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Japan blames speculators for oil hike
Peter Alford, The Australian
FINANCIAL speculation and other non-supply/demand factors may have increased crude oil prices by more than a third recently, according to a new Japanese Government white paper.
The annual energy issues white paper, released yesterday by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, underlines strong Japanese concerns about the market-distorting effects of hedge funds investment and other financial speculation on crude oil prices.
Japan is expected to push the issue forward at the July G8 leaders summit in Hokkaido, to be hosted by Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, with a call backed by the International Energy Agency for a more timely and transparent system of information exchange among the major oil-consuming and producing economies.
(28 May 2008)
Saudi Aramco to spend $129 billion from 2009 to 2014
Oliver Klaus, Zawya Dow Jones via MarketWatch
Saudi Arabian Oil Co. will spend $129 billion between 2009 and 2014 on expanding and upgrading its oil and gas infrastructure as the world’s biggest oil company responds to rapidly rising domestic and international energy requirements, company officials said.
Saudi Aramco’s largest-ever capital expenditure program, to be launched under its new five-year business plan starting next year, will see the company spend the bulk of the funds on turning it into one of the world’s top-five refiners and a major petrochemical producer.
(27 May 2008)
Asking Opec to solve the oil crisis misses the burning point
Alan Duncan, UK Telegraph
… The cause of high prices is not just Opec. Global risk is probably a greater upward force than supply and demand. The fall in the US dollar has exaggerated the numerical hike, but more importantly, all commodities are at record highs.
Oil cannot be separated from this global phenomenon. George Soros was right to argue in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph that investors’ expectations have inflated the price. But speculators can ride a market in the short term: they cannot shape it indefinitely.
And watch carefully the unbridled folly of those such as the Lib Dems who want to gang up on Saudi Arabia. Those same naifs who delighted at the fall of the Shah seem to want the same ghastly political outcome in Saudi Arabia – and the $300 oil that would come with it.
The last decade has lulled us into a false sense of security. Instead of tilting at the Opec windmill, we should be weaning ourselves off fossil fuels, increasing efficiency, addressing fuel poverty and encouraging the science that will find an alternative to oil.
Shouting at Opec to turn on the taps is an expensive diversion that will merely delay our recognition of reality.
Alan Duncan MP is a former oil trader, and is shadow secretary for business
(27 May 2008)
IEA says optimistic to think oil price will fall much
Reuters
It would be “very, very optimistic” to assume oil prices will fall much in the next few years, the chief economist at the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a interview with German TV published on Tuesday. “The markets are very tight now and the result of this tightness is the very high prices,” IEA chief economist Fatih Birol was quoted as saying by German state broadcaster ZDF.
“And when we look a couple of years ahead, we should be very, very optimistic if we would believe that the current oil prices will go substantially down,” he said.
(27 May 2008)
