Month: September 2013

Oil prices are higher this morning, but are covering the same tired ground of the past several weeks. This morning, the oil market was greeted by an op-ed by Russian President Putin, which highlighted his calculating ways. He speaks of growing trust between himself and President Obama, but cracks on Obama for embracing the centuries old concept of American exceptionalism.… Read more

It is the second-time around for the removal of the Syrian military strike premium from oil prices. The first spike above $112 was met by a call for congressional approval for action by President Obama, and, yesterday, it became clear that the Kerry-gaffe cum breakthrough has eliminated the possibility of a military strike in the near-term.… Read more

The recent surge in crude oil prices was driven by the imagined fears over supply disruptions due to a possible military strike on Syria, and underpinned by the reality of lost oil output from Libya and other countries. We keep referring to it as the sizzle and the steak.… Read more

WTI crude oil prices finished the week on a high note, driven upward by the concerns over Syria and the deteriorating situation in Libya. The rally on Friday seemed more to do with Syria, as good old fashioned pre-weekend, short-covering set in, just in case the rockets flew over the weekend, after all.… Read more

WTI oil prices have climbed above $109 per barrel, in early trading, supported the real oil output outages that we have chronicled all week and the imagined fears over the fallout from a possible military strike on Syria. We use the word “possible” because the support for a strike on Syria by the House of Representatives is barely there.… Read more

Oil prices continue to churn in the face of the declining global output and the possibility of a military strike on Syria. Interestingly, while good news, in the form of terrific auto sales, was good news for the equity markets, it was not good news for the oil and gold, as the prospects for Fed tapering increased.… Read more

The essential item of the day is that Libyan oil output continues to plummet, and is now below 250k bpd with exports around 80k bpd, according to Reuters. The tally of outages from oil producing countries, due to sanctions, theft, and civil strife, is over 3.0 million bpd.… Read more

The rally in natural gas prices, which posted a 3.9% gain for the month of August, took a breather of Friday, but prices are rising, again, this morning. Prices continue to rise on some of the late-season warmth that is being experienced and despite rising domestic output.… Read more