Houston We Have A Problem is a feature documentary about America's voracious appetite for oil from the insider's perspective of the Energy Capital of the World - Houston Texas. The film explores our dangerous addiction to oil through candid insights from the Barons, Wildcatters, CEO's and Roughnecks that comprise the world of Big Oil. Oilmen on oil addiction.Houston We Have A Problem is a feature documentary about America's voracious appetite... more
Apparently the UAE is trying convince the likes of China, Japan, etc. to refuse the dollar in oil trading.Apparently the UAE is trying convince the likes of China, Japan, etc. to refuse the... more
The Oxen Report continues to make strong single day trades. Today, we are looking at an interesting oil market based on crude inventory news, and you can make money based on it. Check it out now.The Oxen Report continues to make strong single day trades. Today, we are looking at... more
Check out today’s successful Oxen Pick that wants to play lower oil prices. Check our Buy Pick ETF. On the other hand, we think we have found a great short sell that you should be playing in the overvalued and overbought housing industry.Check out today’s successful Oxen Pick that wants to play lower oil prices. Check... more
Royal Dutch Shell has seen its profits for the April to June period slump 70% from a year earlier, due to the big fall in oil prices since last summer.
The Anglo-Dutch company's profit for the second quarter of 2009 totalled $2.3bn (£1.4bn).
Its results come two days after rival BP saw its profits for the same period fall 53%, again due to oil price falls.
Global crude prices hit a record $147 a barrel last summer before falling back. US light crude is currently at $63.
Shell's sales for the quarter totalled $63.9bn, down from $131.2bn a year earlier.
Despite the drop in both profit and sales, the firm said it would be maintaining its dividend to $0.42 per share, an increase of 5% from a year ago.
Cost cutting
Looking ahead, Shell's chief executive Peter Voser said global demand for oil remained "weak".
"Shell is adapting to this new situation, and we must do more. We are sharpening our focus on delivery and affordability," he said.Royal Dutch Shell has seen its profits for the April to June period slump 70% from a... more
This is the story of a blood feud, a battle between brothers. As we told you when we first reported this story last November, the Koch family of Wichita, Kansas is among the richest in the United States, worth billions of dollars. Their oil company, Koch Industries, is bigger than Intel, Dupont or Prudential Insurance, and they own it lock stock and barrel. The trouble is a former employee says the brother who controls the company grew rich through fraud and theft, stealing from the taxpayers of the United States.
Unfortunately, for Koch Industries, that disgruntled former employee was Bill Koch, one of the Koch brothers. Blood and oil has destroyed more than one American family. The question is: Was Bill Koch a renegade out to ruin his brother, or did Koch industries really operate the way he says? Scott Pelley reports.
Koch says that Koch Industries engaged in "(o)rganized crime. And management driven from the top down."
"It was – was my family company. I was out of it," he says. "But that’s what appalled me so much... I did not want my family, my legacy, my father’s legacy to be based upon organized crime."
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An honest man in a dishonest industry.
What is more surprising? His honesty or the actions of his company?This is the story of a blood feud, a battle between brothers. As we told you when we... more
Current's Mariana van Zeller travels to one of the most unstable regions in the world - Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta. She investigates what's behind the growing number of kidnappings and attacks in Africa's largest oil producer and the US's fifth largest energy supplier.Current's Mariana van Zeller travels to one of the most unstable regions in the world... more
Going local won't be an option anymore, it'll be a necessity.
An interview with Jeff Rubin, economist and author of Why Your World Is About To Get A Whole Lot Smaller. In his new book, economist Jeff Rubin says as oil prices go up, and stay up, it will mean a restructuring of our economy and lifestyles.
Excerptsfrom the interview:
"We're going to see triple-digit oil prices very early in the next recovery," Rubin tells NPR's Steve Inskeep. Furthermore, he says, we should expect oil to stay at those levels because demand will consistently outstrip supply in the coming years.
Rubin says the United States is likely to import less from low-wage countries like China and make more things at home, from steel to furniture to food. He predicts that the continued expansion of the suburbs ringing American cities will come to an end, as families move back to cities in the face of much higher commuting costs.Going local won't be an option anymore, it'll be a necessity.
An interview with... more
Taipan Daily readers don’t be conned – it is not supply or demand driving the price of oil right now. Editor Adam Lass explains…Taipan Daily readers don’t be conned – it is not supply or demand driving the... more
JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second- largest U.S. bank by deposits, hired a newly built supertanker to store heating oil off Malta, shipbrokers reported, in the company’s first such booking in at least five years.
The bank hired the Front Queen for nine months, according to daily reports from Oslo-based SeaLeague A/S and Athens-based Optima Shipbrokers Ltd. David Wells, a spokesman for JPMorgan in London, declined to comment.
JPMorgan, which has never hired an oil tanker based on data compiled by Bloomberg going back five years, follows companies including Citigroup Inc.’s Phibro LLC unit and BP Plc in hiring ships to store crude or oil products at sea. The firms are seeking to take advantage of higher prices later in the year.
“It’s opportunity-driven,” Sverre Bjorn Svenning, an analyst at Fearnley Consultants AS in Oslo, said by phone. “I doubt it’s going to be a permanent or new sort of trade.”
Heating oil for immediate delivery costs $553 a metric ton in northwest Europe and supplies for August are at $580, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second- largest U.S. bank by deposits, hired a newly built... more
Yesterday I put up a blog which listed the total revenue that OPEC made from oil last year. Luanne, one of my readers, raised the valid point that those numbers didn't present the whole picture because the countries that we buy oil from also buy things from us. I thought it was only fair to do a little more research and see exactly how much oil we import from countries and how much of that money we get back in the form of revenue from things that we export to them.
To find a list of all the countries we import oil and related products from I turned to the Energy Information Agency where I found this page which lists all of our oil imports by country and quantity of oil products imported. Below are the numbers for our largest suppliers for 2007 (the most recent year available) in thousands of barrels.Yesterday I put up a blog which listed the total revenue that OPEC made from oil last... more
Based on projections from the EIA March 2009 Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) could earn $383 billion of net oil export revenues in 2009 and $503 billion in 2010. Last year, OPEC earned $970 billion in net oil export revenues, a 42 percent increase from 2007. Saudi Arabia earned the largest share of these earnings, $287 billion, representing 30 percent of total OPEC revenues. On a per-capita basis, OPEC net oil export earning reached $2,686 in 2008, a 40 percent increase from 2007.
Methodology
This report includes estimates of OPEC net oil export revenues. For each country, estimates of oil production and consumption from the latest version of the EIA STEO are used to derive net oil exports. We assume that these exports are sold at prevailing spot prices, available on the EIA website here. For countries that export several different crude varieties, we assume that the proportion of total net oil exports represented by each variety is equal to the proportion of the total domestic production represented by that variety: in other words, if we assume that Arab Medium represents 20 percent of total oil production in Saudi Arabia, then we assume that Arab Medium represents 20 percent of total net oil exports from Saudi Arabia.Based on projections from the EIA March 2009 Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), members... more
BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's parliament pushed back voting Saturday on this year's budget and could be forced to make further cuts because of falling oil prices.
The latest delay in trying to ratify the current $64 billion budget proposal highlights the financial squeeze facing Iraq as declining oil revenues cut into reconstruction plans such as new roads and improved utilities—which the Shiite-led government hopes to use as showcases in national elections later this year.
The pinch has also brought calls by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for proposals to diversify Iraq's oil-dependent economy with expansion of agriculture and other trade. But Iraq's plans for this year have been dragged down along with the price of oil, which is now less than $45 a barrel after hitting highs last summer of $150 a barrel.
A Sunni lawmaker, Ayad al-Samarraie, predicted the budget will face more trimming after several previous cuts from its original $79 billion. The current budget is based on a $50 a barrel projection.
"We don't expect that oil will reach this price," said al-Samarraie, a member of the chamber's financial committee.BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's parliament pushed back voting Saturday on this year's budget and... more
Crude oil prices have fallen to new lows for this year. So you'd think gas prices would sink right along with them.
Not so.
On Thursday, for example, crude oil closed just under $34 a barrel, its lowest point for 2009. But the national average price of a gallon of gas rose to $1.95 on the same day, its peak for the year. On Friday gas went a penny higher.
To drivers once again grimacing as they tank up, it sounds like a conspiracy. But it has more to do with an energy market turned upside-down that has left gas cut off from its usual economic moorings.
The price of gas is indeed tied to oil. It's just a matter of which oil.
The photo above is of gas prices posted at a Valero gas station in Hayward, California on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009.Crude oil prices have fallen to new lows for this year. So you'd think gas prices... more
Low oil prices and the credit crunch are threatening to stall the green revolution. The value of crude has dropped from a summer high of nearly $150 a barrel to below $40, taking the wind out of the sails of turbine manufacturers and others trying to build low-carbon alternatives.Low oil prices and the credit crunch are threatening to stall the green revolution.... more
Crude oil prices have plunged almost two-thirds since striking record highs above 147 dollars in July as a global economic slowdown curbs energy demand.
OK, at what point to we start talking about price gouging again. We went from an all time high to a three year low in five months. I know a lot of this is hinged on the economy, but almost a hundred dollar a barrel swing? I'm not buying it.Crude oil prices have plunged almost two-thirds since striking record highs above 147... more
The FTSE 100 has jumped 25% from its bottom. The oil price is on the up again. The only meaningful change has taken place in your mind. The FTSE 100 has jumped 25% from its bottom. The oil price is on the up again. The... more
Growing evidence of a severe global economic slowdown drove oil prices to 17-month lows below $63 a barrel Monday, as investors brushed off a sizable OPEC output cut.Growing evidence of a severe global economic slowdown drove oil prices to 17-month... more
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cut oil production targets for the first time in almost two years as the group battles to slow a collapse in prices.
OPEC decided to lower supply by 1.5 million barrels a day from November, oil ministers said today at the end of a meeting at the group's Vienna's headquarters. The reduction will be from the existing quota for 11 members of 28.8 million barrels a day.
``Demand is significantly less than what is being supplied, that is the reason the cut was taken,'' Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said after the meeting. Crude oil has tumbled 57 percent from a July 11 record of $147.27 a barrel as the financial market crisis spreads, job cuts increase and fuel consumption slows. Prices fell as much as 7.7 percent today.
``OPEC has offered the market all the ammunition they had,'' said Robert Laughlin, senior broker at MF Global Ltd. in London. ``With the bearish economic outlook and manufacturing in freefall this accord is not good enough.''
OPEC President and Algerian Oil Minister Chakib Khelil said at a news conference that the cut will be ``100 percent effective'' in stabilizing prices.
U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is ``disappointed,'' his spokesman told reporters in London. ``We're concerned by the decision. OPEC has a crucial part to play in the stability and recovery of the world economy.''
[End of excerpt]
Full story at link by Maher Chmaytelli and Margot Habiby// Bloomberg.com: Worldwide
Photo by Vladimir Weiss// Bloomberg NewsThe Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cut oil production targets for the... more
As this article clearly states "the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently did a detailed study of the likely outcome of offshore drilling for their Annual Energy Outlook 2007, “Impacts of Increased Access to Oil and Natural Gas Resources in the Lower 48 Federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).” The sobering conclusion:
The projections in the OCS access case indicate that access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030."
Now I know McCain can't use a computer yet, but somebody needs to keep him updated on the usefulness of off-shore drilling ...As this article clearly states "the US Energy Information Administration (EIA)... more
