447 Friday,...

Highlights Average household expenditures for all space-heating fuels are projected to be $1,137 this winter (October 1 to March 31), a 15-percent increase over the estimated $986 spent last winter. The largest increases will be in households using heating oil and natural gas. The projected increases primarily reflect higher prices, although colder weather than last winter will also contribute to higher fuel use in many areas. Strong global demand and low surplus production capacity contributed to the run-up to record crude oil prices in July. The current slowdown in economic growth is contributing to the recent decline in oil demand...

Expect cold and snowy winter in East: forecaster Wed Oct 8, 2008 10:35am EDT HOUSTON (Reuters) - The winter of 2008-09 will be the coldest and snowiest in years in the eastern United States, threatening homeowners with back-breaking heating bills, private forecaster AccuWeather predicted on Wednesday. "Given this economic environment, the winter will push some homeowners to the brink," AccuWeather long-range forecaster Joe Bastardi said, noting the credit crisis and high fuel prices.

Earlier this year, many voices in the media were warning for the worst when it came to the price of oil as economic uncertainty loomed ahead. One analyst even predicted in May that oil would hit $300 a barrel. However, now that financial turmoil has plagued the markets, the price of oil has fallen from its $147-a-barrel high in June 2008 to around $90 a barrel on Oct. 7. Around its peak, many were forecasting oil in excess of $200 by the end of 2008, but since that time the bull market in commodities has slowed or ceased, as Equidex...

Below $90 at beginning and end of US trading day. $84.99 ppb...Here we come!

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil dropped more than 6 percent to below $88 a barrel on Monday as a global market rout churned concerns that faltering fuel demand could slow further. U.S. stocks tumbled 6 percent to the lowest level in nearly five years as part of an international sell-off on fears the global economy was heading into recession. U.S. crude settled down $6.07 at $87.81 a barrel after hitting an eight-month low of $87.56. London Brent crude fell $6.57 to settle at $83.68 a barrel. Crude prices have plummeted from a peak over $147 a barrel set on July...

(CEP News) - Gold is currently the sole commodity selling off on Tuesday morning, in sharp contrast to Monday when it was rallying. Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) gold is trading down $16.60 per ounce to $877.80 USD, as markets hope for a revised bailout plan that will eventually be passed by the U.S. House of Representatives following yesterday's surprise development. "Yesterday's turmoil in the financial markets was true testimony to gold's status as a safe-haven asset, with the surprise rejection by U.S. Congress of the proposed $700bn bailout plan inducing fear in risky assets but supporting a close back...

(AP) Governor Patrick says there's a real possibility that people in America could freeze to death this winter due to the soaring cost of home heating fuel. Patrick met with members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation on Capitol Hill and later testified before a House panel on the need for heating aid in cold-weather states. Patrick said the cost of heating a home -- whether by electricity, gas or oil -- is expected to cost between 20 and 31 percent more than a year ago. He said that will have an impact on many families, and not just those who...

Looking Beyond the Short Run It has been 12 days since Hurricane Ike made landfall. As of yesterday, more than 850 thousand barrels per day of crude oil production from the Gulf of Mexico and about 1.7 million barrels per day of refinery capacity were still shut down. To date, about 27 million barrels of crude oil production from the Gulf of Mexico have been shut in due to Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. As of September 19, about 46 million barrels of refined product have not been produced due to refineries being shut down or running at reduced levels for...

... It was on this same porch five years ago that Simmons had the insight that convinced him that the oil age had passed its zenith. During a trip to Saudi Arabia in February 2003 with his friend Herbert Hunt (yes, the son of H.L. Hunt who, with his brother Bunker, almost cornered the silver market in 1980), Simmons had become suspicious of the Saudis' claims about the vastness of their oil supply. In his four decades of working in the oil and gas industry, everyone he had ever talked to had taken it as gospel that the Saudis had...

linked to article

As of 11:07 Pacific Time: Crude Oil 116.24 +11.69

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia has trimmed oil supplies to international majors and U.S. refiners since the start of September, industry sources said on Monday. "They were marketing their crude very aggressively from June through August, but they slowed it down for September and October," said one industry source at an oil major on condition of anonymity. The kingdom had already throttled back on supplies even before it signed up to an OPEC deal earlier this month to trim output that exceeded the producer group's targets, industry sources said. Saudi supply to international oil majors was down around 5 percent...

Iran' needs oil above $ 90 a barrel to avoid deficit Saudi needs oil above $ 49 to avoid deficit; Qatar break-even $ 24: IMF Gulf Times - 21 September, 2008 www.gulfinthemedia.com:80/index.php?id=430091&news_type=Economy&lang=en Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, will need crude prices to remain above $ 49 a barrel to avoid a fiscal deficit, a senior International Monetary Fund official has said. "If it goes below that level we would start seeing a fiscal account deficit," Mohsin Khan, director of Middle East and central Asia at the IMF, told Dow Jones Newswires. Oil prices have fallen drastically in the...

Shortly after Hurricane Ike hit, I wrote an article called Implications of a Ten-Day Refinery Outage. It is a few days later, and we know a little more. The purpose of this article is to give an update on the situation. Based on what I am seeing now, we are likely to see significant gasoline outages in the next few weeks. These may not be as long-lasting as those with Katrina, but they may temporarily be more severe, at least in some parts of the country. Diesel may or may not be a problem. We are an exporter of...

Nicosia, Sept 18: The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in its latest monthly report has lowered its forecast for 2009 world oil demand to 0.9 million barrels a day (b/d), that is 1.00 per cent, compared with 1.03 per cent, as was the previous estimate. Oil consumption next year OPEC forecasts will average 87.7 million b/d. The basic reason for the lowering of the forecast is falling demand in the United States which is the largest consumer in the world The oil cartel expects that all the additional demand will come from non-OECD countries, while demand form industrial countries...

The dollar jumped Thursday night after the government said it was putting together a plan to help banks get rid of bad debts. In overnight trading, the dollar jumped to 106.19 yen, while the euro slid to $1.4247 and the pound dropped back down to $1.8076. Earlier in the day Thursday, the 15-nation euro had traded at $1.4370, slightly down from $1.4376 late Wednesday. The British pound slid to $1.8192 from $1.8245, while the dollar dropped to 104.93 Japanese yen from 105.24. The plan will need approval from Congress. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told...

<p>Middle East oil producers will shelve projects to boost output if crude prices drop below $80 a barrel, a senior official from the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries, or Oapec, told Dow Jones Newswires.</p> <p>Abbas Naki, the Secretary General of Oapec[Sic], said that if oil prices fall further "we will see investments and developments in the oil sector in these countries decrease drastically."</p>

LONDON (Reuters) - Gold rallied nearly 7 percent on Wednesday to a two-and-a-half-week high of $830.10 an ounce, as a wave of risk aversion triggered buying of the precious metal as a safe haven and oil prices climbed.

The price of crude oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) dropped below the 90-dollar mark on Tuesday, OPEC said on Wednesday. One barrel (159 liters) of OPEC crude stood at $86.69 Tuesday, down $4.57 from $91.26 on the previous day. In its latest Monthly Oil Market Report, OPEC lowered its forecasts for global oil demand growth. The cartel expects consumption growth to reach 880,000 barrels per day this year, 120,000 barrels per day less than previously forecast. The estimate for 2009 was lowered by 20,000 barrels per day, to 870,000 barrels per day. Supply forecasts...

Evaporating access to credit and fears of an economic washout are taking a toll on oil prices, forcing speculators using borrowed money out of the market. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s sudden bankruptcy filing and Merrill Lynch & Co.'s pending sale to Bank of America Corp. suggest big banks may be less willing or able to absorb debt to boost trading positions, with implications for the inherently leveraged oil-futures markets. Analysts believe that could have a ripple effect on other speculative investors in the market. Widespread liquidation of futures contracts compounded fears of faltering oil demand in knocking oil down near...

Russian shares suffered their steepest one-day fall in more than a decade on Tuesday, losing up to 20 per cent, as a sharp slide in oil prices and difficult money market conditions triggered a rush to sell. The heads of the Russian central bank, the finance ministry and the financial market regulator met on Tuesday night for an emergency discussion on ways to halt the crisis. Earlier, trading had been suspended on both the Micex and RTS stock exchanges as investors ignored assurances by Russian officials and a cycle of distrust set in amid liquidity fears. Margin calls forced domestic...

The Huntsville Times reported on September 12 that, in response to the looming threat from Hurricane Ike, Alabama Governor Bob Riley declared a formal state of emergency. The governor's declaration of emergency activated the state's price-gouging law, which makes "unconscionable pricing" illegal during times of emergency. The Times quoted Riley as saying that he thinks "a threat to public health is a strong possibility due to the shortage of fuels." Hurricanes don't cause shortages, however. Price controls do. A "shortage" occurs when the amount of a good demanded exceeds the amount of a good supplied at the prevailing price. In...

Commodities ravaged as traders flee risk Leo Lewis, Asia business correspondent Surging fears of Armageddon in the global financial system ravaged a wide selection of commodities across Asia as groups ranging from hedge funds to day traders spent the day in a headlong flight from risk. The shock waves from the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers reverberated through markets for vegetable oil, soy beans, rubber and industrial metals as confidence in the financial system faltered, global growth prospects dimmed and cash became king. Broad baskets of commodities — once seen by speculators as a sure-fire bet because of China and India’s...

LONDON (AFP) — World oil prices dipped briefly beneath 90 dollars a barrel Tuesday on growing economic gloom that was likely to further dampen demand for energy in the months ahead, traders said. * * * The price of crude oil has now plunged by almost 40 percent since striking record highs above 147 dollars per barrel in July. * * * Elsewhere on Tuesday, New York's main contract, light sweet crude for October delivery, dived 2.79 dollars to 92.92 dollars a barrel. Deepening worries about a slowdown in energy demand "are likely to haunt energy markets in the near...

Some good news along with the bad.

...and it *was* down to $94.13! Wouldn't it be great to see it go below $89.99 by the end of the day? ;OD

It was said to be the year of speculators gone wild. Seemingly everyone in Washington, including Barack Obama and John McCain, decided that oil prices were soaring because profiteers and middlemen were manipulating the futures markets. "Speculators" were spotted everywhere this side of the grassy knoll. The only problem is that there's no evidence to support the conspiracy theories -- and sure enough, federal regulators dismantled this Beltway consensus late last week. In one of the broadest and most authoritative studies to date, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has offered hard statistical data that financial trading hasn't been driving price...

I cannot post the content, but here's the link to the Bloomberg news story: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aoNw5BZAk8Uc&refer=home Hopefully, this does not contravene the rules.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Oil prices fell below $99 a barrel on Sunday in a special early-start session as traders bet that Hurricane Ike did not cause significant damage to refineries. "The market is expressing some relief," said Andrew Lebow, a broker at MF Global in New York. "We were worried on Friday that the storm surge would flood the refineries, but right now it looks like that was not the case." "The storm surge was not 20 feet, it was more like 12 or 13 feet," said Lebow. While preliminary reports showed that damage was not as bad as...

The price of Crude Oil was $99.57 as of 11:15AM EDT today! And on a Sunday, no less. :oD

DETROIT (AP) - The state auto club said that the statewide average for a gallon of self-serve regular fuel was up about 5 cents to $3.94 early Saturday from Friday morning. That's up about 20 cents from Monday. AAA spokeswoman Nancy Cain said there were some reports of prices above $4 a gallon. On Friday, Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Attorney General Mike Cox promised to monitor and swiftly deal with any gas gouging in the state. Hurricane Ike threatens some of the Gulf Coast's oil refineries. Closing oil refineries because of the hurricane could lead to an eventual bump in...

Where is our gasoline and diesel supply headed? Even before Ike hit, quite a few areas of the US were starting to see gasoline shortages. The impact of Ike can only make shortages worse. Most likely, it will take refineries at least a week or two to get production back to normal levels after a storm of this type, considering the impacts of electrical outages and flooding. In this article, I will examine some of the issues that seem to be involved. Based on my analysis, fuel supply shortages are likely to last well into October, and are likely...

Too short to excerpt: NEW YORK (AP) - Crude oil on the futures market briefly sank below the $100-a-barrel Friday for the first time in five months-suggesting investors believe a worsening global economy will continue to drive down demand for some time in the United States and elsewhere. The last time crude traded below $100 a barrel was on April 2. Gasoline prices, however, jumped at the wholesale level as Hurricane Ike swept toward Houston, home to about one-fifth of U.S. refining capacity, and the site of a major fuel and grain distribution channel. Wholesale gasoline prices on the Gulf...

Energy: As oil ran up over the last two years, Congress and the media had a field day blaming speculators. But a new report shows they were unfairly scapegoated.The long-awaited report to Congress on speculation comes as the price of oil on global markets has fallen to nearly $100 a barrel — a drop of 32% since peaking at $147.27 on July 11. In its report, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said this year's spike in crude futures appears to be due to "an appreciation of the value of existing investments caused by the rise in crude oil prices and...

Saudi Arabia walked out on OPEC yesterday, saying it would not honor the cartel's production cut. It was tired of rants from Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and the well-dressed oil minister from Iran. As the world's largest crude exporter, the kingdom in the desert took its ball and went home. As the Saudis left the building, the message was shockingly clear. “Saudi Arabia will meet the market’s demand,” a senior OPEC delegate told the New York Times. “We will see what the market requires and we will not leave a customer without oil." OPEC will still have lavish meetings and...

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - The impending landfall of Hurricane Ike has caused issues with the price of gas and limits in South Carolina according to officials. "Hurricane Ike is projected to hit landfall in Texas Friday or Saturday and in anticipation of its storm path, refineries in the Gulf of Mexico have closed," said David E. Parsons, CEO and President of AAA Carolinas. Michael Fields with the South Carolina Petroleum Marketers Association says gas prices have risen throughout the day and will continue to do so on the wholesale and retail level. "Gas prices have gone up and some stations...

Expect gasoline prices to rise overnight as much as a dollar and-a-half a gallon. That's the warning from several business sources including one major Baton Rouge multi-station operation. However, a spokesman for Triple A Louisiana discounted the report. "We still have at least a 20 day supply, said spokesman Don Redman. "We certainly wish we had a healthier supply than that but we are certainly asking the service station industry to refrain from any panic pricing," Redman said. The approach of Hurricane Ike to the Houston area has produced a panic gasoline markets. The fears are driven by the fact...

Saudi Arabia walked out on OPEC yesterday, saying it would not honor the cartel's production cut. It was tired of rants from Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and the well-dressed oil minister from Iran. As the world's largest crude exporter, the kingdom in the desert took its ball and went home. As the Saudis left the building, the message was shockingly clear. “Saudi Arabia will meet the market’s demand,” a senior OPEC delegate told the New York Times. “We will see what the market requires and we will not leave a customer without oil."

Hours after suffering a rare setback in a negotiating session at OPEC’s headquarters, Saudi Arabian officials assured world markets on Wednesday that they would ignore the wishes of other cartel members and continue to pump plenty of oil. The late-night bargaining session ended early Wednesday morning with a surprise declaration that OPEC would cut production to shore up sagging prices. Saudi negotiators publicly endorsed that position, but then spent much of Wednesday privately spreading the word that they did not feel bound by it. The back-and-forth illustrated new pressures and power politics at play in the group that controls 40...

The price of oil has been steadily declining in recent weeks, but the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) could triple the price in the next seven years, according to one analyst. Charles T. Maxwell, the senior energy analyst at Weeden & Co, told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” September 9 the market is looking at oil prices reaching $300 a barrel by the year 2015, even though Maxwell sees a dip in prices in the short-term. “That’s for the next six or seven years,” Maxwell said. “That would be a 2015 prediction. So for the moment, we are projecting...

WASHINGTON -- Speculation by large investors -- and not supply and demand for oil -- were a primary reason for the surge in oil prices during the first half of the year and the more recent price declines, an independent study concluded Wednesday. The report by Masters Capital Management said investors poured $60 billion into oil futures markets during the first five months of the year as oil prices soared from $95 a barrel in January to $145 a barrel by July. Since then, these investors have withdrawn $39 billion from those markets as prices have retreated dramatically, the report...

OPEC oil ministers agreed Wednesday to trim overall output by more than 500,000 barrels a day in a compromise meant to avoid new turmoil in crude markets while seeking to bolster falling prices.(snip) But at the same time, OPEC countries' economies are being buoyed considerably by crude's historically high price and members are not eager for the flow of money to ease. Some observers said Saudi Arabia and other U.S. allies in the Middle East also do not want OPEC to become more of a target for American consumers fuming over historically high fuel prices in a highly charged presidential...

<p>OPEC said today it would trim overall output by more than 500,000 barrels of oil a day by adhering closer to production quotas — a compromise meant to avoid a backlash from the biggest petroleum consuming nations and stop the rapid decline in oil prices.</p>

The OPEC oil group has agreed to cut its real output by 520,000 barrels per day in the next 40 days, OPEC's President and Algerian Energy Minister Chakib Khelil said Wednesday. When asked about the size of a proposed cut to OPEC's current production, Khelil replied: "I think if you do your own calculations, it is a cut of 520,000 barrels per day."

OPEC members have agreed to roll back oil production to quotas agreed in September 2007, a level that will cut output by about 500,000 barrels a day. An OPEC statement issued at the conclusion of its meeting Wednesday said the organization agreed to produce 28.8 million barrels a day. An Associated Press report cited OPEC President Chakib Khelil as saying the quota meant that member countries agreed cut back production by 530,000 barrels a per day.