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?

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