Free Republic

New Mexico’s oil boom could soon turn to bust after world prices for crude crashed on Monday. The price for U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate bottomed out at $31.13 per barrel when trading closed Monday afternoon, down nearly 25% from $41.28 a barrel last Friday. That’s the sharpest one-day plunge in prices since Jan. 17, 1991, when the U.S. launched Operation Desert Storm in Iraq, and it’s the lowest level for WTI since early 2016, when the industry was mired in a two-year downturn.

Saudi Arabia has long enjoyed the status of being the top crude oil exporter in the world. With record production of 10.564 million barrels per day in June 2015, Saudi Arabia has been one of the major driving forces behind the current oil price slump. The Saudis have kept their production levels high since last year in order to drive other players (especially U.S. shale drillers) out of business. Equally clear is the fact that this strategy of maintaining the glut and driving out rivals hasn’t worked so far. Even when we look at the refining sector, we see that...

Some market watchers, such as Cornerstone Analytics (CA), have consistently stated that the underestimation of demand, coupled with over-estimation of supply, will mask the growing call on OPEC oil in the second half of this year. CA recently noted that global demand outstripped supply by some 4 million barrels in April . This comes in addition to the mounting evidence that the oil market, via rig count declines, slowing production growth, higher demand and huge API crude inventory declines, is starting to readjust. Be that as it may, Goldman Sachs (GS) seems to believe oil must fall to $45 by...

Wal-Mart Stores Inc has informed managers of its roughly 5,000 stores across the United States that they can match prices with Amazon.com Inc and other online retailers, the head of the company's U.S. business said on Thursday.

November 24, 2009 Price War Brews Between Amazon and Wal-Mart By BRAD STONE and STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM Ali had Frazier. Coke has Pepsi. The Yankees have the Red Sox. Now Wal-Mart, the mightiest retail giant in history, may have met its own worthy adversary: Amazon.com. In what is emerging as one of the main story lines of the 2009 post-recession shopping season, the two heavyweight retailers are waging an online price war that is spreading through product areas like books, movies, toys and electronics. The tussle began last month as a relatively trivial but highly public back-and-forth over which company had...

One year ago, Sarah Palin burst onto the national political stage like a comet. Yet even now, few Americans know who this remarkable woman really is. On September 3, 2008 Alaska Governor and vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin delivered a speech at the Republican National Convention that electrified the nation and instantly made her one of the most recognizable women in the world.

It has become almost a regular stop for San Francisco tourists. Once they've seen the Golden Gate Bridge and the Transamerica Pyramid, they can drive down Harrison Street to see the most amazing sight of all. Regular gas for $4 a gallon. Actually, it is higher than that. At Bob Oyster's Shell station at Sixth and Harrison, regular is $4.33 a gallon, plus is $4.43, and "V-Power'' is $4.53. Motorists can be seen rolling their eyes as they drive by. Just another example of a greedy station owner, sticking his customers for all they are worth? Not really. There's a...

<p>Burger King Corp. said Thursday it would launch a new 99-cent menu, in a move designed to fan the flames of a hamburger price war among the nation's biggest fast-food chains.</p> <p>Miami-based Burger King, the nation's No. 2 hamburger chain after McDonald's Corp. (MCD), said it was rolling out a new 99-cent "BK Value Menu" comprising 11 menu items priced at 99 cents each. The new menu is a permanent part of the chain's offerings and not a promotion, the company said in a statement.</p>