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Oil Prices Hover Above $64 a Barrel As Tensions Between Iran, the West Leave Markets Jittery

Oil prices rose by more than US$1 a barrel Wednesday but were still below an earlier spike of more than US$5 a barrel on rumors that Iran had fired a missile at a U.S. ship in the Persian Gulf.

The U.S. military denied the reports. Still, rumors about a military confrontation spurred panic buying in after-hours trading Tuesday, sending oil prices above US$68 in a matter of minutes. Rising tensions between Iran and the West have created a potentially dangerous situation in the Gulf and markets are jumpy.

Prices fell back within a couple hours, although they remained higher than Tuesday’s settlement price of US$62.93 a barrel. Another possible calming factor was word from Iran’s foreign minister that a detained female British sailor would be freed on Wednesday or Thursday.

Light, sweet crude for May delivery was up US$1.13 at US$64.06 a barrel by afternoon in Europe in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile exchange. Brent crude for May delivery rose US$1.19 to US$65.79 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

“The major concern is that if the rumor had been true, you’d have a major disruption to supply,” said Andrew Harrington, an analyst with ANZ Global Natural Resources in Sydney. “You have about a quarter of the world oil coming through the Straits of Hormuz and any military conflict would severely disrupt those supplies, which obviously sees the price spike.”

The surge indicates the nervousness in markets, he said.

“The political premium had been taken out of the price, and as soon as any signs of new development takes place, they get put back into the price,” Harrington said.

Traders were also awaiting U.S. government oil inventories data due later in the day. The U.S. Energy Department’s report is expected to show a gain of 1.1 million barrels in crude oil inventories in week ending March 23, according to analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.

Gasoline supplies are expected to decline by an average of 1.8 million barrels, while distillate stocks — which include heating oil and diesel fuel — are expected to dip by 800,000 barrels.

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We all know from reading the articles on GasHostage.com that oil companies are making record profits at our expense and they have no intentions of lowering prices. We also know that though the costs associated with obtaining oil today has increased; it is no where near the level that the oil companies have been espousing over the last 10 years.  Oil is NOT in danger of running out anytime soon!  We have plenty of oil and gas reserves, and many untapped new drilling sites, but the oil giants want us to believe that oil is scarce or hard to drill so they can continue to RAISE our prices.

Not only have the oil and gas giants been treating the general consumer poorly, but they also take advantage of the countries they get their oil from.  Many times they simply take the oil from financially unstable countries, by offering huge promises of wealth and actually only providing a fraction of the contracted price. 

The oil and gas companies have grown so large and come to dominate the economic landscape across the entire planet.  Fighting them will be difficult, but not impossible.  As consumers it will be in our interest to discover ways to impact the very core of these large companies and make a statement that we will not tolerate their ways any longer!

Recently we came across a plan to force the oil and gas companies to lower prices.  The idea is to boycott the largest producers of Gas and Oil in your country.  With that in mind, oil companies will be forced to either lower the price to get their products onto the market, or to sit on their reserves and eat billions of dollars in sales.

If you are interested in joining our fight, we would like to hear from you!

Click here to see how our plan works

All of a sudden, the oil sands in Alberta, Canada have become a veritable “black gold” mine. And Big Oil’s heavy hitters are wishing they acted sooner…

Just three years ago, when the average price of crude was $29.63 a barrel, producers didn’t find the profits to be worth the costs of processing the oil sands.

But improvements in mining technology have dramatically reduced the cost of extraction, rocketing bottom lines skyward. According to news from the Oil Sands Discovery Centre in Alberta, it now costs an average of just $13.21 to process each of the 2.5 trillion barrels of oil embedded in the sands – a reserve 8 times bigger than Saudi Arabia’s… containing more oil than all OPEC nations combined.

Now, Big Oil companies that didn’t get in early can only sit by and watch as “savvy oil” laughs all the way to the bank. With crude selling for $60-plus, revenues at Albert’s premier oil sands producers are rocketing skyward.