Tag Archives: Strategic Petroleum Reserve

Syria as Russia’s Oil Price Tool

As featured on The Huffington Post: The opening paragraph in the Financial Times‘ May 31, 2013 review of Thane Gustafson’s history of the Russian oil industry, Wheel of Fortune: The Battle for Oil and Power in Russia, says it all: In no other big economy do oil and gas play such a vital role as in Russia. They account…
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Blatant Distortion and Manipulation of Oil Prices Laid Bare

Friday was a red letter day for the oil producers. In the space of three hours, from 9:00 a.m. to noon, the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil as traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange leapt from $104.30/barrel to $106.94/bbl., finally closing the day at $106.42/bbl. A staggering range for a commodity…
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The Price of Oil Is Rigged

As posted on The Huffington Post: The U.S. oil market is well supplied, with U.S. commercial crude oil inventories near all time highs, with production of U.S. oil increasing by some million barrels/day from a year ago, with weekly inventory of gasoline jumping by 800,00bbls equivalent last week alone, while Chinese demand is flat to…
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Americans Pay at the Pump While Speculators Profit and Play

As featured on The Huffington Post: Incredibly, since the later part of June, the price of oil has spiked by $12 a barrel to close at $107/bbl yesterday, a jump of close to 15 percent over three weeks. The impact on the rise of gasoline prices is already being felt and will become more accentuated…
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Our Economy Sorely Needs a Boost. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Anyone?

Unemployment is still over 7 percent, the Fed has signaled the gradual end of its QE3 program, the stock market is retreating and the economy still remains deeply sluggish. Yet the price of oil remains at an exorbitant $95 barrel, totally without justification given the near-record inventories on hand and the booming production in the…
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