Oil tops 90 bucks a barrel

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2007-10-18 06:53pm

From HERE

Drivers beware: Oil at all-time high
Crude prices over $90 a barrel for the first time in after-hours electronic trade after settling over $89 on declining dollar and supply fears; gas prices head higher too.
By David Ellis, CNNMoney.com staff writer
October 18 2007: 6:23 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Oil prices finished at an all-time high above $89 a barrel Thursday, while the cost of a gallon of gasoline jerked higher.

Light, sweet crude for the November contract jumped $2.07 to settle at $89.47 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, shattering the previous record of $87.61 a barrel reached two days earlier.

Gasoline prices climbed nearly two cents Thursday as crude oil finished at an all-time high above $89 a barrel.
In after-hours electronic trading light, sweet crude for November delivery went even higher, hitting $90.02 a barrel, according to the Associated Press.

Earlier in the day, crude prices scrambled to an all-time trading high of $89.55 a barrel.

Prices at the pump have been slow to respond to rising crude prices recently, but that may be changing. On Thursday, gas prices gained nearly 2 cents to a national average of $2.79 a gallon for regular-grade gasoline, according to AAA. They are up 4 cents since Monday.

"There's almost an inevitability here now that we are going to get to $100 a barrel," said John Kilduff, an energy analyst at Man Financial in New York.

Helping to lift crude prices higher was a decline in the dollar, which fell to an all-time low versus the euro and also dipped versus the yen.

Since oil is priced in dollars, a declining greenback makes oil less expensive for consumers outside the United States, encouraging more consumption.

Wednesday's news that Turkey had authorized military action in Northern Iraq also helped prop up crude prices.

Conflict along the Turkey-Iraq border could disrupt oil supplies coming out of the region and drive crude prices even higher.

"It's just a round robin of geopolitical and macroeconomic issues," said Kilduff.

Despite the recent gains in crude prices, when adjusted for inflation, oil is still slightly cheaper than the $95 a barrel or so it would have been in the early 1980s.

I want so much to laugh at people who Own SUV's needlessly. But then I just end up crying when I fill up my 1.8l Sentra (~32 MPG) for USD35.00+

Guardsman Bass · Post by **Guardsman Bass** » 2007-10-18 06:58pm

We're getting awfully close to that 1981 high. You know, the one that took an Iranian revolution and Iran-Iraq War to get to.

J · Post by J » 2007-10-18 07:03pm

I'm actually very happy right now since I'm heavily invested in oil & gasoline futures. C'mon middle east war, I want to buy my house by the end of the year!

NeoGoomba · Post by **NeoGoomba** » 2007-10-18 07:26pm

Well, if you need a live-in editor crashing on your new couch, let me know. We can weather the post-apocalyptic world on your petrodollars, whilst I contribute nothing!

Hawkwings · Post by **Hawkwings** » 2007-10-18 07:40pm

$2.79 a gallon? Psh, here it's more like $2.97.

Xisiqomelir · Post by **Xisiqomelir** » 2007-10-18 08:30pm

J wrote:I'm actually very happy right now since I'm heavily invested in oil & gasoline futures. C'mon middle east war, I want to buy my house by the end of the year!

Putting your money where your mouth is, top-tier.

CmdrWilkens · Post by **CmdrWilkens** » 2007-10-18 09:00pm

Hawkwings wrote:$2.79 a gallon? Psh, here it's more like $2.97.

That's the national average which means for every Georgia and Virginia with $2.40/gal you've got to have a number of states heading over the $3.00 mark.

Hawkwings · Post by **Hawkwings** » 2007-10-18 09:49pm

Georgia and Virginia absolute lowest are around $2.50, and their highest are pushing $3 as well. Incidentally, Hawaii's lowest is over $3.

haven't found the state with the lowest gas prices yet...

Phantasee · Post by **Phantasee** » 2007-10-18 11:28pm

It's amusing that pump prices here are in the low $0.90/L range, compared to earlier this summer, when oil was maybe high $60-low $70 and the pump price was fucking $1.30/L. Guess that royalty review reminded the oil companies that they need to keep their customers happy.

J · Post by J » 2007-10-19 10:10am

Phantasee wrote:It's amusing that pump prices here are in the low $0.90/L range, compared to earlier this summer, when oil was maybe high $60-low $70 and the pump price was fucking $1.30/L. Guess that royalty review reminded the oil companies that they need to keep their customers happy.

Not really, it's more the switch to winter blend gasoline that did the trick. Summer gas blends need to have a higher vapourization temp so it can meet evaporative emissions standards and also so it doesn't cause vapour lock in your car. The summer blends are more expensive to make so they cost more, and depending on where you live they switch over to the cheaper winter blends sometime in September.

Phantasee · Post by **Phantasee** » 2007-10-19 10:22am

Hm. I did not know that. So keeping gasoline in a container from the summer is bad to put in the car in December?

I just noticed that the pump prices were back down right after everyone threw a fit over the report. Maybe they timed the release of the winter blend?

J · Post by J » 2007-10-19 10:28am

Phantasee wrote:Hm. I did not know that. So keeping gasoline in a container from the summer is bad to put in the car in December?

Summer gas in the winter will make it harder to start your car, especially in Alberta where it gets real cold. The gasoline doesn't want to vapourize, no vapours, no bang, no start. It's not much of a problem in places with milder winters such as Southern Ontario or the Vancouver are, but when it regularly gets down below -30°C you want proper winter gas in your car.