Again, low utilization rates occurred across all PADDs http://www.oil-gasoline.com/default.asp?id=125 so low rates can't be attributed to outages or maintenance. Gasoline demand and utilization rates in 1997: Refinery utilization hits record Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Aug 28, 1997 by Stephen Voss Bloomberg News "NEW YORK -- U.S. refinery utilization, the percentage of refining capacity in operation, rose last week to the highest rate ever recorded by the American Petroleum Institute. Utilization rose to 99.4 percent, the 78-year-old API said Tuesday in a weekly bulletin released after oil futures markets closed, showing that refiners were still busy churning out gasoline to meet high demand toward the end of the summer driving season. The restart of Tosco's Bayway refinery in New Jersey, the largest on the U.S. East Coast, along with refinery restarts in Texas, boosted overall refinery utilization. Bayway was running at reduced output for about three weeks. "There was a big jump" in refinery operations, said Tom Bentz, energy services director at High Yield Energy Analytics in New York. "Bayway came back up last week and that's in part why runs are up in these lofty levels." Refiners processed 15.502 million barrels a day of crude and other petroleum feedstocks last week. That's close to 15.601 million bbl/day, which is the API's estimate of the maximum amount that U.S. refineries can process. That maximum rate incorporates the likelihood that refineries usually undergo maintenance at some point in the year, so utilization rates could theoretically exceed 100 percent for a limited period, said an API statistician in Washington. The API divides the United States into five regions and last week three of those, the West Coast, Midwest and northern Plains, operated at 100 percent capacity. The preceding week's utilization rate was revised to 98.4 percent from 97.5 percent. The API was founded in 1919."
There was a 21% demand destruction in peak consumption when the price skyrocketed in the '79- '82 period.
walter4, read this article http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/06/11/npetrol111.xml
Looks like the guys shorting the Saudi news overnight just got their welcome initiation to CL! Any news other than the rig fire this morning?
This could be the lead up to a blow off top. I thought we might rally when I saw CL down like .50 last night. Not much of a reaction to the news. And what do the Saudis do if this doesn't work?
What do the saudis do? They sit back, tell everyone "hey we tried" and continue sell their product for insane amounts of cash.
I thought we like five or six blow off tops over the 12 month, surely looks like we need a few more to stop this market
i doubt its over yet...at least north for the next 2 months should average 11% NorthBound in da next 2 months USO a Buy at 90 area NGAS offers a better return...if u took a look at the charts the Brackets contain General Retr Coef to the close (Any One) say uso previous close is 100 (example) then can use 0.8732*100 for next entry the other brackets is the day trading...same way works well for partioned orders to average and to have no stress trading so 113*.8732 = expect some north bound for a while 113= recent high GL
Exactly, it's all lip service; if all the oil companies and Sauds truly believed oil was at an irrational price then why aren't they shorting the piss out of the futures against forward production and locking in windfall profits? If $140 was a ponzi scheme speculator induced price they would be crazy not to, but it's not happening. 10:1 the Sauds are BUYING futures in Dubai against their bull$hit production increase - if they don't, GS or someone else will. Talk is cheap!