Suitably Flip

Oil Tanks Again

For the second day in a row, oil prices are falling fast.  Off more than 3% so far this week, today's slide followed growing confidence that Ernesto poses minimal threat to Gulf energy assets.  In light of updated forecasts, Royal Dutch Shell said it would return evacuated workers to the Gulf.  Applying additional downward pressure on prices, BP said it had returned the disrupted production in their Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, field to 200,000 barrels per day, roughly half capacity.

Watch for big moves in, um... *some* direction over the next two days, as lots of oily stuff will be going on.  U.S. oil inventory statistics are released tomorrow (quantifying the effect of the partial Prudhoe Bay shutdown) and Iran faces its deadline to halt uranium enrichment on Thursday.  As the country is the world's 4th largest oil producer, whether we receive a heaping dose of Ahmedinnyhoohoo's kooky talk or whether he bows to U.N. "pressure" could dramatically affect prices.

For now, let's bask in the relative cheapness.

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Oil Tanks Again

For the second day in a row, oil prices are falling fast.  Off more than 3% so far this week, today's slide followed growing confidence that Ernesto poses minimal threat to Gulf energy assets.  In light of updated forecasts, Royal Dutch Shell said it would return evacuated workers to the Gulf.  Applying additional downward pressure on prices, BP said it had returned the disrupted production in their Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, field to 200,000 barrels per day, roughly half capacity.

Watch for big moves in, um... *some* direction over the next two days, as lots of oily stuff will be going on.  U.S. oil inventory statistics are released tomorrow (quantifying the effect of the partial Prudhoe Bay shutdown) and Iran faces its deadline to halt uranium enrichment on Thursday.  As the country is the world's 4th largest oil producer, whether we receive a heaping dose of Ahmedinnyhoohoo's kooky talk or whether he bows to U.N. "pressure" could dramatically affect prices.

For now, let's bask in the relative cheapness.