Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Saudi Arabia’s Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani — the face of the OPEC oil cartel during the 1970s oil price shocks — says this time it is big-money speculators to blame for surging prices and confidently predicts the scare will not last.
Five minutes before he was supposed to take the stage, Marion King Hubbert’s bosses at Shell Oil called him on the phone and begged him not to go through with it.
Oil prices are in a state of flux or so we are told. But the truth of the matter may be far simpler than that; maybe production cannot meet soaring global demand.
If production in the desert kingdom has in fact peaked, as some experts say, the alternatives aren’t easy, if they exist at all.
Cal Tech professor David Goodstein says the worldwide peak for production could be reached in 10 years or less resulting in severe inflation and economic ruin.
Morgan Stanley on Wednesday cut its weighting on the European oil sector to “neutral”, saying sky-high prices could fall by $15-$20 a barrel in a short time.
The Iraq Oil Ministry is undertaking the most comprehensive evaluation ever of the giant oil fields that are the country’s biggest natural resource, an important first step toward understanding the potential output of the fields and estimating the amount of investment needed.
Record oil prices above $40 a barrel are barely curbing surging demand growth in major consuming nations, despite concern over the economic fallout of higher energy costs.
Prices and demand are up. Oil industry revenues are sky-high. So why aren’t oil companies exploring ways to increase supply?
With the price of crude oil hitting fresh highs this week, bringing $50 crude firmly into view, analysts say it will take a sea-change — a recession, an abnormally mild northern winter or perhaps a change in U.S. President — to end the rally in prices.
OIL prices could potentially hit $100 per barrel, analysts at Deutsche Bank warned yesterday – as the cost of US light crude hit a 21-year record of almost $44.
US oil prices have hit record highs after the president of Opec said the producers’ cartel was unable to push any more supplies into the market.
“There is no more supply,” said Opec president Purnomo Yusgiantoro.
