Oil at $200/Barrel

[Gusterfell]

^It's an election year. Prices also dropped steadily through the summers of '04 and '06, despite factors that would have usually been expected to cause price surges. In both years the price suddenly resumed its upward march in about the second week of November. if it happens one election year, it's an interesting quirk. Two election years in a row is a remarkable coincidence. Now we're seeing the same pattern for a third cycle. Does anyone still honestly think the oil companies and their Republican cronies have no control over prices?

[Gard]

^^^

I think the big teller as far as that is concerned will be whether they continue going down are start going back up.

[suburban george3]

Oil has dropped to around $118 a barrel. Supposedly, there is an electonic floor of $117 that will trigger a mass sell off if that level is reached. We'll have to wait and see...

As of 20 minutes ago, oil has dropped to $116.48. If it closes this trigger should activate... we'll have to wait and see if this drop holds today..

[peaceloveunderstanding]

^It's an election year. Prices also dropped steadily through the summers of '04 and '06, despite factors that would have usually been expected to cause price surges. In both years the price suddenly resumed its upward march in about the second week of November. if it happens one election year, it's an interesting quirk. Two election years in a row is a remarkable coincidence. Now we're seeing the same pattern for a third cycle. Does anyone still honestly think the oil companies and their Republican cronies have no control over prices?

This climb and drop has to do with the relative strength of the dollar. There is not enough difference between John McCain and Barack Obama for hundreds of billions to be put into play.

[suburban george3]

As of 20 minutes ago, oil has dropped to $116.48. If it closes this trigger should activate... we'll have to wait and see if this drop holds today..

It's down to $115.20 right before the close.

[Lowerdeck]

^It's an election year. Prices also dropped steadily through the summers of '04 and '06, despite factors that would have usually been expected to cause price surges. In both years the price suddenly resumed its upward march in about the second week of November. if it happens one election year, it's an interesting quirk. Two election years in a row is a remarkable coincidence. Now we're seeing the same pattern for a third cycle. Does anyone still honestly think the oil companies and their Republican cronies have no control over prices?

They may or may not be. If it is the case, then to our corporate owners it doesn't matter who we vote for. Even if Obama gets elected, the prices will still go up and the oil companies will just jump onto his side to get their power and status.

[Neo]

Treehugger.com put up a great graph from TheOilDrum.com that shows that overall crude oil prices aren't likely to 'drop', just correct themselves and then continue their rise:

Does anyone think that even lower prices are to come before it hits 'bottom' and starts going back up again? Has the 'bubble' completely popped at this point or is there still more to come?

[Neo]

The Volt lost it's long hood and wheel bulges for aerdynamics. Pictures I've seen on some of the car message boards make it look a lot more like the Prius. Supposedly, it is going to be about $40K, but GM is lobbying for tax credits so that it ends up being around $30K with subsideis.

Last I heard, production was to start in 2010, so it looks like it'll be a 2011 model.

GM has revealed a couple of glimpses to the new Volt look:

[Gard]

Does anyone think that even lower prices are to come before it hits 'bottom' and starts going back up again? Has the 'bubble' completely popped at this point or is there still more to come?

I think it will continue to go back down. Investors in oil right now are quite worried about the drop in use of oil (even China and India are pushing cutbacks in their countries now) and the rapid rise and switch to more fuel efficient vehicles along with the new like the Chevy Volt on the horizon fueling the switch to other fuels. Oil is no longer the sole fuel source for vehicles now, so it will have to adjust to this new competition. I think its going to continue downwards until the market finds a happy medium for which to hang around for a good while. An analysist on tv tonight was projecting that gas could go as low as $3.00/gallon before it stops. I really think that oil's rapid rise in price was the beginning of its demise. Investors got greedy and reached too far into the cookie jar and are now paying for it in oil futures losses.

[Captain Worley]

The author of this article seems to think it will go to $30/bbl. I think that's low, but I hope he's right. My guess is $60-65/bbl.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/91100-forg...30?source=yahoo

[Lowerdeck]

So... how far will oil go with Hurricane Gustav coming to visit Louisiana?

I wouldn't put $4.75-5.25 gas out of the question. Better fill up the tanks this weekend...

[swh1972]

There has been a significant drop in the global demand for oil, and as a result, oil is much closer to $100/barrel than it is to $200/barrel. Oil has retreated about 28% from it's high of around $147 several weeks ago, and is at the $106 range today. Much of this is attributed to fear of a slowdown in the global economy.

[Neo]

I saw the following graph on Treehugger.com today that illustrates how much impact off-shore drilling will have:

Puts a new spin on the push by politicians to make this a reality.

[dgreco]

oil dropped below a 100$ for the first time in five months yesterday. Unfortunately it was for a short time and finished the day just above 100$

[cityboi]

right now there are a few gas stations in Lexington and High Point, NC that where gas is $5.45 per gallon for regular!!! (due to the hurricane)

[Gard]

I paid $3.99/gallon here in Raleigh. Many gas stations are all out and some are now rationing and limiting customers to 5 gallons.

[Neo]

I paid $3.99/gallon here in Raleigh. Many gas stations are all out and some are now rationing and limiting customers to 5 gallons.

Meanwhile we have a Republican candidate who is pushing to stay dependent on Oil by investing in off-short drilling instead of biting the bullet and investing in something that would truly offer long-term benefits.

[suburban george3]

I was reading on my cell phone's news service that the biggest gas panic was in NC and SC. I saw a station in Winston-Salem charging $4.95 for regular and the next station down was still at $3.69. Many stations are our of gas and the ones that have gas have long waits.

I was in Abingdon, VA earlier and had to go to 4 stations before I could get the gas to come home this evening, and they were limiting purchases to 10 gallons for local residents. They did let me fill up. Crazy..

and oil briefly went under $100 a barrel today...

[Lowerdeck]

I topped off my car this morning at 3.56 in Massachusetts, I noticed some stations had already made a jump from 3.45 to 3.59 in the past couple days.

In Danbury, CT ... several stations at 2:30 pm were at 3.79 a gallon for regular. By 5, it had already went up a dime. Where does it stop from there?

[Gard]

^

Once it reached 3.99 here, it stopped climbing. I may be due though to the governor invoking some state emergency powers that include opening the door for lawsuits by the state Attorney General against gas stations, 3 of which I know of have been filed thus far.

[swh1972]

Oil has slipped below $92 a barrel. That is more than a 37% drop from the highs we saw in July. $200 Oil might be much further away that we thought two months ago. As anticipated, individual service stations are slower to lower the price at the pump than they are to raise them.

[swh1972]

Amazing what a difference a week makes! Oil today spiked to over $130 per barrel before settling back to around $120. That's a $28 rise in 6 days, or 30% increase. The dollar has rapidly weakened from its most recent rally, due to fears about the financial industry rescue package, and oil prices have responded in kind.

[suburban george3]

Along with stock markets, oil is tumbling as most generally view the world economy slipping into recession hence reducing demand. Oil has hit a 8 month low; with light, sweet crude for November delivery down $4.69 to $89.19 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by late afternoon in Singapore.

[Gard]

Oil down to $90.40/barrel

It appears that Donald Trump could be right, oil will keep spiraling downwards. He also says that once it reaches a certain threshold, it will make people more confident and people will start spending the money they saved from not putting it in their gas tank and propping up the retailers and banks, resulting in stocks going up. This also means more money for consumers to make their mortgage payments, thus reducing the amount of bad mortgages and helping to unfreeze the credit market. Lets hope he continues to be correct....

Edit: Oil now down to $88/barrel

[Lowerdeck]

There's also rumors in the talk radio scene that if oil hits somewhere around 70 dollars a barrel, Russia will get very nervous and start something with Georgia or the Ukraine in order to get a spike in prices.