Oil prices fall to near $92 a barrel

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By PAMELA SAMPSON

BANGKOK (AP) - Oil prices fell Friday as euphoria faded over a budget deal reached earlier this week by U.S. lawmakers and traders focused on signs of lackluster demand.

Benchmark crude for February delivery fell 74 cents at midday Bangkok time to $92.18 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 20 cents to $92.92 per barrel on the Nymex on Thursday.

The deal reached Tuesday in Washington prevents the "fiscal cliff" crisis of steep, automatic tax and spending increases from hammering the U.S. economy. But it puts off for two months some hard decisions about spending cuts that are needed to get the country's mammoth deficit under control.

The package passed Tuesday by the Senate and House extends most of the tax cuts first enacted under President George W. Bush for individuals making less than $400,000 and married couples making less than $450,000.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20130104/DA3J6RQO1.html

[Loudly]

1. Any time WTI is over $60/bl. DOE should be selling futures against the SPR.

Make it this government's business to crush the longs.

[Rain Mcloud]

2. Let us end the corporate welfare

this will drive research into alternative energy and slow the speculation on the energy market.
Have you ever heard of this little known concept called,let me see,ah yes,the def-ic-it?
Let the Neo-cons try to de-regulate physics!
Fox Opines will have a field day spinning the Meta-versal laws which regulate the behavior of energy and matter into a liberal conspiracy which is secretly funded by George Soros and the tears of Christians.

[trof]

3. Remember when oil went UP to $50 a barrel? "Disaterous!"

That was not so many years ago.
Now anything under $100 is 'good'.
The New Normal...and the oil companies keep raking it in.

[WhoWoodaKnew]

4. Gas prices shot up 32 cent here...

from right before Christmas until yesterday. Been going up steadily each day. Curious to see what they'll be next week.

[Angry Dragon]

5. Why is this a big deal?? ......... Awhile ago they were around $87

[joshcryer]

6. It'll be down to $60 in 5 years.

US is about to have an oil boon. And it's going to be fantastic.

For the profiteers. Not so much the environment.

[NickB79]

8. Will the boom last with oil that low, though?

Drop the price per barrel too far, and all that Bakken frack-oil and Alberta sludge becomes unprofitable to extract, since it's so capital-intensive. Then, oil prices spike again as wells are shut down.

I'd be surprised to see oil drop below $75/barrel, but then again I've been wrong before.

[joshcryer]

11. That's fair enough, and OPEC has its motivations.

So OPEC could cut back production to keep the price high.

The thing is in situ shale oil production is slated to be around the cost of Alberta sands, and most of the price hike has been because China and India have been consuming oil exponentially (yes the speculators have played a role, but there's only so much oil extractable at any given time). So I expect that as demand is assured they'll continue ramping up production thanks to the new fracking technologies to get at it.

But you do make a point and I think I will agree that $75 is more reasonable.

[Yo_Mama]

7. It's because of the release of the FOMC minutes for December

In December the Fed said it was going to buy MBS and Treasuries at the rate of 85 billion a month until the longer term inflation forecast rose to 2.5% or the unemployment rate dropped to 6.5%. Based on their economic projections, that would have implied the program would have lasted at least until the middle of 2014.

When the minutes were released, it turned out that over half the participants thought the asset buying at that level should end by the middle of 2013, so the market is in shock.

The truth is that commodity prices are being heavily inflated by the Fed's actions, and when the market is threatened that the spigot may be turned off, they start running for the exit.

[merrily]

10. Free markets are not free.

Except in propaganda.

[merrily]

9. Media passed up a chance to connect oil prices to the fiscal cliff?

They need to get a head start on the next round of cliff hysteria as they have only two months this time.