8-6-08 by dugan The drop in the price of oil, now at under $119, feels like a fever breaking. Iran’s saber-rattling, Nigerian gangs, Chinese demand, the weak dollar — all still exist, but as the…
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Archive | Tag: instability
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Alaska, the U.S. oil-state
7-29-08 by dugan Alaska being the closest thing in the U.S. to an oil nation, it didn’t take long to find a connection between newly indicted Sen. Ted Stevens and British-owned BP, a major driller…
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Beggar with an ermine cup
The PR departments of the major oil companies are madly developing their spin for the yet-another-record 2nd quarter profits they’re about to report. What they’ll say: "Without these gigantic profits (including billions in taxpayer subsidies),…
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Bubble’s leaking. What next?
7-17-08 by dugan As the price of a barrel of crude oil dropped to under $130 today, down from its high of $145-plus a barrel, I picked this as quote ‘o the day: "We have…
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Great reporting on oil. Sigh.
06-20-08 After reading all too much recently about what Chicago-based owner Sam Zell wants to do the Los Angeles Times (hyperlocal! shorter! charts! lists! less news, more ads!), I was struck by this long, smart…
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Chevron CEO Loses It
5-28-08 by dugan Faced with ticked-off shareholders and demonstrators from Ecuador and Nigeria today, Chevron CEO and Chairman David O’Reilly lost his temper at a Nigerian protest leader. The protests over Chevron’s behavior in Ecuador,…
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Gas-Tax Holiday from Hell
5-13-08 by dugan OilWatchdog has offered plenty of reasons that suspending the federal gasoline tax would end up as a bad joke on consumers and the economy. Here are some fresh ones, from…
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Exxon Hit For Its Secrecy
04-29-08 by simpson Oil giant ExxonMobil is as secretive as its competitors in Russia and China, according to a report just released by Transparency International, a global organization fighting corruption. "The tragic paradox, that many…
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Gunboats and Recession
4-25-08 by dugan Today’s $3.00 per barrel spike in crude oil was a perfect example of market traders capitalizing on hasty news. Initial reports, from military sources, said a U.S. military "contract’ ship fired on…
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Green Prize Wilts Chevron
4-15-08 by dugan Chevron’s world headquarters in San Ramon, Calif., is less than 40 miles from San Francisco’s stately opera house. So if bad thoughts could kill, last night’s audience for the prestigious…
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Chevron in Iraq: Who’ll Pay?
3-25-08 by dugan If the major oil companies start making deals to pump Iraqi oil, who will protect their investments? If these investments become "a fact on the ground" while the U.S. still occupies…
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Plain Talk on Greed, Gas Price
I ran across an intriguing columnist today who described in plain language (not analyst-speak) the real story of gasoline prices–it’s not market forces, and it’s not global unrest or even demand. The article is in…
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Exxon’s EZ Profit Strategy
3-21-08 by dugan When you’ve got a product that the world can’t live without, it doesn’t pay to make more of it. That’s how Exxon sees it, as explained in detail in a…