Oil May Surge to $220 If Libya, Algeria Halt, Nomura Says

Source: Bloomberg

Oil prices may surge to $220 a barrel if political unrest in North Africa halts exports from Libya and Algeria, Nomura Holdings Inc. said.

Crude futures rose to their highest in more than two years in New York today as Libya’s violent uprising threatened to disrupt shipments from Africa’s third-biggest supplier. The commodity surged to $96.39 a barrel in New York, and to $108.42 in London. Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi vowed to fight a growing rebellion until his “last drop of blood.”

“If Libya and Algeria were to halt oil production together, prices could peak above $220 a barrel and OPEC spare capacity will be reduced to 2.1 million barrels a day, similar to levels seen during the Gulf war and when prices hit $147 in 2008,” the Tokyo-based bank said in a note today.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has spare production capacity of about 5 million barrels a day, according to the International Energy Agency. Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said yesterday that the organization will boost output if there is a shortage.



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-23/oil-may-surge-to-220-a-barrel-if-libya-algeria-halt-output-nomura-says.html

I am convinced that extraordinarily high prices will be the only thing to end this addiction we have.

These fuckers running the show want to keep us slaves to the oil companies.

Doing everything they can to keep light rail projects and high speed rail project from becoming legitimate forms of transportation.

We will all just be even more broke, paying to get to the jobs that they keep forgetting to give us pay raises.

But the rich will keep getting richer though, so now worries.

To pad his bottom line. :banghead:

since oil companies and speculators have a "valid" reason to point when the public complains.

I am also betting that Saudi Arabia will not increase its production since despite their claims to the contrary, they can't.

I would say we are looking at $6 to $7 gasoline inside a year of production does halt in Libya and Algeria.

The Bad News: Too long to list.

The Good News: Chinese goods become too expensive to import, thus we start moving manufacturing back to the U.S.


We MIGHT, MAYBE, POSSIBLY get serious about conservation and alt energy.

Pump-and-dump with global economies and people's lives at stake. But it's all a goddamn game to them, isn't it.

The oil companies largest expense in the last 10 years has been increased storage, not exploration. The are retaining oil to drive prices upward.

goes to Spain , Italy and Germany who will now seek supplies elsewhere and there is no sign of the Saudi's increasing production. The amount of oil drifting around the world on supertankers is probably dwarfed by the US's strategic reserves. Maybe access to some of that would help pull back prices in the US. :sarcasm:

it will certainly go up, perhaps significantly, but the headline seems a bit alarmist.

The killer irony is that the US military is planning for alternative fuels while it is ordered to fight for the oil monopoly.

It's a new fiscal crisis, and the alternative energy investments will be thwarted and diverted again, unless we direct congress' clowns to get with the real program. And stop the bogus oil wars.

Cut war spending by 20%, use half of that to invest in electric vehicles with solar systems, and still lower the budget by about $100 billions.