oil prices posts, articles, and infographics

Experts Warn Speculation Is Helping Drive Up Oil Prices

April 12, 2012 by Joseph Romm
with 282 views

There are growing indications that Wall Street speculators are driving up the price of crude and Americans are paying for their profits at the pump.“Americans overpaid $10 billion dollars for gas at the pump in the last month alone,” said Gene Guilford, president of the Independent Connecticut Petroleum Association, speaking at a... [read more]

Could Solar Power Boost Saudi Oil Exports?

April 12, 2012 by Geoffrey Styles
with 637 views

Photo by Guillaume Cattiaux via Flickr

How often have we heard that installing renewable energy sources like wind and solar power will improve US energy security and reduce oil imports? There are other reasons for promoting these technologies, but this one has little substance, because we generate less than 1% of our electricity from oil. Ironically, this logic looks much... [read more]

Is North America the New Middle East for Oil?

March 22, 2012 by Geoffrey Styles
with 801 views

With the President of the United States currently playing the role of pessimist-in-chief with regard to US energy independence, it's refreshing to see that goal raised as a serious possibility by someone whose experience and position give him deeper insights on the subject. A few years ago Ed Morse was running the oil trading operation... [read more]

A Cleantech Trade War with China?

March 14, 2012 by Geoffrey Styles
with 349 views

While we wait to see whether the next big move in oil prices--and hence gasoline prices--is up or down from today's level of around $125 per barrel, two stories in today's Wall St. Journal highlight some of the challenges facing manufacturers of equipment used to produce renewable energy. [read more]

Petroleum Prices Set Records in 2011

January 11, 2012 by Geoffrey Styles
with 289 views

Without much fanfare, the Energy Information Agency of the US Department of Energy released a report on 2011 energy commodity prices yesterday. It confirmed that crude oil and key petroleum products set annually averaged price records last year. This largely snuck up on us, because it occurred without the kind of dramatic price spike we experienced in 2008 or in the oil crises of the 1970s. Prices rose early in the year, during the Libyan revolution, and they didn't fall much, subsequently. [read more]

Consumer Interest in Electric Vehicles: A Prediction for 2013

January 9, 2012 by James Greenberger
with 507 views

It is a little early to be making predictions for 2013, but here is one: Within 12 months the folly of tying the fate of light vehicle transportation to a single, vulnerable commodity will again become apparent to the American public. When that happens, consumer interest in PEV’s will move sharply in the other direction. [read more]

Keystone XL, One Head of the Hydra

November 25, 2011 by David Lewis
with 1,191 views

In ancient Greek mythology, the Hydra was a deadly monster that had many heads. If one was cut off two grew in its place. Killing Keystone XL won't stop Canada from developing its tar sand deposit. Even if no new pipeline crossing the US border is ever approved, US ability to import as much tar... [read more]

STUDY: Gasoline Demand Is More Price-Inelastic Than Commonly Thought

October 4, 2011 by Michael Giberson
with 494 views

A working paper from the UC-Berkeley Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics says that the demand for gasoline is more price-inelastic than typically thought. Here is the abstract, which points to publication selection bias as the culprit: One of the most frequently examined statistical relationships in energy economics has... [read more]

Next Up: The Battle for Libya’s Oil

August 26, 2011 by John Daly
with 262 views

Muammar Gadhaffi’s 42 year-old regime is in its death rattle – maybe today, maybe tomorrow, his administration that has ruled Libya with a quixotic and brutal hand is about to pass, in Trotsky’s piquant phrase, “into the dustbin of history,” prompting the question “what next?”The glittering prize is Libya’s 1.6 million barrels per day... [read more]

‘Tis the Season for Oil Company Misinformation

August 1, 2011 by Robert Rapier
with 529 views

In my travels around the globe, I have never been to another country that regards their oil companies as we do here in the U.S. I have actually been in countries where people view their domestic oil companies as a source of national pride. Here in the U.S., the average person on the street views our oil companies as vile, greedy... [read more]

Energy Crisis Prices Persist

July 22, 2011 by Geoffrey Styles
with 507 views

Watching oil prices is a hard habit to break, once formed. They're always moving up and down, sometimes for obvious reasons and sometimes not. It has probably escaped most observers' notice that the magnitude of this year's price moves has exceeded the total nominal price of oil that prevailed not many years ago, yet without the sort of... [read more]

Hedging the Risks of Selling Oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve

June 3, 2011 by Geoffrey Styles
with 283 views

I see that the administration has asked Congress to approve a non-emergency sale of oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), in order to allow a storage cavern to be repaired before it starts to leak. That's fine, as far as it goes, though the article I read suggested this would be done as a net sale into the market, rather... [read more]

The Cost of A Tougher Iranian Oil Boycott

June 1, 2011 by Geoffrey Styles
with 282 views

Today's Wall St. Journal (subscription required) includes an op-ed calling for a stricter US boycott of Iran than the current one that prohibits importing Iranian oil. The proposal from Reuel Marc Gerecht and Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies would go a step farther, barring the importation of petroleum... [read more]

Do Oil Consumers And Oil Producers Really Share The Same Goal?

May 31, 2011 by Rod Adams
with 274 views

Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that his country shares a common desire with oil consumers. They would both like oil prices to be lower. Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal indicated that the Saudis would like oil to be trading in the range of $70 to $80 per barrel instead of its current market price of... [read more]

CFTC Files Oil Market Manipulation Case

May 31, 2011 by Michael Giberson
with 403 views

At Streetwise Professor, Craig Pirrong examines the CFTC’s case against alleged oil market manipulators Parnon Energy, Arcadia Petroleum LTD and Arcadia Energy (Suisse), all affiliates of the trading firm Arcadia. Whatever the ultimate merits of the case, he says the CFTC is going to have trouble making the charges stick. In part the... [read more]