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"You say greed and opportunism, I say capitalism."

Those saying it's all greed are not really familiar with the refinery shortfall problem on an international level coupled with the fire situation causing shut downs. Adding to the problems are the multi-mixtures of reformulated unleaded, state by state plus also based on which portion of a given state. In addition, this hurricane season has been forecasted to be possibly even worse then last years, having the a potential of adversely effecting Gulf of Mexico offshore oil rigs as well as oil storage depots and and refineries. This vicious hurricane cycle could last for 15 years or more.

U.S. & world-wide oil refineries

In terms of Saudi Arabia, the Wahhabist 'prince' now 'officially' running the show, has been for the last 10 years. In addition to the continuing threat from homegrown jihadists turning on their master, it should not be ruled out.

The slightly longer view on the Kingdom of Wahhabism is jihad promoting & nuclear Iran is a wild card for the entire oil producing Persian Gulf, whenever the inevitable corrective actions gets underway of the mullahs drive to gain offensive nuclear weapons.

Also on looking toward this coming winter and heating oil stocks coupled with natural gas usage if it's a real rough winter for the Northeast, like last winter.

"There has been a lot of money to make at the NYMEX over the last few years, you should have been along for the ride."

These guys making the oil market complaints can pick up a few energy options or futures just like anyone else. Sure the energy funds can push up and drag down prices to an extent, resulting from the fund's large volume of open interest, however think back to the mid to late Autumn of 2003, not that long ago crude was hovering right around the $30 a barrel figure and now within a year & a half she doubled to over $60. Same bullish scenario took place across the board for the entire energy complex. Heating oil prices are very high for this time of year.

NYMEX 10 year crude chart

In terms of major OPEC or non-OPEC oil exporters demonstrating supply difficulties, with the exception of ongoing acts of terrorist sabotage attacks on Iraq's oil infrastructure, (already factored into market trending), no other principal oil producing exporter is having their supplies threatened (as of this second!) since ubrupt jolts can manifest overnight in such unstable oil states as Nigeria (a cleaner grade of crude oil) and Venezuela, to name just two in OPEC that supply U.S.

The quote "Greed is good" is wrong, it should be "Volatility is good" :)

It is amusing how some analysts attribute the price of oil to the state of mind of the investors. Feelings. The conspiracy idea is more solid.

The Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline is slowly moving toward starting building. There will be a built-in lag of a couple of years from time the contract is signed and actual construction begins. When the pipe is purchased it will be a couple more years until construction begins. It may be as much as ten years until the first gas flows beginning with the pipe purchase. The pipe will probably come from Asia since the American steel industry isn't competitive, as a guess. As long as the gas price stays above $2.50, the gas pipeline should be profitable, but that number keeps sliding upward. Control and responsibility for negotiation rests with the Gov of Alaska. The Alaska Port Authority is one of three parties in the negotiation and weaker than the consortium.