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Oil exec: Prices driven by 'fundamentals'(congress still ignoring the need for domestic supplies)
CNN ^ | 5/21/2008 | Steve Hargreaves

Posted on 05/21/2008 7:51:41 AM PDT by tobyhill

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Amid increasing public outcry over record-shattering oil and gas prices, senators hauled company executives in to testify Wednesday to ask what's behind the recent runup.

The Senate Judiciary Committee called the hearing to explore the skyrocketing price of oil, which topped $130 a barrel earlier in the day. The committee is set to question executives from Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500), ConocoPhillips (COP, Fortune 500), Shell Oil Co. (RDSA), Chevron (CVX, Fortune 500) and BP (BP).

"Normal supply and demand says prices should be around $55 to $60 a barrel," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the committee. "Prices should not skyrocket like this in a properly functioning, competitive market."

Before the hearing even began, a heckler in the crowd shouted: "Stop ripping off the American public - bring these oil prices down."

But a top executive from BP said the high prices are being driven by global forces.

"We cannot change the world market," said Robert Malone, chairman and president of BP America Inc. "Today's high prices are linked to the failure both here and abroad to increase supplies, renewables and conservation."

(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News
KEYWORDS: canthandlethetruth; energy; oil; petroleum
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To: kempo
we would be receiving the same amount of oil from there as we do from Saudi Arabia.

Probably not. Peak flow from ANWR would be about one million bpd and would last about a year. Then it would tail off. It would have been severely tailing off by now.

61 posted on 05/21/2008 9:40:49 AM PDT by RightWhale (You are reading this now)
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To: Lazamataz

That sounds like fun.


62 posted on 05/21/2008 9:41:39 AM PDT by wastedyears (Freedom is the right of all sentient beings. - Optimus Prime)
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To: pgkdan

Was this the same Jim Gilmore that ran for President?


63 posted on 05/21/2008 9:43:11 AM PDT by wastedyears (Freedom is the right of all sentient beings. - Optimus Prime)
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To: wastedyears

Sure, it’s always fun and games until someone puts an eye out.


64 posted on 05/21/2008 9:44:28 AM PDT by Lazamataz (Secondhand Aztlan Smoke causes drug addiction obesity in global warming cancer immigrant terrorists.)
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To: mvpel

Peak Oil in terms of velocity is now and has been since November. Reserves means either what is in the ground or what could be lifted right now but isn’t for whatever volitional choice. The bivocality is the exact cause of this continued non-comprehension of Peak Oil.


65 posted on 05/21/2008 9:46:36 AM PDT by RightWhale (You are reading this now)
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To: RightWhale
Radioactive Nazi Zombies.

(shudder)

66 posted on 05/21/2008 9:47:48 AM PDT by Lazamataz (Secondhand Aztlan Smoke causes drug addiction obesity in global warming cancer immigrant terrorists.)
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To: tobyhill
"Prices should not skyrocket like this in a properly functioning, competitive market."

Well how can the market function properly, Sen. Leaky Leahy, when Demagogue jackals like YOU have conspired for years to limit crude oil production, constrain refinery output, and interfere with companies and the markets in countless ways? How can these 'Rats and RINOs sit there and say stuff like this with a straight face??
67 posted on 05/21/2008 9:48:15 AM PDT by Enchante (Barack Chamberlain: My 1930s Appeasement Policy Goes Well With My 1960s Socialist Policies!)
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To: Anonymous Rex
"The U.S. purchases and consumes over 50% of the world’s oil"

WRONG. It's more like 22-23% and we are not in control so long as demand is pushing close to the limits of current available supply. When the Demagogues and RINOs allow the USA to actually maximize our own oil production then we might have a basis for bashing companies and countries. Until then, we are in the preposterous position of having screaming Demagogues like Leahy bleating about pricing and supply while blocking off substantial areas of potential production offshore and in ANWR.
68 posted on 05/21/2008 9:58:35 AM PDT by Enchante (Barack Chamberlain: My 1930s Appeasement Policy Goes Well With My 1960s Socialist Policies!)
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To: RightWhale
Wrong, it takes 10 years to put ANWR on line. It would have started this year and the amount would have been almost exactly what we are getting from the country of Saudi Arabia for the next twenty years.
69 posted on 05/21/2008 10:13:53 AM PDT by kempo (c)
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To: MVV
Just before he left office didn't BJclinton protect tens of thousands of acres of prime coal land so it couldn't be mined? Think it was to the benefit of another FOB. Wonder how much was donated to his "library"?

Also, Mario Cumo as Governor of NY. dismantled a nuclear power plant on Long Island, just months before it was to open. This plant cost the taxpayers billions of dollars and it was ruined so bad it could never be restarted. That SOB.......we are suffering now.

70 posted on 05/21/2008 10:20:07 AM PDT by mickie
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To: Lazamataz
We're all gonna turn into flesh-eating zombies.

I want to be the "fast, rage-virus" kind, not the shambling, stumbling, slow type. I'd like to get around for my brains, see the country and eat new people and all that...

71 posted on 05/21/2008 10:49:52 AM PDT by Caipirabob (Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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To: kempo

It should be so simple, but it isn’t.


72 posted on 05/21/2008 10:57:48 AM PDT by RightWhale (You are reading this now)
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To: tobyhill

Here is bit of an article at mises.org, “What You Should Know About Inflation”, 3/11/08, by Henry Hazlitt,
“It is also an oversimplification to say that the value of an individual dollar depends simply on the present supply of dollars outstanding. It depends also on the expected future supply of dollars. If most people fear, for example, that the supply of dollars is going to be even greater a year from now than at present, then the present value of the dollar (as measured by its purchasing power) will be lower than the present quantity of dollars would otherwise warrant.”
Inflation decreases the cost of a dollar and no one really expects that to change. Right now the cost of a dollar is about 125th. of a barrel of oil and as expectations are that it will be even less in the future prices are bid up in the hope of ataying ahead of the inflation. Since I think the dollar I recieve today will be worth less in the near future I want more of them for my barrel of oil so I can purchase the same amount of goods tomorrow with my oil as I can today.
So the price of oil goes up not according to supply and demand of oil but supply and demand of dollars and the expectations of a greater supply of dollars.


73 posted on 05/21/2008 11:00:07 AM PDT by count-your-change (you don't have to be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: boogerbear

The vast majority of the speculators live and work here in the U.S. It would be easy enough to round them up and start looking into their financial transactions.


74 posted on 05/21/2008 11:12:08 AM PDT by Anonymous Rex ( For Rent)
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To: Enchante

Record profits on the part of the big oil companies is not being generated solely on an increase in production, it’s being generated on the artificially inflated cost of oil. They are complicit in that artificial inflation and anyone who doesn’t believe that has their head in the sand.

When they say things like “we’re doing what’s best for our shareholders” they are admitting it.


75 posted on 05/21/2008 11:15:45 AM PDT by Anonymous Rex ( For Rent)
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To: Lazamataz

76 posted on 05/21/2008 11:53:12 AM PDT by wastedyears (Freedom is the right of all sentient beings. - Optimus Prime)
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To: Anonymous Rex
"big oil?"



"The U.S. purchases and consumes over 50% of the world’s oil."

Which is inaccurate.

America imports about 25%.

"we purchase 50% of our oil from the world?"

Which is more accurate but entirely different from your previous statement. But according to the Dept. of Energy, "The DOE reports 38% of fossil fuels are imported while 62% are produced domestically."http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/49977
77 posted on 05/21/2008 12:00:28 PM PDT by kellynla (Freedom of speech makes it easier to spot the idiots! Semper Fi!)
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To: kellynla

We aren’t talking about fossil fuels, we’re talking about oil, and as I had already said before when I corrected myself, my hands were faster than my brain.


78 posted on 05/21/2008 12:20:47 PM PDT by Anonymous Rex ( For Rent)
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To: kellynla

And yes, big oil. As in their CEO’s, board of directors, etc.

They have stated that they’re doing what’s best for THEIR shareholders, everyone else and our economy be damned.


79 posted on 05/21/2008 12:23:49 PM PDT by Anonymous Rex ( For Rent)
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To: Anonymous Rex

and if you have an IRA and/or a mutual fund,
more than likely you are part of “big oil.” LMAO


80 posted on 05/21/2008 12:27:39 PM PDT by kellynla (Freedom of speech makes it easier to spot the idiots! Semper Fi!)
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