Crude oil price rises to $34.50 a barrel

[DuctapeFatwa]

CRUDE oil prices for February delivery rose 7 cents to $34.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, weekend. Oil rose as high as $34.74 and fell as low as $34.12 during the seesaw session. Oil futures reached $35.20 during trading at the weekend, the highest intra-day price since March 17. Prices were 6.6 per cent higher than a year earlier.
Natural gas for February delivery rose 4.1 cents, or 0.7 per cent, to $6.37 per thousand cubic feet.

“It’s very surprising after the cold weather last week to see a build in distillates, but most people will probably assume it is coming in next week’s report,” said Peter Beutel, president of energy consultant, Cameron Hanover.
The EIA appeared to agree, saying in its weekly report: “The increase in distillate fuel inventories may be more surprising, in that the Northeast and mid-Atlantic did begin to feel the effects of cold weather last week.”

It added, “But the cold weather did not really hit until Tuesday evening (January 6), leaving little time to actually impact primary storage data for the week ending January 9.”
Price losses were limited by a large drop in crude stocks, already at their lowest level since autumn 1975.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/business/b120012004.html

[wuushew]

1. Interesting, the effect of the cold can almost be completely discounted

Look for another year of unproductive inquirees into the high price of gasoline.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. Wonder what people will think

If the price continues to go up.

I think that many people supported the war with Iraq in the hope that, even though a lot of Arabs would be murdered, it would lead to lower gas prices, so it would be worth the trouble.

[wuushew]

3. Peak oil guarantees that gas will never be cheaper than the 1990's

why we continue not to improve general energy efficiency and CAFE standards is beyond me.

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. Denial of the facts, left over from the Reagan administration

Reagan said "There is plenty of oil", proceeded to to play Iran against Iraq and woosh...... years of cheap oil. NOBODY cared that countless Arab people were murdered then "for the cause" either.

[rooboy]

4. Rupert Murdoch's great hope for the Iraq war...

"The greatest thing to come out of this for the world economy, if you could put it that way, would be $20 a barrel for oil. That's bigger than any tax cut in any country."

http://media.guardian.co.uk/iraqandthemedia/story/0,12823,893762,00.html

[treepig]

6. i notice your story's a year old

not to criticize it, but rather to show just how idiotic his predictions turn out to be.

now what was he saying about WsMD this time last year . . . .?