Oil Rises Above $108 A Barrel, Gas Pump Prices Up

[Purveyor]

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK (AP) -- The price of oil jumped to a fresh 30-month high, above $108 a barrel Monday as fighting in Libya and unrest in the Middle East continued to raise doubts about future supplies.

Benchmark crude for May delivery gained 9 cents to $108.03 a barrel in midday trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier in the session, the contract reached $108.78 per barrel, the highest price since September 2008. In London, Brent crude rose $1.35 to $119.76 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Energy traders are watching the standoff in Libya, where forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi control most of the western half of the OPEC nation. Rebels have seized much of the eastern coast. While Libya's oil exports have come to a halt, rebels are trying to ship some oil to help finance their uprising. An oil tanker is expected to arrive Tuesday at one of Libya's eastern ports, though analysts don't expect the country to ship much oil for at least the next several months. Libya supplied about 2 percent of the world's oil supplies, most of which went to Europe.

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Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OIL_PRICES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-04-04-12-01-05

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[Historic NY]

2. STOP the Wall St. speculators Congress allow the ...

Commodity Futures Trading Commission to do their job and eliminate the ENRON loophole.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aHFNahqTZM&feature=player_embedded#at=66

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-a-budget/149607-stop-profiteering-by-oil-price-speculators

[South End Liberal]

3. Pain at the pump brought to you by hedge fund speculators.

I've read various reports from reliable sources that as much as 60% of today's crude oil price is pure speculation driven by large trader banks and hedge funds.

Yet Congress and the White House ignores the speculation and does nothing to regulate the oil speculators.

[Andy823]

4. High prices

Brought to you by the GOP and "less" regulation which allows speculators to manipulate prices so they can get rich will the average american has to pay more each month for gas! Congress cans top this but they won't eve try! I know it would be hard with republicans in charge of the house, but damn democrats should be pushing bill after bill trying to put a stop to his madness by speculators!

[Psephos]

9. If only we had a Democratic President and Senate.

Or, if only we had a Democratic President, Senate, and House for all of 2009 and 2010.

[thelordofhell]

5. Crack reporting by the AP

If they bothered to do any real reporting the first sentence would be

NEW YORK (AP) -- The price of oil jumped to a fresh 30-month high, above $108 a barrel Monday as speculators and profiteers continue to take advantage of fighting in Libya and unrest in the Middle East that has not stopped a single barrel of oil from coming to market.

[Purveyor]

6. +1

[ixion]

7. at what point will we reach the threshold and collapse?

because I don't know about you, but I'm spending way too much on gas these days, and there isn't a damn thing I can do about it, in the grand scheme of things. I try and cut back where I can, but there's still a great deal of driving that must be done.

So again I ask the question: At what point does our way of life crumble? Because I believe we're nearing that point now.

[redixdoragon]

8. There has been a lot of theorizing on that

I believe I read an article or two from the Oil Drum or energybulletin.net. It's a difficult point to determine.

For the average driver there would be cutting back around $4/gallon, only needed trips around $5/gallon. I believe around 6 to 7 is where things would get really bad.

However, this does raise the fuel everywhere. Once trucking and delivery companies have a higher cost of fuels and manufacturers as well, all prices go up.

Once food and fuel costs begin conflicting for the average family; I think that may be the line, so to speak.

And we see the cost of both continually rising.


(Edited for typo)

[ixion]

10. Yeah, personally I would put it at $5

because right now, most people are charging at least a portion of their gas day-to-day. Once the credit is done, driving will become more difficult. I think people have probably already reduced driving to mostly necessary trips, although not entirely.

And, as you said, our entire economy is built around trucking and shipping. At some point, prices there will rise as well, which will ripple across all verticles.

I know that EU prices are higher than ours, but they're more geared towards public transit, too.

[redixdoragon]

11. Possibly

Hard to say if $5 a gallon would really do it but, with everything in the gutter as it is right now, $5 is equal to about an hour's labor at a fast food joint or other minimum wage job.

You're right on Europe though, they pay a lot more for gas but the average amount of driving is less. Their cities are a lot older than our own which means the roads were built for pedestrians and horse drawn carrige. Everything is packed more closely together. And public transportation is a lot stronger.

Also the "breaking point" may vary from region to region. Gas prices vary per state and region within state.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Safetykitten]

12. That's right Zuzu...Everytime gas increases a President's re-election chances drop.

[Doctor_J]

13. $3.85 today in SE MI

thankfully I use one tankful per month.

[Purveyor]

15. Around Jackson the price went to $3.90 yesterday. Unusual for a spike on Sunday. eom

[Javaman]

16. $3.58 here in Austin. nt

[RedCloud]

17. And it's total BS. We have an 18 year surplus.

[and-justice-for-all]

18. That shit should be a federal crime....

price speculation is fucking criminal.