PROOF YOU'RE GETTING ROBBED AT GAS PUMP

March 24, 2005 -- HERE'S all you need to know to understand that Americans are getting screwed at the gas pump.

Fact 1: The inventory of crude oil in the U.S. right now is 8 percent larger than it was this same week last year. And that's the biggest amount of crude on hand since the middle of 2002.

Fact 2: That the 8 percent increase doesn't include all the oil purchased by Washington and put into the emergency Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which now has 685 million barrels. That's up from 650 million barrels last year and 599 million in '03.

Fact 3: There is 7.5 percent more gasoline in stock right now in this country than during the same week last year. And you'd have to go back to this same week in 1999 to find more gasoline inventory — when the average price at the pump was only $1.01 a gallon.

Fact 4: Including everything made of oil, there is 4.9 percent more supply this year than when Spring began in 2004. And there's about 10 percent more of all petroleum products in stock today than when the Iraqi war began.

And, finally, Fact 5: American consumers are being conned by speculators — and a media that doesn't ask enough tough questions — into thinking there is some sort of supply problem.

Sheikh Yamani on Oil's Pendulum

The former Saudi Oil Minister has seen it all since 1962. Now he sees prices swinging back down "over the long term

...excerpt below...

"Another big change: the proliferation of speculators. Measured by fundamentals such as inventory levels, the oil markets aren't particularly tight these days. Many market participants say heavy buying by hedge funds and other financial types has played a sizable role in the current price run-up. If market psychology changes, these funds could push prices down even faster than they have risen. 'In the final analysis, fundamentals will work,' Yamani predicted. "

RTE Business - Saudis say oil supply fears overdone

March 21, 2005 12:32
Saudi Arabia's oil minister Ali Al-Naimi has said his country can increase oil production by 1.5 million barrels a day to help ease rising world crude prices.

Naimi was speaking to reporters in Manila in the Philippines, where he is on a three-day visit.

The Saudi oil minister also dismissed market perceptions that oil supplies are limited. 'There is plenty of supply. What we in Saudi Arabia want is to alleviate this unnecessary concern about shortage of supply,' he said.

We have Sufficient Oil to Meet World's Demand

By Anadolu News Agency (aa)
Published: Monday 21, 2005
zaman.com

As the largest oil exporting country in the world, Saudi Arabia has reported that they have sufficient oil capacity to meet world demand.

Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi has issued a statement to reporters in Philippines capital, Manila and said that the country is capable of producing an extra 1.5 million barrels a day. If world markets require, Saudi Arabia can immediately meet this demand, the Minister added.

LewRockwell.com Blog: It's All About The Benjamins

LewRockwell.com Blog: It's All About The Benjamins: "It's All About The Benjamins
Posted by Charles Featherstone at March 17, 2005 02:36 PM

If the peak oilers need any more evidence that today's high oil prices are the result of today's speculation, and not some looming peak of oil production two or five or ten years in the future, Dow Jones reports the following:

Witnessing new record-high oil prices and wild volatility, market participants are wondering whether market fundamentals have gone out the window. Are high prices drawing in so much fresh speculative buying that nosebleed-level oil prices are a self-fulfilling prophecy? 'It's not about the barrels or the BTUs anymore,' says John Hill of Broadway Futures, in an e-mail message. 'It's all about the Benjamins, massive amounts of capital chasing yield in the commodity markets and succeeding. OPEC can't produce enough crude. They can produce enough crude to feed the world's refineries, but not enough to meet the demand from speculative capital.' [Emphasis mine.]"

Oil Prices Soar after OPEC Increases Output

"Oil prices soared to record prices today as world markets reacted negatively to Opec’s decision to pump more oil."

This is funny: the market reacts negativly to more supply in a supply/demand market. Sure this make perfect sense... $

OPEC not to blame for oil price leap, say ministers

"The price of crude oil was 'out of OPEC's control', Qatar's Oil Minister, Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, said yesterday.

Crude prices were being affected more by factors such as economic growth than by how much oil the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries was pumping, the Qatari minister said in Isfahan, where an OPEC meeting was due to begin today.

Oil-market fundamentals did not support an increase in production by OPEC, which pumped about 40per cent of the world's oil, said Iran's Oil Minister, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh. OPEC should not increase output in the second quarter, he said."

Fundamentals do not support increase = Current high price has nothing to do with actual supply.

Opec not to increase output Because Oil Supplies Are Adequate

MARCH 13: The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries won’t increase oil output to ease high prices because world markets are already adequately supplied, Opec President Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Ahmad al-Sabah said.

Right, so OPECs big move to 'cool prices' as noted in the previous post is to continue doing exactly what they've been doing all along -- pumping plenty of oil.

Is it the oil companies?

New oil, gas fields discovered in southern Iran

www.chinaview.cn 2005-03-08 20:09:39
TEHRAN, March 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh announced here Tuesday that Iran has discovered two new oil and gas fields in the south of the country.

The new oil field, with an estimated capacity of 5.7 billion barrels, was located in the southern province of Khuzestan, 40 km northeast of the provincial capital of Ahvaz, Zanganeh told reporters."

Looks like the actual owners of the underlying commodity have a different view of things than those trying to sell futures...

BlogginWallStreet: Commodities Picture Getting Clearer

"It seems that very quickly the belief that commodities prices have been driven mostly by demand is shifting to the view that it’s being driven by speculation. What has been true for quite some time is becoming painfully obvious (at least for those clinging to the demand theory) as the CRB rockets higher beyond a point from which demand alone can explain."

Are Big Funds Gaming Oil?

BlogginWallStreet: What Happened to Disinflation?: "Today on CNBC they had on an analyst who talked specifically about the impact of speculation on the commodities markets and they mentioned that a lot of people are talking about this now.

Now there are rumors that the big funds are quietly pulling out of energy and commodities as the general public is just getting in. And there are still plenty of analysts telling the public that they should."