Oil Climbs as Saudi King's Death Adds to Concern About Supplies

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Aug. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose above $61 a barrel in New York after Saudi Arabia's King Fahd, ruler of the world's largest oil exporter, died, heightening concern about supplies following refinery disruptions in the U.S. and Europe.

The Saudi throne, held by Fahd for 23 years, will pass to his half-brother, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, Saudi State Television said. The Crown Prince has been running the kingdom's day-to-day affairs since 1995, when Fahd suffered a stroke. Prices had already gained after BP Plc shut a refinery unit in Texas.

``It's a combination of today's news about the king's death and all these refinery outages that just keep coming,'' said Edward Meir, a commodity analyst at Man Financial Ltd. in Darien, Connecticut. ``It's hard to make the case for a substantial retreat'' in oil prices this week.

Crude for September delivery rose as much as 66 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $61.23 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, its highest since July 13 and within $1 of a record $62.10, reached on July 7. It was up 50 cents at 12:15 p.m. London time and has gained 39 percent from a year ago.
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[Montauk6]

1. Well, they have to pay for the funeral somehow!

Can't be puttin' Brotherman in no pine box! Come on ya'll!

:sarcasm:

[Donailin]

3. any GD'ed reason to push the price up

stop the planet, I want to get off.

so sick of this crap. . .

[Lone_Star_Dem]

5. There's no real reason for the prices to go up

Other than profits.

[entanglement]

2. And 'instability in Saudi Arabia'

will be the excuse for Exxon, BP et al to hike gas prices again; of course the price hike won't be proportional to the increase in crude prices (so they can have $25 billion in profits next year instead of $20 billion) :-(

[Mari333]

4. refinery disruptions my ass

refineries blow up often, I know..my first husband was killed by a refinery disruption in 1989 and believe me, the price of oil was not affected by it all over the world.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

6. I'm sorry about your husband

But you are correct, there's no reason we should be seeing an increase in crude oil due to refinery explosions.

The refinery refines the oil, hence the name, it doesn't produce it.

[rman]

8. unless of course supply growth is diminishing

but popular consent has it that simply can't be.

[ClintonTyree]

7. Just one more lying excuse......

to buttress Oil Company profits, again. I guess we're supposed to believe all of this horse-shit? If a Saud family member sneezes, that will equate to a $1 Billion increase in Oil Company profits. :eyes:

[TheFarseer]

9. What? Was he manning the oil rigs personally?

One more lame excuse. They know he had no effect on oil supplies and his death won't have any effect on it either.

[KDLarsen]

10. Lame Excuse of the year (so far anyway)..

Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, aka the king's half-brother, have been de-facto running the country for the past 10 years, so there's absoluty no reason the prices should climb at all.

[driver8]

11. I thought Chimpy was next in line for the Saudi throne?

[lyonn]

12. Now you are insulting the Saudies

We must keep him as no one else would have 'em.

[LeftHander]

13. Oil Prices climb on pending breakup

Mike Wilson a sophomore at UW Madison discussed with his friends that he is going to end his relationship with Hannah Dockenson also a sophomore. Wilson stated "She is really getting me down with all her shit...this last weekend really sucked." Rumors of the pending breakup rippled the oil futures market and the result was a spike in crude futures as it rose $2 to $63 per barrel Monday.

Roger Fonster, commodities trader said of the spike in crude "I work with Wilson, Mike's Dad, and everytime he breaks up he gets in some kind of trouble that causes his dad to miss a day on the trading floor. All hell breaks loose and I have to cover his calls."

Vice President of Exxon Corporation when asked about the seemingly volitle nature of oil prices he chuckled on achieveing record profits in 2005 and said everything is good for the oil business.

[cliss]

14. Maybe they're just trying to hide the fact that

we're running out of

O

I

L

Why all the ridiculous inuendoes? King Fahd has been in a vegetative state for a long time. He hasn't made any decisions or even been involved in the government for a long time.

Every time oil goes up, there's some weird explanation, like "hurricane threatens refineries in Gulf", or "fires cause prices to jump", or "instability in Middle East cause increase".

One thing that's for sure: prices are going up. They are slowly, steadily climbing upward. They're not going down.

And that tells me one thing: demand is outstripping supply.