Oil price hits record near $142

[dipsydoodle]

Source: BBC News

The price of crude oil has surged to a record, almost breaking through $142 a barrel, amid concerns about the ability of producer nations to meet demand.

In London, Brent crude jumped to $141.98 a barrel, while New York light crude climbed as high as $141.71.

Producers' group Opec has been under pressure to boost production, though recent reports have shown its members are split over whether to lift output.

Some analysts are now predicting that crude prices will continue to climb.


Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7476910.stm

[dipsydoodle]

1. World shares in further decline

Key European markets have suffered declines in early trading, following sharp falls in Asia and on Wall Street.

By mid-morning, leading share indexes in Paris and Frankfurt were both down about 1%, while London's FTSE registered a more modest fall of 0.2%.

Asian markets fell after the Dow Jones in New York hit a two-year low and oil hit a new high at almost $142 a barrel.

China's main index fell nearly 4.5%, and indexes in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea all shed more than 2%.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7476780.stm

[liberal N proud]

2. They have to drive the price higher for the holiday weekend - July 4th

The Fourth is on Friday this year allowing many a 3 day weekend. Time to load up the car and head to the beach. But wait, we can't afford the extortion fee to EXXON.

And Congress turns a blind eye.

[ohio2007]

3. Egyptian clerics want 20% of the oil revenue ( fatwa - ha ha ha )

Egypt fatwa orders oil money for the poor
Jun 15, 2008

CAIRO (AFP) — An Islamic ruling that Egypt should give some of its oil and gas wealth to the people has ratcheted up the pressure on the government, already faced with rising popular discontent over food prices.

The Islamic Research Centre of Cairo's Al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam's highest authority, has issued a fatwa or religious edict saying it is a sacred duty to pay 20 percent of oil, gas and mineral revenues in the form of alms to the poor known as zakat.

"The fatwa is based on a hadith (saying) of Prophet (Mohammed) which says that a zakat of 20 percent is obligatory on... all metals and minerals, solid or liquid," research centre member and Al-Azhar teacher Mohammed Rafat Osman told AFP.

The giving of alms is one of the five pillars of Islam and therefore obligatory for all Muslims.

Egypt's oil and gas exports were worth 10.1 billion dollars in 2007, according to official figures, and with crude oil striking a record high of nearly 140 dollars a barrel last week, 2008 revenue is set to be higher still.

Based on 2007 figures, the government's annual alms payments would in theory amount to around two billion dollars.

snip
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hGA5BJbejVBtkvH7W1vqxUe7cGEQ

Doubt the fatwa will spread to other OPEC countries like wild fire since this story is alomst two weeks old

[Spouting Horn]

7. This already exists

in Saudi Arabia to some degree...

The radical religionists tacitly support the Royal Family in exchange for billions to promote wahhabism worldwide.

But somehow Saudi Arabia didn't make it into the "Axis of Evil."

Go figure :eyes:

[bulloney]

4. And just in time for the July 4 holiday weekend.

Isn't strange how this happens during peak travel seasons, although I've gotta think that July 4 weekend traveling will be down significantly as driving has the entire year since gas prices have been climbing to present levels.

[GliderGuider]

5. 75% of the world's oil is consumed by people who are not American

There's no reason to think the global oil crisis is being manipulated specifically to hurt Americans. These prices are hurting Canadians, British, Australians, French, Indonesians and South Africans just as much as Americans, and not one of those nations celebrates your national holiday.

I agree that the US is beginning to see demand destruction due to climbing prices. Welcome to Peak Oil.

[dipsydoodle]

6. The UK celebrates July 4th

as the day we got independance from the USA........lol.

[skoalyman]

11. If things get any worser over here

we may be coming home lol:P

[Purveyor]

8. Our local mid-michigan gasoline price went up this AM .31 to $4.20 gl

Some Detroit area prices are as high as $4.26.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

9. Oil reaches $142 on view dollar will keep falling

NEW YORK (AP) — Oil futures climbed briefly to a new record above $142 a barrel Friday on expectations that the weakening dollar, a major factor in crude's stratospheric rise, will extend its decline and add to oil's appeal.

<snip>

Meanwhile, traders were coming around to the belief that the dollar, whose long decline has contributed greatly to oil's dramatic advance this year, will continue to weaken. The market now expects that the Federal Reserve is unlikely to raise interest rates until much later than many analysts have forecast; since higher rates tend to strengthen the dollar, traders are anticipating that it will continue to fall and, consequently, that investors will turn to commodities including oil as a hedge against inflation.

<snip>

"The renewed attraction of commodities as an investment vehicle is contrasting with the unattractiveness of the stock market," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Ill., in a research note.

"When money has nowhere to go, it is parked in commodities as it is one of the few investment instruments that actually rises the more money you pour into it," said Oliver Jakob, an analyst at Petromatrix Gmbh, in Switzerland in a note.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i5TtajgUpSm7KY5jf-lCJGHBB-tAD91IG8QO0

[David__77]

10. In 1998, oil was $11.91/barrel, or $15.83 in current dollars.

Interesting to think of a nine-fold increase in real terms. Oil is so integral to the economy. In many respects, however, the current pricing more accurately reflects market forces when viewed globally.