As Canadians are becoming all too aware, the spectre of a recession, no matter the definition, looms large during an election campaign. Despite such prominence, the recent debate made it abundantly clear that none of the candidates understand why the economy stopped growing in the first half of the year and they have even less [...]
Exactly how high do oil prices have to rise before Saudi Arabia will start using it supposed three million barrels of spare capacity? Does Saudi Aramco intend to stay on the sidelines watching Brent crude prices -already $120 per barrel – climb as high as $200 per barrel, while blaming speculators for distorting market fundamentals? [...]
As Libya descends into a bloody and protracted civil war, both the White House and International Energy Agency are considering tapping strategic oil reserves. Normally, no one would care what’s happening in a remote desert country that has been a pariah state for decades. But when you produce 1.6 million barrels a day of oil [...]
With very limited excess capacity in Saudi Arabia and the rest of OPEC, further production shutdowns in the convulsing Middle East will soon push oil prices to new record highs. The Brent futures contract, the world’s benchmark price, almost reached $120 per barrel in London last week. With gasoline soon to cost six pounds a [...]
The International Energy Agency needn’t bother exhorting OPEC to pump more oil to fuel a global economy that now burns a record 87 million barrels a day. Confidential cables from the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia released recently by Wikileaks confirm what others have long suspected: OPEC’s kingpin producer, Saudi Arabia, has little more to [...]
The strongest manufacturing numbers coming out of the Chinese economy in a seven-month period, coupled with plunging oil inventories in the world’s largest energy consuming economy, have sent oil prices to a 25-month high. With no let-up in China’s fuel demand, the world should be looking at triple-digit oil prices again within a quarter. That [...]