The Times from the UK doesn't think the oil situation...

[whistle]

...looks too promising.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8903-1117034,00.html


May 20, 2004
Opec pledge makes little impact
BY RHYS BLAKELY
Oil prices showed little sign of retreating from near-record levels today as Opec said it was committed to increasing supplies but claimed that the present price spike was due to factors outside of its control.

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which accounts for about 40 per cent of world oil output, said that the actions of speculators and a shortage of refinery capacity, especially in America, had been key in inflating oil and petrol costs.

"While the oil market still holds above $40 a barrel ... that is due to factors beyond Opec’s scope," the cartel’s president, Purnomo Yusgiantoro, told a news conference in London. "It is not an upstream problem."

Brent crude traded steady at 37.90 in London while the US June-dated contract, set to expire today, traded flat in New York at $41.47 per barrel, just shy of this week's 21-year high of $41.85.

<snip>

Gasoline stocks rose by only 1.2 million barrels in the week to May 14 while inventories of cleaner re-formulated gasoline rose 400,000 barrels - both far below forecasts.
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[lovedems]

1. I will pay more for gas until November

if it means the chimp will be sent back to Crawford! That is my "American sacrifice!"

[Atman]

2. BUSH is the problems...buying it all for the SOR

Taking it out of the supply chain. I can't honestly say it is a bad idea, what with the major crisis we are likely to end up in when the ME embargoes us. It WILL happen. Bush will make sure of it. Good for the company business.

[Doctor Smith]

3. Wouldn't a lack of refinery capacity lower the cost of crude,

since there should be less demand?

[Massacure]

4. No

Less refineries buy less crude, but there is also less gasoline being produced as well. However, if there is less gasoline, and still the same demand, then the price will still rise for gasoline.