Peak Oil Review — June 16th, 2008

1. Production and Prices

2. The King’s Meeting

3. Protests Spread

4. Energy Briefs

1. Production and Prices

The week started with oil prices falling by $7 a barrel from the previous weeks all-time high of $139.12 on the general perception that prices were too high, the US dollar would go up, and demand will drop. The decline was checked by the Wednesday stocks report which showed an unexpected drop of 4.6 million barrels in US crude stockpiles due to low imports. The report caused a momentary jump to over $138, but as the dollar gained, oil fell back. On Friday came a report by the Middle East Economic Survey that the Saudis, fearful that current oil prices will destabilize the world economy, would propose a “sizeable” increase in production at the June 22nd oil summit conference in Jeddah. This led to another price pull-back with oil closing out the week at $134.86…

2. The King’s Meeting

Last Monday Saudi Oil Minister al-Naimi called for a meeting of oil producing and consuming nations to discuss how to deal with the record prices set the previous week. The next day the White House announced that the US would be attending and hoped that the meeting would open more countries to investment by the international oil companies. By Thursday, President Bush was saying that a high-level administration official would attend, but was uncertain if he would go himself….

International Business Times