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WTI edging on Brent Crude Oil?
WTI vs Brent- which is the better benchmark? Or, perhaps what is WTI and what is Brent? Primarily, there are two types of crude oil traded in the international markets (three really, but two majors): WTI (West Texas Intermediate) and Brent.
WTI used as a benchmark in determining oil prices, is crude oil of high quality. The spot price is [...]
Read moreIs Oil Fueling the Rise in Political Partisanship?
In 2009 I published a chart in an article at Oil-Price.net that showed volatility in the price of oil had risen and fallen in a series of seven spikes during the prior decade. The turbulent year of 2008, when oil jumped to over $140 a barrel, was part of this series. But what was unexpected was just how early in the 2000s the signature of [...]
Read moreGaddafi's Legacy of Libyan Oil Deals
Gaddafi is gone, and how. Yet, his legacy would be tough to scratch. The news of his death marks the beginning of a new era for oil exploitation in Libya which markets greeted with a slight dip in oil prices. Today we look back at Gaddafi, oil and his international partners.
Libya's dirty secrets for oil
When NATO strikes started against [...]
Read moreImpact of Credit Downgrade on Oil Prices
Standard and Poor's (S&P) credit rating for the US was pulled down a notch to AA+ from AAA in August 2011 for the first time in the history of the rating system. The agency had expressed concerns about the nation's ability to manage its debt and hinted that the Obama administration should pull up its socks in this matter. The move was not a [...]
Read moreTighter Oil Supply in 2012?
Predictions for the future? Here's one based on the available pointers: Tighter oil supplies in 2012. In fact, brace yourself, a potential demand surge could, in essence, bring this faraway calculation of next year, nearer by three months. And with it higher price for oil. Last month, the IEA announced release of strategic oil reserves to the [...]
Read moreFTC Investigates Oil Price Manipulation
Oil prices are at it again. In June 2011 rates have dropped almost 20 percents from the $114 high that it touched 4 months earlier. Going by the current trades, oil prices are hovering slightly below $98 as we enter the third quarter of 2011. The media, scrambling for an explanation it seems, has been quick to attribute these rapid fluctuations [...]
Read moreWhy Gasoline Prices Refuse to Slide
Crude oil prices have been in the news off-late for the sudden fluctuations in the international market. Various factors such as a weak global economy, a strong dollar, and easing of tensions in the Middle-East have all led to the fall during the April-June 2011 period. The price per barrel of crude is around $90 as of June 2011. However, the [...]
Read moreWill Ending Tax Breaks for Big Oil Make a Difference?
The controversial bill proposed by the Democrats to end the substantial tax breaks extended to the major oil companies known as 'Big Oil' did not make it. Big Oil commonly refers to the five industry giants - Exxon, Shell, BP America, Chevron, and ConocoPhilips. It is estimated that these companies have garnered profits of about $900 billion in [...]
Read moreOil prices down - for now
The price of crude oil is closely watched by market analysts and the common man alike. This is because the uncertainty associated with it brings frequent fluctuations depending on factors like the strength of the dollar, global politics, and natural disasters. This year has been a particularly unpredictable one and even the most seasoned [...]
Read moreDoes Osama Bin Laden's Death Matter to Oil?
The political world seems to be at such crossroads as of right now. The Middle East seems to be at the center of all debates. The fact is that the reason for all these fiscal and political issues is a three letter word - OIL.
Does Osama Bin Laden's death matter to oil?
As the world celebrates Bin Laden's riddance, broader questions arise. [...]
Read moreJapan Seeks a Resilient Energy Policy
The massive earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan recently have left widespread destruction and loss of life in their wake. Besides the health hazards and reconstruction that looms ahead for the Japanese, the Fukushima Daiichi tragedy has thrown light on the nation's energy policy which has aggravated their problems at this crucial time. Japan's [...]
Read moreRussian Oil A Strategic Alternative Amid Middle-East Turmoil
Oil prices are always experiencing a little fluctuation. In the past few years, there have quite a few sudden rises in oil prices with a subsequent fall in the stock market. The London Brent has shown a rise above the coveted $110 a barrel mark for the first time in February 2011 after 2008. This time around, no one is too shocked. Global [...]
Read moreEgypt riots and Oil
Riots over high food are snowballing through the Middle East, and the latest theatre of these riots, Egypt, has Western Powers worried. Very worried. Never mind a democratic regime, free elections and freedom of speech. The real worry here is oil, or the control thereof.
Egyptians are starving because Egypt is past Peak Oil
Egypt's oil [...]
Read moreIs Shale Gas The Next Cradle of Energy?
No one source of energy has ever affected the course of geopolitics the way oil has. Barrel prices going up and down seem to work like the ECG of the global heartbeat. In view of the way the economy has been changing its ebb and flow in the last few decades, it has become increasing clear that there is need for a new and cheaper form of energy. [...]
Read moreDo Rising Oil Prices Predict Another Economic Recession?
The year 2008 saw the American economy topple over like a towering stack of light weight cards with the financial and market crash. The recession changed the economy of the country and left many people without jobs and means to sustain their families. More houses were put on foreclosure than ever before, leaving an even larger number of families [...]
Read moreCan the World Survive the Impending Oil Crisis?
The alarm bells have started ringing as surveys indicate that oil will become increasingly scarce beyond 2030 at the present rate of consumption. And to imagine a world bereft of adequate oil is simply bewildering. Oil explorations are going on all over the world and there appears to be some small pockets of suspected oil reserves, but these [...]
Read moreMaking Oil from Plastic
Though plastic is one of the most versatile synthetically produced materials in the world, it also is one of the environmentally unfriendly substances produced by man. And considering its utility in myriad of industries and life spheres, it is impossible to give up plastic all together. Plastic has been charged guilty on several accounts, but [...]
Read moreThe Mumbai Oil Spill
There was some good news for the Indian shipping industry as the nation's two premier ports-Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and Mumbai Port Trust-reopened for business partially. Thirty-two ships had been stranded at the two ports. Most of these carry vegetable oils, steel, crude oil, and naphtha.
Navy ships were pressed into service [...]
Read moreOil price at comfortable level?
Something to chew over: The reference basket of 12 crude oils of OPEC stood at 79 dollars on Friday, July 30. This year, the OPEC reference basket has been moving between $70-$80, to average $76/b. OPEC had suspended its official price band in 2005, so the reference basket doesn't reflect the oil price in the market as itself. However, it [...]
Read moreOil prices headed lower
The oil price has ingratiated itself with the lower price band for some time now closing below $73 a barrel in New York on Friday. There seems to be a melange of reasons at play for the price drop. First on the list- oil and gas prices have been rocked by the uncertainty about the extent of economic recovery.
The June job report, not on [...]
Read moreBP shadow on oil investments
If the signs are directly overhead, will they be visible or invisible? That the Deep Water Horizon rig, which exploded on April 20, was leaking prior to the explosion, as claimed by an oil worker who survived to tell the tale, seem to suggest the latter. The leak in the BOP, which was the reason for the explosion, was spotted, a week before the [...]
Read moreNuclear option feasible for BP spill
The odds are stacked against: potential radioactivity, more pores, more spills and a whole array of add-ons. Put that way, it sure doesn't seem to come from a sapient mind, the provocative option of a nuclear explosion to contain the oil spill. But then, what has been wise about the whole action on the Gulf of Mexico?
Some efforts [...]
Read moreGulf oil spill: the aftermath
Forty long days, and the saga of the Gulf oil spill continues unabated. The efforts to contain the spill seem doltish in multi levels, more confounded as weeks march by, latest in the series 'top kill' too failing to plug the fissured well. Shifting strategies but failed response have mutated to an environmental disaster for the Gulf coast, [...]
Read moreNuking the oil spill: nuclear option being considered?
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues to spill black venom into the sea. The world has got to see stirring images of oil gushing with decipherable great force, enough even to turn a staunch critic towards environmental protection. Initially scoffed and sniffed at, a radical solution in the form of a nuclear explosion is now trotting as a [...]
Read moreUse nukes to contain the oil spill
The April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig not only killed eleven people but also triggered a massive influx of oil into the ocean. President Obama has called the oil spill a "potentially unprecedented environmental disaster." The cause of the explosion is not known and equally obscure and hazy are the means to contain the oil gushing [...]
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