Oil slides toward multiyear lows

Yahoo / AP ^ | 02/12/2009 | EagleUSA

[EagleUSA]

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Oil prices slid closer to a new multiyear low Thursday because of growing doubts that the $789 billion stimulus package will reinvigorate the economy and demand for energy.

Retail gas prices, meanwhile, reached a new high for 2009 on Thursday and appeared headed back to $2 a gallon as refiners cut back on production.

Light, sweet crude for March delivery fell $1.04 to $34.90 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.61 overnight to settle at $35.94 after a government report on Wednesday showed that crude inventories jumped much more than expected.

There were also more signs of economic weakness.

The number of people requesting first-time unemployment benefits dropped slightly last week, but remained near a 26-year high as companies lay off thousands of workers amid a deepening recession. The Commerce Department said the number of initial jobless benefit claims dropped to a seasonally adjusted 623,000, from an upwardly revised figure of 631,000 the previous week.

[EagleUSA]

Keep up the good work socialists!!!! The world has so much faith in your pork and payback scam.

[rahbert]

howcome gas is still 2.18/gal here in Seattle???

[TommyDale]

Boo - Freakin’ - Hoo!

[rodguy911]

What's with Brent Crude? It's always much higher than the other crude. I don't recall that happening before.

[mgc1122]

How’s that supertanker stock and float strategy for speculators working? LOL ...

[lormand]

More bad news for Hugo.

[rodguy911]

$70.00 per barrel is $2.00 per gallon, $35 per barrel should be $1.00 a gallon for 87 octane. Something is screwed up.

[tatsinfla]

and yet gas continues to creep upwards on a daily basis....

up approx .44 a gal to 2.01 in the daytona beach area since we hit a low of 1.57...

[TLI]

You are right... Brent is primarily refined in Northwest Europe. Typical price difference per barrel is about $1 less than WTI, and $1 more than OPEC Basket. However, in 2007 Brent Crude futures have been trading at a premium to WTI of approximately $1 to $3 (NOT $9 to $10) per barrel. The depletion of the North Sea oil fields is one explanation for the divergence in prices.

[excalibur1701]

>>Retail gas prices, meanwhile, reached a new high
>>for 2009 on Thursday and appeared headed back
>>to $2 a gallon as refiners cut back on production.

I thought we didn’t have enough refineries?

[mysterio]

Something is screwed up.

The refiners have cut production way down to make more money from a bottlenecked supply.

[hoppity]

$2.20-ish in SoCal. I bottomed out at $1.52 at Costco. Now they want to add another $.12 per gallon tax.

[rodguy911]

Gotcha thanks, I was always wondered about that,aren't they having any new finds/discoveries up there? Quite a discrepancy right now.

[Richard Kimball]

Two things. First, there's a point below which it's simply not profitable to pump. Second, check the taxes. If gas were free, a lot of people in a lot of states would still be paying 70 to 80 cents per gallon, just to cover the taxes.

The worst will be if oil falls to a point that we quit pumping. Two things happened with the speculative build up. First, Soros and others were working hard to tank the US economy to help the Rats in the buildup to the election. Oil & gas rose until they realized it was helping Republicans, not Rats (drill here, drill now, pay less.) As soon as the Pubs starting getting traction, prices tanked. Also, there's too much money out there with too few good investments. When the oil prices started spiking, a lot of people with no place better to put money stuck it in commodities, specifically oil, exaggerating the spike. When demand tanked and Soros and others pulled their money out, it accelerated the tanking, as legit investors pulled their investments at the time it became obvious oil wouldn't go up forever.

[Vigilanteman]

and yet gas continues to creep upwards on a daily basis....

Thank Oba Mao and his ham-handed revocation of oil-leases in the four corners region, mainly Utah. The oil companies just got a clear message we are NOT serious about increasing supply, so they can increase prices at the pump even as prices of crude oil plummet. And the moonbats say Bush and Cheney were the best friend the oil companies could ever have!

[mysterio]

I thought we didn’t have enough refineries

We don't have enough when people have jobs. But now a whole lot less people need gas to drive to work.

[rodguy911]

WTH what’s with that?

[dennisw]

Which is best oil price to pay attention too? WTI? Thanks

[rodguy911]

How much of the price of every barrel is manipulation and how much is free market?

[rodguy911]

THanks very much.