"Oil surged to new records above $144 a barrel as the government reported a bigger-than-expected drop in U.S. supplies and as investors worried about tensions in the Middle East."
Thanks a whole pile, assholes!!!!!!
"Oil reaches record on Middle East tensions" by Associated Press | July 2, 2008
NEW YORK - Oil closed at a record near $141 a barrel amid worries about tight supply and mounting tensions in the Middle East. In the United States, prices at the gas pump edged to their highest point yet.
Crude prices resumed their advance as the head of the International Energy Agency said the world is experiencing its "third oil price shock," comparing the effects of today's prices with the oil crises that began with the 1973 Arab oil embargo and the 1979 revolution in Iran.
IEA chief Nobuo Tanaka added that OPEC is pumping oil at record levels and other producers "are working at full throttle."
His comments reinforced the IEA's latest prediction that global supplies will remain pinched despite record prices and falling demand in the United States and Europe.
You figure that one out, readers, as I am SICK of the LYING!!!!
Meanwhile, during a visit to Berlin, US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said "there don't seem to be any obvious short-term solutions" to soaring oil prices.
Translation: YOU ARE FUCKED, AmeriKa!!!!
Ongoing tension in the Middle East - a concern that has helped fuel oil's recent rise - continued to weigh on traders' minds yesterday.
ABC News quoted an unnamed senior Pentagon official as saying there is an "increasing likelihood" that Israel will strike Iran's nuclear facilities before the end of the year. Such an attack could prompt Iran to retaliate, potentially disrupting oil supplies in the strategically vital Persian Gulf.
State Department spokesman Tom Casey said he had "absolutely no information that would substantiate" the ABC report when asked about it at a briefing.
Jim Ritterbusch, the president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Ill., called the news report "more of the same" but acknowledged it was having an effect on energy market psychology.
Yeah, thanks, thanks a lot, "FRIEND!"
And isn't that the POINT?
So the oil richers can get EVEN RICHER?
In the United States, gas station operators nudged the record for a gallon of regular a tenth of a penny higher, to an average of $4.09 a gallon nationwide, according to AAA, the Oil Price Information Service, and Wright Express.
In a weekly report yesterday, MasterCard's SpendingPulse survey found that US demand for gasoline fell 2.1 percent last week compared with the same week a year ago, and is off an average of 2.9 percent over the past four weeks.
Doesn't seem to matter, does it, shit-chomping 'murkn?
Recent reports from the Energy and Transportation departments have also shown that Americans, by far the world's largest oil consumers, are driving less as prices rise. Demand is rising rapidly in other parts of the world, however.
And now for the BIG FINALE -- and a little bit of TRUTH!!!
As oil entered the second half of the year at a fresh settlement record, trader Stephen Schorck and other analysts predicted prices could soon reach $150 a barrel. Crude shot up nearly 50 percent in the first six months of 2008 in part because investors turned to commodities as a hedge against the falling greenback.
"As we look ahead to the third quarter, the story remains, as long as the [dollar] fails to appreciate, energy will fail to depreciate," he wrote in a daily market newsletter.--MORE--"
Yup, MINIMIZE that DUMPING DOLLAR, AmeriKan MSM!!
Makes you wonder WHAT ELSE are they MINIMIZING!!!!?
