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Speculation adds to oil price surge
Yahoo! News ^ | March 4, 2008 | H. JOSEF HEBERT

Posted on 03/04/2008 12:23:24 PM PST by backtothestreets

WASHINGTON - Market speculation on energy prices may have added as much as 10 percent to crude oil costs and the peak may be yet to come, a top Energy Department official said Tuesday.

Guy Caruso, head of the department's Energy Information Administration, told a Senate hearing that supply and demand would suggest a price of about $90 a barrel.

Prices fluctuated around $102 a barrel Tuesday — although futures prices later dropped below $100 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange — on word that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries are likely to keep production as is when they meet on Wednesday. Oil prices had surged to $104 a barrel on Monday.

President Bush, meanwhile, chided OPEC for failing to pump more oil as energy prices soar and the U.S. economy slumps. "My advice to OPEC is understand the consequences of high energy prices," Bush said after an Oval Office meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah II.

"I think it's a mistake to have your biggest customers' economies slowing down as a result of higher energy prices," Bush said.

Caruso said that supply and demand cannot account for all of the recent price surge.

"Something is clearly going on," he told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

~~~ Excerpt ~~~

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: energy; gas; gasprices; oil; speculation
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I'm no economist. I simply have a question. I've heard that gas inventories are the highest they have been in the USA in years, and consumption is down. My question, will oil futures speculation be the next "Bubble" that bursts? Quotes below by Guy Caruso, head of the department's Energy Information Administration, have me thinking parallels with speculation that drove up real estate prices a couple years back.

"Caruso said that supply and demand cannot account for all of the recent price surge.

"Something is clearly going on," he told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.


1 posted on 03/04/2008 12:23:26 PM PST by backtothestreets
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To: backtothestreets

I want to know when Nancy Pelosi is going to lower oil and gas prices like she promised?

/s off


2 posted on 03/04/2008 12:24:21 PM PST by Slapshot68
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To: backtothestreets

Can we start drilling domestically— NOW???


3 posted on 03/04/2008 12:24:48 PM PST by agooga (In memory of my father in law, William R. Knill- veteran of two wars - and a helluva nice guy. RIP)
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To: backtothestreets

It’s a bubble. No one pays attention to that fact until it bursts.


4 posted on 03/04/2008 12:24:55 PM PST by rightinthemiddle (The Mainstream Media Controls Our Party. Go, RINOS!)
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To: backtothestreets

Oil has remained pretty steady when priced in Euros. Much of the rise in oil prices relate directly to the drop in the Dollar.


5 posted on 03/04/2008 12:25:53 PM PST by Yo-Yo (USAF, TAC, 12th AF, 366 TFW, 366 MG, 366 CRS, Mtn Home AFB, 1978-81)
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To: backtothestreets

Just posted: The World has Plenty of Oil.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980331/posts


6 posted on 03/04/2008 12:25:54 PM PST by rightinthemiddle (The Mainstream Media Controls Our Party. Go, RINOS!)
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To: backtothestreets
Middle east about to explode, Venezuela about to explode, Obama about to p.o. the Canadians. Add it all up and you get $100/barrel and more.
7 posted on 03/04/2008 12:27:06 PM PST by DManA
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To: backtothestreets

$300 dollar oil because you are stuck.


8 posted on 03/04/2008 12:27:39 PM PST by kinoxi
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To: rightinthemiddle

But more and more of it is controlled by despotic governments.


9 posted on 03/04/2008 12:29:35 PM PST by DManA
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To: DManA

No actual reason. Speculation drives the price.


10 posted on 03/04/2008 12:31:51 PM PST by kinoxi
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To: DManA

And. the Liberal wackos WANT us to run out of oil. They LOVE the high oil prices.

Helps the anti-capitalist, socialist agenda.


11 posted on 03/04/2008 12:31:52 PM PST by rightinthemiddle (The Mainstream Media Controls Our Party. Go, RINOS!)
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To: DManA
CFTC's Commitment of Traders report on crude oil long contracts:
2/5 27448
2/12 39922
2/19 60,873
2/26 91625
Each of these is a 1,000 bbl contract. Add three zeros for number of bbls.
12 posted on 03/04/2008 12:32:53 PM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (ENERGY CRISIS made in Washington D. C.)
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To: kinoxi

and so does the ever diminishing dollar ...


13 posted on 03/04/2008 12:34:13 PM PST by cinives (On some planets what I do is considered normal.)
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To: backtothestreets
Anything over $45 a barrel and one wonders how many are overlooking the multi millions, NO, maybe billions in oil tar sands.. So many remaining just barely wealthy when they could become obscenely filthy rich.. makes you wonder.. Have Americans become LAZY.. and NOT greedy capitalists?..

To think of ALL THAT beautiful money just lying there rejected by some young people that really need it.. Not to speak of all the natural gas thats NOT BEING drilled for.. and piped to waiting households and business's.. some people say we have 1000 years of natural gas waiting to piped.. Alaska has another 100 years of the stuff.. guaranteed..

14 posted on 03/04/2008 12:34:51 PM PST by hosepipe (CAUTION: This propaganda is laced with hyperbole....)
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To: rightinthemiddle
"It’s a bubble. No one pays attention to that fact until it bursts."

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. That, and what investment institutions will take major dives, and what efforts the federal government will undertake to bail out the speculators. I really don't like what might be coming next.
15 posted on 03/04/2008 12:36:49 PM PST by backtothestreets (My bologna has a first name, it's J-O-R-G-E)
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To: cinives

The Dollar does not do it. The math is simple. I feel no need to explain it to you.


16 posted on 03/04/2008 12:38:07 PM PST by kinoxi
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To: backtothestreets

Pick a number for speculation. 10% is low. 50% is high. Whatever you want.


17 posted on 03/04/2008 12:42:19 PM PST by RightWhale (Clam down! avoid ataque de nervosa)
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To: Slapshot68

I don’t really see any concern here at all. Congress can just get more checks in the mail, keeping those credit cards busy charging more, and more. As long as they keep mailing people more rebates, oil can continue to rise. The senior Bush probaby had a term for it, like Voodoo Economics. I wonder if they couldn’t name this economic plan, that LET’S THE NEXT GENERATION PAY, while we play. FLATULENCE ECONOMICS. Let’s let it rip in the dark, as no one will know who done it.


18 posted on 03/04/2008 12:43:38 PM PST by rovenstinez
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To: Slapshot68

Well, for one thing, her lips were moving,and when that happens with all dumbocrats, they are lying. She is in the same big pocket as the rest of the scum in Washington. She has been bought and paid for, and she was made speaker by these same loons because she is totally impotent. Do you ever try to listen to her on the rare occasions that she comes out of her hole to say anything?
Same goes for her companion in the Senate, Harry Reid and his sons the lobbyists. Nothing will change with these people sitting in the catbird seats.

Now, let’s talk a little about the Futures market and oil being used as a speculative tool by the money whores. Here is a bunch of people who have no interest in the impact it has on this country or its economy. This horserace track bets on things going up because of smaller players trying to follow the smart money to the edge of cliff. When will this ‘government’ realize that necessities should not be on the futures market? Here’s what I would do in my one term as President: I would freeze all the holdings in oil futures for say, six months. During that time, no money could be moved out of those accounts, and hopefully, a few of these bastards would start jumping out of windows. Leadership is a meaningless word these days, and there is none in Washington and has not been for years.


19 posted on 03/04/2008 12:43:53 PM PST by plainspeaker (THE MYSTERIOUS NANCY PELOSI THING)
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To: agooga
Can we start drilling domestically— NOW???


Yes we can. As soon as we get rid of the environazis and their supporters. Then we can start honing the bits and start sucking the ground dry. I can dream, can't I?
20 posted on 03/04/2008 12:52:51 PM PST by NCC-1701 (PUT AN END TO ORGANIZED CRIME. ABOLISH THE I.R.S.)
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