After seeing a number of predictions for very high crude oil prices this year – including many from people who believe that world oil production has peaked and $100/bbl this year is a sure thing – I offered up a $1,000 bet that front month WTI would not reach $100 in 2007. Several people kept [...]
Crude Oil Prices,Crude Oil Prices >
I Want to be a Consumer Advocate 
The job of “consumer advocate” has got to be one of the easiest jobs in the world. You don’t need any credentials, you don’t need to fact check, and you get to write your own press releases in which you liberally quote yourself as an authority. And the most important rule of all seems to [...]
Saudi Production Management
A friend recently pointed me to a 2003 paper that attempts to explain the reasoning behind Saudi Arabia’s behavior with respect to their oil fields. This sort of managed production has always been my counter-argument to those who believe Saudi has peaked and production there is coming down involuntarily. This doesn’t prove that they haven’t [...]
Crude Cracks $130
I am still trying to extract myself from underneath an avalanche of e-mails, but thought I would post just a bit on oil prices, which are again in record territory:
Oil passes $130 for the first time
In the past year, crude oil prices have more than doubled, pushing retail gas prices higher.
The price of a gallon [...]
High Oil Prices = High Biofuel Prices
You know that forever I have beaten the drum that high fossil fuel prices would make biofuels more expensive due to their poor EROEI. If you are unfamiliar with the argument, it is essentially that most biofuels have very high fossil fuel inputs (and thus a low energy return). That simply means that when fossil [...]
Oil Prices Up, Gasoline Down
From the Dallas Morning News:
Jul. 9–Consumers watching the news about soaring crude oil prices normally would expect to pay for those increases at the pump. But since May, that has not been the case.
Oil prices have passed $70 per barrel for the first time this year, but gasoline prices for the area have been on [...]
Energy crisis ‘one hurricane away’
Shell’s president says we are just one bad storm away from high and volatile oil prices. I wonder what he considers high and volatile?
Shell president: Energy crisis ‘one hurricane away’ in U.S.
“We are one hurricane away from energy scarcity and volatile, high prices,” Hofmeister said a day after crude oil prices topped $80 — a [...]
Gas Prices Below $2
I never thought I would see this again:
Gas prices dip below $2 in some parts of Texas
Dan Ronan, a Texas AAA spokesman, said falling crude oil prices, the slumping economy and steady gas inventories have helped reduce prices.
“They are dropping pretty quickly,” he said. “Enjoy it while it’s here.”
In Harlingen, in the Rio Grande Valley [...]
Taxing “Windfall Profits”
I have a few essays in the queue (including a nifty biodiesel story), but I thought I would comment on an article in today’s Deseret News out of Salt Lake City. The article was entitled “Will U.S. Slap Tax on Big Oil Profits?”. (1) A few excerpts from the article, followed by my comments:
Republican Sen. [...]
