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| Oil Breaks Back Through $54 Barrier |
| 2004-10-14 |
| Crude oil pushed back through the $54 threshold on Thursday after a pipeline explosion in Mexico stirred supply fears, but it eased slightly in the early afternoon. A continuing strike in Africa's largest producer, Nigeria, also affected prices as traders waited anxiously for key U.S. crude and heating oil inventory data due to be issued later Thursday. Oil for November delivery went as high as $54.17 per barrel during trade in the Asian morning on the New York Mercantile Exchange's after-hours dealing system, up by 53 cents from its final price of $53.64 in New York on Wednesday. By early afternoon, November crude had slipped back to $53.95 per barrel, still up by 31 cents from Wednesday. While oil prices are more than 60 percent higher than a year ago, they are still around $27 below the peak inflation-adjusted price reached in 1981. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |
| #4 This is just election jitters. Besides, everyone says this is "So horrible!", but how much would you be paying at the pump if it was the high prices of Carters Administration? Counting inflation, around $5-$6 dollars I think. Really isn't as bad as it's made out to be. |
| Posted by: Charles 2004-10-14 12:54:07 PM |
| #3 Last night there was a fire at a local refinery. That should translate into, ohhh say, another ten cent increase per gallon at the pumps. It's them "fears", you know. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-10-14 12:38:56 PM |
| #2 My "commodities" guy says that speculators are behind a big portion of the price rise. Apparently the costs of speculating, fees, whatever, are lower for oil than for just about any other commodity. Gas at the pump last night was $2.189 for 87 octane. |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2004-10-14 10:03:28 AM |
| #1 Of course refining capacity hasn't changed for nearly a decade in the US, so the amount of oil that can be imported is still a finite factor. Its the competition with growing demand by other consumers countries that will keep the price rising till other known oil reserves become economical to tap again. |
| Posted by: Don 2004-10-14 9:13:44 AM |