Revealed - Buckeroo's secret source.....

by Batman Mon 02 Jun 2008, 11:38

A few days back, Buckaroo in a debate has accused some western countries as the ones who held the world at hostage and as entities controlling everything through dummy corporations and stock market manipulations. He squarely blamed Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JP Morgan etc. as holding companies all owned by Goldman Sachs like conglomerates secretly controlling our lives and other such entities. Was he speaking the truth?

Or was he reading rediff news a month in advance.....

Basketball

The real reason why oil prices are rising...!!!

by Fred Nerk Mon 02 Jun 2008, 11:41

Let me guess - Worcestershire?

by Batman Mon 02 Jun 2008, 11:43

Text of the article for Bucky -

The real reason why oil prices are rising

By, M R Venkatesh

By now it is becoming too obvious that the United States is playing the oil game all over again. And this is the desperate gamble of a country whose economy is neck deep in trouble.

Given this scenario, managing prices of oil is central to the US economic architecture. Expectedly, this gamble has been played in a great alliance between the US government, US financial sector and the media.

The impending collapse of the US dollar on account of the inherent weakness in the US economy caused by its structural weakness as reflected in the sub-prime crisis;
The repeated softening of the interest rates in the US that has the potency to kill the US dollar; and How the fall in the US dollar suits the US corporate sector, especially its omnipotent financial sector.

Naturally, since the past few years, the US financial sector has begun to turn its attention from currency and stock markets to commodity markets. According to The Economist, about $260 billion has been invested into the commodity market -- up nearly 20 times from what it was in 2003.

Coinciding with a weak dollar and this speculative interest of the US financial sector, prices of commodities have soared globally.

And most of these investments are bets placed by hedge and pension funds, always on the lookout for risky but high-yielding investments. What is indeed interesting to note here is that unlike margin requirements for stocks which are as high as 50 per cent in many markets, the margin requirements for commodities is a mere 5-7 per cent.

This implies that with an outlay of a mere $260 billion these speculators would be able to take positions of approximately $5 trillion -- yes, $5 trillion! -- in the futures markets. It is estimated that half of these are bets placed on oil.

Readers may note that oil is internationally traded in New York and London and denominated in US dollar only. Naturally, it has been opined by experts that since the advent of oil futures, oil prices are no longer controlled by OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries). Rather, it is now done by Wall Street.

This tectonic shift in the determination of international oil prices from the hands of producers to the hands of speculators is crucial to understanding the oil price rise.

Today's oil prices are believed to be determined by the four Anglo-American financial companies-turned-oil traders, viz., Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, J P Morgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley. It is only they who have any idea about who is entering into oil futures or derivative contracts. It is also they who are placing bets on oil prices and in the process ensuring that the prices of oil futures go up by the day.

But how does the increase in the price of this oil in the futures market determine the prices of oil in the spot markets? Crucially, does speculation in oil influence and determine the prices of oil in the spot markets?

Answering these questions as to whether speculation has supercharged the demand for oil The Economist, in its recent issue, states: 'But that is plain wrong. Such speculators do not own real oil. Every barrel they buy in the futures markets they sell back again before the contract ends. That may raise the price of 'paper barrels,' but not of the black stuff refiners turn into petrol. It is true that high futures prices could lead someone to hoard oil today in the hope of a higher price tomorrow. But inventories are not especially full just now and there are few signs of hoarding.'

On both counts -- that speculation in oil is not pushing up oil prices, as well as on the issue of the build-up of inventories -- the venerable Economist is wrong.

In June 2006, when the oil price in the futures markets was about $60 a barrel, a Senate Committee in the US probed the role of market speculation in oil and gas prices. The report points out that large purchase of crude oil futures contracts by speculators has, in effect, created additional demand for oil and in the process driven up the future prices of oil.

The report further stated that it was 'difficult to quantify the effect of speculation on prices,' but concluded that 'there is substantial evidence that the large amount of speculation in the current market has significantly increased prices.'

The report further estimated that speculative purchases of oil futures had added as much as $20-25 per barrel to the then prevailing price of $60 per barrel. In today's prices of approximately $130 per barrel, this means that approximately $100 per barrel could be attributed to speculation!

But the report found a serious loophole in the US regulation of oil derivatives trading, which according to experts could allow even a 'herd of elephants to walk to through it.' The report pointed out that US energy futures were traded on regulated exchanges within the US and subjected to extensive oversight by the Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC) -- the US regulator for commodity futures market.

In recent years, the report however pointed out to the tremendous growth in the trading of contracts which were traded on unregulated OTC (over-the-counter) electronic markets. Interestingly, the report pointed out that the trading of energy commodities by large firms on OTC electronic exchanges was exempted from CFTC oversight by a provision inserted at the behest of Enron into the Commodity Futures Modernization Act in 2000.

The report concludes that consequential impact on account of lack of market oversight has been 'substantial.'

NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange) traders are required to keep records of all trades and report large trades to the CFTC enabling it to gauge the extent of speculation in the markets and to detect, prevent, and prosecute price manipulation. In contrast, however, traders on unregulated OTC electronic exchanges are not required to keep records or file any information with the CFTC as these trades are exempt from its oversight.

Consequently, as there is no monitoring of such trading by the oversight body, the committee believes that it allows speculators to indulge in price manipulation.

Finally, the report concludes that to a certain extent, whether or not any level of speculation is 'excessive' lies entirely in the eye of the beholder. In the absence of data, however, it is impossible to begin the analysis or engage in an informed debate over whether our energy markets are functioning properly or are in the midst of a speculative bubble.

That was two years back. And much water has flown in the Mississippi since then.

The link to the spot markets

Now to answer the second leg of the question: how speculators are able to translate the future prices into spot prices.

The answer to this question is fairly simple. After all, oil price is highly inelastic -- i.e. even a substantial increase in price does not alter the consumption pattern. No wonder, a mere 3-4 per cent annual global growth has translated into more than a 40 per cent annual increase in prices for the past three or four years.

But there is more to it. One may note that the world supply and demand is evenly matched at about 85 million barrels every day. Only if supplies exceed demand by a substantial margin can any downward pressure on oil prices be created. In contrast, if someone with deep pockets picks up even a small quantity of oil, it dramatically alters the delicate global demand-supply gap, creating enormous upward pressure on prices.

What is interesting to note is that the US strategic oil reserves were at approximately 350 million barrels for a decade till 2006. However, for the past year and a half these reserves have doubled to more than 700 million barrels. Naturally, this build-up of strategic oil reserves by the US (of 350 million barrels) is adding enormous pressure on the oil demand and consequently its prices.

Do the oil speculators know of this reserves build-up by the US and are indulging in rampant speculation? Are they acting in tandem with the US government? Worse still, are they bordering on recklessness knowing fully well that if the oil prices fall the US government will be forced to a 'Bears Stearns' on them and bail them out? One is not sure.

But who foots bill at such high prices? At an average price of even $100 per barrel, the entire cost for the purchase of this additional 350 million barrels by the US works out to a mere $35 billion. Needless to emphasise, this can be funded by the US by allowing it currency printing presses to work overtime. After all, it has a currency that is acceptable globally and people worldwide are willing to exchange it for precious oil.

No wonder Goldman Sachs predicts that oil will touch $200 to a barrel shortly, knowing fully well that the US government will back its prediction.

And, in the past three years alone the world has paid an estimated additional $3 trillion for its oil purchases. Oil speculators (and not oil producers) are the biggest beneficiaries of this price increase.

In the process, the US has been able to keep the value of the US dollar afloat -- perhaps at an extra cost of a mere $35 billion to its exchequer!

The global crude oil price rise is complex, sinister and beyond innocent economic theories of demand and supply. It is speculation, geopolitics and much more. Obviously, there is a symbiotic link between the US, the US dollar and the oil prices. And unless this truth is understood and the link broken, oil prices cannot be controlled.

by Fred Nerk Mon 02 Jun 2008, 11:45

Tartare?

by Guest Mon 02 Jun 2008, 11:50

OMG, I'm sick of hearing about the price of petrol!

by freddled gruntbuggly Mon 02 Jun 2008, 11:55

Then don't listen.

by Fred Nerk Mon 02 Jun 2008, 11:58

Hollandaise? Black Bean? Cranberry?

by Merlin Mon 02 Jun 2008, 12:08

The real reason why oil prices are rising ....
has fark all to do with Buckeye's myopic view of sinister US manipulation, the USDollar etc.

It is simply down to two financially strong emerging nations with a combined total population exceeding 3 billion, whose insatiable demand for consumable energy increases on a daily basis, whilst neither gives a flying f**k about the effect of carbon emmissions!

by Guest Mon 02 Jun 2008, 12:09

freddled gruntbuggly wrote:Then don't listen.

Well, as I work part time in a petrol station, it's hard not to!

by Batman Mon 02 Jun 2008, 12:17

Merlin wrote:The real reason why oil prices are rising ....
has fark all to do with Buckeye's myopic view of sinister US manipulation, the USDollar etc.

It is simply down to two financially strong emerging nations with a combined total population exceeding 3 billion, whose insatiable demand for consumable energy increases on a daily basis, whilst neither gives a flying f**k about the effect of carbon emmissions!

And USA with it's 2 cars per house cheap cars policy and not pushing for more public transport isn't? The amount of cars in proportion to population in India and USA itself is a stark contrast. While 2000 people in every 5000 populated areas in USA would own at least 1 car, In India that ratio is hardly 50 cars per 5000. These are not exact figures but a rough idea of what the stats would actually throw up.....

Also it is no secret that USA is the greatest polluter in the world who won't be a part of the KYOTO pact while China is the worst polluter as well....

by freddled gruntbuggly Mon 02 Jun 2008, 12:24

Demelza wrote:
freddled gruntbuggly wrote:Then don't listen.
Well, as I work part time in a petrol station, it's hard not to!

Just put a big sign behind the counter:
IT'S NOT MY FAULT!

by *Buckaroo* Mon 02 Jun 2008, 12:28

Merlin wrote:The real reason why oil prices are rising ....
has fark all to do with Buckeye's myopic view of sinister US manipulation, the USDollar etc.

It is simply down to two financially strong emerging nations with a combined total population exceeding 3 billion, whose insatiable demand for consumable energy increases on a daily basis, whilst neither gives a flying f**k about the effect of carbon emmissions!

India's actual growth in consumption of petroleum products has been 1% over last years.

China's growth in consumption has also been similar. So please leave these two countries alone.

Oil prices in reality is controlled by a small cartel of institutions based in New York who are backed up by more powerful vested interests.

Also it looks like they are testing how high the Oil price can go without bringing large scale deep recession. Also they are checking if the low dollar can be sustained on a long term basis and still have the largest oil producer use the dollar as the oil currency.

by Merlin Mon 02 Jun 2008, 12:29

Batman wrote:
Merlin wrote:The real reason why oil prices are rising ....
has fark all to do with Buckeye's myopic view of sinister US manipulation, the USDollar etc.

It is simply down to two financially strong emerging nations with a combined total population exceeding 3 billion, whose insatiable demand for consumable energy increases on a daily basis, whilst neither gives a flying f**k about the effect of carbon emmissions!

And USA with it's 2 cars per house cheap cars policy and not pushing for more public transport isn't? Th amount of cars in proportion to population in India and USA itself is a stark contrast. While 2000 people in every 5000 populated areas in USA would own at least 1 car, In India that ratio is hardly 50 cars per 5000. These are not exact figures but a rough idea of what the stats would actually throw up.....

Also it is no secret that USA is the greatest polluter in the world who won't be a part of the KYOTO pact whole China is the worst polluter as well....

Running cars only takes up a tiny portion of the overall energy consumation Viks.
Anyway, prudence has reigned in cash strapped US households as gas guzzlers are replaced by fuel efficient cars.

But that's not the point, whilst there is a problem in the US and they adjust to more frugal ways, the main concern, like it or not,
is the amount of crude and raw fuel oil consumed in both Indian and Chinese power stations, and in their manufacturing and production
industries.
Neither country has sustainable oil supplies, thus both are heavily dependant upon those who do.... Russia, Saudi and Venezuela.
And with their economies flourishing, what's another few dollars on the price of a barrel of oil?

by *Buckaroo* Mon 02 Jun 2008, 12:31

Perhaps 60% Of Today's Oil Price Is Pure Speculation

By F. William Engdahl
5-3-8

The price of crude oil today is not made according to any traditional relation of supply to demand. It's controlled by an elaborate financial market system as well as by the four major Anglo-American oil companies. As much as 60% of today's crude oil price is pure speculation driven by large trader banks and hedge funds. It has nothing to do with the convenient myths of Peak Oil. It has to do with control of oil and its price. How?

First, the crucial role of the international oil exchanges in London and New York is crucial to the game. Nymex in New York and the ICE Futures in London today control global benchmark oil prices which in turn set most of the freely traded oil cargo. They do so via oil futures contracts on two grades of crude oil-West Texas Intermediate and North Sea Brent.

A third rather new oil exchange, the Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME), trading Dubai crude, is more or less a daughter of Nymex, with Nymex President, James Newsome, sitting on the board of DME and most key personnel British or American citizens.

Brent is used in spot and long-term contracts to value as much of crude oil produced in global oil markets each day. The Brent price is published by a private oil industry publication, Platt's. Major oil producers including Russia and Nigeria use Brent as a benchmark for pricing the crude they produce. Brent is a key crude blend for the European market and, to some extent, for Asia.

WTI has historically been more of a US crude oil basket. Not only is it used as the basis for US-traded oil futures, but it's also a key benchmark for US production.

'The tail that wags the dog'

All this is well and official. But how today's oil prices are really determined is done by a process so opaque only a handful of major oil trading banks such as Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley have any idea who is buying and who selling oil futures or derivative contracts that set physical oil prices in this strange new world of "paper oil."

With the development of unregulated international derivatives trading in oil futures over the past decade or more, the way has opened for the present speculative bubble in oil prices.

Since the advent of oil futures trading and the two major London and New York oil futures contracts, control of oil prices has left OPEC and gone to Wall Street. It is a classic case of the "tail that wags the dog."

A June 2006 US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report on "The Role of Market Speculation in rising oil and gas prices," noted, "there is substantial evidence supporting the conclusion that the large amount of speculation in the current market has significantly increased prices."

What the Senate committee staff documented in the report was a gaping loophole in US Government regulation of oil derivatives trading so huge a herd of elephants could walk through it. That seems precisely what they have been doing in ramping oil prices through the roof in recent months.

The Senate report was ignored in the media and in the Congress. (those who control oil also control the media)

The report pointed out that the Commodity Futures Trading Trading Commission, a financial futures regulator, had been mandated by Congress to ensure that prices on the futures market reflect the laws of supply and demand rather than manipulative practices or excessive speculation. The US Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) states, "Excessive speculation in any commodity under contracts of sale of such commodity for future delivery . . . causing sudden or unreasonable fluctuations or unwarranted changes in the price of such commodity, is an undue and unnecessary burden on interstate commerce in such commodity."

Further, the CEA directs the CFTC to establish such trading limits "as the Commission finds are necessary to diminish, eliminate, or prevent such burden." Where is the CFTC now that we need such limits?

They seem to have deliberately walked away from their mandated oversight responsibilities in the world's most important traded commodity, oil.

Enron has the last laugh

contd..

by Brass Monkey Mon 02 Jun 2008, 12:32

Basically the Kyoto treaty sanctions just aren't viable for China - it would absolutely ruin the place. Considering that, apparently, USA and China make up a whopping 60% of the world's pollution and neither of them are on board I personally don't think any country should GAF until at least one of them gives in - as it seems the Yanks would be OK, they should start doing their bit.

by *Buckaroo* Mon 02 Jun 2008, 12:33

contd

As that US Senate report noted:

"Until recently, US energy futures were traded exclusively on regulated exchanges within the United States, like the NYMEX, which are subject to extensive oversight by the CFTC, including ongoing monitoring to detect and prevent price manipulation or fraud. In recent years, however, there has been a tremendous growth in the trading of contracts that look and are structured just like futures contracts, but which are traded on unregulated OTC electronic markets. Because of their similarity to futures contracts they are often called "futures look-alikes."

The only practical difference between futures look-alike contracts and futures contracts is that the look-alikes are traded in unregulated markets whereas futures are traded on regulated exchanges. The trading of energy commodities by large firms on OTC electronic exchanges was exempted from CFTC oversight by a provision inserted at the behest of Enron and other large energy traders into the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 in the waning hours of the 106th Congress.

The impact on market oversight has been substantial. NYMEX traders, for example, are required to keep records of all trades and report large trades to the CFTC. These Large Trader Reports, together with daily trading data providing price and volume information, are the CFTC's primary tools to gauge the extent of speculation in the markets and to detect, prevent, and prosecute price manipulation. CFTC Chairman Reuben Jeffrey recently stated: "The Commission's Large Trader information system is one of the cornerstones of our surveillance program and enables detection of concentrated and coordinated positions that might be used by one or more traders to attempt manipulation."

In contrast to trades conducted on the NYMEX, traders on unregulated OTC electronic exchanges are not required to keep records or file Large Trader Reports with the CFTC, and these trades are exempt from routine CFTC oversight. In contrast to trades conducted on regulated futures exchanges, there is no limit on the number of contracts a speculator may hold on an unregulated OTC electronic exchange, no monitoring of trading by the exchange itself, and no reporting of the amount of outstanding contracts ("open interest") at the end of each day."

Then, apparently to make sure the way was opened really wide to potential market oil price manipulation, in January 2006, the Bush Administration's CFTC permitted the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the leading operator of electronic energy exchanges, to use its trading terminals in the United States for the trading of US crude oil futures on the ICE futures exchange in London called "ICE Futures."

Previously, the ICE Futures exchange in London had traded only in European energy commodities Brent crude oil and United Kingdom natural gas. As a United Kingdom futures market, the ICE Futures exchange is regulated solely by the UK Financial Services Authority. In 1999, the London exchange obtained the CFTC's permission to install computer terminals in the United States to permit traders in New York and other US cities to trade European energy commodities through the ICE exchange.

The CFTC opens the door

Then, in January 2006, ICE Futures in London began trading a futures contract for

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil, a type of crude oil that is produced and delivered in the United States. ICE Futures also notified the CFTC that it would be permitting traders in the United States to use ICE terminals in the United States to trade its new WTI contract on the ICE Futures London exchange. ICE Futures as well allowed traders in the United States to trade US gasoline and heating oil futures on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

Despite the use by US traders of trading terminals within the United States to trade US oil, gasoline, and heating oil futures contracts, the CFTC has until today refused to assert any jurisdiction over the trading of these contracts.

Persons within the United States seeking to trade key US energy commodities US crude oil, gasoline, and heating oil futures are able to avoid all US market oversight or reporting requirements by routing their trades through the ICE Futures exchange in London instead of the NYMEX in New York.

Is that not elegant? The US Government energy futures regulator, CFTC opened the way to the present unregulated and highly opaque oil futures speculation. It may just be coincidence that the present CEO of NYMEX, James Newsome, who also sits on the Dubai Exchange, is a former chairman of the US CFTC. In Washington doors revolve quite smoothly between private and public posts.

A glance at the price for Brent and WTI futures prices since January 2006 indicates the remarkable correlation between skyrocketing oil prices and the unregulated trade in ICE oil futures in US markets. Keep in mind that ICE Futures in London is owned and controlled by a USA company based in Atlanta Georgia.

In January 2006 when the CFTC allowed the ICE Futures the gaping exception, oil prices were trading in the range of $59-60 a barrel. Today some two years later we see prices tapping $120 and trend upwards. This is not an OPEC problem, it is a US Government regulatory problem of malign neglect.

By not requiring the ICE to file daily reports of large trades of energy commodities, it is not able to detect and deter price manipulation. As the Senate report noted, "The CFTC's ability to detect and deter energy price manipulation is suffering from critical information gaps, because traders on OTC electronic exchanges and the London ICE Futures are currently exempt from CFTC reporting requirements. Large trader reporting is also essential to analyze the effect of speculation on energy prices."

The report added, "ICE's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and other evidence indicate that its over-the-counter electronic exchange performs a price discovery function -- and thereby affects US energy prices -- in the cash market for the energy commodities traded on that exchange."

Hedge Funds and Banks driving oil prices

In the most recent sustained run-up in energy prices, large financial institutions, hedge funds, pension funds, and other investors have been pouring billions of dollars into the energy commodities markets to try to take advantage of price changes or hedge against them. Most of this additional investment has not come from producers or consumers of these commodities, but from speculators seeking to take advantage of these price changes. The CFTC defines a speculator as a person who "does not produce or use the commodity, but risks his or her own capital trading futures in that commodity in hopes of making a profit on price changes."

The large purchases of crude oil futures contracts by speculators have, in effect, created an additional demand for oil, driving up the price of oil for future delivery in the same manner that additional demand for contracts for the delivery of a physical barrel today drives up the price for oil on the spot market. As far as the market is concerned, the demand for a barrel of oil that results from the purchase of a futures contract by a speculator is just as real as the demand for a barrel that results from the purchase of a futures contract by a refiner or other user of petroleum.

Perhaps 60% of oil prices today pure speculation

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley today are the two leading energy trading firms in the United States. Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase are major players and fund numerous hedge funds as well who speculate.

In June 2006, oil traded in futures markets at some $60 a barrel and the Senate investigation estimated that some $25 of that was due to pure financial speculation. One analyst estimated in August 2005 that US oil inventory levels suggested WTI crude prices should be around $25 a barrel, and not $60.

That would mean today that at least $50 to $60 or more of today's $115 a barrel price is due to pure hedge fund and financial institution speculation. However, given the unchanged equilibrium in global oil supply and demand over recent months amid the explosive rise in oil futures prices traded on Nymex and ICE exchanges in New York and London it is more likely that as much as 60% of the today oil price is pure speculation. No one knows officially except the tiny handful of energy trading banks in New York and London and they certainly aren't talking.

By purchasing large numbers of futures contracts, and thereby pushing up futures prices to even higher levels than current prices, speculators have provided a financial incentive for oil companies to buy even more oil and place it in storage. A refiner will purchase extra oil today, even if it costs $115 per barrel, if the futures price is even higher.

As a result, over the past two years crude oil inventories have been steadily growing, resulting in US crude oil inventories that are now higher than at any time in the previous eight years. The large influx of speculative investment into oil futures has led to a situation where we have both high supplies of crude oil and high crude oil prices.

Compelling evidence also suggests that the oft-cited geopolitical, economic, and natural factors do not explain the recent rise in energy prices can be seen in the actual data on crude oil supply and demand. Although demand has significantly increased over the past few years, so have supplies.

Over the past couple of years global crude oil production has increased along with the increases in demand; in fact, during this period global supplies have exceeded demand, according to the US Department of Energy. The US Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently forecast that in the next few years global surplus production capacity will continue to grow to between 3 and 5 million barrels per day by 2010, thereby "substantially thickening the surplus capacity cushion."

Dollar and oil link

A common speculation strategy amid a declining USA economy and a falling US dollar is for speculators and ordinary investment funds desperate for more profitable investments amid the US securitization disaster, to take futures positions selling the dollar "short" and oil "long."

For huge US or EU pension funds or banks desperate to get profits following the collapse in earnings since August 2007 and the US real estate crisis, oil is one of the best ways to get huge speculative gains. The backdrop that supports the current oil price bubble is continued unrest in the Middle East, in Sudan, in Venezuela and Pakistan and firm oil demand in China and most of the world outside the US. Speculators trade on rumor, not fact.

In turn, once major oil companies and refiners in North America and EU countries begin to hoard oil, supplies appear even tighter lending background support to present prices.

Because the over-the-counter (OTC) and London ICE Futures energy markets are unregulated, there are no precise or reliable figures as to the total dollar value of recent spending on investments in energy commodities, but the estimates are consistently in the range of tens of billions of dollars.

The increased speculative interest in commodities is also seen in the increasing popularity of commodity index funds, which are funds whose price is tied to the price of a basket of various commodity futures. Goldman Sachs estimates that pension funds and mutual funds have invested a total of approximately $85 billion in commodity index funds, and that investments in its own index, the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index (GSCI), has tripled over the past few years. Notable is the fact that the US Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, is former Chairman of Goldman Sachs.

F. William Engdahl is an Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) and author of A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order. He may be contacted at info@engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net

1 United States Senate Premanent Subcommittee on Investigations, 109th Congress 2nd Session, The Role of Market speculation in Rising Oil and Gas Prices: A Need to Put the Cop Back on the Beat; Staff Report, prepared by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, United States Senate, Washington D.C., June 27, 2006. p. 3.

by Guest Mon 02 Jun 2008, 12:33

freddled gruntbuggly wrote:
Demelza wrote:
freddled gruntbuggly wrote:Then don't listen.
Well, as I work part time in a petrol station, it's hard not to!
Just put a big sign behind the counter:
IT'S NOT MY FAULT!

No, I found it best just to accept that it is in fact my fault and apologise. They seem to like that.

by freddled gruntbuggly Mon 02 Jun 2008, 12:34

Demelza wrote:
freddled gruntbuggly wrote:
Demelza wrote:
freddled gruntbuggly wrote:Then don't listen.
Well, as I work part time in a petrol station, it's hard not to!
Just put a big sign behind the counter:
IT'S NOT MY FAULT!
No, I found it best just to accept that it is in fact my fault and apologise. They seem to like that.

Crawler.

by Merlin Mon 02 Jun 2008, 12:36

[quote="*Buckaroo/]

India's actual growth in consumption of petroleum products has been 1% over last years.

China's growth in consumption has also been similar. So please leave these two countries alone.

[b]Oil prices in reality is controlled by a small cartel of institutions based in New York [/b]who are backed up by more powerful vested interests.

Also it looks like they are testing how high the Oil price can go without bringing large scale deep recession. Also they are checking if the low dollar can be sustained on a long term basis and still have the largest oil producer use the dollar as the oil currency.[/quote]

Jesus ... I give up.

Those "cartels" you refer to who 'control oil' (yup, I can just see them "controlling" the Russian oil production! Rolling Eyes

)
are either breaking up or merging - such is the economic downturn of the US economy.

FFS stop reading the bile you use as toilet paper and stop and look at the bigger picture.
India's consumption growth was just under 5 pct in 2007 whilst China's was 6 pct ...
both are expected to increase a further 2 to 3 pct in '08.
That's serious ... and it ain't stopping ... not 3 billion's worth anyways!

by *Buckaroo* Mon 02 Jun 2008, 12:40

Merlin wrote:Jesus ... I give up.

Those "cartels" you refer to who 'control oil' (yup, I can just see them "controlling" the Russian oil production! )
are either breaking up or merging - such is the economic downturn of the US economy.

FFS stop reading the bile you use as toilet paper and stop and look at the bigger picture.
India's consumption growth was just under 5 pct in 2007 whilst China's was 6 pct ...
both are expected to increase a further 2 to 3 pct in '08.
That's serious ... and it ain't stopping ... not 3 billion's worth anyways!

India, China, Peak Oil, No new oil wells are the excuses trotted out by vested interests and Neocon media like BBC, CNN etc.

Please do not sell me that tripe.

I have given you official stats that India consumption in crude oil products has grown just 1% from last years. China too has registed single digit growth.

by Merlin Mon 02 Jun 2008, 12:51

India, China, Peak Oil, No new oil wells are the excuses trotted out by vested interests and Neocon media like BBC, CNN etc.
Please do not sell me that tripe.
I have given you official stats that India consumption in crude oil products has grown just 1% from last years. China too has registed single digit growth.

Yes Bucks ... of course Bucks ... spot on Bucks .. not selling you any tripe (fact is, I love tripe and onions so wouldn't part with it!!)

Anyway, listen ... the information you glean from the reading material in your local public bogs constantly churning out myopic anti-US shit (pardon the intended pun), matches only the alluminium foil headgear you probably keep to hand in anticipation of your insistance some months back that an invasion of inter-stellar travellers was imminently due.

Seems like I've wasted 20 years working in the oil industry ... oh well, such is life eh!
Let's agree to differ okay ... I really can't be arsed to continue the debate!

by Brass Monkey Mon 02 Jun 2008, 12:58

Merlin wrote:
Yes Bucks ... of course Bucks ... spot on Bucks .. not selling you any tripe (fact is, I love tripe and onions so wouldn't part with it!!)

Anyway, listen ... the information you glean from the reading material in your local public bogs constantly churning out myopic anti-US shit (pardon the intended pun), matches only the alluminium foil headgear you probably keep to hand in anticipation of your insistance some months back that an invasion of inter-stellar travellers was imminently due.

Seems like I've wasted 20 years working in the oil industry ... oh well, such is life eh!
Let's agree to differ okay ... I really can't be arsed to continue the debate!

Why should he believe you?????? You're obviously an agent for Goldman Sachs and have been planted on this forum to spread some oil propaganda - as we'd have all believed Bucks.

by taipan Mon 02 Jun 2008, 13:09

Brass Monkey wrote:have been planted on this forum to spread some oil propaganda

Oil on troubled waters?

by Brass Monkey Mon 02 Jun 2008, 13:17

taipan wrote:
Oil on troubled waters?

Very slick!

**holds hand up in shame**

by Guest Mon 02 Jun 2008, 13:19

Oil get me coat

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