oil breaks $100

We may earn a small commission from affiliate links and paid advertisements. Terms

Briansol

Admins
Admin
VIP
Oil Jumps Above $100 on Refinery Outage: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Oil Jumps Above $100 on Refinery Outage
Tuesday February 19, 4:09 pm ET
By John Wilen, AP Business Writer

Oil Jumps Back Above $100 on a Texas Refinery Outage and Possible OPEC Production Cut NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil futures shot higher Tuesday, closing above $100 for the first time as investors bet that crude prices will keep climbing despite evidence of plentiful supplies and falling demand. At the pump, gas prices rose further above $3 a gallon.

There was no single driver behind oil's sharp price jump; investors seized on an explosion at a 67,000 barrel per day refinery in Texas, the falling dollar, the possibility that OPEC may cut production next month, and continuing tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela.

Gasoline and heating oil prices appeared to be leading the advance, rising faster in percentage terms than oil due to the explosion Monday at Alon USA's Big Spring, Texas, refinery, which could be shuttered for two months.
"The refinery fire in Texas is making people a little concerned," said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research Inc. in Amherst, Mass.

Light, sweet crude for March delivery rose $4.51 to settle at a record $100.01 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after earlier rising to $100.10, a new trading record. It was the first time since Jan. 3 that oil had been above $100.

March gasoline jumped 10.93 cents to settle at $2.6031 a gallon, and March heating oil rose 11.45 cents to settle at $2.7614 a gallon, also a record.

Oil prices are still within the range of inflation-adjusted highs set in early 1980. Depending on how the adjustment is calculated, $38 a barrel then would be worth $96 to $103 or more today.

The dollar fell Tuesday, giving investors another reason to buy oil. Crude futures offer a hedge against a falling dollar, and oil futures bought and sold in dollars are more attractive to foreign investors when the greenback is falling.
For the moment, investors appear to have put aside concerns about the economy that have sent oil prices down into the mid-$80 range twice since crude peaked above $100 last month. Traders are instead focused on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which will meet early next month to map out production plans, and Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez made conflicting statements this weekend about the country's legal dispute with Exxon Mobil Corp.

OPEC could move to cut production in the second quarter, typically a period of low demand, though many analysts feel that's unlikely. In Venezuela, Chavez said he was not serious about an earlier threat to cut oil sales to the U.S., but also threatened to sue Exxon Mobil. The world's largest oil company is fighting Venezuela's nationalization of an oil project, and recently convinced several courts to freeze $12 billion in Venezuelan oil assets.
None of the news is enough to justify a nearly $3 a barrel jump in the price of crude, said James Cordier, founder of OptionSellers.com, a Tampa, Fla., trading firm. Echoing other analysts, Cordier argued that the oil market is in the process of "decoupling" from oil's supply and demand fundamentals. He said investors drawn by the falling dollar and momentum are pushing oil prices sharply higher despite reports last week from the Energy Department, OPEC and the International Energy Agency which all cut oil demand growth predictions for this year.

"Everyone concurs that we've got smaller demand coming in the U.S.," Cordier said.

Retail gas prices, meanwhile, jumped 1.8 cents to a national average price of $3.032 a gallon Tuesday, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Retail prices, which typically lag the futures market, are following oil prices higher. The Energy Department expects gas prices to peak near $3.40 a gallon this spring.
 
I put in $5.75 in my ZX12. That was about a 1/4 tank.

Of course, we need the high shit. It's still hovering around $3.07 in my area for the cheap shit.
 
I hate this. We're all getting fucked by a bunch of guys in suits sitting around guessing about the future and what the oil supplies will be then. I could do that, here's my guesse on the futures, we're gonna run out, so quit fucking me untill then. They could at least wear a turban with a ruby in it when trying to prognosticate. Hell for all we know $4.00/ gal could be determined by a magic 8ball.
 
I've been paying 3.20-3.30 range for 93 all year as with the end of last year.

I do not expect it to ever go down, people are use to paying it so its here to stay.
 
sucks being a car enthusiast. it wouldn't be so bad if i wanted to just drive around a little prius all day.
 
Oil is pretty much decided by a cartel. And corn is too. And coal. And nuclear power.

Everybit of energy production in the world is mired in corruption. And I used to work near the top of the natural gas industry - and it's the least corrupt out there. And they were pretty goddam corrupt.
 
I hate this. We're all getting fucked by a bunch of guys in suits sitting around guessing about the future and what the oil supplies will be then. I could do that, here's my guesse on the futures, we're gonna run out, so quit fucking me untill then. They could at least wear a turban with a ruby in it when trying to prognosticate. Hell for all we know $4.00/ gal could be determined by a magic 8ball.
To quote my Geography teacher today... "the biggest reserve of oil in the world is in Canada. The only problem is with the situation up there they can't make a profit unless the cost of a barrel is $60." They have only started drilling it fairly recently. Of course just like the Middle East it pays a lot more to be less productive.
 
2.85 in dfw still :) atleast at the station i went to.

I might as well make this my signature ...


Gotta love Texas :)
 
ha... I'm glad I rarely drive my car anymore. Hell, I went through 3/4 tank in the Savanna in 3 days... I'm kicking my dads ass for buying that piece of shit.
 
Back
Top