FuelClub Discount

Oil prices could be lower than previously expected next year, but the outlook for home heating oil and natural gas signals more pain this winter, according to a government report released Tuesday.

In its August short-term energy outlook, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said it expects crude prices to average $124 a barrel in 2009. That’s down from July when the EIA projected an average price of $133 per barrel.

“Prospects of improved oil market fundamentals over the next 18 months point to an easing in the market balance and price weakness over the near term,” the report said.

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Earlier in the presidential campaign, when John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton called for a summer holiday on the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gasoline tax, Barack Obama dismissed the tax-vacation as an election-year gimmick that offered financially-squeezed families “just pennies.” I wrote that, unlike Clinton and McCain, Obama “stood tall in opposing the gas-tax holiday.”

Now we know why. Obama must have seen the gas-tax holiday as a chump-change in the wondrous store of campaign gimmicks. When Obama panders, he panders big-time. Witness his proposed “emergency energy rebate” that - on the heels of this year’s $600 per taxpayer stimulus package rebate sent to taxpayers this year - promises additional $500 checks for American workers or $1,000 per family “as soon as this fall.” (Is there an income cap for how Obama defines eligible “working families?” The campaign did not get back to me on that by my deadline.)

To hear Obama, the check is practically in the mail.

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Crude oil prices in recent times threatened to breach the $150 per barrel mark, and later fell to $123 levels, clocking an appreciation of almost 30% in the year. In fact, higher oil prices have been sending shivers down the stock markets worldwide, as if the recent global financial crisis was not enough to unnerve them.

Back home, Indian stocks are down by around 30% in the current year. Inflation has already reached double digits at 11.98% and is showing no signs of respite, adding fuel to the fire.

I would start with an interesting conversation I heard recently. I happened to be at an oil trader’s dealing room. I asked the chief dealer, “What’s happening to oil? It is down 20% from its peak. Will you buy now?” He answered: “Oil’s down due to speculative unwinding of long positions and a growth scare in developed countries, which might result in lower demand for the scarce commodity.”
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France called on the G7 on Tuesday to press oil-producing nations to boost their output in a bid to bring down prices that have reached record highs and thrown a spanner in oil-fired economies.

Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said she would put the request to her counterparts of the Group of Seven club of rich countries to seek a common front with Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.

“We cannot forever be in a market system in which the price is permanently on the rise, to the benefit of producers, who are building up major oil revenues,” Lagarde told France 2 television.
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Washington overcame a significant obstacle yesterday in its attempt to sue Opec for behaving as an oil cartel and keeping the price of fuel artificially high.

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation to bring a lawsuit against Opec members because they have collectively set the price of oil and limited oil supplies.

The price of oil is at an all-time high of about $129 a barrel and has been in part responsible for surging inflation in the United States, Britain and across Europe.
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Clean Diesel Technologies, Inc, the cleantech emissions reduction company, today announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2008.

Recent Highlights:

* Total revenue of $2.6 million in the first quarter of 2008 compared to $216,000 in the first quarter of 2007, driven by strong sales of Purifier(TM: 101.35, -0.26, -0.25%) System particulate matter emission control solutions

* First quarter 2008 product sales exceed full year 2007 product sales

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