I told you it was the speculators

[442w30]

It's the folks displaced by Enron that know how to do nothing but speculate on energy futures that f'd up gas/oil prices.

No "refinery capacity", "supply/demand", "force of nature". Just like California's rolling blackouts, here we are.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/30/oil.market.enron/index.html

[OnlineStageGear]

3 words DRILL FOR OIL

[Axewielder]

I think the other "wolf in the woodshed" is uncertainty and fear in the world. Typically, that drives the price of stocks down, but with oil...it seems to drive it up.

[SouthernXer]

3 words DRILL FOR OIL

+1...

I am serioulsy interested in this.

http://www.canadaeast.com/offbeat/article/300286

[Firebird V]

smart man.

[Newc]

Why is it so hard to believe that the top execs of the big 4 oilers are sitting around going "Jesus, no matter how high we raise it, these saps are hooked like fish!" ?

[Soap]

Loved the link.
Indeed a smart man.
Whats interesting the Indiana man in the link, is on to something huge.
He will make a crazy amount of money.
However, you see what I see, the Government and Environmentalists will step in and at some point and shut it down. He will pay an excessive ridiculous amount of money back, taxes and etc.
An attempt not only to discourage him but others as well, to the point he will quit on his own.
Either way, he better make provisions and get a team of stellar attorney's.

[cookiemonster2]

See post #168 on page 9 of the F'd at the pump thread.

The price of oil has doubled in about a year. It makes no sense because I don't think supply and demand have changed so sharply in such a short time. I do not think bringing on more production would solve the problem if it is caused by specuatlion on derivates. I can't imagine how much additional production you would have to bring on to bring the price back to say $50/bbl.

I think it is illegal to buy insurance where there is no insurable risk, yet anyone can go to the market and by oil futures. If hedging derivatives were sold the same way insurance was sold I wonder if this would solve the problem.

[YetAnotherOne]

Maybe $30/bbl or thereabouts is due to speculators. Most of the rest is due to a down cycle in the US dollar which has lost huge amounts of its value versus other world currencies over the past few years. We're due for a currency market turn which will both drive out the oil speculators and regress oil prices towards a more median sort of level. It's only a matter of time and probably not all that much time at that.

[Vass]

YetAnotherOne & Cookie are dead right. Oil ran from $90 to $55 to $130+ from last summer till now. Is that fundamentally driven? Not saying it's impossible. Saying look at that price action and decide for yourself.

Dollar strengthening now vs. Euro/Yen, so we'll see.

The big oil companies- Guys, the poor slobs congress dragged up to testify are fleas, FLEAS, compared to the non-private, foreign government owned entities....ARAMCO? PDVSA? Gazprom? Don't point the gun at your own companies, in your own country, giving jobs & bring earnings back home. My gosh, the sheiks & Chavez must be laughing hysterically as they watch us eat our own.

This populist bomb-throwing horse shit is going to get us in alot of trouble. Some day we'll wake up and ask, "How did we lose?" and the answer will be we beat ourselves.

Vass