Donger on Suicide Watch: Oil Nears $100 a Barrel

[Frazod]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080902/D92UIA0G0.html

SINGAPORE (AP) - Oil prices fell below $106 a barrel Tuesday in Asia - $10 below its close Friday before the Labor Day weekend - as investors shifted their focus to slowing global demand after worries about Hurricane Gustav subsided.

Light, sweet crude for October delivery was trading at $106.03 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange midafternoon in Singapore, and at one point dropped as low as $105.46.

On Monday, when U.S. trading was closed for Labor Day, the contract had plunged $4.34 to $111.12 a barrel in late electronic trading. On Friday, the contract settled at $115.46 a barrel.

Traders were relieved that Gustav weakened as it approached the offshore oil rigs and Louisiana refineries, and appeared to have caused less damage than expected in New Orleans and surrounding areas.

But they quickly turned their attention to slowing global economic growth, speculating that will dampen demand for crude oil, even in developing countries such as China and India.

"The market continues to be weighed down by worries of a global economic downturn and slowing oil demand in developing markets," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with consultancy Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. "Action by OPEC and supply side concerns should put a backstop to any sharp price drop."

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is scheduled to meet Sept. 9 and has indicated it may take action to defend the $100 a barrel level.

There was some disruption to oil supplies as oil companies shut down production and evacuated facilities ahead of the storm. Altogether, about 2.4 million barrels of refining capacity had been halted, roughly 15 percent of the U.S. total, according to figures from Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos. (MHP) The Gulf Coast is home to nearly half of the nation's refining capacity.

It could be a day or more before oil and natural gas companies can assess the damage to their drilling and refining installations. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said as much as 20 percent of oil and gas production that was stopped because of Gustav could be restored by this weekend, stressing that it was a rough estimate.

Traders are also keeping an eye on other storms brewing in the region.

Hurricane Hanna was predicted to come ashore in Georgia and South Carolina late in the week, and Tropical Storm Ike formed late Monday in the Atlantic Ocean and may become a hurricane in the next 36 hours as it approached the Bahamas.

"September is the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season. After Gustav, there are two more now on the radar screen. The storms are likely to provide some upside risks to the oil futures market," Shum said.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures fell 15.44 cents to $3.0375 a gallon, while gasoline prices lost 16.92 cents to $2.685 a gallon. Natural gas for October delivery fell 47.3 cents to $7.472 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, October Brent crude was down $2.01 to $107.40 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

[RJ]

Originally Posted by Skip Towne

You're confusing next week's gas with last week's gas. How can they keep setting record profits if things aren't confused?

Why should I receive old, stale gas while paying the higher price of the nice, new, fresh gas? And is it fair that next week's customers will be able to pump the fresh gas only because I footed the bill? If it wasn't for me there wouldn't be any new gas cause the station wouldn't have been able to afford to buy it.

I feel like I'm being used here.

[Skip Towne]

Originally Posted by RJ

Why should I receive old, stale gas while paying the higher price of the nice, new, fresh gas? And is it fair that next week's customers will be able to pump the fresh gas only because I footed the bill? If it wasn't for me there wouldn't be any new gas cause the station wouldn't have been able to afford to buy it.

I feel like I'm being used here.

You'll never be able to set record profits month after month. You don't understand the system.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by Lzen

Greed?

Greed Is Good!

[Coach]

Originally Posted by GoBo

Gas should be below $3/gal by election time then...

And let's hope it stays there for quite some time. Hate to see that it goes below 3.00 and after the election is over, it spikes up to 3.60 or somewhere in the ball-park figure.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by RJ

Yes, I see. If next week's gas is going to cost more than this week's gas I need to pay more for my gas this week so the station can pay for next week's shipment.......even though I don't want next week's gas and in fact just want to buy this week's gas. But if the price of crude drops then the price of next week's gas might go down, even though it's the same gas.

Do I have it right?

You have it partially right. Hopefully, my other following posts will help clear it up for you.

[Coach]

Of course, let's also hope that Hurricane Ike doesn't manage to crash the party....

[BigMeatballDave]

Originally Posted by Donger

That's just silly.

Why? December 2003, gas was 1.25-1.30/gal. Crude was $31/barrel.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...g=artBody;col1

[BigMeatballDave]

3.53 here

[C-Mac]

Originally Posted by frazod

I always thought anything over a $1.00 a gallon was too much - especially for something a bunch of friggin cavemen pump out of the ground.

.....and especially when it only costs these cavemen $2.00 stinkin' dollars to pump a 55 gallon barrel of crude (less than .04 cents a gallon).

[alanm]

Originally Posted by PastorMikH

Actually, when oil was $147 a barrel here, gas was $3.99

Now that Crude is under $110 a barrel, gas is still $3.65


Our prices have gone down less than a penny per gallon/dollar per barrel. When the price per barrel was going up, gas prices were jumping close to a nickel per gallon/price per barrel locally.

Oddly, oil was at the $100-$110 a barrel price at the start of 2008 and you could buy gas at just under $3 a gallon locally. Now that oil prices are coming back to that, gas is still over $3.60 a gallon locally.


The price may have come down, but not in proportion to how it went up.

And you're surprised?

[splatbass]

Originally Posted by GoBo

Gas should be below $3/gal by election time then...

It's still $4.40 a gallon here. It will not fall to $3 here by the election.

[Skip Towne]

Originally Posted by C-Mac

.....and especially when it only costs these cavemen $2.00 stinkin' dollars to pump a 55 gallon barrel of crude (less than .04 cents a gallon).

A barrel of oil is 42 gallons. And lifting costs are considerably more than $2. I was a partner in an oil venture and it cost $10,000 to drill each well. And they were only 600 ft deep. West Texas wells are 2 miles deep.

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by splatbass

It's still $4.40 a gallon here. It will not fall to $3 here by the election.

Eh, what difference does it make, y'all can't drive very far on that island anyway.

[boogblaster]

Get on the wagon fast ... There're switching to oxygen power soon ... Your air will never be free again .....

[jspchief]

Best thread title ever.

Is it September or October when the government has their annual vote on the bill that bans ANWAR drilling? That's right, they make a decision on this every year. Quite a coincidence that oil prices are plummeting just in time to quiet the outraged masses on this issue.