Brent crude edged above $120 a barrel to $120.08, a two-and-a-half-year high.

Graham_Devon

I wonder how many days people are now working each month, purely to earn enough money to fill up the car to go to work.

PeterZ_2

Graham_Devon wrote: »

I wonder how many days people are now working each month, purely to earn enough money to fill up the car to go to work.

A self employed builder friend of mine told me he spent £650 on diesel last month!

As his customers are also feeling the squeeze he is finding it hard to pass that cost on. He is fast coming to the conclusion that he can only afford to take on local jobs. However, the short supply of work means he is having to travel further afeild.

I told what he needs a set of solar panels in his back garden and an electric van.

Niksan

Looks like falling below $120 today.

Spiv_2

Jeff Rubin

Where is Saudi’s excess capacity when you need it?


Exactly how high do oil prices have to rise before Saudi Arabia will start using it supposed three million barrels of spare capacity?
Does Saudi Aramco intend to stay on the sidelines watching Brent crude prices - already $120 per barrel - climb as high as $200 (U.S.) per barrel, while blaming speculators for distorting market fundamentals?

Or is the emperor simply wearing no clothes? Is Saudi Arabia, and by extension, OPEC, already tapped out, barely struggling to make up for the loss of 1.3 million barrels of oil exports from a now non-producing, war-torn, Libya.
Even less credible than the country’s official estimates of its reserve capacity is the notion Saudi Arabia could bring down today’s triple digit oil prices but instead chooses not to
No country in the world is more dependent on a healthy global oil market than Saudi Arabia, which pumps out nine million barrels a day. And it is no mystery a further increase in oil prices will lead to another oil induced recession and a subsequent collapse in world oil demand and prices.
If the House of Saud is having trouble buying off its increasingly rebellious populace when triple digit oil prices are giving OPEC its first trillion-dollar revenue year, what are the royal kleptocracy’s changes of survival when oil prices plunge back to $40 in another oil price-induced global recession?
The real reason Saudi Arabia can’t respond to today’s growth-threatening rise in oil prices is exactly the same one as their failure to respond to President Bush’s personal plea in 2008 for more production during the first encounter with triple digit prices. Saudi Arabia has nothing more to pump, save for very limited amounts of heavy sour oil that most of the world’s refineries can’t handle.

Link to article

Spiv_2

American Drivers start to cut back on gas as prices rise

NEW YORK — Soaring gas prices are starting to take a toll on American drivers.
Across the country, people are pumping less into the tank, reversing what had been a steady increase in demand for fuel. For five weeks in a row, they have bought less gas than they did a year ago.
Drivers bought about 2.4 million fewer gallons for the week of April 1, a 3.6 percent drop from last year, according to MasterCard SpendingPulse, which tracks the volume of gas sold at 140,000 service stations nationwide.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42530999/ns/business-oil_and_energy/

StevieJ

Those were the days.

16 Oct 1973 66% rise in price of Arabian light crude oil by Gulf countries to almost $5 per barrel. Oil prices are being pushed up by supply shortages affected by turmoil in Middle East.

property.advert

GeneHunt wrote: »

I think you might be right. 2008 was a dress rehearsal and now we know what to do to cut back.

Time lag - a well known economic event between a shock event and the corresponding change in public behaviour. An more common example is a change in interest rates and the subsequent decline in borrowing.

GeneHunt_2

property.advert wrote: »

Time lag - a well known economic event between a shock event and the corresponding change in public behaviour. An more common example is a change in interest rates and the subsequent decline in borrowing.

Found this.

Petrol sales plummet in three years
(UKPA) – Mar 31, 2011
Sales of petrol at the pumps have dipped sharply over recent years, according to Government figures highlighted by the AA.
In terms of weight, petrol sales fell 13.95% between 2007 and 2010.

The 2007/10 fall in petrol sales is the equivalent of 3.19 billion litres - equal to 52 days of petrol consumption in the UK.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hr9zvhmbNZpSBiNxRL5dzAjBsNjw?docId=N0330651301578147697A

A 14% fall in petrol sold is a large fall I'd have thought?

GeneHunt_2

PETROL sales plunged at the end of last year - and now stand at 14 per cent below pre-credit crunch levels.

The AA last night said the shock figures were proof record prices had forced motorists to cut back. Unleaded petrol now averages 133.04p per litre with diesel at 139.76p.
Unleaded cost just 87.9p a litre in 2007.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3502968/Petrol-sales-fell-at-end-of-last-year-and-are-now-14-below-pre-credit-crunch-levels.html

PeterZ_2

shortchanged wrote: »

I've been saying it for some time now that the rising oil prices are what is going to be the biggest problem for this economy and the global economy in the near future.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, that unless oil prices start to head downwards soon it will push the UK back into recession.

Oil prices will head back down, but only after we go back into recession. There is nothing on the horizon that is likely to push prices down, no sudden breakthorugh in electric cars, no big oil finds, no fusion. Demand is set to continue to increase, supply is limited, new finds are small and expensive to extract.