Ping.
Ping.
That translates into $5-$6 a gallon. President Bush may be looking for another job in November if he doesn't nip in the bud Iranian efforts to jack up the price of oil and destabilize the Middle East fast.
Oil IS the world economy. Send in the Navy to protect those ports.
Are the Iranians prepared to have their nuclear program set back a hundred years?
Crude Oil Prices Slip
By TSC Staff
6/22/2004 8:02 AM EDT
Oil prices slipped Tuesday, following the resumption of more than half of Iraq's exports Monday.
The benchmark U.S. crude fell 12 cents, or 0.3%, to $37.65 after a 3% decline yesterday. Gasoline prices slipped a fraction of a cent to $1.559 a gallon.
Repairs were completed on one of two major pipelines feeding the country's main southern export terminals after having been damaged in attacks last week. Iraq's exports resumed at about 1 million barrels a day.
Iraqi exports have ranged between 1.6 million and 1.8 million barrels a day recently. Fellow members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries have pledged to compensate for any short-term supply disruption, but it remains unclear how long it will take to fully restore exports.
Prices enjoyed a late-week rally last week as violence in Iraq -- including the latest attacks on its oil infrastructure -- and a strike by Norwegian oil workers renewed concerns about short-term supply.
Oil prices are down about 12% from their record high of more than $42, touched right before OPEC's meeting two weeks ago. Prices briefly fell through $37 last week.
Members of the cartel agreed to raise the group's production quota by 2 million barrels a day in July and another half-a-million barrels a day in August, should that prove necessary. The current ceiling is 23.5 million barrels a day. Market analysts say the move is largely symbolic because the cartel's members are already producing some 2 million barrels a day above their official quotas.
Traders bid up oil prices on short-term supply concerns triggered by strong global demand and terrorist attacks on oil industry personnel and facilities in the Persian Gulf region, as well as the peak summer driving season in the U.S. and Europe.
http://www.thestreet.com/_tsclsii/markets/marketfeatures/10167125.html
Sounds like something out of a Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn novel. If this this is a gambit by the Iranians, Bush is facing a strong fork (chess terms implied*) where he will have to decide how to counter the Iranians in light of domestic political opposition to any resolute action.
This will be interesting news to watch develop, I wonder if it will be picked up with the same 'analysis' and speculation on the major news outlets.
*please note, the Persians are the ones who invented Chess
Also, oil just wouldn't rise to $60. At some point between $40 and $60, you'd have a lot of extra production come on line, from Mexico, Venezuela, Texas, Alberta, the Urals, Alaska and Oklahoma. It may not make much sense to pump it out of these places at $40, but at $45 maybe, or at $50....
Our good friends the Saudis will save us.....
If Mr. Ledeen has a single shred of evidence to support this assertion, then I'd love to see it. Until then, I'll give these meanderings no more credibility than I'd give Slick Willie's book.
BTTT!
There is a set date for US troops to leave and Iranian troops are massing on the Iraqi border.
Sure doesn't sound good for the Iraqi provisional government.
Pong
Can someone please explain to me why the US rig count went down 16 rigs last week? And I'm not talking about Canadian rigs that do not work during the late spring and summer.
...well, maybe through 3rd parties or other back door channels?
If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.