FuelClub Discount

Oil futures slid on Monday as analysts warned of a “price bubble” that could burst soon after crude rocketed to record heights near $140 per barrel late last week.

Oil prices soared beyond $139 on Friday after a shock jump in US unemployment sent the dollar reeling and Wall Street plunging by more than 3 percent amid fears of sharply slower economic growth.

New York’s main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for July delivery, gave back $0.99 to $137.55 a barrel on Monday.

The contract had spiked on Friday by $10.75 a barrel - the biggest-ever one-day jump - after soaring to an all-time high of $139.12.
(more…)

Global financial markets open this week still in shock from Friday’s dramatic surge in oil prices and plunge in stock prices — and facing new doubts about the U.S. consumer’s ability to help spur a recovery in the struggling economy.

Asian stock markets were falling early today and the battered dollar continued to lose ground against other major currencies as investors braced for Wall Street’s starting bell.

There was a bit of relief in energy prices: Crude oil futures slipped $1.14 a barrel to $137.40 in electronic trading Sunday evening in New York. But that was just a sliver of the $10.75-a-barrel jump Friday to an all-time high of $138.54.

And in another reminder of what unprecedented oil prices are doing to Americans’ pocketbooks, AAA on Sunday said the nationwide average price of gasoline crept up to a record $4 a gallon — a level California already had surpassed.
(more…)

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and international market regulators will meet next week in Washington to address concerns about possible manipulation in the energy markets.

The conference comes after the CFTC, under pressure from U.S. lawmakers who blame speculation for food and fuel inflation, announced a slew of measures to increase surveillance of energy and other commodity markets.

“In this time of rising energy prices and increasing cross-border and cross-market activity in the commodity markets, it is essential that international regulators coordinate to ensure that they are working as efficiently and effectively as possible to detect and deter manipulation in the global energy markets,” said CFTC enforcement director Gregory Mocek in a press release.
(more…)

A fuel price hike could push up inflation into double-digit zone. At $125 a barrel, the price of the Indian basket of crude oil has more than doubled from the levels a year-ago. Prices of petrol and diesel, on the other hand, have seen a very modest jump of about 3-5 % during the same period.

The disproportionate increase in fuel prices vis-a-vis can be attributed to the government’s attempt to curb inflationary trend in the economy that grew at 9% in FY 2008. Inflation at 8.1% during the week ended 17 May 2008 has already touched a four-year high. Hike in prices of petrol and diesel is likely to take place anytime soon.

Inflation is likely to be 10-10 .5% after petroleum price hike (assuming that kerosene and LPG cylinder prices will be left untouched). In the recent past, whenever there was a hike in prices of diesel and petrol, wholesale price index (WPI) and price index for fuel products jumped substantially in the same week and in subsequent weeks.
(more…)

The weekly average oil prices of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) rose slightly by 0.57 dollars, topping 124.30 dollars per barrel (dpb) last week, the Vienna-based cartel said Monday.

The daily prices set a record high of 127.59 dpb on May 22 and retreated steadily last week. The prices even touched 121.68 dpb Friday, 5.91 dollars lower than the historic high.

OPEC President Chakib Khelil, also the energy minister of Algeria, said Saturday that the high prices were “much more linked to speculation” and insisted that “there is no problem of supply.”
(more…)

Britain sought a slight increase in oil production from its North Sea fields on Wednesday, but Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned that only coordinated global action could help rein in spiralling oil prices.

A day after British truck drivers caused road chaos with protests against rising fuel bills, Brown said he understood the impact on families across the country but that only an international strategy could help bring oil prices down.
“A global shock on this scale requires global solutions,” Brown wrote in the Guardian newspaper, pledging to put international action on oil prices at the top of the agenda at the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Japan in July.
“In advance of the G8 summit, I will be proposing further work internationally to achieve a better dialogue on supply possibilities and trends in demand,” he wrote.

(more…)