Peak Oil Review – August 18

1. Production and Prices

2. Oil from the Caspian

3. Chinese Demand

4. Briefs

1. Production and Prices

Oil prices spent the week bouncing around the $115-a-barrel level. A strong US dollar, concerns about a slowing world economy, and the closing out of large speculative positions by hedge funds and others were enough to overshadow rather serious supply disruptions that normally would have been enough to send prices much higher. At one point oil touched $111.34 or 24 percent below the July 11th record high of $147 before closing out the week at $113.77. […]

2. Oil from the Caspian

It has been an eventful two weeks for exports of Azerbaijani oil. On August 5th a bomb, probably set by Kurdish separatists, closed the 800,000 b/d Baku-Tiblisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline in Turkey. Last week the fire, which blazed for nearly a week, was put out allowing the Turks to determine that it was indeed started by a bomb. […]

3. Chinese Demand

In another month, the 2008 Summer Olympics will be a memory, and Beijing will be back to concentrating on economic growth as its highest priority. Traffic will return to normal and industrial enterprises that were closed to ameliorate air pollution will return to production. […]

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