Posted on 07/28/2005 11:44:35 AM PDT by Jomini
Oil prices were slightly higher in morning trade as a deadly Indian offshore oil platform fire stoked supply worries in a tight market.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in September, was at USD59.34 a barrel, up 23 cents from its close of USD59.11 in the US on Wednesday. "Demand is still tight so any loss of production, no matter where it is, has an impact on the market," Kurt Barrow, a senior principal at US energy consultancy Purvin and Gertz in Singapore said. A fire tore through an Indian offshore oil platform Wednesday, killing at least five workers, leaving dozens unaccounted for and forcing desperate employees to jump for their lives into the Arabian Sea.
The state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) platform pumps oil from the Mumbai High field, which produces 38 pct of the country's crude and is home to the country's biggest gas field, Bassein. Barrow said the Indian platform's output "doesn't appear to be very much but 100,000 barrels a day is probably five to 10 pct of all the world's spare capacity so in those terms it is important.
"At this point we don't know if production is going to be off for a few days or a few months," he said. "When there is a supply side problem, whether it is in India or Nigeria or the US Gulf Coast, the oil market tends to respond with upper price signals at least until the situation is better known." On Wednesday, oil prices were little changed as traders digested a snapshot of US crude inventories that was mostly in line with expectations.
US crude oil and petrol stocks fell over the past week but reserves of diesel and heating oil went up, according to the Department of Energy (DoE). The DoE said crude oil stocks fell 2.3 mln barrels to 317.8 mln in the week ending July 22 but were still above average for this time of year.
The economic noose tightens around the west...
J
The oil price has been fairly steady the past couple weeks. Time for another outburst.
Is the oil bubble a too high price?
What they won't use as an excuse to try to set up some speculative profiteering...
......NOT to worry,.....Colorado's....Communist Chinese Military Oil-work-troops on U.S. taxpayer payroll will save it and us all...$$$$$$$
Factory Prisons to be built from profits.....?
What a crock!
An Islamic Entente assault on oil production structures should be signaled by spikes in non-linear buying. The market an unforgiving mistress but often a most accurate barometer of violent storms to come.
J
Crude (Sept) 59.90, Nat. Gas even higher 7.64
Natural gas hit $10 a couple years ago. That was the Enron escapade. Natural gas was $2.50 after that, and has been slowly climbing.
Obviously the fire was set by the Bush administration to keep oil prices up.
/tinfoil
Yup. How far will it go IYHO??
Oil tanker crashes in West Podunk .... speculators hop on multiple internet forums to hype the impact .... and for another day, the deflating balloon is spared .... not to mention multiple suicides of overly exuberant speculators!
Ping!
What is necessary to do to win is not contained in the present so-called energy policy, nor the bromides of the environmentasocialists precisely because the market has been controlled rather than allowed to function since 1973, and, more importantly, with regard to technological innovation, since 1981.
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Hype and sensationalism aside, I see the petroleum market being stable enough to expect the long term expansion to contiue. Today I bought into KCS Energy, Inc.; earlier this past week I've also took on Remington Oil and Gas Corp and Chesapeake Energy Corp.
IMHO the trend has been overwhelmingly obvious: the price is going up because the demand is outpacing the supply.
Precisely. Natural gas storage is 9% ABOVE the five year average, which should translate to low prices ($4.00-$5.00per mcf). It doesn't, because everyone knows demand is outstripping supply here in the US.
China & India expansion is driving crude. I'll put you on my ping list and give you another good link.
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/ngw/ngupdate.asp
Thanks --bookmarked!
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