Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Elspode
I for one find it highly improbable that Americans are driving that much less to be able to explain such a precipitous drop in prices in such a short time.
|
In a world where even Nigeria and Venezuela are on the verge of terminating oil exports, what would a small oil dealer (representative of something like 75% of America's oil industry) do? Less widely reported are small American oil dealers scrambling to find oil storage tanks capacity where ever storage could be found. They have long term contracts to protect. Hoarding - which you should be saying thank you for protecting your interests - has been widespread across the entire American oil industry. Even residential oil tanks were kept as topped as oil dealers could just to find more storage for oil.
Well, no hurricane struck the Gulf. Situation in Nigeria softened. Venezuela apparently will not stop shipping oil. Mexico's presidential election situation appears to have settled. Oil from Alaska is still flowing after quite a scare. Saudis have maintained capacity that no one was sure was possible. Kuwait has not been dragged into what looked like a mess this year. Oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea is now functioning. Libyan oil has come online this past year - is especially found in Italy. Russians are not using oil like they once were to manipulate Europe. Gulf pipelines are finally pumping enough oil and natural gas to meet consumption demands. Second half of summer was not as hot as the first half. Summer driving season ended. Fall is a time of least oil consumption. These are only some events I know of from well published sources. And so it goes. Suddenly small oil dealers no longer need maintain all this oil. Prices drop accordingly.
You knew of these so many events when oil barons were rigging the market? This summer was a scary time for the entire oil and natural gas industry.