Oil price rises on Gaza conflict

Oil price rises on Gaza conflict

news.bbc.co.uk

The price of oil has risen on fears of heightened tension in the Middle East following Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip.

(visit the link for the full news article)


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Oil and Conflict, could it be said that blood is money?

Going back to December 1, 2008 crude oil futures began to fall in spite of threats by OPEC to limit production:

US light, sweet crude for January delivery fell $1.18 to trade at $45.10.

The price had earlier peaked at $50.05 a barrel.

In London, Brent crude for January fell 60 cents to $45.81.

On December 25th, 2008 the crude oil fell 9.3% to close at $36.00 per barrel.

Closing out January 4th, 2009 at $47.20 per barrel (crude).

Normally to raise the price of light sweet crude, production is cut and this lull creates more need and thus a higher price.

The Arab nations want Oil to be above $75.00 per barrel and this simply is not going to happen.

Since the beginning of the Israeli/Gaza conflict recently, the price of oil has risen considerably in a very short period of time.

This makes me wonder if it was not as much about land rights as it was about oil futures.

Iran is now calling for a cut in oil sales to any backer of Israel's offensive. If this happens the price of oil will go up dramatically as production and sales stop to those who back Israel.

Looking at all the many reports and articles from just the last month - regarding the oil futures crisis - Israel's offensive may have been exactly what the market needed?

Theoretically...if oil prices were to be "artificially" raised...this current Israeli offensive could last just long enough to see crude oil rise above $50.00 per barrel.

It seems very convenient. I'm not a market analyst but I do understand (and it seems pretty obvious in this instance) that war IS profitable.

Iran, it should be mentioned is the 4th largest oil producer... and they do have many backers in spite of coming against the US and Israel as often as they do.


I'll be following the oil prices a bit closer during (and after) the Israeli offensive. If this was an "event" to boost the cost of oil...it should drop considerably (unless OPEC cuts production by even more). Perhaps this was even to get the price a bit higher so that OPEC could cut production by less while charging more per barrel???

Just a possible conspiracy for a conspiracy site

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

edit to remove a stray Monday

[edit on 1/5/2009 by justgeneric]

So far in todays trading oil is at $47.10 per barrel, With the Israel offensive continuing will we see it rise to the $54/per barrel forecast?

The price at our pump went up 4 cents a gallon. There is no reason for it.
Just because the Gaza is a mess is no reason for my prices to go up.
BAH!

here in Vancouver BC:

2009-01-05 10:26:18 86.7 cents per litre
2008-12-18 15:43:55 99.4 cents per litre

I thought this was funny...in looking for a correlation to the high pump prices by searching the headlines for December 18th 2008 -

Obama's inaugural choice sparks outrage

source

And even more amusing is that oil prices plummeted to BELOW $37.00 per barrel on the 18th even with OPEC's cuts to production.

The Stock markets are a strange animal.