‘Perhaps 60% of today’s oil price is pure speculation’

[Joanne98]

The price of crude oil today is not made according to any traditional relation of supply to demand. It’s controlled by an elaborate financial market system as well as by the four major Anglo-American oil companies. As much as 60% of today’s crude oil price is pure speculation driven by large trader banks and hedge funds. It has nothing to do with the convenient myths of Peak Oil. It has to do with control of oil and its price. How?

First, the crucial role of the international oil exchanges in London and New York is crucial to the game. Nymex in New York and the ICE Futures in London today control global benchmark oil prices which in turn set most of the freely traded oil cargo. They do so via oil futures contracts on two grades of crude oil—West Texas Intermediate and North Sea Brent.

A third rather new oil exchange, the Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME), trading Dubai crude, is more or less a daughter of Nymex, with Nymex President, James Newsome, sitting on the board of DME and most key personnel British or American citizens.

Brent is used in spot and long-term contracts to value as much of crude oil produced in global oil markets each day. The Brent price is published by a private oil industry publication, Platt’s. Major oil producers including Russia and Nigeria use Brent as a benchmark for pricing the crude they produce. Brent is a key crude blend for the European market and, to some extent, for Asia.

WTI has historically been more of a US crude oil basket. Not only is it used as the basis for US-traded oil futures, but it's also a key benchmark for US production.
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8878

[whistle]

1. Generated from the infusion of new Federal Reserve money (credit)

...to Central Banks engaged in under-the-table and back-handed commodities speculation with cheap credit out of sight looking to make quick profits the off-set income statement write-offs. The Fed has opened the purse strings on some $300 billion and will give another $150 billion over the coming 30 days, but it still won't be enough.

Meanwhile, millions of homeowners are at risk of being foreclosed and put out of their homes along with hundreds of thousands of businesses and local chartered banks.

[Warpy]

2. Given the fall in the value of the dollar

I'd peg the "real" price of oil between $60-$70/bbl. The rest is speculation. Meanwhile, instead of releasing oil from the Strategic Reserve the way he's supposed to in order to knock speculation down, Stupid is bloating it at taxpayer expense at over $110/bbl, helping to ensure prices keep going UP.

Face it, that man in the White House is the deadliest enemy this country and its people have ever had to face.