Oil enters $40 era as terror threats linger-experts

[kalian]

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news/story.jsp?id=2004050720240002880309&dt=20040507202400&w=RTR&coview=

NEW YORK, May 7 (Reuters) - Oil prices hit $40 a barrel on Friday for the first time since the 1990 Gulf War, kicking off what analysts said could be the costliest energy era yet, fueled by turmoil in the oil-rich Middle East.

"Forty-dollar oil might be here for a while," said Bill O'Grady, analyst at A.G. Edwards in New York. "As long as there is the possibility of a terrorist attack against Saudi oil facilities, oil will have its fear-premium."

U.S. crude prices first hit $40 on Oct. 9, 1990, one day before striking the all-time high of $41.15. That was two months after Saddam Hussein's forces invaded Kuwait, and three months before a U.S.-led coalition pushed them back out.

High oil prices this year have raised a red flag for economists worried that soaring energy costs, including record high retail gasoline prices in the United States, will hobble a global economic recovery.


Analysts said the $40 threshold breached Friday could be a gateway to some of the highest nominal oil prices ever seen, and is only partially justified by slim oil inventories and demand growth from the U.S. and China.

...more...

You know what ticks me off...this whole thing about oil going above
and beyond 40 bucks a barrel and then pinning the blame on
"terrorism" stinks to high hell. :mad: Its a nice, stage front to
cover up for the truth: PEAK OIL.

[Nay]

1. I love it. All the freepers around here have places way out of

town (gotta have a few acres, survivalists, ya know) and are screaming about how much it costs them to drive in to work every day in their trucks. As I have said for 3 years, you gotta hit 'em where it hurts -- in the pocketbook. Wait til prices at good ole WALMART start shooting through the roof because of transport costs. More howling from the idiots.

[cosmicaug]

2. Krugman actually mentioned supply and demand problems.

Paul Krugman's latest column actually dealt with Peak Oil (without calling it by that name).

See http://www.pkarchive.org/column/050704.html