Oil price

[woolybanana]

In the context of the current wave of barbarism in Gaza, and on a selfish note, the price of oil has already started to nudge up a little. This could go way through the roof or even lead to an embargo, at the most extreme. So, perhaps people might think of topping up their heating oil tanks and maybe keep their cars fuelled, just in case.

[mint]

Oh, Wools, isn't the news depressing?

It's awful how many are being killed but, you're right, we need to think ahead to our own needs , selfish as that might sound.

[woolybanana]

Don't get me going on the ME situation, svp. It is just too hideous to think about

[AnOther]

Not to trivialise the situation Wooly but the oil price is driven by supply and demand and conflicts in oil producing countries will affect it but in that context the current upsurge in Gaza is virtually irrelevant and will not make any significant difference let alone send it 'through the roof' or generate an 'embargo', exactly who is going to embargo whom BTW ?

There bare truth is that the big players have more than their own share of problems to concentrate on, Saudi Arabia for instance, facing the very real prospect of bankruptcy and currently being supported by Abu Dhabi. Russia on the verge of collapse into God knows what, these are the things which will influence the price not the Israeli's and Palestinian's doing what they have been doing to each other in varying degrees for decades.

[baypond]

Yep, with the trade surpluses in Russia Nigeria Mexico Saudi etc all nose diving, I think you have to take the news of production cuts etc with a pinch of salt, none of them can afford lower oil receipts so they have to pump out more oil at lower prices to keep income up. Oil producers are in a vicious circle at the moment so I think we have cheap oil for the next year. However, refineries in Europe may struggle with this current cold snap, so we could see gas and refined oil products such as kerosene/heating oil prices go higher, but this isn't because of the disasterous Gaza spat. So maybe still a good time to top up oil tanks anyway.