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$1.59 here in NJ. How's this for crazy though, the Valero station is kind of caddy-corner to the Exxon station near me. The $1.59 price is at the Valero, but the Exxon price is $2.69!!!
Time for you guys to check in: what are you paying where you are?
2.96 here...Oahu I hear is a lot cheaper but don't know how much...
Return to $1 gas? Energy prices evaporate
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081205/oil_prices.html
Friday December 5, 8:25 pm ET
By Mark Williams, AP Energy Writer
Collapsing oil prices bring back the unthinkable: Could gas fall below a $1 a gallon?
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Oil prices hit four-year lows Friday as employers cut the highest number of jobs in 34 years. The continuing decline in prices is so dramatic and so sudden that it is raising the prospect that gas prices could soon fall below $1 a gallon.
The worst jobs data in 34 years on Friday just added more fuel to the deepening global recession as U.S. employers slashed a far worse-than-expected 533,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate rose to a 15-year high of 6.7 percent.
A gallon of gasoline can be had for 50 cents less than it cost just last month, and people are starting to talk about $1 gas.
Granted, gas prices are a long way off from that magic number last seen in March 1999 when prices were at 97 cents a gallon, according to motor club AAA. Prices at the pump fell 1.6 cents overnight to $1.773 nationally, according to AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.
But consider what has happened since July 11 when a barrel of oil hit a record $147.27 and a gallon of gas was $4.117 on July 17. In less than five months, oil has fallen 72 percent.
Just this week, in which the National Bureau of Economic Research determined that the U.S. is in recession, oil has fallen 25 percent.
On Friday, light, sweet crude for January delivery settled at $40.81 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down by nearly $3 per barrel. Prices fell as low at $40.50, levels last seen in December 2004.
Gasoline futures for January delivery tumbled to 90 cents.
For gas prices to get close to a $1, oil prices probably would need to fall another $10 a barrel -- something that would have impossible to fathom during first part of this year as oil prices soared near $150 per barrel.
"Just seeing that '1' up there is just hard to imagine," said Kevin Keating, 65, an attorney as he filled up his Volvo S60 at a station in Phoenix that advertised prices at $1.67. "Wasn't that long ago that we worried about the '4' being up there."
Prices in New York City are well above the national averages, but still well off their highs of nearly $5 this summer.
"When gas prices are OK, we make a little profit," said Mamady Kourouma, 36, a cab driver from Guinea who paid $2.41 a gallon at a station in Chelsea.
With wages stagnant, home prices plummeting and foreclosure rated soaring, dollar-a-gallon gas may help mom fill up in the family minivan and cab drivers in New York City, but prices that low also would truly speak to how rotten the economy has become.
"The economy at that point worldwide would be in a serious, serious deterioration," said Geoff Sundstrom, spokesman for AAA.
Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service, said Thursday on his blog that retail prices could fetch $1.25 a gallon soon in parts of the Midwest, including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri.
Already, some parts of the country are seeing prices around that level. The Web site gasbuddy.com, where motorists can post local gas prices, motorists can fill up for $1.29 in Neelyville, Mo., a village of about 500 people near the Arkansas state line.
The jobs number suggests that demand for gasoline, which has been running well below year-ago levels even with the cheaper prices in the last several weeks, will fall even more in early 2009 as work-related driving plummets, said Kloza.
"I believe that January 2009 will represent the most 'challenging' and ugly economic month of my lifetime, and my first memory is of Sputnik," Kloza said.
There is plenty of reason to suspect Kloza is right.
Since the start of the recession, the economy has lost 1.9 million jobs, the number of unemployed people has increased by 2.7 million and the jobless rate is up 1.7 percentage points. The meltdown in financial markets has crushed lending, the Detroit 3 are on the brink of bankruptcy without a big government bailout.
Friday's report was much deeper than the 320,000 job cuts economists were forecasting. If there is a plus side it is that the unemployment rate did not climb to the 6.8 percent level economists were expecting.
Kloza does not believe prices will make it to a $1. Gas prices neared a dollar last time on Dec. 18, 2001, three months after the terrorist attacks and the country in its last recession, when prices hit $1.08 a gallon.
Though the weak gasoline prices point how bad the economy is, they also could help it turnaround.
"That could be one important spur to some kind of economic recovery," Sundstrom said.
In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures tumbled 6.83 cents to settle at 90 cents. Heating oil slid 8.26 cents to $1.4265 a gallon while natural gas for January delivery shed 24.7 cents to sell at $5.77 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, January Brent crude slipped by $2.42 cents to $39.86 on the ICE Futures exchange.
AP Energy Writers Ernest Scheyder in New York and Chris Kahn in Phoenix contributed to this story along with Associated Press writers George Jahn in Vienna, Austria, and Alex Kennedy in Singapore.
We'll forgive you this one time...lol
41.56....so I was wrong it wasn't 50 it was 40...
Oil hits four-year low as demand outlook darkens
U.S. jobs data send futures down to below $41; worst week since Iraq invasion
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/crude-oil-set-worst-week/story.aspx?guid={457AE65F-DA6A-4A7C-AAD2-59F9271AF981}&siteid=yahoomy
43.69...coulda covered at 44...it's going to be down here for a while looks like...
Oil tumbles below $44 a barrel, gas hits new low
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081204/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices
By MARK WILLIAMS, AP Energy Writer Mark Williams, Ap Energy Writer – 1 hr 16 mins ago
Oil falls below $47 Play Video Reuters – Oil falls below $47
* Oil Industry Slideshow: Oil Industry
* Why gas prices are falling Play Video Video: Why gas prices are falling KREM.com Spokane/Coeur d'Alene
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Putin reassures nation on economy, sees hope for US ties AFP – A pressure-gauge on a gas pipeline near Kiev, Ukraine. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has warned that …
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Oil tumbled below $44 a barrel Thursday and the average gallon of gasoline is now less than $1.80 nationally, both four year lows, as the number of people continuing to receive government aid reached a 26-year high, factory orders hit an eight-year low and major corporations slashed jobs.
Though the unprecedented decline in energy prices provides some relief to consumers and businesses, it has occurred as the nation dips into recession.
Part of the reason gasoline prices have fallen so low is that many people no longer have jobs to drive to and fewer people have money to spend shopping. Gasoline futures fell below a dollar a gallon.
Veteran energy analysts were stunned as they watched light sweet crude fall $2.91, more than 6 percent, to $43.88 on the New York Mercantile Exchange by early afternoon.
Just four months ago, crude rocketed close to $150 and the average gallon of gasoline went for more than $4 per gallon.
No one believed crude would lose $100 in value by December, said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service.
Some analysts believe demand could evaporate even more early next year because of a severe global economic slowdown.
"I think the traders are looking at that and they're saying, 'Well, December is OK, it's relatively balanced here and there, but my goodness all of these layoffs after Christmas, the cold weather, the cocooning, the bills coming due after Christmas, January is just going to be awful,'" Kloza said.
Dour economic reports continue to spill out during a week when the National Bureau of Economic Research said the economy fell into a recession in December 2007.
The government said the number of people continuing to claim unemployment benefits last week reached 4.09 million, the highest level since December 1982, when the economy was emerging from a recession.
Factory orders plunged a bigger-than-expected 5.1 percent in October caused by big cutbacks in demand for steel, autos, computers and heavy machinery. It was the largest decrease since an 8.5 percent fall in July 2000.
The Labor Department reported that initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to a seasonally adjusted 509,000, from an upwardly revised figure of 530,000 for the previous week. That was significantly below analysts' estimates of 537,000, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.
The four-week average of initial claims, which smooths out fluctuations, increased to 524,500, also the highest level since December 1982, the department said.
The U.S. work force is roughly 50 percent larger than it was in the early 1980s. As a result, the department said the proportion of workers continuing to receive jobless benefits matches a level reached 16 years ago, in September 1992, when the economy was slowly recovering from recession.
"People are waking up to the fact that there may not be much demand," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp.
There were signs that the economic environment is worsening.
On Thursday AT&T said it was slashing 12,000 jobs, or about 4 percent of its work force. Chemicals company DuPont said it will cut 2,500 jobs and media conglomerate Viacom Inc. said it will eliminate about 850 jobs.
Many retailers posted weak sales for November, despite a shopping boost the day after Thanksgiving. Results from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. beat Wall Street estimates. Wal-Mart did say that falling gas prices may be bringing more people out to its stores. However, Costco Wholesale Corp., usually a strong performer, reported a bigger-than expected sales decline. And mall-based stores such as teen stalwart Abercrombie & Fitch Co., Kohl's Corp. and Macy's Inc. fared much worse, reporting percentage declines of over 10 percent.
Oil prices fell even after central banks in Europe and elsewhere slashed interest rates in an effort to spark their economies. The European Central Bank lowered its rate to 2.5 percent from 3.25 percent, and the Bank of England, Sweden's Riksbank and New Zealand's central bank also cut rate.
Prices at the pump continued to decline, falling 1.4 cents overnight to $1.789, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express. That price is down 60.2 cents from just last month.
Though there are signs that Americans are able to drive more with prices plunging, Flynn does not see enough demand to justify big increases in oil and gas prices.
"We have entered a new era of lower gasoline prices and oil prices," he said.
The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that natural-gas inventories held in underground storage in the lower 48 states fell by 64 billion cubic feet to about 3.36 trillion cubic feet for the week ended Nov. 28.
Analysts had expected a drop of between 61 billion and 66 billion cubic feet, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.
In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures fell 5.2 cents to 98.86 cents a gallon. Heating oil dropped 6.26 cents to $1.52 a gallon while natural gas for January delivery fell 31 cents to $6.028 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, January Brent crude tumbled more than 6 percent, or $2.82, to $42.62 on the ICE Futures exchange.
___
Associated Press writers George Jahn in Vienna, Austria, Alex Kennedy in Singapore, Christopher R. Rugaber and Martin Crutsinger in Washington and Anne D'Innocenzio in New York contributed to this report.
California Solar Rooftop Project Hits Milestone
http://seekingalpha.com/article/108743-california-solar-rooftop-project-hits-milestone?source=yahoo
by: Greentech Media December 02, 2008 | about stocks: FSLR / PLD
By Jeff St. John
Southern California Edison has finished California's largest commercial rooftop solar panel installation to date – the first step in its $875 million plan to put 250 megawatts of solar panels on two square miles of rooftops.
The utility said Monday that its installation on a 600,000-square-foot roof of a Fontana, Calif. distribution warehouse owned by ProLogis (PLD) will generate enough electricity to power 1,300 homes in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
Phoenix, Ariz.-based First Solar (FLSR), which supplied the 33,700 thin-film panels for the Fontana project, said it would generate 2 megawatts of electricity (see First Solar Scores SCE Panel Bid).
Applied Materials (AMAT) and Google (GOOG) have rooftop solar installations at their respective California corporate campuses that generate 1.9 megawatts and 1.6 megawatts respectively. Both of those installations are made from crystalline solar cells. There is also a 14 megawatt ground-mounted solar installation at Nellis Air Force Base. Japan and Germany also sport several large privately-owned solar installations.
First Solar, which now holds a lead in the thin-film solar panel market with its cadmium-telluride panels, will also supply Southern California Edison's next solar rooftop project, a 1-megawatt installation on an industrial building owned by Multi-Employer Property trust in Chino, Calif.
Southern California Edison made waves in March when it unveiled its massive-scale commercial rooftop plans, meant to supply enough electricity to power 165,000 homes. The utility hasn't announced any other sites for its solar rooftops projects beyond the first two.
Those plans are just one part of a big push by the utility and others in California to sign up renewable energy projects to meet a state mandate to produce 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2010 (see California to Get More Solar-Thermal and PG&E to Buy 800MW From OptiSolar, SunPower). The state may not hit its goal, according to many, but it is already contemplating upping its goals to get 33 percent of its power from renewable sources not including large-scale hydroelectric by 2020.
In March, Southern California Edison said it wanted to have its first rooftop solar system up and running by August, which would put Monday's completion four months behind schedule.
But the utility had to wait until September for the California Public Utilities Commission to authorize the first three installations. Southern California Edison said its entire $875 million project is awaiting regulatory approval due in March.
While Southern California Edison may be behind schedule in its solar rooftops project, it hasn't had to scale it back yet. That's what happened in North Carolina in October, when utility Duke Energy cut in half an ambitious two-year solar installation plan after facing criticism over its projected costs (see Duke Chops $100M Distributed Solar Project in Half).
Duke Energy (DUK) originally planned to spend $100 million to build 16 megawatts of rooftop and ground-based solar power projects (see Duke Eyes Residential Rooftops). Its scaled-back plan will seek $50 million to install about 8 megawatts of solar power projects instead.
Duke Energy is also facing a state mandate to increase its share of renewables. North Carolina requires its utilities to get 12.5 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2021 and mandates that they include solar power in that mix starting in 2010.
About half of the states in the country have similar mandates to promote renewable energy, which has pushed utilities to sign contracts with renewable power developers – mostly solar and wind power.
The Californian mandate for 20 percent renewable power by 2010 applies only to investor-owned utilities, not to public utilities like the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
But Los Angeles Mayor Antonia Villaraigosa said last week said he'd like the city to get 1.3 gigawatts of power from solar sources by 2020 (see L.A. Trots Out Ambitious Solar Plan).
Oil prices rise after slump to $46
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jL1rbHhOR4CbeBSOpbHUtzD7NHXA
7 hours ago
LONDON (AFP) — Oil prices rose slightly Tuesday on bargain-hunting, having slumped to near four-year lows at 46 dollars earlier in the day on concerns over weak energy demand.
Brent North Sea crude for delivery in January hit 46.02 dollars -- the lowest point since February 18, 2005 -- but then recovered to 48.50 dollars a barrel, up 53 cents from the close Monday when the contract had plunged 5.52 dollars.
New York light sweet crude for January fell to as low as 47.36 dollars for its lowest level since May 2005 and followed a dive of 5.15 dollars on Monday.
Later Tuesday, New York light sweet crude was up 45 cents at 49.73 dollars.
"I think it's the same-old, same-old (reason) -- consumption softening," said David Moore, a commodities strategist with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
"The data out of the US and other countries support the view that consumption has softened."
Oil prices fell sharply on Monday after OPEC decided at a weekend meeting against cutting production, preferring to wait until December before reducing crude exports.
The cartel's secretary general Abdalla Salem El-Badri said on Monday that OPEC would decide on a "major" output cut next month if the oil market were deemed to be deteriorating.
"OPEC's attempt to talk prices up by announcing a production cut for the regular summit on December 17 in Algeria and by stating that 75 dollars a barrel would be a fair price, has failed miserably," said Dresdner Kleinwort analyst Peter Fertig.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps 40 percent of the world's crude, met in Cairo on Saturday to assess the state of the oil market but held off from making any decision on cutting production.
Instead, energy ministers decided that any output move would be made when they next meet in Oran, Algeria on December 17.
OPEC has already slashed output twice this year by a total of two million barrels per day (bpd) in response to plunging prices but fears remain that a global recession will undercut demand for energy.
The OPEC production cuts agreed in September and October failed to stop prices sliding under 50 dollars earlier this month as concern mounted about a global recession.
Prices are now down by more than 60 percent from record highs above 147 dollars in July.
Oil remains below $50
Crude prices turn slightly higher after being pummeled by demand concerns on Monday.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/02/markets/oil/
By Kenneth Musante, CNNMoney.com staff writer
December 2, 2008: 10:36 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Oil prices remained below $50 a barrel Tuesday, after dropping below that mark the previous day, on concern about slowing global demand.
U.S. crude for January 2009 delivery rose 24 cents to $49.52 a barrel in electronic trading.
A day earlier oil prices plummeted more than $5 a barrel to a 3 1/2-year low as traders focused on atrophied energy demand being caused by the slowing global economy and a spate of gloomy economic reports.
"People are worried about their jobs, about their ability to pay for Christmas," said Tom Orr, head of research for brokerage Weeden & Co.
Slowing economy: Businesses and consumers in the United States, the world's largest oil consumer, have been under intense pressure.
High unemployment and potential collapse of the U.S. auto industry have led many to cut back on fuel use in spite of falling gasoline prices.
During the past four weeks, U.S. demand for gasoline has fallen to about 9 million barrels a day, down 2.8% from last year, according to the Energy Department. On Tuesday, motorist group AAA reported that gas prices fell for the 76th consecutive day to an average of $1.812 per gallon.
Stocks have also taken a pummeling as the Dow Jones industrial average lost 7.7% on Monday, and manufacturing activity hit a 26-year low in November, according to the Institute for Supply Management.
"People are getting slaughtered in the market, and they're getting laid off left and right," said Orr.
OPEC: Investors have also been waiting to see what the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will do when it meets on Dec. 17 to discuss crude prices, which have fallen more than 66% since hitting a record high of $147.27 in mid-July.
OPEC members produce about 40% of the world's oil and include major exporters such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. The decline in oil prices has prompted many OPEC members to advocate production cuts in order to keep prices from falling further.
Over the weekend, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah said told a Kuwaiti newspaper that $75 a barrel is a fair price for crude.
At an unscheduled emergency meeting in Cairo this weekend to discuss falling prices, OPEC decided to wait until the December meeting to take action, thus refocusing investors onto declining demand.
Compliance: Many investors believe OPEC nations have been inconsistent in their compliance with the organization's October decision to take 1.5 million barrels a day off the market.
Saudi Arabia, OPEC's largest producer, said over the weekend that it hoped member nations would meet at least 80% of the goal. Many investors took that statement to mean OPEC had not yet reached its pledge, with some pegging compliance at as little as 60%, according to Orr.
The failure of member nations to fulfill their existing obligations may put the burden of a second production cut squarely on the shoulders of Saudi Arabia, he added. To top of page
OPEC Failure Foretells Decline 10 Years After $10 Oil (Update4)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=auITrgeTXJnU&refer=uk
By Anthony DiPaola and Mark Shenk
Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- A decade after OPEC failed to prevent oil from collapsing to $10 a barrel, the world’s biggest producers are delaying actions needed to arrest the steepest slide in energy prices.
Ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries postponed debate on a second cut in output in as many months during meetings in Cairo Nov. 29. They will wait until later this month, after a slump in global economies and the popping of the commodities bubble sent oil down almost $100 from its record price in July to as low as $48.25 a barrel in New York on Nov. 21.
“They are riding the economic wave just like the rest of us,” Adam Sieminski, Deutsche Bank AG’s chief energy economist, said in a telephone interview in Washington. “In the past when there has been a big economic downturn, OPEC has had to go through a series of cuts to stabilize the oil market.”
They haven’t done enough this time around to halt the 67 percent drop. Merrill Lynch & Co., forecasting the first contraction in global demand in a quarter century, sees crude bottoming at an average $43 a barrel in the first quarter, 21 percent below where it ended last week. In December 1998, crude tumbled 61 percent from its peak to as low as $10.35 when OPEC failed to eliminate a supply glut.
Demand Suffers
OPEC members, the producers of 40 percent of the world’s oil, said at the Cairo meeting that they would wait to gauge the effect of a 1.5 million-barrel-a-day cut agreed to Oct. 24. That reduction was meant to restrict OPEC’s daily output by 5.2 percent, about the same amount that Spain, the world’s ninth- largest economy, uses in a day.
Ali al-Naimi, the oil minister of Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest exporter and its de facto leader, said in Cairo that $75 a barrel oil represents a “fair price” needed to support investment in new fields. The group’s next meeting is in Oran, Algeria, on Dec. 17.
Oil fell as much as $99.02 a barrel from its July record, making the four-month slump steeper than crude’s drop from its 1996 peak to the low set in December 1998.
At that time the hesitation of countries including Iraq, Venezuela and Russia to rein in output amid the Asian financial crisis and a warm U.S. winter contributed to the decline. Now, sinking demand is the main issue as the world’s largest economies slip into recession.
Crude oil for January delivery fell $5.15, or 9.5 percent, to $49.28 a barrel at 2:47 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest settlement since May 23, 2005. It was the biggest one-day drop since Oct. 10.
Supplies Rise
OPEC, the International Energy Agency and the U.S. Energy Department reduced consumption projections in November because of the economic outlook. OPEC trimmed its forecast for average oil use next year by 530,000 barrels, or 0.6 percent, and the IEA cut its estimate by 670,000 barrels, or 0.8 percent.
“Prices are coming down because demand is,” said Robert Ebel, a senior adviser on energy and national security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “There’s no way of knowing how long this will continue.”
U.S. crude-oil supplies rose for a ninth week, the longest stretch since April 2005, the Energy Department said Nov. 26. U.S. fuel demand declined the most in 27 years in the first 10 months of this year, the American Petroleum Institute reported Nov. 18.
The world’s three biggest economies, the U.S., Japan and Germany, are in or close to recession. The countries represented about one-third of global demand in 2007.
‘The Main Determinant’
Oil prices may fall more as world growth slows, Fatih Birol, the IEA’s chief economist in Paris, said in an interview Nov. 27.
“The main determinant will be how the global economy performs,” Birol said. “If the economy continues to slow, this will put downward pressure on demand and also have an impact on prices.”
OPEC reduced its quota 11 percent in the year through March 1999 to battle falling prices, according to data on the group’s Web site. Its decision in October to cut removed less than half that amount from the market.
By June 2000, the cartel’s quota was almost 25 percent lower than the 27.5 million-barrel limit agreed to in the three months from January 1998 through March 1998.
While New York-based Merrill Lynch predicts a recovery in the second half, with 2009 prices averaging $50 a barrel, Barclays Plc says crude will trade at $72.10 next quarter and average $100.50 for 2009, according to a report Nov. 21.
Spending Programs
Oil producers are depending on crude prices to support spending programs. Venezuela, the largest oil exporter in the Western Hemisphere, estimated an average price of $60 a barrel for its 2009 budget. The Latin American country depends on oil for half its public spending and more than 90 percent of exports.
Russia’s 2009 spending plans are based on a forecast of $95 a barrel of Urals crude, and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Sept. 16 the budget will break even next year if the price of oil averages $70 a barrel. Urals crude, Russia’s benchmark blend, was last priced at $49.60.
Oil producers “do have leverage but it depends on how much unity they can muster up,” said Simon Wardell, an analyst at Global Insight Inc. in London. “They’re facing budget shortfalls, so a decline in output will hurt them even if it does push prices up.”
At the same time, international oil companies, concerned falling crude may make new exploration projects unprofitable, are curtailing investment plans and slowing projects. That may affect supply when demand does recover.
Investment Plans
Producers such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc are cutting back plans to develop deposits like Canadian oil sands. Shell indefinitely postponed the second-phase expansion of its Athabasca project because of rising construction costs. Shell, based in The Hague, also delayed seeking regulatory approval for Carmon Creek. Higher cost plans require $80-a-barrel oil to be profitable, according to Merrill Lynch.
“The market is very related to the global economic crisis,” Qatari Oil Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said in Cairo. “There’s pressure on demand.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Anthony DiPaola in Dubai at adipaola@bloomberg.net.; Mark Shenk in New York at mshenk1@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: December 1, 2008 15:59 EST
Peak oil keeps on peaking
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24736896-664,00.html
Article from: Herald Sun
Terry McCrann
December 02, 2008 12:00am
WELL, so-called 'peak oil' hasn't filtered Down Under quite just yet.
Australian oil production has remained pretty constant around 30 million barrels a quarter since mid-2006.
The reason is basic. As individual old fields, like Bass Strait, do peak and decline, new ones come on.
And we'd have a lot more coming on if we actually directed some of the hundreds of millions of dollars wasted on useless wind 'energy' to promoting real carbon energy.
This is where our size actually helps. We don't have to find a Saudi Arabia. Good small fields will keep us around 35 per cent self-sufficient.
And if we really aggressively developed our vast gas reserves, we could easily boost domestic self-sufficiency in oil and oil equivalent or substitute to well over 50 per cent.
A classic demonstration of how this works is the differing production profiles of Bass Strait partners BHP Billiton and Esso.
Although Esso's production has kicked up in the last two quarters, its trend remains in decline. As its core corporate strategy is to essentially ride out the Bass Strait clock.
In contrast BHPB's production is in trend increase. As it has an active program to find and develop oil fields outside Bass Strait.
And that's just with domestic output. It also, of course, has an active global profile, with that offshore production not included in these numbers.
On the carbon front, so much for the importance of Australia making useless gestures to show 'leadership'.
'Leadership' has taken second place to reality in the next stage of the global carbon farce.
We won't be disclosing our 2020 carbon target at the next meeting in Poland. We are likely to meet a very chilly reception as a consequence.
Literally. As I'm presuming that the conference will turn off the coal-fired heating, to let the anti-global warming campaigners enjoy a good Polish winter.
After all, who better to show the sort of 'leadership' of useless and yet painful gestures that are trumpeted by our, well, leader.
IEA doesn't see peak oil by 2030
But energy group warns of under-investment
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/iea-doesnt-see-peak-oil/story.aspx?guid=%7BC844CC20-F5BC-4627-987A-7CBF7FE50923%7D
Did peak oil go away? No
By Tim Stevenson
http://www.reformer.com/ci_11098858?source=most_emailed
Saturday, November 29
ATHENS -- With the price of oil plummeting below $50 a barrel, shedding close to $100 since July, and commensurate readings appearing at the gas pump, people have something to feel good about during an otherwise dismal economic time. Unfortunately, it may mislead the less informed to dismiss warnings about imminent peak oil as so much Y2K false alarm.
For there is a dark side to this otherwise salutary turn of events. Rather then rendering moot the question of peak oil, the falling prices of petroleum actually exacerbate it. This is because, while the current economic free fall will continue to lower demand for petroleum and drive down prices, these lower prices have also fallen below the cost of bringing new oil into production.
As the International Energy Agency (IEA) has repeatedly warned for over a year, excessively low prices will discourage investment in production, especially with the steadily rising costs of extracting and processing oil from increasingly difficult places. This lack of sufficient investment has serious implications for the future supply, once the global economy recovers from its current descent, particularly when we wrap our minds around the $26 trillion that the IEA says it will now cost over the next 20 years to keep energy flowing at its current pace.
In a Nov. 12 interview with The Times of London, Dr. Fatih Birol, the IEA's chief economist, said that fresh sources of oil equivalent to the output of four Saudi Arabias will have to be found to provide not only the 45 million daily barrels needed to simply stand still, but the additional 20 million to keep pace with the surging demand. Noting that much of the increase would have to come from costly unconventional and environmentally dangerous sources (such as the tar sands of Alberta, Canada), Birol emphasized that the twin challenges of meeting surging energy demand, while dealing with the threat of catastrophic climate change, would require "a global energy revolution."
The IEA's fears are echoed throughout the oil industry and financial world. The Financial Times reported earlier this month that more than four out of five refinery construction projects face cancellation. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that "big oil companies are already finding it harder to maintain, let alone increase, production."
Jad Mouawad recently wrote in The New York Times, "Some analysts predict oil could fall to $30 to 40 a barrel as the world economy worsens." He goes on to cite the conservative Cambridge Energy Research Associates that estimate that "As much as 4 million barrels of future oil could be jeopardized if prices remain below $60 a barrel."
Quoting several energy executives, The Financial Times reported last month that "delays in developing projects in Russia, Angola, Nigeria, Australia and elsewhere mean there will not be enough oil available once the world economy is ready to get back on its feet."
What lends special significance to this development, however, is that it is part of a larger trend of underinvestment in the industry that predates the current drop in prices. Western oil companies have been decapitalizing in recent years, buying stock back and otherwise returning cash to shareholders, rather than exploring for large new fields that just aren't there.
Petroleum is a capital-intensive industry, where massive amounts are required just to offset depletion and to maintain production. Drilling and platform equipment has aged and is unavailable. The cost of drilling rigs has doubled in recent years. There is an alarming dearth of skilled personnel. What is the oil industry telling us with this retrenching, while it continues to reap unprecedented profits at the same time?
The fact is that the systemic conditions that drove prices to record levels have not disappeared. Oil production has "plateaued" (to use the term favored by the industry) at about 85 million barrels per day since 2005, and this at a time when prices were rising. Production is in decline in 33 or the world's 48 oil-producing countries.
In its 2008 edition of its "World Energy Outlook," the IEA took the unprecedented step of including a comprehensive study of depletion rates in the world's largest oil fields, demonstrating annual depletion rates of 10-11 percent in non-OPEC countries, and 2-3 percent in OPEC members. The fact that the discovery of new fields peaked in the 1960s, and that we consume three barrels of oil for every new barrel discovered means that these smaller, new fields can't compensate for the decline in production in older fields.
As Lawrence Eagles, an energy analyst at JP Morgan, recently observed in typical business understatement, "the fact is that supply side problems in oil have not completely gone away."
When you combine the "plateauing" in production over the last three years, peak oil author Richard Heinberg has opined, with the ongoing depletion and rising decline rates in the oil fields, we may have already reached the all-time peak this past July. If this is true, then the country is going to have to adjust quickly to steadily decreasing amounts of oil.
Given that we are totally, utterly, completely dependent on fossil fuels for our being, this fundamental change will necessitate a massive overhaul of the U.S. economy including transportation, lifestyles, jobs, agriculture, and industrial production. Think Apollo Project, squared.
While enjoying this respite from high oil prices, we should also seize it as an opportunity to address what needs to be done, as rapidly as possible, so we can reasonably transition into the post-petroleum age we have irrevocably entered.
Tim Stevenson is a community organizer with Post Oil Solutions
Ocean currents can power the world, say scientists
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/renewableenergy/3535012/Ocean-currents-can-power-the-world-say-scientists.html
A revolutionary device that can harness energy from slow-moving rivers and ocean currents could provide enough power for the entire world, scientists claim.
By Jasper Copping
Last Updated: 2:39PM GMT 29 Nov 2008
Ocean currents can power the world, say scientists
Existing technologies require an average current of five or six knots to operate efficiently, while most of the earth's currents are slower than three knots Photo: AP
The technology can generate electricity in water flowing at a rate of less than one knot - about one mile an hour - meaning it could operate on most waterways and sea beds around the globe.
Existing technologies which use water power, relying on the action of waves, tides or faster currents created by dams, are far more limited in where they can be used, and also cause greater obstructions when they are built in rivers or the sea. Turbines and water mills need an average current of five or six knots to operate efficiently, while most of the earth's currents are slower than three knots.
The new device, which has been inspired by the way fish swim, consists of a system of cylinders positioned horizontal to the water flow and attached to springs.
As water flows past, the cylinder creates vortices, which push and pull the cylinder up and down. The mechanical energy in the vibrations is then converted into electricity.
Cylinders arranged over a cubic metre of the sea or river bed in a flow of three knots can produce 51 watts. This is more efficient than similar-sized turbines or wave generators, and the amount of power produced can increase sharply if the flow is faster or if more cylinders are added.
A "field" of cylinders built on the sea bed over a 1km by 1.5km area, and the height of a two-storey house, with a flow of just three knots, could generate enough power for around 100,000 homes. Just a few of the cylinders, stacked in a short ladder, could power an anchored ship or a lighthouse.
Systems could be sited on river beds or suspended in the ocean. The scientists behind the technology, which has been developed in research funded by the US government, say that generating power in this way would potentially cost only around 3.5p per kilowatt hour, compared to about 4.5p for wind energy and between 10p and 31p for solar power. They say the technology would require up to 50 times less ocean acreage than wave power generation.
The system, conceived by scientists at the University of Michigan, is called Vivace, or "vortex-induced vibrations for aquatic clean energy".
Michael Bernitsas, a professor of naval architecture at the university, said it was based on the changes in water speed that are caused when a current flows past an obstruction. Eddies or vortices, formed in the water flow, can move objects up and down or left and right.
"This is a totally new method of extracting energy from water flow," said Mr Bernitsas. "Fish curve their bodies to glide between the vortices shed by the bodies of the fish in front of them. Their muscle power alone could not propel them through the water at the speed they go, so they ride in each other's wake."
Such vibrations, which were first observed 500 years ago by Leonardo DaVinci in the form of "Aeolian Tones", can cause damage to structures built in water, like docks and oil rigs. But Mr Bernitsas added: "We enhance the vibrations and harness this powerful and destructive force in nature.
"If we could harness 0.1 per cent of the energy in the ocean, we could support the energy needs of 15 billion people. In the English Channel, for example, there is a very strong current, so you produce a lot of power."
Because the parts only oscillate slowly, the technology is likely to be less harmful to aquatic wildlife than dams or water turbines. And as the installations can be positioned far below the surface of the sea, there would be less interference with shipping, recreational boat users, fishing and tourism.
The engineers are now deploying a prototype device in the Detroit River, which has a flow of less than two knots. Their work, funded by the US Department of Energy and the US Office of Naval Research, is published in the current issue of the quarterly Journal of Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering.
48.52 and regular goes under 3 bucks on Maui...
Cheapest I've seen is 2.96...
Last minute or so...
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/charles_elachi_on_the_mars_rovers.html
No life yet hydrocarbons...
The fossil fuel theory is bunk...
Follow the Mutual Funds: Solar Is Bottoming
Oil at 50 also helps get rid of some competition...or at leaste slow it down...
http://seekingalpha.com/article/108497-follow-the-mutual-funds-solar-is-bottoming?source=yahoo
I have been bearish on renewable energy since September, when I wrote "Solar selloff may be in the early innings". Since then, solar stocks have tumbled 80-90% from their 52 week highs, and wind energy stocks also crashed. The financial crisis poured oil on the fire, making things even worse. In the last few weeks, most solar companies guided lower for their next quarters due to mainly two reasons: sluggish sales in Europe and weakening of the Euro.
So does this mean investors should abandon solar stocks? Absolutely not - on the contrary, it is the time to buy stocks at this moment. What Warren Buffett said is so true: “Buy stocks when everybody else is panicking.” But, the fact is, not many investors follow it because when the market declines to the bottom, fear destroys proper judgment, hence no average investors purchase at the bottom. Only professionals such as market makers, mutual fund and hedge fund managers have the guts to bottom fish and get the maximum profit.
The solar sector is under such an environment. Everybody sees gloom for solar and renewable energy in the near term; downgrades are flying every day on Wall Street. Yet the stocks are bouncing back from 52 week lows nicely, and apparently the bottoming process is underway.
There are a few reasons why solar may be bottoming. Crude is bottoming out; the downside extreme is apparently overdone, just like the extremes when oil was trading $147. Both President Obama and China government will bring new life into the solar sector, and this time it will be truly different, “green” thinking may change many generations to come.
For investors, two companies may deserve your attention: Suntech Power (STP) and First Solar (FSLR). STP is unique because it has market shares all over the world including China, Europe and US. Many other solar companies only have sales in Europe, such as Solarfun (SOLF), Canadian Solar (CSIQ), Trina Solar (TSL), Yingli Green (YGE), China Sunenergy (CSUN), and JA Solar (JASO). While STP is the No1 PV maker in terms of volume, FSLR is definitely the leader in the US. The stock rallies of the two leaders in the sector indicate that the market is looking forward 6 months ahead instead of just to next quarter. Last Friday, STP closed above its 10 day moving average, and the MFI index is pointing upwards nicely. This is also true for First Solar.
The following is an example of what mutual funds made solar sector purchases (only big holdings are listed). All data are based on MFFAIS.com.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/108497-follow-the-mutual-funds-solar-is-bottoming?source=yahoo
Oil drops 8% after OPEC keeps output unchanged
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/oil-drops-6-after-opec/story.aspx?guid={A306FF4E-CC99-45DA-B279-2EB7A11815D0}&siteid=yahoomy
Gee, looks like oil is going to hang out in the low 50's high 40's for a while since Obama most likely won't be making more hot wars if the Middle east and central America...Economic war is the alternative...
Don’t buy this just yet
http://www.321energy.com/editorials/moriarty/moriarty113008.html
Bob Moriarty
Archives
December 01, 2008
As I write, the US financial bailout is up to $8.5 trillion. No doubt it will be higher by the time you read this. Was it only two months ago that citizens of the United States actually participated in debating the issue of a 3-page $700 billion dollar bailout? The vast majority was dead set against it. It passed anyway. As a 250-page $850 billion dollar bailout.
Financial bailouts are like wife beating. Once you start, you never stop. If someone had asked me what the chance was of an $850 billion dollar bailout ballooning up 10-fold to $8.5 trillion in less than two months, I’d have said none at all. But there you have it.
All my readers are now in the position of a lifetime. A financial hurricane has hit, it’s destroyed the MacMansion, the Ferrari and the spanking new yacht parked next to the house. You are financially destitute when suddenly a nice man in a freshly pressed suit pops up to talk to you about insurance.
He pulls out his pad and begins to scribble numbers as he asks, “How were you fixed for insurance?” You sadly mumble that you were fully covered but forgot to mail the check and when the hurricane hit you weren’t actually insured.
“Not a problem,” says as he smiles, “Just this time I can give you full insurance for everything you lost. Actually you can take out a policy for more than you lost. Guaranteed payout.”
“What’s the trick?” you ask.
“Gold,” he says, “You have to own gold. If you do, you are guaranteed to be covered.”
I’ve written hundreds of articles. I saw the bottom of gold in the summer of 2001. I saw the bottom of silver in early December of 2001. I’ve called half a dozen tops and bottoms of gold, silver, the dollar and oil, many to the day. I forecast even the month the crash would take place.
This may be the most important piece I’ve done. If you want to ignore it, it will cost you. Go buy some gold. Buy some gold you can hold in your hand. The financial hurricane I have been forecasting for years is here and no matter how much you think you have lost, if you can’t put your hands on some physical gold, you are going to lose everything.
The helicopter loaded with bales of $100 bills is overhead and the Gang of Fools are dumping money on the bonfire like there is no tomorrow. If you don’t get into some real assets, there will be no tomorrow.
AIG is at the trough for the 3rd time, they are up to $150 billion and after a couple of more feedings, even the densest of politicians is going to realize they are history. Citigroup is history, Bank of America is history, the entire system is toast. We are going to have riots in the streets when GM, Ford and Chrysler go belly up and they will. There is no alternative; they can’t be competitive with their current cost structure. Millions of Americans are going to lose everything they have, their jobs, their homes, their pensions. You don’t have to be one of them. You are smart enough to come to 321gold.
You still have a chance to get into real goods. The most valuable will be gold in your hands followed by silver. But energy is going to be just as good as gold, only you can’t store it under the bed. You are going to have to buy it in some paper form.
A recent report by the IEA studied 800 of the world’s oil fields. The study concluded production is going to decline 6.7% per year. That’s a lot. Peak oil was in May of 2005. Without the discovery of six Saudi Arabias over the next 20 years, we are in trouble. We may well be in a depression here and now, I think we are but the cost of energy is going up in both real and nominal terms.
I returned recently from Indonesia where I saw a wonderful opportunity in a brand new company specializing in Coal Bed Methane. (CBM)
Indonesia dropped out of OPEC in May of this year. They haven’t been an oil exporter since 2004. Oil and natural gas are an important contribution to the tax base of Indonesia. With declining revenues, the government realized they need to make major changes in how they develop their resources.
A few years ago, Indonesia overtook Australia as the world’s largest thermal coal exporter. If anything their coal production is more developed than their oil and gas industry even though they have been oil producers since 1903.
Studies have shown that the country has over 453 trillion cubic feet of CBM, twice the resource of natural gas. But due to a quirk in Indonesian law, the CBM potential has yet to be tapped. Indonesia differentiates between subsurface rights for coal and those of gas/oil. So if someone wanted to come in and do a CBM deal they had to deal with both the owner of the coal rights and the owner of the gas/oil rights. In the confusion, nothing was accomplished.
Jakarta understood the problem and made it clear to foreign companies that both their cash and their expertise were welcome. Many of the hurdles of weak legal and land title issues were swept aside. The central government insists that the rampant corruption in the country wouldn’t be allowed to stop the development of natural resources.
A new junior out of Vancouver formed by a team of highly experienced CBM experts came into being two years ago with a mandate to exploit the looming potential of CBM in Indonesia. Now called CBM Asia (TCF-V), the company is run by Al Charuk as President and CEO.
I was invited to Jakarta a couple of weeks ago to be present at a ceremony where the Minister of Energy for Indonesia signed 33 contracts calling for $912 million dollars to be spent on oil and gas exploration in the next year. I was with senior executives from CBM Asia as they watched their Indonesian partner sign the documents giving them approval for a joint venture in the Kutai block located in eastern Kalimantan on the island of Borneo.
After the Minister of Energy completed his marathon-signing event, he spoke to the large assembled group for a few minutes. One of the first things he announced was that he had signed a document the prior night taking the coal people out of the equation. In the future, the gas and oil people have preference and anyone wanting to drill for CBM will have to deal with them but will not have to deal with both them and the coal people. For a company in the position of CBM Asia, it’s a giant step forward because it cuts the number of people involved in the deal in half.
The deal that CBM Asia did involves the Kutai Basin with an estimated 81 TCF of CBM. They joint ventured with a local company PT Ephindo headed by two Indonesian senior executives with dozens of year’s experience in energy companies within Indonesia. PT Ephindo will be the operator of the project. Within the block CBM Asia and PT Ephindo have a concession, they believe there may be as much as 8 TCF of CBM in place.
The 100,000 square km Kutai Basin has a number of gas charged coal seams as thick as 150 feet at depths of between 500 and 4000 feet so drill costs will be low. There is an existing CBM gathering system only 3 km away so wells can be brought on line both quickly and cheaply. CBM Asia anticipates drilling as soon as March of 2009.
The government takes up to 55% of every CBM project. CBM Asia’s deal with PT Ephindo calls for them to pay 66% for a 40% working interest which is further reduced by the 55% government participation. At the end of the day, CBM Asia will have 18% of the project net.
That doesn’t sound like much but in this company you are buying a lot of blue sky at a very low price. I bought in to the first private placement and I wish I had bought more. A TCF of CBM is worth $1 billion in market cap. CBM Asia has the POTENTIAL for 18% of 8 TCF and they are the 2nd mouse to the mousetrap. They are the company that gets the cheese because they have already invested two years of their time.
CBM also signed an option on the Sangatta Block in another JV. Terms have not been disclosed and CBM may or may not take up their option. They have a number of other deals in progress.
I cannot stress enough the value of the time they have already invested. The Minister of Energy signing the document taking the coal people off the table is a really big deal. It makes deals half the work and cost to put together. But it takes time and lots of money to make the contacts CBM already has in place.
I love these guys. This is my #1 energy pick. Ignore the numbers for now; there are too many zeros to do the math. They will be drilling in the next few months and when they do, the quality of knowledge they have is going to go up 10-fold. But take my word; this is the best energy deal I know of. They are fully funded, they hit the ground running. I met their Indonesian partners and they are absolutely first class. Now they need to drill.
But don’t buy just yet. There are 8 million shares coming free trading on the 13th of December. Some of those people will have to sell and couldn’t until the 13th. Let them give the shares away cheap. After the 13th is going to be the best opportunity to buy CBM cheap that you are going to get.
Management is great, the website is OK, I’m going to insist on some changes to make it more user friendly but there is a lot of information. This is a true team and it’s a good team. This stock is going to be a winner.
We own shares. We were in the PP. I am biased. You owe it to yourself to do your own due diligence.
CBM Asia Development
TCF-V $.48 (Nov 28, 2008)
CBMDF-PK 38.5 million shares
CBM Asia website
Bob Moriarty
President: 321gold
Archives
321gold
Salt Water As A Fuel...
http://www.evtv1.com/player.aspx?itemnum=8159
Lost Principles
http://www.321gold.com/editorials/casey/casey112708.html
Olivier Garret
Casey Energy Opportunities
Casey Research
Nov 27, 2008
As the economic crisis continues to unfold, recently a sense of uncertainty has begun to pervade the market. Even dyed-in-the-wool risk takers admit that they don't know what to think anymore. Inflation, deflation, recession or depression - there are so many vagaries that it appears to be anyone's guess what will happen next.
Despite the current, volatile environment, though, our expert team at Casey Research maintain their core prediction: that a highly inflationary cycle is not far off. While we, along with several external experts, continuously review our assumptions and conclusions and encourage dissenting opinions and analysis to avoid biased conclusions, so far we keep returning to our views about what's coming. That said, the hardest thing to predict is not what will happen, but when.
The way I see it, the swift, far-reaching and mostly ill-conceived reactions from most of the world's governments under the leadership of two apprentice sorcerers (Bernanke and Paulson) have until now resulted in a widespread run for an exit to nowhere, a deep credit freeze, and total and indiscriminate mistrust in the market and all of its players.
The fact remains that in the last year, many principles that have long been rooted in the success of capitalism have been thrown out of the window.
* First, market players discovered that the longest-lasting asset bubble in recent history was made possible by poor regulations (as opposed to lack thereof), greed, and the misunderstood and misrepresented risks of credit derivatives.
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* Second, we found out the real meaning of "too big to fail." If a business is large enough and has enough clout, it doesn't matter how poorly managed it has been, it will be bailed out at the expense of taxpayers (us) and investors (us again).
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* Third, we found that the rating systems the financial markets had been relying on have been misleading investors and failing to identify some of the riskiest asset classes. As a result, investors and all other economic agents are left with no means of evaluating risk as they conduct business, hence the credit freeze and rush to cash.
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* Fourth, to add to the confusion, the U.S. Fed and Treasury, followed by many other central banks, have been altering the rules of the game by the minute (buying toxic waste at face value, bailing out certain financial institutions but not others, becoming shareholders of several behemoths in the banking and insurance industry, and trumping all accepted rules of creditors' and stakeholders' priority, prohibiting the shorting of certain classes of assets on a moment's notice).
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* Last but not least, the U.S. presidency, weakened by almost eight years of mismanagement, has continued to show total lack of leadership. It has empowered a couple of technocrats to run the country's finances without leadership until a new administration gets in and, hopefully quickly, figures out what to do. To make matters worse, the EU has shown its ugliest face and demonstrated a fact we all truly knew but didn't want to recognize until recently -- that economic unity and coordination is easy in good times but almost impossible when the going gets tough.
No wonder economic actors are wreaking havoc as they race for shelter.
Add to this the fact that all natural resources have been hammered by the combination of a credit freeze and lower real and anticipated demand from most industrial nations.
Finally, junior exploration stocks - being very thinly traded and rightfully considered to be in a higher risk class -- have been hammered twice as hard as the rest of the markets (hence the performance of the TSX-V, which has lost 76% in the last year and 30% in the past 30 days alone). The fact that many hedge funds had to unwind large positions in such a small market certainly did not help values.
What does this mean for investors in this market?
We all have suffered significant losses in our portfolios, and although our choices may have reduced some of the downside, quality companies have been hit almost as hard as fly-by-night juniors with no future.
Several of our companies are trading at or below cash value and get no goodwill for the significant assets and outstanding management teams they have assembled.
Although there is no way to tell when we will hit a bottom in these markets, we believe that once tax-loss selling season is over and reality settles in, we will see the beginning of a slow recovery process for the best of the juniors. Investors who have the ability to stay the course and are invested in the highest-quality juniors will recover from their losses and benefit from what will eventually be another bull market in commodities.
Precious metals and agriculture, followed by certain segments of the energy sector, will lead the way to widespread price increases across the range of commodities. While we can't predict the exact timing of this run, the fundamentals are in place once the world economies take a turn for the better or at least stabilize somewhat.
Here is why:
* The current crisis is taking tremendous amounts of needed capacity off the supply pipeline. Whether it be energy, base metals, or agricultural goods, projects to bring online expensive oilfields and alternative fuel sources are being shelved and will take years to get back on track. Mines are closing and projects are being canceled, thereby removing much of the supply; the credit squeeze is cutting down on agricultural investment, and working capital constraints will dramatically limit supply.
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* The world's demographics are not changing, nor are the aspirations of a hard-working, fast-growing middle class in emerging economies. The changes that drove commodity markets up for the last few years are long lasting and real.
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* Peak Oil and peak-everything. There is limited supply for many commodities, and although there are alternatives (curbing consumption and finding alternative sources of energy), it takes large investments to do so. In current markets, many of these investments are going to be put aside until the next crisis/shortage hits - at which point we will have years of a commodities bull run before an equilibrium is reached.
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* We anticipate that China, Russia, and India will take advantage of low commodity prices to secure very large, long-term supply commitments while the Western world licks its wounds and tries to recover. By the time we do, an even larger portion of the world's available resources may no longer be available on the markets, for example oil and gas.
In the last edition of Casey Energy Opportunities, Marin Katusa pondered how the U.S. is going to replace the supply of uranium when the HEU program with Russia is set to expire in 2013. The answer is that the U.S. will struggle to replace 40% of its needs, and this will benefit a handful of U.S. suppliers with proven reserves. Currently shares of these companies, which have the cash to develop resources or are already producing with positive cash flows, are incredibly cheap - a win-win situation. Eventually similar opportunities will come from copper and strategic metals.
* We can expect the world to continue to be a very unstable place, where regional conflicts can quickly spread and spin out of control, with obvious impact on the smooth supply of key commodities (Gulf region, Nigeria, former Soviet republics, to name a few). In fact, a widespread financial crisis could precipitate those events as conflicts are often linked to economic hardship.
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* The unprecedented deficits, a wave of bailouts, and growth in the money creation by central banks in the Western world will eventually lead to massive inflation. In the U.S. alone, the monetary supply has increased by 50% since early September. This will unequivocally reverse the current short-term deflationary pressures and lead to a steep devaluation of the dollar and other major currencies. At that point, precious metals and all tangible assets are poised for a strong recovery.
So, if you ask me if I am still bullish on the resource sector, my answer yes, now more than ever. Juniors are juniors, and when things go wrong, they get beaten down. The strong ones with great teams and lots of cash will survive and prosper, the others will disappear. When commodities come back with a vengeance, there will be fewer companies, almost all with good projects and those who are invested in these few companies will see a very sizeable appreciation of their capital as the broader public returns.
It's very hard to be a contrarian investor, especially when all forces seem to be against you, but one thing the markets have taught me is that memory on the Street is unbelievably short, and they will come back.
Not only is the economy presently going haywire, there's also still the boogeyman of Peak Oil looming on the horizon. While oil prices are at a low not seen for a while, it is all but certain that this sweet relief for motorists won't last very long.
When oil prices come roaring back, the energy market will virtually explode and, if you are safely positioned in the right stocks by then, your bank account will too. Learn more about how being a contrarian investor can earn you a fortune - click here.
Casey Archives
321gold Ltd
SOLAR:
Villaraigosa unveils solar plan for Los Angeles
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-solar25-2008nov25,0,2714480.story
Nancy Pastor / For The Times
More than 1,700 solar panels were installed on the roof of the Staples Center in downtown L.A. earlier this year.
The mayor's proposal aims to have solar power meet one-tenth of L.A.'s energy needs by 2020. But skeptics wonder if the plan will be cost-efficient and friendly to private enterprise.
By David Zahniser and Phil Willon
November 25, 2008
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled an ambitious long-range plan Monday for securing enough solar power to meet one-tenth of the city's energy needs by 2020, a move aimed at making L.A. a hub of the solar-energy industry.
Appearing at a South Los Angeles manufacturing plant where solar panels are made, Villaraigosa said the initiative will help the Department of Water and Power wean itself off of fossil fuels -- natural gas and coal -- as part of the effort to address global warming.
* Villaraigosa unveils solar plan
Video: Villaraigosa unveils solar...
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L.A. council orders solar rooftop measure drafted
The plan calls for enough solar panels to produce 1,280 megawatts of power, a goal that would be reached through a combination of private and public generating facilities and the installation of solar panels on homes.
"Nobody's contemplated that many megawatts for one city," said Rhonda Mills, Southern California director of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies and a solar power advocate.
The announcement Monday is the latest in a series of renewable energy initiatives touted by the mayor in recent weeks, including using redevelopment funds to lure "clean" technology companies and investing city pension dollars in environmentally friendly companies.
Shifting Los Angeles to cleaner fuels could buttress both Villaraigosa's run for reelection and any future run for governor. If he runs in 2010, Villaraigosa would likely face state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, an avid environmentalist.
"L.A. has everything it takes to make this [solar plan] work," said Villaraigosa, standing alongside environmentalists, union leaders and City Council members. "We have the sun in abundancy. We have the space. We have the largest municipal utility in the country."
Still, one DWP watchdog questioned the financial underpinnings of the plan
"There is one huge assumption here -- that they'll get these huge tax credits, volume discounts and economies of scale," said Jack Humphreville, a neighborhood council member who has been pressing the DWP to appoint a ratepayer advocate. "I have serious questions about whether that is pie-in-the-sky or not."
DWP General Manager and Chief Executive H. David Nahai said his agency will spend the next 90 days developing a financial analysis of the solar plan, including its effect on ratepayers.
Under the plan, the largest share of solar power, 500 megawatts, would come from generating facilities built by private-sector companies in the Mojave Desert.
An additional 380 megawatts would be achieved through smaller programs, including one that would help low-income residents add solar panels to their homes and another that would allow DWP customers to purchase shares of city-owned solar plants.
Voters will decide on another part of the mayor's solar plan on March 3, at the same time that Villaraigosa seeks a second and final four-year term. That ballot measure would allow the DWP to install and own 400 megawatts of rooftop solar panels by 2014. Villaraigosa and the council have been criticized in recent weeks over that proposal, which was conceived by an organization with strong ties to the union that represents DWP employees.
Business leaders contend that the ballot measure was written by and for DWP employee unions and would lock out companies that specialize in rooftop solar panels.
Gary Toebben, president and chief executive of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, said he is encouraged to see the mayor place a greater emphasis on private-sector solar initiatives. But he said there are unanswered questions about the solar ballot measure's effect on electrical rates.
"We still have a concern that the cost of the ballot initiative has not been laid out," he said.
Villaraigosa said the solar plan could lead to higher rates as soon as 2011. But City Council President Eric Garcetti noted that coal, one of the DWP's cheapest -- and most polluting -- energy sources, will also become more expensive as Congress moves to impose a carbon tax.
"Coal is not going to be the same price that it is today," he said.
Zahniser and Willon are Times staff writers.
david.zahniser@latimes.com
phil.willon@latimes.com
ProLogis Seeks To Cash In On Solar By Leasing Roofs
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200811251115DOWJONESDJONLINE000432_FORTUNE5.htm
Dow Jones
November 25, 2008: 11:15 AM EST
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Economic crisis aside, the demand for solar power will remain healthy in the long run, analysts say. But where will all these solar systems be installed?
How about the more than 540 million square feet of industrial rooftop space managed by ProLogis around the world?
The Denver, Colo., owner, manager and developer of real estate is actively seeking out electric utilities to lease out its rooftops as a way to earn extra income with no capital investment, while meeting the company's goal of contributing to global sustainability.
"There is enormous demand for renewable energy and a supply constraint that will soon be removed," said Drew Torbin, manager of sustainability for ProLogis, in an interview with Clean Technology Insight, referring to the availability of components for solar systems. "We look at that and we think that a place to put the product is real estate, and that's what we have."
(This story also appeared in Clean Technology Insight, a daily newsletter and information service published by Dow Jones & Co.)
ProLogis owns and manages 2,884 facilities, mostly distribution warehouses, in North America, Europe and Asia, and their combined roof space is the equivalent to nearly 10,000 football fields.
The company has already installed or is in the process of installing solar modules in the U.S., France, Spain, Germany and Japan to generate 6.4 megawatts of power. That includes a 2.44 MW installation in Fontana, Calif., for Edison International's (EIX) Southern California Edison, its largest so far. It aims to install enough solar panels to produce 25 million kilowatts per year by 2010, or roughly 22 MW of installed capacity.
As a real estate investment trust, ProLogis isn't interested in owning the solar installations, but rather in engaging utilities to lease its space. Utilities make solid tenants that will enter long-term leases, as most power- purchase agreements for solar-power generation are for 15 to 20 years, said Torbin. Despite all of its real estate, ProLogis chose not to rent out to billboards or cellphone towers and currently has vacant rooftops, he said.
Another revenue stream for ProLogis is the services provided during the installation process. "We're experts in construction and could become their partners," said Torbin. "We have boots on the ground; [utilities] don't have the time to deal with hundreds of real estate owners."
The way ProLogis is structuring its contracts with utilities isn't under the traditional property-leasing terms of dollars per square foot: It's as a percentage of the gross revenue generated from its roofs. That includes revenue not only from kilowatt/hour of power but also from renewable energy credits and carbon credits.
To guarantee the best returns for its involvement in solar power, ProLogis is also taking "a proactive approach" with the investors in tax equity and debt financing to make sure the project gets the best prices and return, said Torbin.
Also, as an owner of the rooftop, ProLogis has a say in what type of technology is used, given the impact of weight, snow accumulation and winds. For instance, it's currently working with Portland General Electric Co. (POR) to install 1.1 MW in existing and newly built facilities, and the structural engineers involved in the project decided that the project should use so-called building-integrated photovoltaic systems, which are lightweight.
Analysts said the solar market will likely be segmented into rooftop installations and ground-mounted solar parks, the latter taking off in the U.S. if the utilities embrace solar as a major source of renewable energy to meet their renewable portfolio standards. But a major constraint is still prices of the systems, said Mehdi Hosseini, analyst with FBR Capital Markets Corp.
The cost to install 1 MW of capacity of solar power is $7 million, and the average payback for the investment is six years, according to analysts' estimates.
"It does sound very attractive - you have these commercial properties and you'd better utilize the space and reduce your electricity bill," said Hosseini. "But at current prices, it takes six years on average to break even, and that's too long."
Supply of solar systems' components is picking up and will force prices down, which will favor more installations.
"Next year, prices could be down 20% to 30%, that's good, it will enable elasticity," said Hosseini. "Keep in mind that, at the end of the day you're making electricity, that's a commodity, and commodity prices will come down with higher supply."
That's music to ProLogis' ears.
-By Mara Lemos Stein, Dow Jones Newsletters; 201-938-2354; mara.lemos-stein@ dowjones.com
Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http:// www.djnewsplus.com/al?rnd=VNf1o8oJFnifzxvjBbgEew%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
11-25-08 1115ET
Copyright (c) 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
The Week That Solar Was Left for Dead
go for good article:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/107536-the-week-that-solar-was-left-for-dead?source=yahoo
by: Duru November 24, 2008 | about stocks: CSIQ / ENER / ESLR / FSLR / JASO / KWT / LDK / SPWRA / STP / TAN
Dr. Duru
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A week full of earnings reports from various solar companies has highlighted the bruises, cuts, and scrapes in the solar sector. Across the damaged list of publicly traded companies, we find many stocks trading in the single digits - and that includes the solar ETFs TAN and KWT. We received reports from the likes of ReneSola (SOL), LDK Solar (LDK), Trina Solar (TSL), Suntech Power (STP), and Canadian Solar (CSIQ). The good news was few and far between.
What stuck out most to me was the (all too familiar) vigorous selling that followed LDK's earnings report that featured increases in revenue guidance (Q4 revenues of $555.0-565.0 mln vs. $512.99 mln consensus. FY09 revenues of $2.9-3.1B vs. $2.57B bln consensus). Lazard cut its price target on LDK from $16 to $12 and explained its skepticism based on the margin outlook:
LDK will suffer further gross margin erosion, resulting from the increased D&A charges as its polysilicon plants come online, which will likely not be offset by increases in revenue.
Amid the doom and gloom, the market has all but left solar stocks for dead. Let's review some of the events and flurry of analyst commentary over the past few weeks since I last lamented about the state of solar stocks. That was just as the last bear market rally in these names was peaking.
The peak of the last bear market rally in solar was punctuated by a flurry of call buying on November 4th. After stocks like First Solar (FSLR) had rallied over 70% in just over a week, options traders in solar stocks decided to load up on calls. This "buying panic" likely occurred in anticipation of a continuation of the run after the resolution of a Presidential election featuring two pro-solar candidates. FSLR, LDK, Evergreen Solar (ESLR), Canadian Solar (CSIQ), and Solarfun (SOLF) saw some of the most aggressive call-buying. All of these stocks had made new 52-week lows by the time these calls expired on Friday.
Buy when out of favor...no?
BHP Abandons $66 Billion Rio Bid as Commodities Slump (Update2)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aABno5V46VGI&refer=home
By Rebecca Keenan and Brett Foley
More Photos/Details
Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) -- BHP Billiton Ltd. abandoned its year-long pursuit of Rio Tinto Group, blaming the rout in commodities prices and the credit-market squeeze for derailing the biggest hostile takeover.
Marius Kloppers, chief executive officer of the world’s largest mining company, said the combination of $40 billion in new debt and regulatory hurdles made the $66 billion bid too risky at a time when the slowing world economy reduced demand for raw materials. Rio plunged as much as 43 percent in London trading, while Melbourne-based BHP shares jumped 21 percent.
As recently as August, Kloppers was bullish on commodities and increasing demand from China justifying his bid. After spending $450 million on the bid, he’s confronting a 50 percent drop in copper prices and a 45 percent decline in oil as the world’s biggest economies face their first simultaneous recessions since World War II.
“The withdrawal of the bid paints a very gloomy picture,” Charles Cooper, an analyst at Evolution Securities Ltd. in London, wrote in a report. “The outlook for commodities is set to remain weak, inventories will build and prices will fall, adversely affecting company earnings and valuations.”
Rio shares traded below the offer price since April as investors speculated the transaction, valued last year at more than $150 billion, would fail. Tumbling commodity prices led Brazil’s Cia. Vale do Rio Doce to shelve its proposal to buy Switzerland’s Xstrata Plc in March. Earlier this month, Russian steelmaker OAO Novolipetsk terminated an agreement to buy John Maneely Co. of the U.S.
Copper, Aluminum
Rio fell 834 pence, or 34 percent, to 1,616 pence as of 2:11 p.m. in London trading, valuing the company at 28.6 billion pounds ($43.9 billion). BHP rose 18 percent to 1,160 pence.
BHP’s retreat may be a blessing for Kloppers. Barclays Plc, which bid unsuccessfully for ABN Amro Holding NV last year, went on to buy the North American unit of bankrupt rival Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, which bought part of ABN for 14.3 billion euros ($18.6 billion), is being bailed out by the U.K. government after the takeover increased its vulnerability amid mounting credit losses.
The combination of BHP and London-based Rio would have created a company that matched Vale as the world’s largest iron ore producer. It would also have been the biggest producer of copper with about 9 percent of the market and the leader in aluminum with about 7 percent.
EU Probe
The European Commission started probing the deal in July on concern that BHP would control too much of the iron ore market. While BHP was figuring out what assets it would have to sell to gain approval, the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 raw materials dropped 48 percent and credit markets froze, reducing the value of those properties.
“BHP needs to focus on existing operations and I think going into an economic downturn they need to batten down the hatches and generate as much cash flow as they can,” said Jason Teh, who helps manage the equivalent of $5.7 billion at Investors Mutual Ltd. in Sydney. He holds BHP and Rio shares.
“When you combine all those factors, along with the decreased cash flow, you get to a situation where this is very difficult,” Kloppers said today on a conference call from Melbourne. “We have an obligation to look at these value creating investments, but also we have an obligation to stop them when the conditions have deteriorated.”
Growth Strategy
Rio said it noted BHP’s move and will continue its growth strategy. Rio has “an exceptional portfolio of cash-generative assets and significant stand-alone growth opportunities,” it said in a statement.
“I was expecting this,” said Sajjan Jindal, managing director of JSW Steel Ltd., India’s third-biggest producer. “The steel industry has many players but there are few in iron ore, so it would have created a monopolistic market.”
The European Commission was going to require so-called “remedies” from BHP to allow the bid to proceed, Kloppers said. The offer is still “live” until the commission decides to block it, he said.
“Even if they do approve it without remedies, we would ask our shareholders to vote against the deal,” he said.
Aluminum Drop
The value of BHP’s offer slumped after peaking at $194 billion on May 19 as commodity prices dropped. Aluminum is heading for its biggest annual drop in 17 years. Contract iron ore prices are forecast to drop in 2009, according to analysts at UBS AG and Goldman Sachs JBWere Pty. Coal is also predicted to decline.
“We have concerns about the continued deterioration of the near term global economic conditions, the lack of any certainty as to the time it will take for conditions to improve and the risks that these issues imply for shareholder value,” Don Argus, BHP’s chairman, said today in a statement to the Australian stock exchange.
Credit-default swaps on BHP tumbled 130 basis points to 320, according to Citigroup Inc. prices at 7:45 a.m. in London. Contracts on Rio jumped 50 basis points to 800.
The swaps, contracts conceived to protect bondholders against default, pay the buyer face value in exchange for the underlying securities or the cash equivalent should a country or company fail to adhere to its debt agreements. A rise indicates deterioration in the perception of credit quality; a decline the opposite.
Aluminum Corp. of China, the largest shareholder in Rio, said BHP’s dropped takeover bid would benefit Chinese steelmakers.
“This is definitely good news,” Lu Youqing, vice president of the Beijing-based company, said today by phone. “We respect BHP’s decision.”
Chinalco, as the company is known, bought a 9 percent stake in Rio with Alcoa Inc. in February.
To contact the reporters on this story: Rebecca Keenan in Melbourne at rkeenan5@bloomberg.net; Brett Foley in London at bfoley8@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: November 25, 2008 09:41 EST
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Opec disarray as oil sinks to $50
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5b5e3de0-b76e-11dd-8e01-0000779fd18c.html
By Carola Hoyos and Javier Blas in London
Published: November 21 2008 02:00 | Last updated: November 21 2008 02:00
The oil price yesterday sank below $50 a barrel for the first time since 2005 as the first signs of fractures within the Opec oil cartel became apparent.
Nigeria said it did not want to cut its production to try to stop the slide in prices because it needed high output to balance its budget, while Iran, Kuwait and others said they would support another production cut.
Odein Ajumogobia, Nigeria's energy minister, said it was not in his country's interest to cut production further, raising the likelihood the cartel could fail to achieve its goal of boosting prices by cutting output.
"We are in the process of [processing] our budget . . . based on an [oil] benchmark of $45 . . . If you cut the volume then it is going to affect your budget, so obviously we are not advocating a cut because it is not in our interest," he said.
Opec risks collapse if it is unable to act cohesively. The power of a cartel to boost prices depends on all significant members forgoing the revenue gain from selling more oil for the gain from the price boost that comes from withholding oil from the market. If one player cheats, the rest follow and the effort collapses, as it did in the early 1990s.
Opec members in October pledged to reduce their production by as much as 1.8m barrels a day. Though they have yet to fully implement that agreement, the group is considering a further production cut at its meeting in Cairo next week.
In New York, US oil futures prices plunged to an intraday low of $49.75 a barrel, down more than $3.50, and its lowest level since May 2005.
The drop came as investors dumped oil and other commodities on heightened fears of a protracted global recession and after Goldman Sachs, Wall Street's largest oil trader, told its clients it was closing all its trading recommendations in energy.
The options market priced in a growing likelihood that oil prices could sink as low $40-$45 a barrel before the end of the year, with the cost of insuring against such an event jumping overnight by as much as 90 per cent.
Investment banks such as Deutsche Bank and companies such as China National Offshore Oil Corporation have warned that oil prices could fall to $40 a barrel early next year as the credit crisis hits the real economy, with the slowdown spreading from the US and Europe into emerging markets such as China.
The slowdown is curbing demand for raw materials from oil to copper on a scale not seen in decades. Antoine Halff, of brokerage Newedge in New York, said: "Demand destruction today rivals that caused by the oil shocks of the 1970s."
The tone of a recent meeting of national oil companies, many of which came from Opec countries, was "panic", Fu Chengyu, chief executive of China National Offshore Oil Corporation, said this week.
All Opec members are struggling with the sharp drop in oil prices from this summer's record of $147. Ecuador, Opec's newest member, this week raised the spectre of defaulting on its loans.
Only the United Arab Emirates, Algeria and Qatar can balance their external accounts in 2009 with prices below $50 a barrel, according to research by PFC Energy, the US-based industry consultant. Saudi Arabia needs barely more than $50, PFC said.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Oil: $50 Or $100? Is Brazil The New Saudi Arabia?
http://www.247wallst.com/2008/11/oil-50-or-100-i.html
The price of oil will be pushed in two directions next week. That leaves aside the pressure that will come from a promised cut in supply by OPEC.
The head of Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company, said that at current crude prices it does not make sense to spend large amounts of capital on new and potentially difficult exploration. Put another way, the single biggest oil-producing nation is not bringing in enough money to extend the life of its fields.
According to Bloomberg, ``It is clear that collapsing oil prices are not only detrimental to the economies of oil-producing states but also to future upstream investments to sustain future oil demand consumption,'' Vienna-based consultant JBC Energy said in its weekly market report issued today.
To offset the problem in Saudi Arabia, new fields of tremendous size would have to be discovered elsewhere.
Brazil's newest oil find may end up yielding as much as 100 billion barrels. That is more than the current supply in Russia and almost as much oil in the ground as Kuwait currently claims. If Brazil can tap all of this crude, it would make a significant increase to global supply a decade from now.
According to the FT, Haroldo Lima, head of Brazil's oil industry regulatory body said, “Dimensions are so big that we still don’t have a good vision of what this means for Brazil."
What it means is that Brazil is the new Saudi Arabia.
Douglas A. McIntyre
And Cuba?
3.17 for gas...soon we'll be under 3 bucks too...
49.94 wonder how long it will stay down here and how far under 50 it will go...I say it stays down here till next year...then zoom...back toward 200...bwtfdik
Now, on to silver prognostication...as soon as I buy a whole bunch more the price will go lower...but long term it will zoom too...I think next year is going to be a very good year for me...makes me sad to see so many friends and relations getting wiped out.
Actually saw one woman get teary eyed at a party when discussing her 401k and IRAs...people are hurting...wondering how they are going to educate their kids etc...I think tuitions are going to come down and the private sector is going to have to make up the diff offering college loans...
I warned everybody I know that this would happen...most laffed at me, just like they laffed at me when I got in to gold at 272, and short oil at 73...and long silver constantly...yeah I should have sold everything at 20 and bought again down here increasing my silver stash by a boat load but my crystal ball is not that good...
Speaking of DIMWADS, I'm out at 50!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Logged into my account...and it sold. "...boy this tradin' stuff is easier than I thought..." lol
Vette has sold...
Congresspeople calling to say I will get responses to my letters...
Today is a good day...and it isn't even 10 in the morning...
51.53 I can't hardly stand it...buck and a half to go...or should I say close enough...
Name of game is buy low sell high not buy bottom sell top....or in this case buy high sell low not buy top sell bottom...
Many now calling for 40...I say 50 is good enough...then again 51.53 is pretty damh close, ain't it...?
Shut a lot of dimwads up, that's for sure.
MUST READ: SILVER, OIL International Forecaster November 2008 (#6) - Gold, Silver, Economy + More
By: Bob Chapman, The International Forecaster
http://news.goldseek.com/InternationalForecaster/1227165300.php
-- Posted Thursday, 20 November 2008
The following are some snippets from the most recent issue of the International Forecaster. For the full 32 page issue, please see subscription information below.
US MARKETS
What you are now witnessing is the slow motion destruction of the CRIMEX, formerly known as the COMEX, a commodities futures market which is supposed to provide a means for producers to hedge their products, but which has morphed into a rigged casino where commodities that don't exist are traded as if they did for prices that exist only in the fairytales woven by the Illuminati, who control the exchange. This destruction is what happens when the credibility and integrity of the market owners and managers of the CRIMEX, together with the credibility and integrity of the market regulators, the CFTC, move from near zero to negative infinity.
Not only do the owners and regulators do absolutely nothing about obvious criminal manipulations and illegal concentrations of short positions, but also we believe that they conspire with the criminal operators, which we refer to as "commercial shorts," to aid and abet their criminal mischief by divulging the precise nature of the trading positions of the "spec longs" who take the other side of the contracts, thus allowing pinpoint attacks on black-box formulations, especially where stops have been placed, thereby minimizing the cost of the manipulations by preventing the waste associated with overkill. Also, the owners and regulators change margin requirements, and whitewash investigations of obvious illegalities, whenever it serves to protect the commercial shorts, thus making a mockery out of the exchange and transforming what are supposed to be free markets into crony capitalist, corporatist fascist systems of syndicated piracy. This lack of integrity and criminal manipulation is the most pronounced in the gold and silver commodity markets, but many other types of commodities are under manipulation as well, especially oil, base metals and agricultural produce, meaning most of the rest of the exchange.
The despicable, nefarious dealings of the miscreant CRIMEX owners and regulators is quickly catching up to them in the precious metals markets of the exchange, and soon every one of the spec longs is going to pick up their toys and go home, and if the specs have any brains or sense of justice, they will take as much of the CRIMEX gold and silver with them when they leave by paying cash for it and taking delivery of it.
Since the end of October, when open interest for the December gold contract started a new series of decreases as the rollovers got off to any early start, the December open interest has fallen from 190,140 to this past Friday's 122,902, yet total open interest has fallen from 305,451 to 285,219 during that same period.
Thus, of the 67,238 December contracts that have been terminated in the rollover thus far, total open interest has plummeted by 20,232 contracts, meaning that many of the contracts are not being rolled over, and are being cashed out instead. If this 30% ratio persists, we could see gold open interest fall to under 250,000, a multi-year low, an astonishing drop of 58% from the peak of 593,953 contracts set on January 15, 2008.
This is an absolute disgrace for the CRIMEX owners and regulators, and we wish them well in the ensuing bankruptcies and criminal investigations that will occur after the exchange collapses. No one wants to play in a game where the owners and sponsors are in cahoots with certain privileged players to make sure they come out on top. In addition, we note that no commodities market can survive without speculators who provide balance to the markets by taking the other side of contracts and by keeping the pendulum of market momentum alternating between bulls and bears. Otherwise the markets lean too far to one side or the other, and then bubble and/or collapse due to the lopsided positions. Once the precious metals markets of the exchange collapse, all the other markets will soon follow, as everyone realizes that the whole system is rigged against them. The CRIMEX will soon be ostracized from participation by honest market players. The criminal manipulators will soon find themselves traipsing in and out of court in endless investigations, and they will be forced to sit in their bedrooms, lonesome, because their is no one left who wants to play with them.
In a stunning new development, the Dubai Multi-Commodities Center is now putting the finishing touches on the formation of an exchange traded fund for silver with a launch likely next month as demand for silver has surged in the past six months. What may be happening here is that the OPEC nations, and possibly also Russia, are setting up a counterbalance against the collapse of oil prices. You may recall from past issues that we discussed at length how we thought that sovereign wealth funds in oil-rich nations were tweaking gold and silver upward every time oil was smashed by the Illuminist manipulators. The message was, you leave oil alone, or we will send gold and silver to the moon and expose your destruction of the US economy by killing the canaries in the coal mines, thus ringing the gold and silver alarm bells loud and clear. This makes the Illuminists rabid, and induces collective myocardial infarctions among them, because precious metal suppression, especially of gold, is JOB ONE at the Fed. The failure to cap the price of gold was Paul Volcker's only regret as Fed Head during his handling of the inflationary crisis of the late 70's and early 80's, and the privately owned, Illuminist Fed does not intend to make the same mistake twice.
The Illuminati have made two major mistakes, and the Dubai exchange may be the OPEC solution to the oil takedown, which is the direct result of those mistakes. The first mistake is that the Illuminati gave OPEC a taste of 147 oil, and then pounded it down to 55. This will not be tolerated, especially after these nations got a chance to experience the huge profits generated by such lofty oil prices. The second mistake is the trashing of silver prices in the face of growing shortages at a time when the above-ground silver stocks are at an all-time low and headed even lower. The shortages are being caused by manipulated silver prices that are below the cost of production, thus causing a collapse in production, and the manipulation of base metals prices into the subbasement is adding to the loss of production because 70% of silver is produced as a by-product of base metal processing. Due to these criminal price manipulations, the gold to silver ratio is now 77 to 1, when historically is should be around 15 or 20 to 1. This huge price imbalance, growing shortage and all-time low levels of above-ground stocks has set up the greatest opportunity to corner a commodity market in the history of the world.
The Hunt Brothers would be drooling right now. When they were trying to the corner the market, it was much, much larger by many billions of ounces, and prices were being driven much, much higher, topping $40 per ounce, because there was far less manipulation of those markets than there is today (yes, believe it or not, we once had something bordering on free markets). The Dubai silver ETF may pick up where the Hunt Brothers left off. Since there are only about a billion ounces of above-ground silver stocks left, and because silver is trading at a ridiculous sub-10, ten billion could clean out the entire above-ground silver stock. This is chump change for these wealthy oil sheiks and their sovereign wealth funds. So get ready to rumble as the evil Illuminist scum and the price-gouging sheiks of OPEC prepare to "get it on" in an oil-silver showdown, complete with some very spectacular fireworks to come. Both oil and silver are headed much higher, and gold will tag along for the ride as silver vaults to new heights.
In the end we expect some sort of compromise, as $150 oil would take down the entire world economy, which is now teetering on the brink. We should soon see $80 to $100 oil and $15 to $20 silver. Silver may go much higher than that depending on how stubborn the Illuminists become about the price of oil. This is starting to get very interesting, so stay tuned, as one of the greatest financial battles of all time gets under way.
Instead of foolishly pumping money into insolvent, zombie banks, the sheiks may well have decided to go after the silver market. Imagine what will happen as those who require silver to make their products see the COMEX gold and silver being funneled to Dubai's ETF. All we can say is, if you were waiting for some precious metals fireworks, get ready, because it's coming. It is now time to load up on precious metals, especially silver. Oil will do well also. As some form of confirmation, we also note the growing open interest in the February gold options and futures contracts. Let the Battle of the Titans begin.
The WSJ again avoids reality in an op-ed piece by Judy Shelton, called “Stable Money is Key and How the G-20 Can Rebuild the Capitalism of the Future.”
She points out, and rightly so, “that foreign attendees will take the view that Wall Street greed and inadequate regulatory oversight by US authorities caused the global financial crisis – never mind that their own regulatory agencies missed the boat and that their own governments eagerly bought up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities for the higher yield over Treasuries.”
Ms. Shelton forgets that US interests asked, cajoled and strong-armed many nations into those purchases, as they did CDOs, SIVs and ABSs. Don’t you think they read the fine print and knew what they were buying – they are professionals? Behind the scenes there was a plan to spread the risk. Why would any sane government buy such toxic waste? Incidentally, where are the lawsuits and criminal actions? There are none because they were all in on the plan to distribute America’s problems, because if the US goes under they all go under. Regulatory agencies deliberately missed the boat because they were told to do so.
Then she has the temerity to tell us that “at the bottom of the world financial crisis” is international monetary disorder. Stating, “ever since the past WWII Bretton Woods system – anchored by a gold-convertible dollar – ended in August of 1971, the cause of free trade has been compromised by sovereign monetary – policy indulgence.” Spoken like a true internationalist Illuminist. This is what the WSJ and Barron’s have always been mouthpieces for – the Illuminists.
She goes on relating to sound money – perhaps even to a gold-based international monetary system. She says, “It’s hard to imagine a more universally accepted standard of value.”
Ms. Shelton admits that the nation of sound money and a new gold standard international monetary regime is appealing, neither will be part of any solution coming out of Washington or the G-20 this weekend or anytime soon. She goes on to say that fundamentally, our nation has only a sliver of bullion available to back tens of trillions in financial claims that are the crumbly bedrock for the entire global financial system.
Someone should make Ms. Shelton aware that in order to accommodate a gold standard for the world or the US all that has to be done is to officially increase the value of gold to where it belongs at $3,000 to $6,000 an ounce. Nations, particularly the US, do not want to do that because they have sold most of their gold in their efforts to suppress the gold price. That is why a gold standard is dismissed out of hand. She says the consensus is that concerted inflationary measures are the only possible solution. They would be wouldn’t they? She and all concerned know better. Every time in history re-inflation has been used it has been a failure.
That said don’t expect much in the way of public statements on a new currency. Along those lines there will only be leaks until they decide what can be done without weakening their control. Remember, part of what will happen is the further exposure that conventional economic doctrine is fatally flawed. What is disturbing is that many say that today’s problems are not the result of policies of the last 15 months. The greatest bubble in history began on August 15, 1971, and is littered with a trail of greed and power. Wall Street and banking led the looting of our country and Washington complied. Almost universally as well the media never questions decisions by the Treasury, Fed or Wall Street. They just report what the elitists want the public to hear. The revisionist falsehoods promulgated by the likes of Milton Friedman, Keynes and Ben Bernanke are enough to make real scholars cringe. The disinformation and distortion is startling. The public doesn’t know the difference and we never get to challenge them. Often what they have had to say are lies. Defending any of these liars from academia, Wall Street, such as Paulson, and government is a sacrilege. These people all participated in the rape of America over the past 31 years.
The best-laid plans often go astray. The elitists figured they’d have the time to lay off their losses over time. Banking analyst Meredith Whitney of Oppenheimer 1-1/2 years ago when she blew the whistle on Citigroup upset that plan. She still probably doesn’t realize that she changed the course of history.
These events have upset the elitists’ plans forcing them into policymaking out of desperation. In fact after 15 months the system is still out of control. We do not believe they will ever get a handle on it. No reform is on the way and only stopgap measures, such as creating more money and credit and having zero interest rates are the solution. Of course, they are not a solution. The powers are going to play this out to the bitter end. There is no stable money or monetary unit on the way. They just want you to think there is. They are scrambling now to create a major war, because they know if they do not they’ll be revolution.
Over the past eight years a major change has overcome America. As we have said before it is now socially and politically acceptable to lie and to mislead. Fascists have stolen our rights under our Constitution, from us and our leaders in Washington and Wall Street and banking are corrupt. There is no one left to complain to. There is no one there to protect us. Our Congress, courts, law enforcement, and regulatory agencies only protect the elite. We have just seen massive fraud by Wall Street and banking and our government allows American taxpayers to illegally bail them out.
Our protectors are looking the other way deliberately as we are looted of our assets and our freedom. This will continue until there is war or revolution. There is no meaningful change coming from Washington nor will the corruption and looting stop.
It seems now everyone is too big to fail except the average taxpayer. Each and every day brings us closer to the economic brink, even though our government is able without interruption to manipulate all world markets. This fraud will soon come to an end and we will have our vengeance.
The brainwashing of the American public has been successful but there will soon come a time via more hardship that they’ll finally wake Americans up. All those who have misled us and lied to us will be dealt with including those in our media.
At $1.25 quadrillion derivatives inhabit every part of our society and the world as well. We are at the beginning of the beginning of the horrible fallout we face caused by the Federal Reserve, Wall Street and banking. The $10 trillion plus that we have forecast as the bill for the taxpayers is but a drop in the bucket. Credit ratings are falling like stones and well they should. The only AAA rating left is for gold. You had best own it or you will regret it.
Looks like we have gotten rid of the ERHE dimwads...
Oil-Producing Countries in Middle East Face Plummeting Oil Prices
By: Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli *
http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA47508
Introduction
After a hefty spike in oil prices in the preceding year, reaching as high as $147 a barrel in July 2008, prices plummeted in the subsequent four months to below $55 a barrel on the close of trading day of November 14 - a a sharp price decline of close to two-thirds. The decline is quite far-reaching, given that oil revenues provide 70 to 80 percent of government revenues in OPEC countries. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) a decline of $1 in the price of crude would translate into a loss in revenues of $3.5 billion in Saudi Arabia, $300 million in Qatar, $1 billion in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and $960 million in Kuwait, calculated in an annualized basis. [1] Some of the countries concerned, such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, have deep pockets and would survive the dip in revenues, certainly in the short term. According to data from the Institute of International Finance, GCC governments had foreign assets of $1.8 trillion at the end of 2007, and the tally was expected to top $2 trillion by end of the 2008. [2] In other countries, particularly Iran and Iraq, oil shocks could trigger serious economic dislocation. [3]
Falling Crude Price and the Financial Crisis
The sharp decline in the price of crude has coincided with, and perhaps resulted from, a global financial crisis, and the two issues have become intractably intertwined. Through November 12, the stock exchange of Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait declined by 62.5 percent, 50.4 percent and 29.5 percent, respectively. [4] On November 14 alone, the Saudi stock exchange declined by more than 7%. A Kuwaiti court took the unprecedented step of ordering a closure of the Kuwaiti stock exchange for a few days, to stop the hemorrhaging. [5] The broad MSCI Arabian Market Index recorded a loss of $256 billion in the market capitalization of the 15 MENA (Middle East and North Africa) stock exchanges in the month of October. [6] By one estimate, the losses in the various stock markets, the decline in the price of real estate, and the losses suffered by the sovereign wealth funds on their investments in both Western and emerging markets were estimated at $750 billion. [7]
Moreover, the Arab oil producing countries have parked between $1.6 and $1.8 trillion in the West in liquid assets, and financial experts in the region are in no position to assess the impact of the financial turmoil on these assets. Equally as troubling has been the withdrawal by Western investors of a vast amount of cash invested in liquid assets in the Gulf countries to cover obligations in their home countries. [8]
OPEC Cuts Production
To stem the sharp and sudden decline in the price of crude, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided, in its emergency meeting in Vienna on October 24, to cut output by 1 million b/d (barrel/day), effective December 1. The problem for OPEC has always been whether members "strictly comply" with production targets. "Cheating," particularly during periods of falling prices of crude, is common.
The role of Saudi Arabia during this time of crisis is unique. Saudi Arabia is OPEC's lynchpin and its largest oil exporter by far. The Saudi position has been that it would supply its customers as demanded, and the country has the capacity and the willingness to balance markets with incremental crude, and this position has been firm regardless of what OPEC decides. For example, before the recent plunge in prices, the Saudi were producing 700,000 b/d over their quota of 8.94 million b/d. The position was reiterated by Saudi King Abdullah at the recent economic summit held in Washington. King Abdullah said: "We will continue to fulfill our role in ensuring the stability of the oil market." [9]
IMF's Break-Even Price
A recent study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suggests that the average break-even oil price at which a country would achieve a fiscal balance is $57 per barrel in 2008, "demonstrating the most oil exporters can easily absorb lower oil prices." Exceptions include Iraq, which is expected to run a small fiscal deficit with the current oil prices levels, and Iran where the fiscal position may turn into a deficit if oil prices dip below $90 per barrel, which they already have.
The following is a list of selected oil exporters' break-even prices for 2008 Fiscal Accounts (in US$/barrel): [10]
Algeria 56
Iran 90
Iraq 111
Libya 47
Kuwait 33
Bahrain 75
Oman 77
Qatar 24
Saudi Arabia 49
UAE 23
Average GCC 47
The Risk of Faltering Reforms
For most oil producing countries, oil revenues are the backbone of their national revenues and a major source of financing of their oil and infrastructure projects. In the case of Iran, oil revenues serve to bolster the regime's populist programs, including the subsidies for key food items as well as for gasoline - more than half of which is imported due to limited refining capacity. For the others, the decline of revenues will cancel or put on hold a variety of both upstream and downstream oil projects, including exploration and the development of the oil-based integrated refinery-petrochemical links as well as the gas-based petrochemical and fertilizer links.
The financial turmoil may also have more fundamental consequences for the Middle East economies beyond the reduced financial sector profitability and the losses suffered by investors. One particular analysis warns against "faltering reform" which is far more significant than the real threat of faltering asset prices. In most MENA countries, there has been a move in recent years towards economic and financial reform. Foreign investors have been encouraged to take significant stakes in state-owned banks. The fact that Western governments are taking control of private sector banks "hardly strengthens the hand of the Middle East reformers keen to privatize their own lumbering state-owned institutions." [11] There is also a greater concern that, as a result of the perception of market failure in the West, the drive for a free-market economy will be stalled, if not abandoned.
How to Live on $20 a Barrel
Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed, director-general of Saudi satellite TV Al-Arabiya and columnist for (and former editor of) the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat offers an uncommon perspective on the challenges facing the Gulf countries in the event that crude prices dip all the way down to $20 a barrel. He considers the shock a blessing in disguise, a warning for self-reliance, and an opportunity for reform. The reform, according to Al-Rashid, must focus on the education system: "We do not need $100 a barrel to reform our education. Teaching students more chemistry, physics and mathematics will not require a single additional dollar, but will produce more than our existing educational system…Weak instruction produces [an] emaciated society." [12]
Crisis Spillover
In a study by the Gulf Finance House in Dubai, senior economist Hany Genena wrote that the global financial crisis was spilling over to the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries via three main channels [13]:
First, lower crude prices. The key risk to the GCC growth story is the longer-term outlook of crude oil prices rather than short-term volatilities. However, the Brent (benchmark) price would have to fall to about $60 per barrel before GCC fiscal surpluses start to erode. At this price, GCC oil revenues will be marked down by no less than 40% in 2009, compared with 2008, resulting in lower fiscal and current account surpluses.
Second, the exit of foreign capital has resulted in a significant fall in bank reserves and rise in interbank rates across the GCC. This was particularly pronounced in the case of the UAE, where the ratio of banks' foreign liabilities to total liabilities jumped fourfold, from 6.5% to 25%, between early 2007 and March 2008.
Third is the faltering demand for energy-intensive industrial and building materials, which are the largest sectors in the GCC after oil. Downward pricing pressures are occurring amid a build-up of excess capacity in the GCC.
A mitigating factor for the GCC countries is the fact that their currencies are pegged to the U.S. dollar, which has recently registered a sharp appreciation against the euro and the British pound. As a result, inflation, which was a major concern for these countries while oil prices were rising, has begun to diminish.
Looking Into the Future
Oil prices, like the prices of many other commodities, are cyclical and hence subject to sharp fluctuations. The recent slide in the price of crude has come at the heel of five years of prices moving in the opposite direction. Most likely, this pattern of sharp price fluctuations will continue into the future. No less than the International Energy Agency, which represents the interests of the large Western consumers, has projected that oil prices will rebound to more than $100 a barrel as soon as the world economy recovers, and will exceed $200 by 2030. [14] This view was understandably shared by oil-producing countries, and was articulated by UAE Energy Minister Mohammad Al-Hamli, who told reporters: "It is very important to continue investing to maintain and increase capacity in order to be prepared for the next [price] cycle." He characterized the decline as just a "price cycle." [15] The consensus in the GCC countries is that, barring a protracted fall in oil prices, the six GCC economies will not be exposed to systemic shocks due to solid macro and banking system fundamentals. [16]
A similarly optimistic view was expressed by Abdullah Jum'ah, the outgoing chief executive officer of the Saudi national oil company Aramco: "Global energy demand is set for a sustained increase, notwithstanding the current dip in consumption and the widespread uncertainty we see in the global economy." [17]
Conclusion
The global financial turmoil has impacted the oil-producing countries, particularly the members of the GCC, in at least three ways: crude price has declined by almost two-thirds in a three-month span, foreign investments have dried up, and the demand for the region's energy-intensive industrial and building materials will likely slow down the pace of economic growth. Major development projects may have to await better times.
The various economies of the oil-producing countries are in different stages of readiness for the sharp decline of revenues. Most obviously, how these countries would fare depends on the duration of the financial crisis and how much deeper, if at all, oil prices will plunge.
Iran, the second largest oil producer among OPEC members, is likely to feel the pain of declining oil prices more severely than any other oil-producing country in the Middle East. Unlike the GCC member countries, Iran's price stabilization fund, which was to receive windfall profits to be used when oil revenues decline, has been nearly depleted as a result of poorly managed economic policies by the regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The criticism in the Iranian press of Ahmadinejad's stewardship of the national economy is a daily occurrence.
While further decline in the price of crude cannot be discounted, the long-term prospects remain quite positive for the oil-producing countries. After the financial crisis exhausts itself, economic growth will resume and so will the demand for energy. This is a matter of years, not decades.
The major risk for the industrialized countries is that the sharp dip in crude price has a tendency to dampen official enthusiasm and correspondingly shelve promising programs in the search of alternative sources of energy.
Go for table and foot notes:
http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA47508
Crude Oil Inventories Increase By More Than Expected
11/19/2008 11:22 AM ET
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/post_new.asp?board_id=13668
(RTTNews) - After seeing some strength earlier in the session, the price of oil has turned lower over the course of morning trading on Wednesday after the Energy Information Administration released a report showing that crude oil inventories increased by more than expected last week.
The report showed that crude oil inventories in the week ended November 14th increased by 1.6 million barrels compared to analyst estimates of an increase of about 1.0 million barrels.
With the increase, crude oil inventories rose for the eighth consecutive week, although the increases seen in the two previous weeks were relatively modest.
Crude oil inventories have risen to 313.5 million barrels and are now in the upper half of the average range for this time of year.
The EIA, the statistical arm of the Energy Department, also said that gasoline inventories increased by 0.5 million barrels, although they remain near the lower boundary of the average range.
At the same time, the report showed that inventories of distillate fuels, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 1.5 million barrels. Distillate fuel inventories subsequently remain in the lower half of the average range for this time of year.
Refineries operated at 84.9 percent of their operable capacity last week, the EIA added, representing a 0.3 percentage point increase compared to the previous week.
As mentioned above, the price of oil has turned lower following the release of the report, with crude for December delivery currently down $0.52 at $53.87 a barrel after reaching a high of $55.34 a barrel earlier in the trading day.
by RTT Staff Writer
For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com
EIA: US crude stockpiles gain 1.6 million barrels last week
http://www.oilmarketer.co.uk/2008/11/19/eia-us-crude-stockpiles-gain-16-million-barrels-last-week/
Story link: EIA: US crude stockpiles gain 1.6 million barrels last week by Elaine Frei
EIA: US crude stockpiles gain 1.6 million barrels last week
Crude oil prices fluctuated between gains and declines Wednesday after the US Energy Information Administration released its weekly inventories report for the week ending 14 November.
At 1:37 p.m. in New York December contracts , which expire at the close of trade on Thursday, were down 15 cents to $54.24 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Prices for WTI were up 63 cents just before the EIA report was issued, declined shortly after the data was released and then fluctuated.
The EIA reported that crude oil inventories were up by 1.6 million barrels last week and gasoline stockpiles jumped by 500,000 barrels but distillates in stock fell by 1.5 million barrels during the week.
Refinery utilization, according to the EIA, was up 0.3 percent to 84.9 percent after expectations that utilization would decline by 0.3 percent.
The EIA also said that at-the-pump gasoline prices dropped below $3 per gallon on average in all major regions of the US last week and dropped below $2 per gallon in the Gulf Coast and Midwest regions, with prices lowest in the Midwest.
The retail price for regular unleaded gasoline dropped to $2.047 per gallon on average nationally overnight.
Nymex gasoline futures were down a cent to $1.13 per gallon in afternoon trade.
Oil falls; Americans cut driving by 90B miles
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i5TtajgUpSm7KY5jf-lCJGHBB-tAD94I8FG01
By DIRK LAMMERS – 7 hours ago
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Oil slipped below $54 a barrel Wednesday as stock markets across the globe fell and yet another U.S. government report illustrated the disarray in the housing market.
U.S. motorists, stung by record gasoline prices, job losses and falling home prices, left the roadways in droves, logging almost 11 billion fewer miles in September, according to the Transportation Department.
Governments, businesses and consumers have slashed energy expenditures, which has halved the price of crude since record highs in July.
Light, sweet crude for December delivery fell 77 cents to settle at $53.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, about where prices were in January of 2007.
Macro forces drove falling crude prices Wednesday, said Fred Rozell, retail pricing director at the Oil Price Information Service, with investors selling off in a "herd mentality," much as they crowded into the market over the summer.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Transportation reported that Americans drove 90 billion fewer miles over the most recent 11 months of the fiscal year.
Rural interstate travel fell the most, with declines of 8 percent, compared with 4.4 percent nationwide.
That means $3 billion less was collected for bridge and transit projects between October 2007 and September 2008, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters said.
Consumer prices plunged by the largest amount in the past 61 years in October as gasoline pump prices dropped by a record amount.
The Labor Department said Wednesday that consumer prices fell by 1 percent last month, the biggest one-month decline on records that go back to February 1947. The drop was twice what analysts expected.
For October, energy prices fell by a record 8.6 percent, led by a 14.2 percent drop in gasoline prices, also a record. With no definitive signs that the economy is stabilizing, industry analysts expect energy prices will continue to fall.
The nationwide average for regular gasoline is now $2.07, down 33 cents since the start of the month, according to the Energy Information Agency, and well below record-highs above $4 per gallon this summer.
Also dampening energy prices was more bad news from the housing industry.
Construction of new homes and apartments fell by 4.5 percent in October to an annual rate of 791,000 units, the Commerce Department reported. It was the slowest construction pace on records going back to 1959.
Supply disruptions that once roiled markets have failed to crude's decline as falling demand has supplanted supply issues as the gravitational force on Nymex.
Chevron Corp. invoked "force majeure" Tuesday on 90,000 barrels a day of its Nigeria gross production after a pipeline was breached by militants in the Niger Delta. Investors took little notice.
Investors also brushed off the hijacking of a Saudi supertanker carrying $100 million in crude this week. That ship is still under the control of Somalian pirates who are seeking a ransom.
Oil prices have fallen 63 percent since reaching a record $147.27 a barrel in mid-July.
Crude, at least so far this week, is not posting the huge price swings that have dominated the market for the past month.
"Market sentiment is still bearish, but not as bearish as a week ago," said Clarence Chu, a trader with market maker Hudson Capital Energy in Singapore. "Volatility has come down and the market is consolidating a bit."
The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday that crude inventories rose by 1.6 million barrels last week to 313.5 million barrels after stagnating in the prior period.
Analysts had expected a boost of 1.2 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.
The one strong point in energy markets were distillates such as heating oil.
With winter cold reaching into the Northeast, inventories of distillate fuel fell by 1.5 million barrels to 126.9 million barrels for the week ended Nov. 14. Analysts expected distillate stocks to rise by 900,000 barrels.
Yet with consumers leaving the car at home and businesses cutting back, gasoline inventories rose by 500,000 barrels, or 0.3 percent, to 198.6 million barrels, which is 1.3 percent below year-ago levels. Analysts expected stockpiles of the motor fuel to rise by 700,000 barrels.
Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended Nov. 14 was 2.2 percent lower than a year earlier, averaging 9 million barrels a day, the EIA said in its weekly report.
Compared with summer highs, that has lead to huge breaks at the pump, with average gasoline prices below $2 in a handful of states, from Texas to Minnesota.
Stock markets have served for the past few months as a barometer in crude traders about the health of the global economy.
Wall Street turned sharply lower Wednesday, as a bailout of Detroit's Big Three automakers appeared stalled on Capitol Hill. The Dow Jones industrials fell more than 400 points.
Markets overseas fell as well.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is holding an informal meeting later this month ahead of its regular December meeting. OPEC President Chakib Khelil has said the group will wait until the effects of a 1.5 million-barrel-per-day production cut plays out and that another cut on Nov. 29 is unlikely.
More hawkish OPEC members like Iran have called for immediate production cuts and some analysts believe they may get them if oil falls below $50.
In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures slipped about 3 cents to settle at $1.107 a gallon. Heating oil rose less than a penny to settle at $1.7597 a gallon while natural gas for December delivery jumped 22.7 cents to settle at $6.743 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, January Brent crude fell 12 cents to settle at $51.72 on the ICE Futures exchange.
Associated Press writers George Jahn in Vienna, Austria, and Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.
2009 oil price forecasts slashed
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=182915
Energy price forecasts have been slashed by the U.S. Department of Energy and the International Energy Agency as economic woes intensify.
An October report by the U.S. Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecast a price of $112 for West Texas Intermediate crude oil in 2009. This figure has now been revised downwards by a massive 43% to $63.50 a barrel.
The EIA said in its report that the price of oil would depend on the scale and length of the current financial crisis as well as actions taken by OPEC.
“Our current expectation of future oil prices assumes that the OPEC production cut may limit, but not reverse, the recent sharp fall in oil prices. We project oil prices to remain relatively flat, averaging $60-$65 per barrel throughout 2009,” the report said.
Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency last week cut its 2009 average oil price forecast to $80 from its previous estimate of $110.
On Tuesday, U.S. light sweet crude fell 56 cents to close at $54.39 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
In post-market trade, the New York contract slid further to hit its lowest level since January 2007, reaching $53.96 a barrel. In London, Brent North Sea crude for January delivery settled 47 cents lower at $51.84 a barrel on the Intercontinental Exchange.
Worldwide economic slowdown, in particular recession in the U.S. and the Eurozone, and slowing growth in China, is expected to slash the demand for energy in 2009.
Qatari oil minister, Abdullah al-Attiyah, said earlier this week that the oil market in 2009 would be challenging.
“I expect 2009 to be a difficult year. All the indicators affirm a large decline in demand during the last quarter of the current year and the first quarter of 2009,” the Qatar state news agency QNA quoted al-Attiyah as saying, Monday.
The London-based Center for Global Economic Studies (CGES) said in its latest monthly report published Tuesday that the severe global economic downturn will cause world oil demand to decrease this year for the first time in 25 years.
Watch Out Below: Oil Prices Headed for $40, Deutsche Bank Says
Posted by Keith Johnson
Is $40 oil really on the horizon?
A few months ago, the question would have been absurd—relentless demand growth, tight supplies, and a weak U.S. dollar combined to make $200 oil seem more likely. But now, oil analysts and producers are seriously talking about $40 oil largely due to an unprecedented collapse in global demand.
BirdWell_art_257_20081119160027.jpg
Cheap oil’s for the birds (AP)
Deutsche Bank today said crude oil could hit $40 by April 2009, and could average $60 a barrel next year, Bloomberg reports. The bank’s top energy analyst already hinted as much late last month.
Top executives from national oil companies also figure oil will keep falling to about $40 a barrel, the Financial Times reported today, putting a slew of new oil-exploration projects at risk of cancellation. Crude futures hovered around $54 a barrel Wednesday.
Oil that cheap won’t be any fun for big oil-producing countries, especially Iran, Iraq, and Venezuela. Other Middle East producers, such as Saudi Arabia, can weather oil in the $50s without much budget pain.
But cheaper oil could also have implications for the next U.S. president—and not just because it takes some political steam out of the push for more expensive clean energy.
Barack Obama’s plan to tax oil companies’ windfall profits only applies when oil is above $80 a barrel, campaign aides told Platt’s. Most oil analysts figure oil will be between $60 and $75 next year. That threatens potential revenue Mr. Obama had hoped to use to jumpstart clean-energy projects.
Permalink | Trackback URL: http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2008/11/19/watch-out-below-oil-prices-headed-for-40-deutsche-bank-says/trackback/
Oil industry sees 40 usd a barrel crude, cancelled projects - report
http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/11/18/afx5712211.html
11.18.08, 09:07 PM EST
BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - The head of state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp said national oil companies expect oil prices to fall to about 40 usd per barrel, with most planned investment projects facing cancellation even at current price levels, the Financial Times reported.
'The consensus at the time was that everybody realized the oil price would be even lower,' Fu Chengyu said of an Oct 17-18 meeting in Beijing of about 27 oil companies from 23 countries.
'Nobody knew where it would be but most of them said around 40 usd,' the newspaper quoted him as saying.
Fu made his remarks at a separate conference in Barcelona, the newspaper said, adding that he described the tone of the October meeting as one of 'panic' at falling prices.
Oil prices closed at 55.49 usd a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday.
Oil executives at the Beijing conference thought the oil price would rebound from a 40 usd low to about 50-55 usd, but even at those levels investment in new production would be cut back heavily, the newspaper said.
'If the oil price remained around 50-55 usd, that would mean cutting at least 60 pct of budgeted projects for the next one or two years from the national oil companies,' Fu said.
Crude could hit $40 a barrel by April, Deutsche Bank says
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/crude-could-hit-40-barrel/story.aspx?guid=%7BBEABFFCE-CBC8-4B83-97E8-4449508414D0%7D&dist=msr_6
By Moming Zhou
Last update: 10:24 a.m. EST Nov. 19, 2008
Comments: 32
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Crude-oil prices could fall to $40 per barrel by April as demand falls and production becomes more cost-effective, Deutsche Bank said in a report released Wednesday. Prices will fall on "a huge overhang of new, more efficient refining capacity addition into an already-oversupplied market," the investment bank said. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries potentially needs to cut production by 2.5 million barrels a day to reduce supplies, the bank said, but members of the cartel also have incentives not to cut output because their revenues are falling from lower oil prices.
3.35 for a gallon of reg unleaded...we'll be under 3 bucks soon...and then they'll jack it back up to 5...meantime I can run around in my vette JFSAG and put super in my Toyota for less than I was putting regular in it 3 weeks ago...
Wow, the Toyota REALLY likes super...
Sector Snap: Solar shares slide
Solar shares slip with market; analysts suggests shift to established companies
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Sector-Snap-Solar-shares-apf-13610388.html
And this is the point of 50 frn oil...well one of the points...but get rid of competition...make Russia a super power, collapse the USA...
NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares in solar companies fell Tuesday with crude prices falling again and analysts suggesting European subsidies for alternative energy may be cut back.
Most analysts see a bright future for solar companies, but returns may be crimped both by the high costs of borrowing and less help from governments as the technology makes alternative energy more competitive.
"We believe very high subsidy levels in Europe are unsustainable & are likely to be reduced significantly over time," wrote Christopher Blansett, a J.P. Morgan analyst wrote in a note to clients. "As a result we believe 2008 reflects a peak in solar energy subsidization with risk of cuts going forward."
U.S. and Chinese companies also face pressure from strengthening currencies.
J.P. Morgan recommended looking for safe companies, rather than those that have grown quickly. It initiated coverage of First Solar Inc., which saw its shares tumble 8.5 percent, or $9.83, to $105.72 Tuesday.
In his note, Blansett called First Solar a "relatively safe haven" and said he expected the company to maintain stable margins in 2009. He estimated average sales price declines for solar photovoltaic modules around 25 percent in 2009.
Blansett said First Solar has multiple years worth of contracts signed, which is "more than enough demand" to keep the company running at full capacity for several years based on estimated 2009 production capacity.
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53.67!!! WOW. I'm itching to cover...three bucks and change to go...
Then a big chunk of silver...
Oil falls below $54 a barrel
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081119/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices_36
By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer George Jahn, Associated Press Writer – Wed Nov 19, 9:19 am ET
VIENNA, Austria – Oil prices slipped further Wednesday, dipping below $54 on fears of global economic weakness that have sent crude down more than 60 percent in four months.
But analysts suggested that prices might be bottoming out as they moved closer to the psychologically significant $50 mark.
Light, sweet crude for December delivery was down 77 cents at $53.62 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by the afternoon in Europe. The contract Tuesday fell 56 cents to settle at $54.39, the lowest since January 2007.
"Market sentiment is still bearish, but not as bearish as a week ago," said Clarence Chu, a trader with market maker Hudson Capital Energy in Singapore. "Volatility has come down and the market is consolidating a bit."
Stock markets have served for the past few months as a barometer of investor perceptions about the health of the global economy. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 1.8 percent Tuesday as Hewlett-Packard Co. said fourth quarter and 2009 results will exceed analyst expectations.
Most Asian stocks, however, fell Wednesday. Japan's benchmark Nikkei index fell 0.7 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dropped 0.5 percent and the Korea Composite Stock Price Index slid 1.9 percent. European markets also opened lower.
Oil investors have already priced in a recession in developed countries and only evidence of an especially severe or prolonged slowdown may push prices down further, Chu said.
Prices have fallen 63 percent since reaching a record $147.27 a barrel in mid-July.
"I don't see oil falling below $50," Chu said. "It should be above $60 in a couple weeks."
Investors will be watching for signs of slowing U.S. demand in the weekly oil inventories report to be released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration.
The report is expected to show that oil stocks rose 1.2 million barrels last week, according to the average of estimates in a survey of analysts by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.
The Platts survey also projects that gasoline inventories rose 700,000 million barrels and distillates increased 900,000 barrels last week.
Trader and analyst Stephen Schork noted that past report patterns reflected supply outstripping demand.
"Over the last six reports stocks have bounced back by 7 1/2 percent," he wrote in his Schork Report. "Meanwhile, year-on-year demand for total oil products fell for the 41st week (out of 45) this year, i.e. 10 out of every 11 weeks."
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is holding an informal meeting later this month ahead of an official meeting next month. OPEC President Chakib Khelil has signaled the group may announce production cuts at the December meeting, but some members, such as Iran, have called for earlier cuts.
"Expect crude to nudge near $50 with moves below sure to inspire strong statements and calls for an early meeting by the hawkish OPEC members," brokerage Kim Eng said in a report.
In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures were slipped 1.51 cents to $1.1217 a gallon. Heating oil was unchanged at $1.7579, a gallon while natural gas for December delivery rose 2.8 cents to $6.544 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, January Brent crude fell 56 cents to $51.28 on the ICE Futures exchange.
____
Associated Press writer Alex Kennedy contributed to this report from Singapore.
* Oil Industry Slideshow: Oil Industry
* Disputes over US bailout package Play Video Video: Disputes over US bailout package BBC
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Posts (Total)
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347
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Created
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10/18/08
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Type
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Premium
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Moderator ThatHawaiiGuy | |||
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Remember the little boy in the 1970's?
They ran an ad campaign "Please America, don't be fuelish."
We were supposed to be "out" by now.
Peak Oil is slick packaging along the lines of global warming...used for political purposes, and control.
Find out more.
Oil down to 50 frns will bankrupt any wildcatters in the USA...enjoy it while it lasts which could be several years...they will smoke screen new discoveries with the story that the period of high oil prices spurred exploration which led to the price decline.
Some Info comes from SI board respect to dvdw©:
http://siliconinvestor.advfn.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=24820452
Would you like to me an assistant? PM me.
50, here we come...hit 50...hit 35...hit 50...up for the summer...sheep never learn.
USE THE INFO ON THIS BOARD TO MAKE MONEY.
CONFESSIONS OF AN "EX" PEAK OIL BELIEVER
by F. William Engdahl
September 25, 2007
Only slightly different from
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=23262399
http://financialsense.com/editorials/engdahl/2007/0925.html
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