Showing posts with label oil prices. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oil prices. Show all posts

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Vitol CEO Mike Loya on Oil Prices

Vitol President and CEO Mike Loya provides insight on the market and summer oil prices in a recent interview with Focus Washington's Don Goldberg.

It is an interesting interview and one definitely worth checking out.




Check out the release as well.

Friday, July 10, 2009

More Oil Traders

Ari J. Officer wrote an article for TIME magazine arguing the need for more oil traders. He says the Obama Administration can’t stabilize prices by regulating speculators. According to the article, limiting trading would make the oil-futures market smaller than it currently is, something Officer believes is dangerous.


“The oil-futures market is tiny compared with the physical oil market: less than 3% of the world’s oil consumption over the next year is accounted for in the open interest.”


Because oil is an international commodity and the U.S. government can’t regulate the global market, Officer believes that the U.S. “should not outsource markets by placing a divide between America and the rest of the world.”

Check out the article. It is an interesting read.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Oil Prices

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday on the decrease in oil prices after a year long rally that culminated in its best quarter since 1990. This is interesting given what happened last year after oil reached a remarkable high of $145.29 a barrel only to fall 77% in seven months.


The high price of oil this year is unexpected given the low demand. As Vitol CEO Ian Taylor noted last month, “The recent rise in oil prices [does] not appear to sit comfortably with the currently available supply and demand data."

The downward pressure on oil is so great it could trade for as little as $20 a barrel by the end of the year, according to the Chicago Tribune. This is due to the lessened demand at a time when there is a big surplus, Philip Verleger Jr., an expert on energy markets at the University Calgary, told the Tribune.


It will definitely be interesting to see what happens the rest of the summer.