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| Oil Up Again, Hits New 13-Year High |
| 2004-03-21 |
| via Rooters Fri Mar 19, 2004 11:29 AM ET LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Friday to extend a searing rally that pushed crude earlier in the week to its highest closing price in 13 years on concern over U.S. summer gasoline supplies. Benchmark U.S. light crude futures (CLc1: Quote, Profile, Research) were up 37 cents at $38.30 per barrel at 1550 GMT, 10 cents above Wednesday’s settlement, which was the highest since just after Iraq invaded Kuwait in October 1990. London Brent (LCOc1: Quote, Profile, Research) was up 12 cents at $33.25 a barrel. Last week’s Madrid bombings which killed 202 people, suspected to be the work of militant group al Qaeda, have sparked fears of attacks that could disrupt oil supplies and inflated a ’risk premium’ in crude prices. "It’s no wonder that the overwhelmingly sentiment among speculative interest in the market is long, as they bet the price breaches the $40 mark," said Societe Generale in a research report. U.S. light crude prices have jumped more than four percent this week and averaged $35 a barrel so far in 2004, well above the 2003 average of $31, which was the highest in more than two decades. Soaring Chinese demand and low U.S. fuel inventories ahead of peak summer holiday driving consumption have helped fire the rally. The U.S. government’s Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday gasoline stocks dropped 800,000 barrels last week to stand five percent below the five-year average. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which controls half of world crude trade, plans to cut official output by four percent in April to 23.5 million barrels per day. OPEC President Purnomo Yusgiantoro said OPEC was worried about high prices but would not back track on the cut since crude had been allocated to customers for April. © Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved. OPEC has no burning need to cut production - the record prices are proof enough of that. Anyone still think we’re not at war with the Arabs / Saudis? This trend and its crippling effects on the world economies might push this fact to the front burner where it has belonged for the last 30 years. There’s this 40 km strip of land along the Eastern coast of Saudi Arabia... |
| Posted by:.com |
| #3 Oil? I know where's there's oil... bought it at 20-25 bucks a barrel, keep a lot of it in the salt domes... enough to handle ME imports for 100 days or so.... SA imports for 300 days or so... hmmm... Would make about 10 bucks a barrel too. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-3-21 5:02:21 PM |
| #2 Is that sarcasm ? Would Kerry be pushing democracy in the mideast, talking 'god' this and 'freedom' that ? Doubt it. SA could get back to business as usual. Cue the Haliburton-oil drivel. |
| Posted by: UncleWar 2004-3-21 10:00:45 AM |
| #1 Oh yes, the House of Saud definitely wants GWB defeated in November. |
| Posted by: clear-eyed patriot 2004-3-21 7:39:31 AM |