Not Even Saudi Arabia Can Save Us From High Crude Oil Prices

Wednesday, March 28, 2012
By Paul Martin

Jason Simpkins
Market Oracle
Mar 28, 2012

With oil prices soaring ever higher, Saudi Arabia stepped in last week and vowed to increase its production by 25% if necessary.

But while that assurance managed to siphon a few dollars off of oil futures, the reality is there’s nothing Saudi Arabia – or anyone else, for that matter – can do about rising oil prices.

In fact, crude is still on track to reach $150 a barrel by mid-summer.

As Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi pointed out last week, current oil supplies already exceed global demand by 1 million-2 million barrels per day.

For its part, Saudi Arabia is already breaking its own OPEC-imposed production quota limit, churning out about 10 million barrels of oil per day – close to its 12.5 million barrel capacity.

Yet the effect of that production has been negligible.

Oil is still trading at $106 a barrel on the NYMEX – something that has clearly flummoxed the world’s largest oil producer.

“I think high prices are unjustified today on a supply-demand basis,” said Naimi. “We really don’t understand why the prices are behaving the way they are.”

Naimi and his colleagues may not understand oil’s price gyrations, but Dr. Kent Moors, an adviser to six of the world’s top 10 oil companies and energy consultant to governments around the world, does.

“Despite the excess storage capacity in both the U.S. and European markets and the contracts already at sea, oil traders set prices on a futures curve,” said Moors. “In a normal market the price is set at the expected cost of the next available barrel. During times of crisis, on the other hand, that price is determined by the cost of the most expensive next available barrel.”

The Rest…HERE

Leave a Reply

Join the revolution in 2018. Revolution Radio is 100% volunteer ran. Any contributions are greatly appreciated. God bless!

Follow us on Twitter