With $104 a barrel for oil, how long 'til tempers boil?

posted by Bill Arnett @ 3:37 PM Permalink

From the NYT:

Oil prices reached a record close, surging above $104 after OPEC decided Wednesday to keep its production unchanged. The cartel ignored calls from President Bush to pump more oil into an ailing economy.

OPEC rebuffed its top consumer, arguing that the world was well supplied with oil and blaming financial speculators and mismanagement of the United States economy for the current high prices.[…]

Oil futures settled at $104.52 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up $5 on the day. The spike came after United States fuel inventories unexpectedly declined while tensions escalated between Venezuela, an OPEC member, and Colombia.

Fuel inventories unexpectedly declined ?

I got yer "unexpectedly declined" right here.

And by my count this makes our fourth reference to Venezuela today, where:

ExxonMobil is engaged in a nasty dispute with Venezuela over the seizure of an oil field. The governments of Russia, Kazakhstan and Nigeria are all seeking to renegotiate oil contracts signed when oil prices were much lower than today.

Another harbinger of a new Oil War?

Can't let them Rooskies, Kazakhstanoplists, or Nigeriaonos get their grubby little hands on OUR oil, can we?

Labels: big oil, bush war doctrine, chavez, corporate greed, disinformation, Oil, US hegemony, venzuela