Oil moved above $46 yesterday. According to The New York Times, "One year after crude oil eclipsed $100 a barrel for the first time, the new year's trading began Friday with prices roughly half their year-earlier levels, and some believe oil could be headed even lower."
It is hard to make a bull case for oil, but not as hard as some imagine.
The stock market yesterday signaled that investors think that the economy is making a bottom and that perhaps the second half of the year will actually bring a recovery. If oil traders buy into that, they will begin to trade futures up. It is a fair assumption that an improving economy will require more crude.
Another, more obvious, reason is that OPEC will cut supply until prices go up. Some oil producers, both inside and outside OPEC, need the money from crude sales to keep their economies from sharp contraction. Russia and Venezuela are high on that list.
People watching the news think the war in Gaza will push prices up by interrupting demand. This is only true if Iran becomes involved and its territory is attacked. That is a long shot.
The large exporter that is very likely to see political turmoil that will cut its production is Nigeria, which is almost never mentioned in the debate over oil prices. Rebels cut supplies there several times last year. Only last week, a well-know militant was arrested by the government. That act could certainly lead to growing rebel activity to hurt the government. Hitting pipelines is not terribly hard. Defending thousands of miles of them is impossible.
The price of oil? Watch Nigeria.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-04-2009 @ 12:01PM
chedar888 said...
It's interesting that the fall of oil does not match well with the drop of economic activity. From $147 down to $32 in 3 months. Who are they kidding? Ask the hedge fund manipulator who they got burn the last time they hold oil in their stock.
1-04-2009 @ 12:01PM
MOONIE said...
Oil won't go any higher than $50 at most reason why the economy will only get wirse at least untile the end of this year matter of fact oil will eventually fall down to $35 a barrel by spring.Americans have had a wakeup call large vehicles are out forever.Biggest reason You ain't seen nothing yet Obaba's new deal is way off kilter it will take a year to even get a start at recovery.At least another million or more are going to go into foreclosure and by the end of this blog there will be at least 10,000 business contemplating or nearing bankruptcy now, you ain't seen nothin yet !I say plant you a garden to grow food it's gona get much worse. God bless America !
1-05-2009 @ 11:26PM
Clifford Wirth said...
The top story of the year is that global crude oil production peaked in 2008.
The media, governments, world leaders, and public should focus on this issue.
Global crude oil production had been rising briskly until 2004, then plateaued for four years. Because oil producers were extracting at maximum effort to profit from high oil prices, this plateau is a clear indication of Peak Oil.
Then in July and August of 2008 while oil prices were still very high, global crude oil production fell nearly one million barrels per day, clear evidence of Peak Oil (See Rembrandt Koppelaar, Editor of "Oil Watch Monthly," December 2008, page 1) http://www.peakoil.nl/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/2008_december_oilwatch_monthly.pdf.
Peak Oil is now.
Credit for accurate Peak Oil predictions (within a few years) goes to the following (projected year for peak given in parentheses):
* Association for the Study of Peak Oil (2007)
* Rembrandt Koppelaar, Editor of “Oil Watch Monthly” (2008)
* Tony Eriksen, Oil stock analyst and Samuel Foucher, oil analyst (2008)
* Matthew Simmons, Energy investment banker, (2007)
* T. Boone Pickens, Oil and gas investor (2007)
* U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (2005)
* Kenneth S. Deffeyes, Princeton professor and retired shell geologist (2005)
* Sam Sam Bakhtiari, Retired Iranian National Oil Company geologist (2005)
* Chris Skrebowski, Editor of “Petroleum Review” (2010)
* Sadad Al Husseini, former head of production and exploration, Saudi Aramco (2008)
* Energy Watch Group in Germany (2006)
* Fredrik Robelius, Oil analyst and author of "Giant Oil Fields" (2008 to 2018)
Oil production will now begin to decline terminally.
Within a year or two, it is likely that oil prices will skyrocket as supply falls below demand. OPEC cuts could exacerbate the gap between supply and demand and drive prices even higher.
Independent studies indicate that global crude oil production will now decline from 74 million barrels per day to 60 million barrels per day by 2015. During the same time, demand will increase. Oil supplies will be even tighter for the U.S. As oil producing nations consume more and more oil domestically they will export less and less. Because demand is high in China, India, the Middle East, and other oil producing nations, once global oil production begins to decline, demand will always be higher than supply. And since the U.S. represents one fourth of global oil demand, whatever oil we conserve will be consumed elsewhere. Thus, conservation in the U.S. will not slow oil depletion rates significantly.
Alternatives will not even begin to fill the gap. There is no plan nor capital for a so-called electric economy. And most alternatives yield electric power, but we need liquid fuels for tractors/combines, 18 wheel trucks, trains, ships, and mining equipment. The independent scientists of the Energy Watch Group conclude in a 2007 report titled: “Peak Oil Could Trigger Meltdown of Society:”
"By 2020, and even more by 2030, global oil supply will be dramatically lower. This will create a supply gap which can hardly be closed by growing contributions from other fossil, nuclear or alternative energy sources in this time frame."
With increasing costs for gasoline and diesel, along with declining taxes and declining gasoline tax revenues, states and local governments will eventually have to cut staff and curtail highway maintenance. Eventually, gasoline stations will close, and state and local highway workers won’t be able to get to work. We are facing the collapse of the highways that depend on diesel and gasoline powered trucks for bridge maintenance, culvert cleaning to avoid road washouts, snow plowing, and roadbed and surface repair. When the highways fail, so will the power grid, as highways carry the parts, large transformers, steel for pylons, and high tension cables from great distances. With the highways out, there will be no food coming from far away, and without the power grid virtually nothing modern works, including home heating, pumping of gasoline and diesel, airports, communications, and automated building systems.
It is time to focus on Peak Oil preparation and surviving Peak Oil.
http://survivingpeakoil.blogspot.com/
http://www.peakoilassociates.com/POAnalysis.html