Wednesday, June 11, 2008

India: Oil Firms Are Weeks Away From Bankruptcy
North Korea/Syria Contacts: No Secret Nuclear Facility
Air Force Aims for Control of Computers
US Soldiers Did Dirty Work for Chinese Interrogators
An Inconvenient Debt
Interview with David Walker, former U.S. Comptroller and Head of GAO
New York State's Governor David Patterson Signs Law Protecting Journalists
What Happens When You Combine Taser-Toting Police with Energy Shortage
Ron Paul to Host Parallel Convention
Gulf Rethinks Currency Ties
Iran Says it Intercepted Terrorist Attack on Russian Consulate
"This terrorist network, with links to the U.S., planned an explosion at the Russian consulate in Rasht, aiming to create a rift between Iran and its neighbors,"
Peaceful Nuke Deal with Saudi Arabia
Survivalists Prepare for Peak Oil

JO

4 comments:

Tyler Havlin said...

Energy Department predicts $4-a-gallon gas through next year, oil averaging $126 a barrel

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080611/congress_oil_prices.html

Motorists can expect gasoline prices around $4 gallon through next year, the Energy Department said Wednesday, with oil prices staying well above $100 a barrel.

Crude oil prices are likely to average $126 a barrel in 2009, $4 higher than this year, as oil supplies and demand are expected to remain tight, Guy Caruso, head of the department's Energy Information Administration, told a House hearing.

Gasoline prices are likely to peak at $4.15 a gallon in August and won't go down much after that, the agency projected in a report. Gasoline was forecast to average $3.92 a gallon through 2009.

The agency said that the high price of gasoline has reduced expected demand for this summer, but not enough to dampen prices.

Caruso told House members that new auto fuel economy requirements and the increased use of ethanol and other alternative fuels are expected to produce "a substantial reduction" in oil use and oil imports over the next two decades.

Predicting future oil and gasoline prices is highly uncertain with the volatile global oil markets, Caruso acknowledged. The agency projects oil prices declining to $86 a barrel in 2010 and then increasing to $107 by 2015.

Overall U.S. oil consumption is expected decline over the next two decades because of the production of more fuel-efficient cars and the growing use of ethanol as a motor fuel, Caruso said. Both were required by Congress last December.

Crude prices, meanwhile, soared Wednesday well above Caruso's projections as his agency announced that U.S. oil inventories fell more than expected last week. Light, sweet crude for July delivery jumped $4.50 to nearly $136 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Oil inventories fell by 4.6 million barrels last week, a much larger amount than had been predicted by analysts.

Tyler Havlin said...

U.S. corn soars to record as crop flooded

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/080611/markets_grains.html

U.S. corn futures soared more than 4 percent to a fresh record high for the fifth consecutive trading session on Wednesday as flooding expanded in the U.S. Midwest, harming the 2008 corn crop.

"There's still no indication that we're getting ready to change this pattern. Concerns continue from planting issues to emergence to crop development," Mike Palmerino, forecaster for DTN Meteorlogix, said.

Corn prices on the Chicago Board of Trade have surged 80 percent over the past year, with nearly 17 percent of that tacked on just this month.

Soybeans surged 3 percent and wheat leaped nearly 5 percent as those markets followed corn, but the historic rainfall and flooding in the United States also were beginning to hurt soy and wheat crop prospects.

"There is definitely concern. There is way too much water and, even if it is drier next week, it won't matter now. It's too late to plant corn and even bean yields are being affected," Vic Lespinasse, an analyst for GrainAnalyst.com, said.

Corn prices rallied the daily trading limit of 30 cents per bushel early in the session and the new-crop July 2009 contract (CN9) soared to a record $7.56-1/4, surpassing the record of $7.35 set in during Asian trading hours.

By midday, U.S. corn for July 2008 (CN8) delivery was locked up the 30-cent limit at $7.03-1/4 per bushel.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture this week slashed 5 bushels per acre from its estimate for U.S. corn yields because of excessive rainfall and flooding in key corn states, including top producers Illinois and Iowa.

"If you look at corn prices, wheat can only rise. We can't have wheat cheaper than corn," a European trader said.

U.S. traders said the excessive wet weather in the U.S. crop region was the main driver of the markets, but they also tied some of the gains to a strong rebound in crude oil and gold as the dollar fell.

"More rain is exactly what we don't need, and today we have the added support from crude oil being up," Lespinasse said.

Rice Farmer said...

Have we underestimated total oil reserves?
http://environment.newscientist.com/article/mg19826602.800-have-we-underestimated-total-oil-reserves.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=news4_head_mg19826602.800

Even if this is true, I can't believe it would solve any problems. Expensive oil is the best thing that ever happened to humanity. Except that it should have gotten expensive sooner.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for those Tyler.

rice Farmer - I read that with some amusement and some frustration that they wasted ink on it. Pike offers no facts or figures, just hear-say anecdotal "evidence" for his claims. And as you say, it won't matter in any case.

Articles like this (and ones on climate change denial) are often deliberately planted to keep the public confused while the profiteers try to keep the cash carousel turning a little longer.