Government official: Speculation may be cause of oil price surge

[KeepItReal]

AP WASHINGTON - "Market speculation on energy prices may have added as much as 10 percent to crude oil costs - and the peak may be yet to come, a top Energy Department official said today.

Guy Caruso, head of the department's Energy Information Administration, told a Senate hearing that supply and demand would suggest a price of about $90 a barrel.

...

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., asked Caruso to explain the recent surge in oil prices.

"I am fairly well convinced that in the short term what we have is an unbelievable orgy of speculation," Dorgan said.

"There's clearly been a surge in moneys coming in to commodities markets, including energy, which has had some upward effect on the price above the trendline," Caruso responded. He said it was difficult to say whether speculation contributed $5 or $10 to the most recent surge, but that his agency's estimate of where prices should be, based on supply and demand, was about $90 a barrel. "

http://www.neworleanscitybusiness.com/uptotheminute.cfm?recid=16038

[whistle]

1. Speculation my ass, MANIPULATION and price collusion

....I don't have the time right now to find and post the article I read about two weeks ago, but it laid out the whole dirty business and how Washington politicians have been bought off by Big Oil and Big Banks to let it happen.