Oil Prices Rise Above $50 a Barrel in Spite of Growing Supply of Crude Oil

May. 4, 2005 - Oil prices climbed above $50 a barrel Wednesday despite rising U.S. inventories of crude oil and gasoline, a counterintuitive market response that analysts chalked up to technical trading and speculation about future supply tightness.

Energy futures fell immediately after the government released its weekly supply data, but they reversed course, Lebow said, as a result of short-covering, in which traders who had banked on even lower prices were forced to cover their bets, pushing prices higher.

"Fourth quarter demand has become a preoccupation of the market," Lebow said. The supply of gasoline grew by 2.2 million barrels to 213.5 million barrels, or 6 percent above year ago levels. "The U.S. gasoline market is showing marked signs of improvement for consumers," the Energy Department said in its weekly analysis.

Oil analyst Tim Evans at IFR Energy Services in New York said there is plenty of crude oil and gasoline in the market, and that traders and speculators are downplaying these supply-demand fundamentals. He said what's keeping oil prices high is "a near-religious belief that although the market is not tight now, it will be later." "Where is this tightness they're talking about?" Evans said.

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Talk about a screw job.

are laughing all the way to the bank

and plotting how to do in the middle class via social security, medicare, outsourcing, and all the rest.

It's a comprehensive plan -- sure to leave an Elite Republican Corporatocracy at the top of the heap, with the rest of us Americans in the role of the proles.

fucked when it runs out anyway

That will certainly "tighten" supplies a bit.

business it took a trip by a Saudi King to point out that there wasn't a shortage but actually a glut and the big problem is refineries. Maybe they should all be fired for incompentence. Oh, wait. Only the competent get fired nowadays

Shrub is making more energy available. Details Here

*produces natural gas*:evilgrin::rofl:

hmm, and all this time i thought free market forces ruled everything. how naive i must've seemed. :sarcasm:

Gonna have my retirement invested in there, ya know :sarcasm: