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Oil prices rocket close to 110 dollars a barrel
AFP
World oil prices continued their record charge Tuesday, rocketing close to 110 dollars amid lingering supply concerns and as the US dollar plumbed fresh lows against the euro.
Traders say oil prices have also been propped up because “black gold” is priced in dollars and buyers and speculators armed with stronger currencies than the US dollar are buying up oil contracts.
(11 March 2008)
Oil watchdog to analyse record highs
Javier Blas, Financial Times
The International Energy Agency has convened talks with global oil experts to help determine “whether current oil prices are justified by market fundamentals”.
The meeting is being hosted by the western countries’ watchdog as oil prices hit a fresh high of nearly $110 a barrel yesterday, boosted by a forecast of relatively robust demand and investors buying oil as protection against US dollar weakness.
(12 March 2008)
Contributor driller writes:
Here is a rough translation of what did not appear in the general story, which went through the ticker on many places (such as AFP).
Translated from
Experten sehen Zeichen für fallenden Ölpreis (Tobias Bayer, Financial Times Deutschland)
IEA: oil thirst is easing but cheap oil era is over
… Although the current price level may not be justified, the high oil price points to a fundamental change: the time of cheap oil is finally over, said Lawrence Eagle, IEA chief analyst: “If we witness today an oil price of $100, we must admit that we will not return to the prices at the beginning of the decade.”
Eagles justifies this with rising search and exploration costs. “Discussions with the industry resulted in that they are about $10 to $30 per barrel. The US energy Ministry’s numbers are even at $64.”Besides, it was rarely the case that the oil price moved on the level of marginal production costs. Mostly there was clear spread: “We rarely saw in the past 30 years that the oil price is at the marginal costs. This happened actually only twice. In 1986, when the Opec abolished their ratios and in 1998 after the Asian crisis.”
IEA: no likely relief from oil prices
Associated Press
The International Energy Agency warned Tuesday that there is unlikely to be much relief from current high oil prices because of brisk demand in China and other emerging markets.
While record prices above $100 per barrel may chip away at oil consumption in the United States and other developed countries, emerging markets are not slackening, the Paris-based agency said in its monthly report.
(11 March 2008)
