Crude rises above $108 per barrel in New York

Oil Marketer (UK) ^ | 10MAR08 | Elaine Frei

[familyop]

Crude oil prices were higher again Monday, hitting a new record at $108.17 per barrel before falling back a bit but remaining above $107 per barrel at the close of floor trade in New York.

April contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were at $107.85 per barrel at the close on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a gain of $2.70 on the session and slight decline from its peak earlier, while Brent crude added $1.79 to $104.17 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Investors put their money into oil as a hedge against declines in the dollar despite the greenback’s strength versus the euro on the day as many believe that the dollar will continue to decline versus the shared currency, ignoring data showing that supplies are generally increasing as demand declines.

Also ignored was the relaxing of tensions over the weekend in South America as Venezuela reestablished full diplomatic relations with Colombia after last week’s threats over an incursion by Colombia into Ecuador for an attack against a rebel outpost there.

The price of crude oil sent at-the-pump gasoline prices up another 0.7 cent overnight in the United States to an average of $3.22 per gallon nationally, 69 cents higher than the price last year at this time and near last May’s peak price.

Retail prices for gasoline in the US have risen by 24 percent in the past month.

Nymex April gasoline futures added 1 cent to $2.70 per gallon on the session while April heating oil was up 3 cents to $2.98 per gallon and April natural gas gained 27 cents to $10.04 per million British thermal units.

[JasonC]

An Algerian minister said openly it is all for the balance of the year until they get a new US president. Usually they aren't that brazen.

[the invisib1e hand]

Paging vladimir petroleum polonium putin.

[Kolokotronis]

I would enjoy reading the explanations of the Free Market crowd, but I’m too darn cold and can’t afford anymore heating oil. Payback’s gonna be really something come next November.

[RightWhale]

107.98 right now in intraday trading as they call it. That is, the NYMEX is closed but not really.

[Billg64]

Probably a good idea not to drill for oil in the US (sarcasm)

[neodad]

I’m 110

[familyop]

"I would enjoy reading the explanations of the Free Market crowd, but I’m too darn cold and can’t afford anymore heating oil. Payback’s gonna be really something come next November."

Everything's going to be okay. They're going to lay the rest of our middle class off, and Asia will surely consume less oil after that. ;-)

[traumer]

Make it $110

[strange1]

An Algerian minister said openly it is all for the balance of the year until they get a new US president. Usually they aren't that brazen.

I read a couple of articles where OPEC's president made it clear, they're going to wait 'til fall and deal with new president. Brazen is a nice way of putting it....

[MrLee]

And, there’s not a damn thing we can or will do about.

[familyop]

Ping to a panic party. ;-)

[Billg64]

We can do something, but we won’t. It is amazing that all three candidates are pushing to make it harder to produce and more expensive to use energy.

[catbertz]

Goldman Sacks “super spike” could happen under the right circumstances.

[Nowhere Man]

I would enjoy reading the explanations of the Free Market crowd, but I’m too darn cold and can’t afford anymore heating oil. Payback’s gonna be really something come next November.

I wonder myself. Maybe I'm with the tin-foil hat crowd on this one, but there are times I wonder if the price of oil, among other things, are controlled by a group of powerful old men in a dark room, you see a 1960's era computer in the background, lights twinkling, the tape drives whirring and chattering back and forth, a big monitor screen like in the movie "Fail-Safe," and the old men are holding clickers that resemble the old Zenith Space Command remote control TV's of the 1950's where every click they raise or lower the price.

Maybe a little melodramatic, but I often believe in a lot of things, there is no true free market, somebody, somewhere, and it could be more than one party, has their fingers on the scale or the clicker somewhere, somehow. Maybe I'm just a dumb, "Pittsburgh Hunky," but I cannot see why oil is so high otherwise when it was cheaper a few years ago even.

We need to open on ANWAR, offshore drilling and other resources we have in our control NOW despite the greenie crowd. We have no choice.

I don't know how this will play for or against McCain, but you're right, there will be payback somewhere down the line and it will be warranted.

[familyop]

"Maybe I'm with the tin-foil hat crowd on this one, but there are times I wonder if the price of oil, among other things, are controlled by a group of powerful old men in a dark room, you see a 1960's era computer in the background, lights twinkling, the tape drives whirring and chattering back and forth, a big monitor screen like in the movie "Fail-Safe," and the old men are holding clickers that resemble the old Zenith Space Command remote control TV's of the 1950's where every click they raise or lower the price."

I like it! They'd better not go messin' with my "precious bodily fluids, though! ;-)

[parthian shot]

This is what we get for having “NO GUTS” / “NO LEADERSHIP Republican politicians. The Dems have played us like a Symphony Orchestra.

[strange1]

Goldman Sacks “super spike” could happen under the right circumstances.

I know, everyone scoffed at the prediction last year, but with hurricane season, and all the other "catastrophe's.....

[catbertz]

I’m thinking something like a brief conflict with Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, like Operation Praying Mantis in ‘88, might do the tricks under current levels of consumption.

[Integrityrocks]

Had ANWAR been opened up 12 years ago there would be NO oil price news. OPEN ANWAR before it gets to $300 a barrel.