NYMEX crude oil hits $143.67 record on Iran concerns

This article belongs to the NYMEX crude oil price records story arc.

bloomberg.com :

Crude oil hit a record $143.67 per barrel on NYMEX [30 Jun 2008] on concern Israel may attack Iran over its nuclear program and disrupt supply from OPEC's second-largest producer. The US won't allow Iran to shut the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 40% of Middle East oil is shipped, a spokesman for the Fifth Fleet said. Pressure on Iran to end uranium enrichment and the falling value of the US dollar may drive prices to $170 a barrel, OPEC President Chakib Khelil said June 28. The price climbed 38% in the quarter, the biggest quarterly increase in 9 years.

- And now we're back to Iran, with the third trading day in a row that crude oil records are being broken. The excuses given for the rising oil prices (oh, you thought I might have meant "reasons" ?) have rotated in rapid-fire fashion in the recent past from Nigeria to speculators to a weak dollar to Libya to falling stock markets and we're back to Iran again. Wonders never cease in the arena of mainstream media reporting.

Never mind all that. I finally managed to buy into the crude oil markets for my personal portfolio. Now I'm no Jim Rogers or T. Boone Pickens - so I just bought the equivalent of a small truckload of barrels at around the $140 support level via USO, the United States Oil Fund ETF. I am expecting consolidation in the $140 to $150 range, so when it hit a high of $143.67 and corrected back to $140 support, I went in and pulled the trigger. It dipped slightly below $140 for a short while and I got a little worried for about two seconds. It could have been a bear trap at that point, as it quickly got back up above $140 again. Anyway, I could always order up another truckload of barrels if it hits the subsequent support levels of $130 or $120. What I'm really watching out for are the next resistance levels of $150, $180, $200 and beyond.

Over at peakoil.com, I put up a poll a few days back, asking people the question on everyone's minds : When do we hit $150 oil? I put down the options as : next year, next quarter, next month, next week, next trading day, and just for fun, "ANY TIME NOW!!!" The response has been pretty good - most people voted "next month". Since the poll was started on 29 Jun 2008, that means most people think we will hit $150 this month, July 2008. Let's see about that, shall we?

Singapore electricity rates to increase 4.98% from Jul 2008

This article belongs to the Singapore inflation watch story arc.

channelnewsasia.com -> spservices.com.sg (pdf):

Electricity tariffs will go up by 4.98% or by 1.19 cents per kilo watt per hour (kWh) for all households from the next quarter, beginning July 1 [2008]. Singapore Power said the hike is due to higher electricity costs arising from higher fuel prices. The electricity tariff is revised every quarter. Coming at the back of rising inflation and an overall increase in the cost of living, not everyone is taking the news well - low-income families are expected to be hardest hit. And for motorists, pump prices have gone up again - petrol prices are up 5 cents a litre and 10 cents for diesel, the 13th consecutive increase since last July.

- There's really no surprise here, as Singapore electricity prices are linked to natural gas prices since that's where 80% of our electricity comes from, the pricing of that natural gas is currently in turn linked to fuel oil prices, which is in turn linked to world crude oil prices. And crude oil prices have been setting records in recent months, as we all know.

With this increase, Singapore domestic household electricity tariffs will be going up from 23.88 to 25.07 cents per KWh. That's an increase of 22.17% year-on-year, and a staggering 56.10% in 3 years. Just as I maintain that we haven't seen anything yet in crude oil prices and that we are going to $150, $180, $200 and beyond, we haven't seen anything yet in electricity prices. We are going to 30, 40, 50 cents per KWh and beyond.

(2008-07-01 07:58:14 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

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