Peak oil review – Jan 26

1. World Production

2. OPEC still cutting

3. Obama

1. World Production

The first part of last week was dominated by concern over the sagging world economy and the expiration of the February futures contract which at one point sent oil below $33 a barrel. Lack of sufficient storage for crude in the US has been causing technical distortions to the US oil markets of late as futures contracts expired and the time came to take delivery of oil. The next three days saw steadily rising oil prices as hopes that the Obama administration would be able to ease the economic crisis took over. The US stocks report, which was released on Thursday last week, momentarily stopped the price rise as crude and product inventories increased far more than expected. […]

2. OPEC still cutting

For the first time since OPEC began cutting production last fall, analysts are beginning to wonder if global production finally might be falling faster than demand. Tanker loads of oil that were unsalable a month ago are now selling relatively quickly as Middle Eastern oil exporters are notifying customers of significant reductions in contracted amounts. […]

3. Obama