Anyone seen the oil price?!

ianryder · Post by **ianryder** » 27 Mar 2007, 22:22

Just gone up $5 because of something in Iran - $68...gulp

ianryder · Post by **ianryder** » 27 Mar 2007, 22:26

http://money.cnn.com/

Can't see anything other than this on the CNN front page (if it's gone when you get there it just says "U.S. crude oil futures spike $5.18 to $68.09 a barrel after-hours on rumors of increased hostilities between Iran and Britain." under a breaking news banner at the top)

Bandidoz · Post by **Bandidoz** » 28 Mar 2007, 00:23

Yes I saw it on the scrolling news banner on News24.... "Crude Oil prices rise to highest levels this year as 13 British sailors are seized at gunpoint", had to laugh

Next we'll be seeing even more ridiculous reasons e.g.

Crude Oil rises to $90/bl as Dick Cheney farts in Congress

Aurora · Post by **Aurora** » 28 Mar 2007, 05:59

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... fer=europe

Bloomberg - 28/03/07 - 04.58 GMT

Oil Rises a Seventh Day as Iran Conflict May Disrupt Supplies

March 28 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose for a seventh day in New York on concern a dispute over Iran's detention of British servicemen could escalate, disrupting supplies from the Middle East.

U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair warned yesterday of a ``different phase'' of efforts to release the 15 sailors and marines if negotiations fail. Oil had surged yesterday on speculation that the U.K. government had attempted a rescue raid.

``There are all these rumors because history teaches us that the U.K. has been pretty tough in dealing with these situations,'' said Dariusz Kowalczyk, chief investment strategist with CFC Seymour Ltd. in Hong Kong. ``The market is nervous if the Iranians don't back off and release the soldiers soon there could be some operation to free them and this could have consequences because pride is important for Iran.''

Crude oil for May delivery gained as much as $1.53, or 2.4 percent, to $64.46 a barrel in electronic after-hours trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $63.89 at 12:45 p.m. in Singapore.

The contract settled at $62.93 a barrel yesterday, up 2 cents. Prices jumped $5 in seven minutes just before 5 p.m. New York time, to $68.09, the highest intraday price since Sept. 6.

``It's an indication of the level of concern people have around the possibility of a military conflict in the Middle East,'' said Andrew Harrington, commodities analyst at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Sydney.........................

Aurora · Post by **Aurora** » 29 Mar 2007, 05:15

Business week link

Business Week - 29/03/07 - 04.14 GMT

Oil, Guns, and Iran

It's been a dizzying week for the oil markets. Crude prices at the New York Mercantile Exchange have been on an accelerated rise since Iran captured 15 British sailors and marines last week, fueling fears of a disruption in supply from the Middle East. After settling just shy of $64 on Mar. 27, crude futures shot up more than $5 that night to trade above $68 a barrel in electronic trading after rumors of an attack by Iran on U.S. warships. The U.S. military quickly denied the speculation, slicing a few dollars off prices.

"I was getting motion sickness watching the numbers jump across the screen," says Craig Pirrong, professor of finance and energy markets at the Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston. "We're in an unbelievably volatile period."

Oil prices, of course, are determined by a wide range of factors, from the weather to rising demand from China. But now geopolitics is moving to center stage. And perhaps nothing can spook traders like the unpredictable mix of politics, money, and guns. The U.N. is in a diplomatic standoff with Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, and speculation over what the U.S., Britain, and Iran might do is rampant. Against this backdrop, traders react first and ask questions later. "The market cannot afford to not take anything in this part of the world seriously," says Fadel Gheit, a senior energy analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. (OPY). "If supply is threatened, there's no replacement for it. For traders holding positions, every second counts."

On Mar. 28, crude oil futures for May rose $1.15, to settle at $64.08 a barrel. Prices have surged 26% since the low of Jan. 18 and are at their highest level since Sept. 11 last year............................

Silas · Post by **Silas** » 29 Mar 2007, 09:10

"The market cannot afford to not take anything in this part of the world seriously," says Fadel Gheit, a senior energy analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. (OPY). "If supply is threatened, there's no replacement for it. For traders holding positions, every second counts."

Hang on why should it matter, I was given to believe that most governments polititians and economists, infact everyone thinks that there is no oil supply shortage, I thought that SA claimed to have gazillions of barrels surely they can just turn the taps on a bit more to fill the gap. I mean its all so silly like anyone will swallow that silly old supply problem line tut tut.

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 29 Mar 2007, 10:10

When the crisis arrives I can just imagine the earnest bull**** that the politicians will come out with:

"... totally unexpected ... improbable combinations of events .... regret that petrol will be rationed ... power cuts ... just for a few months until supplies are returned to normal ... backs to the wall ... special allocations to critical organisations such as hospitals, local council officers, MPS, senior civil servants .... flying restricted to those on government business .... I am proud of our fine British people .... together we shall pull through this difficult period ... introduction of Special Powers .... establishment of Local Energy Wardens .... strict enforcement ... Churchillian spirit"

MacG · Post by **MacG** » 29 Mar 2007, 10:33

Vortex wrote:When the crisis arrives I can just imagine the earnest bull**** that the politicians will come out with:

"... totally unexpected ... improbable combinations of events .... regret that petrol will be rationed ... power cuts ... just for a few months until supplies are returned to normal ... backs to the wall ... special allocations to critical organisations such as hospitals, local council officers, MPS, senior civil servants .... flying restricted to those on government business .... I am proud of our fine British people .... together we shall pull through this difficult period ... introduction of Special Powers .... establishment of Local Energy Wardens .... strict enforcement ... Churchillian spirit"

You wish! I dont think it will be possible to pull stunts like that. There is nothing to pull together behind anymore. No collective "we". I expect just disruption, poverty and misery.

Andy Hunt · Post by **Andy Hunt** » 29 Mar 2007, 10:36

And don't forget how good it will be for meeting our carbon reduction targets!!

Silas · Post by **Silas** » 29 Mar 2007, 11:13

There is nothing to pull together behind anymore. No collective "we". I expect just disruption, poverty and misery.

People are not fond of poverty and misery and as a 'collective we" they will do all they can to keep things ticking along. Even in the hardest of feudal medieval times there were functioning social groups. Anything is possible and I tend to be optomistic about the future, dispite the huge problems possible down the road, I for one will stand up and help my fellow man.

Pippa · Post by **Pippa** » 29 Mar 2007, 11:15

Imagine being Mr Blair and trying to work out what you could possibly do to back up any threat? (scratch head). It seems like greater and greater numbers of the British army have caught on to the pointlessness and brutality(and loss of their life for nothing) and don't want to fight or hang around any longer, and where are all the back up troops? Whose jostling in line to be the next sailor on a boat in the middle of nowhere?

What's next, subscription

And who will they subscript seeing as greater and greater numbers of "British citizens" are either first or second generation imigrants or have left our shores and now live elsewhere

Maybe asylum seekers or old age pensioners (especially Chelsea pensioners - picked as a random sacrificial class - rather like the tax on SUV's - a total joke IMO) should be called upon to our defence. Or, even "better" idea, lets call upon the vast group of young teenagers who spend their days playing war on computer; their reactions will be razor sharpe. It might work, don't you think.

What we need now is a large governmental re-organisation and a huge new department with loads of highly paid members to discuss these ideas for several years and produce a lengthy document.

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 29 Mar 2007, 12:14

The BNP will have a field day:

"Why should our pensioners freeze whilst the foreigners get all the goodies?"

"How come all the pimps, yobs and asylum seekers seem to have petrol whilst you can't even get to work?"

"How come your local MPs civil servants tell you how they too are affected by the energy cuts .. but seem still live in nice warm houses and drive nice cars ... whilst you freeze and can't find food in the shops?

TIME FOR A CHANGE ... VOTE BNP!

I wouldn't be surprised if they could grab a big share of public support.

I'm glad I don't live in a city ...

Aurora · Post by **Aurora** » 29 Mar 2007, 13:05

Vortex wrote:The BNP will have a field day:

"Why should our pensioners freeze whilst the foreigners get all the goodies?"

"How come all the pimps, yobs and asylum seekers seem to have petrol whilst you can't even get to work?"

"How come your local MPs civil servants tell you how they too are affected by the energy cuts .. but seem still live in nice warm houses and drive nice cars ... whilst you freeze and can't find food in the shops?

TIME FOR A CHANGE ... VOTE BNP!

I wouldn't be surprised if they could grab a big share of public support.

I'm glad I don't live in a city ...

God help us all if those racist bigots ever get a sniff of REAL power.

Pippa · Post by **Pippa** » 29 Mar 2007, 13:40

Vortex wrote:The BNP will have a field day:

I'm glad I don't live in a city ...

Have you got any that you wouldn't like to live in particularly and why?
Perhaps you don't like the thought of living in London,Birmingham, Leicester, Coventry, Leeds.....Maybe you wouldn't like to live in Bradford, one of my husbands old pipeline friends lives there, they watch the "brown tide" (a local Bradford expression - not mine) advance at about 2 streets a year.

The subject of imigration and changing ethnic populations is, IMO, deadly serious. The BNP stands for bad - racism - bad. However, the speed of influx and outflux is causing huge tensions. I don't think that it is a wise idea just to say the BNP is bad when they are picking up and reflecting on the deep running fears of alot of the population which includes different ethnic groups.

We've been celebrating 200 years since the abolition of slavery. I don't know if you saw the reports but one black gentleman approached the Queen whilst she was at a high profile service shouting abuse at her and putting shame on all the other black folk who were present. I felt sad for that chap, as an individual, to find that his ancestors had such a hard time of it. But what about mine! My fathers father came from a seriously poor family in Wales. He married my great grandma but they were so poor and work so hard to find that when my father was 7 he left the family and my father and his two sisters were taken into care. They were all split up and my father didn't see his youngest sister again until 2 years before he died (my brother found her though geneology search on the internet).
I personally don't recall having benefitted from the plunder of slavery in any meaningful and enriching way apart from any deeper understanding of the point of life (hey that's easy - there isn't one). The whole spectacle conjoured up other thoughts. I wondered where the black guy is living now? Not in bad old England I hope. If he was I wondered if he realised that he was living off the remanents of the oil age and all the wonderful benefits it has brought to mankind. Whose fault would it turn out to be in the future that so much good was squandered so quickly?

Deep down I am feeling a rising anger within myself at the propaganda of shame that is proliferating against the bad old British. Are we, as a nation (of white colonial bigots?

) still accountable and should we have to apologise for the sins of people from 200 years ago? What about the black folks who made a mint from selling their own into slavery? Who is mentioning them?

What about the rights of young muslims to wear religious headwear? Just 100 years ago no woman in England had rights; not in law. It took the suffragets movement and two world wars to bring equality into being here. What ever happened to wanting to fit in?

I see the imigration/emigration issue as one of invasion of all countries. My brother has recently emigrated to Australia for a better life, based on a nice life style and finding more people who have christian values. As far as I can tell he hasn't taken up with the Aborigines

OK, so we don't want the BNP to go around preaching racist hate but what do we want? If we aim for peace and stability and communities which comprise of people who can recognise each other ethically, aspirational ly and communally then by implication we need to build common ground. We can't build a bridge to this place with so much frantic change, so much anger and so much dis-satisfaction.

The global migration currently underway now is similar to those in the past; they were called invasions then (the vikings, romans, french, germans etc ). Then they came with spears, bows and arrows, tanks and aeroplanes but now they walk peacefully through borders across the world and political correctness gags anyone who challanges the false believe that all this is good.

If we want to challange the rise of the BNP or any other fascist body we should first challange the propaganda that says its all OK and allow some painful truths, especially the one that says we can all have it all, and find some new way of living.....

Now, what's on tele this afternoon.....

Andy Hunt · Post by **Andy Hunt** » 29 Mar 2007, 13:54

That's a great post Pippa.

I agree with you that the issue isn't just black-and-white (excuse the pun).

There is a lot of tension. Round my way, the Asian kids screaming around the backstreets in their big saloon cars, making noise at night and generally not respecting people's desire for peace and quiet are getting people's backs up.

Doubtless in another part of town, there are white kids doing something very similar. But people can more easily identify with and forgive their own.

I am very much afraid that at some stage, something will snap. If people are planning on staying in the UK permanently, the culture of separation must end. The informal ban on intermarriage is the one great barrier to a future together, and it must end. And it will do, eventually - people are people, after all. My cousin is marrying an Indian girl, and although her parents were against it at first, now they have got used to the idea.

I think there is definitely hope, but it's something we all need to work at.