Energy / Oil Prices

• Why the Iranian Nuclear Deal Could Lead to an Increase in Oil Prices

  Why is Brent crude rallying in the face of a new Iran nuclear deal?  Two words might explain it:  Saudi Arabia. No one was more upset, save for the Israelis, by the recent agreement between the Iranians and the US than Saudi Arabia, the Iranians natural enemy in the Middle East.  By the number of visits that Secretary of State John Kerry made to the Kingdom and the appearance of Saudi sovereign investor Prince AlWaleed here in the US, it was clear that the message that the Saudis were sending to the US government went unheeded:  the US inked a…

• Oil Prices Unlikely to Climb Much Higher

  Nearly everyone believes that oil prices will trend higher and higher, allowing increasing amounts of oil to be extracted. This belief is based on the observation that the cost of extraction is trending higher and higher. If we are to continue to have oil, we will need to pay the ever-higher cost of extraction. Either that, or we will have to pay the high cost of some type of substitute, if one can be found. Perhaps such a substitute will be a bit less expensive than oil, but costs are still likely to be high, since substitutes to date are…

• Friggin’ in the Riggin’: Traders Claim Oil Price Manipulation

  Before we start with this weeks news please do take a moment to look at our latest presentation which analyzes various developments taking place within oil & gas and predicts 5 areas that could see huge booms in the coming years. These could be some of the biggest opportunities available to investors today. You can watch it here: 5 Giant Game-Changing Energy TrendsIf you are concerned that you don’t seem to fully understand oil prices, how they are set and what affects them—don’t worry too much because no one really has a grasp on this, including the traders and speculators…

• US Shale Oil Production Causes WTI Price to Fall

  According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. crude oil inventories rose by 5.2 million barrels last week, the fifth largest build of the year, with stocks at the Cushing hub rising for the second week in a row. Over the past four weeks, inventories have risen by 22 million barrels, marking the biggest four-week build since April 2012 and the second largest since February 2009.The crude oil stored at Cushing, the delivery point for the U.S. futures benchmark contract, amounted to 33.34 million barrels in the week that ended Oct. 18, an increase of 358,000 barrels. As…

• U.S. Oil Prices: Let the Good Times Roll

  The case for oil prices also depends on the value of the dollarA funny thing happened on the way to the euro. When first introduced to the global financial markets in 1999, it began to appreciate in value compared to the U.S. dollar (USD). Around this time, West Texas Intermediate crude oil was trading below $20 a barrel. As the dollar lost value, oil began to rise. Is this a coincidence?The dollar began to devalue against the euro and other major global currencies in 2003, primarily as a result of the Iraq War costs. By year-end 2002, the dollar had…

• The Best Way to Beat Today’s High Costs in Oil and Gas

  I’m a big fan of royalty companies. And I want to tell you about a new firm I’ve found, that’s using this time-tested model for stable profits—run by some very successful people with proven track records in the petroleum business.In fact, this oil and gas royalty company is so new, it hasn’t even been fully formed yet—let alone garnered any attention from the wider investment community. But you can still invest in it today through a couple of back-door trading avenues. More on this company in a moment. But first, what is a royalty company? And why should we be…

• US-Russian Agreement Over Syria Brings Oil Under $107

  The diplomatic rabbit that Russia pulled out of its hat (actually out of John Kerry’s hat) by suggesting that Syria could hand over its chemical weapons to an international body and thus avoid US air strikes on pro –government targets has injected some badly needed confidence – and temporary stability in the Middle East oil markets.  The news of a US-Russian agreement reached in Geneva regarding Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal by US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov along with the picture showing the two diplomats getting along in a very cordial manner…

• Why Military Action Against Syria could Cause Oil Prices to Fall

  Over the last month, oil prices have been steadily climbing due to an assortment of factors. The oil crisis in Libya, production problems in Nigeria, and low OPEC spare capacity have all served to tighten the oil market. Exacerbating this is the looming threat of Syria, where the prevailing opinion is that any American intervention will send the price of crude oil skyward. Estimates as to how high said price spike will be and how long it will last vary considerably, but most agree that military action will be generally inflationary.     However, some claim that the opposite will happen.…

• Getting Used to High Oil Prices

  We've been seeing oil over $100 a barrel and gasoline above $3.40 a gallon for much of the last 3 years. Those prices would have shocked many Americans a few years ago, but have now become the new normal. What has changed and what hasn't as a result?Real price of oil (in 2013 dollars), Jan 1947 to July 2013. Oil price: 1947-1989 based on West Texas Intermediate from FRED; 1990-2013 based on Brent from EIA, converted to current dollars using the CPI.One effect of higher oil prices has been a surge in U.S. oil production coming from horizontal fracturing of…

• Financial Limits will Arrive Sooner if Oil Prices Remain High

  We live in a finite world.  Clearly, a finite world has limits of many kinds. Yet economists and other researchers use models that assume that these limits are unimportant for the foreseeable future. They have certainly not stopped to think that any of these might be very hard limits that are difficult to get around, and furthermore, that we might be reaching them in the next year or two.What are the hard limits we are reaching? One of the main ones is that at some point, there is a clash between the oil prices importers can afford, and the amount…