[eastbay]

$38.50 now, but for anyone watching gold and oil prices, this is the site you really must put on your favorites for the raw quick price. The charts are side by side and up to the minute for each.

Thanks to our good friend Lowem.

[MathMurderer]

$36.05 is the current intra-day low set about 12 minutes ago.

[InToWishin]

Crude Oil Tumbles Below $36 as Demand Drop Swells Inventories

By Mark Shenk

Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil fell below $36 a barrel for the first time since June 2004 as declining demand created a glut of crude and the weakening economy undermined OPEC’s efforts to reduce supply...

As if reducing supply was an issue now.

The problem is there are fewer and fewer industrial consumers.

Maybe if they got the price down to $20/barrel it would stimulate consumption again.

But at $30/barrel Alberta tar sands are going to be losing money and at $20/barrel what would happen to arctic and off-shore?

Alberta tar sands operated at a loss for years and years because they were viewed as an investment and the economy was strong enough to support such an investment. Would they still function or be shut down in today's economy if they had to run at a loss?

[Armageddon]

Could it be a coordinated attempt to crash the Russian and Middle eastern economies ? Reminds me of how the Cold War was won.

[dukey]

the middle east is one of the cheapest places in the world to drill
it's not going to destroy their economies
but it will put a lid on all expansion/investment over there

but offshore oil, and the tar sands are going to be in real trouble soon. No doubt we'll start to see some real supply destruction soon.

[rdsaltpower]

Oil traded below 34.00 today.

[MathMurderer]

$32.48 is the new intra-day low, set a couple of minutes ago. Almost as interestingly, the price spiked by $5 to $37 for a minute after hitting the low: 10-minute oil price

[dohboi]

So we're hitting record lows after OPEC announced record production cuts. What's up with that? And what is that last-minute spike about? Some computerized trading kicking in?

[dohboi]

"but offshore oil, and the tar sands are going to be in real trouble soon. No doubt we'll start to see some real supply destruction soon."

It seems to me that all the mega-projects will have to be mothballed at these prices. But maybe rockman or someone else knowledgeable about such things can fill us in?

[Armageddon]

Why is there a page 52 before this page is full ? I hate those " no topic exists" badly. Drives me crazy.

[emailking]

We're not hitting "record lows." Oil has been under $10/barrel before.

[smallpoxgirl]

Why is there a page 52 before this page is full ? I hate those " no topic exists" badly. Drives me crazy.

There's an error in the software. When a post gets deleted, the server still includes it when counting pages.

[dohboi]

So oil's above $40 again. Is this the beginning of the next rally? Is there any particular reason that oil went up by over twenty five percent in the last week or so.

Is anyone else watching this?

Have we become so inured to price swings now that a rise from 32 to over 40 this quickly just doesn't register as very interesting?

[lowem]

Welcome back to $40 oil.

So, it looks like our little "How low can it go?" game has ended at a local minimum of $32.40 for this round.

Goes to remind the bears how a little shooting war in the Middle East region can really set things off. We'll see how it goes from here.

[traderm]

You know is a bottom when all the wall street's analysis are predicting $10 or $20/barrel.

_________________
The Road Ahead

[chuck6877]

I remember when oil was reaching its highs, and several of us said it wouldn't last and we'd see a pullback to $100.

Did anyone really think we'd see 32.40!@#??

Insane.

What will happen next?
I'd love to hear some predictions because I have none that I'm confident in.......

Have we reached the great unknown? This uncertainty is driving me nuts.

Will the economy crash so bad in the next two years that peak oil will be on the backburner for a decade? Will we begin to recover taking oil prices to new highs again?

Would love some of your thoughts...

Chuck

[lowem]

Welcome back to $50 oil.

It took 3 major factors (OPEC cuts kicking in, another Russian gas dispute, and a Middle East war), so that's really telling us something. Let's see if this $50 level holds.

[dohboi]

So a nearly 100% increase in just a few weeks and again not much reaction in the press.

How often has oil nearly doubled in price in, what, three weeks?

At this rate we could be above $100 by the end of the month. Who knows what the heck. Is this the next run up before the next knock down? Should we expect ever higher highs and ever lower lows?

I've given up making guesses on any kind of short term. I still think we will see oil at an average level of:
--$120 over the next four years ('09-'13), just as it was about
--$60 on average over the period '04-'08, about
--$30 on average from '99-'03, and about
--$15 before that.

But there will be lots and lots of jumping around above and below that average, but over time always edging up.

Of course if either deflation or inflation gets really out of hand, or if the dollar just collapses and can no longer be used as a currency (none of which can be ruled out IMVHO), all bets are off.

[dohboi]

Back below $40 now, for the first time in '09. That's some kind of record.

The sudden drop from near $50 to $40, a drop of 20% in, what, 48 hours? That must be some kind of record, too?

Is anyone else reading this thread any more?

[Revi]

Clive Maund thinks we're at a bottom now.

http://www.321energy.com/editorials/mau ... 11109.html

He's usually right on.

Phil Flynn doesn't think so, though:

http://www.321energy.com/reports/flynn/current.html

The price of a barrel dipped down to around $35 and change today.

It is getting close to a bottom.