21 May 2008

Oil Hits $130 per Barrel - before the fall

According to a report on Telegraph.co.uk, the price of crude oil has now reached $130 per barrel. Worse, the price of future oil is rising. With prices for deliveries next month rising $15, and prices for 2016 rising $25. The figures indicate that the market for oil speculation is taking on further momentum.

In my opinion, just when everyone climbs on the speculation bandwagon we should start looking for an oil price fall. Sophisticated economists may well talk about the decoupling of underlying GDP from oil prices, and vice versa. I suspect, however, that once all the liquidity pumped in to prevent the credit crunch destroying the housing market is used up oil prices will at first stabilise and then fall. As an asset, unlike shares, oil doesn't pay a dividend and is expensive to store. When the GDP downturn bites, speculators will move out of oil as quickly as they deserted sterling back in 1992.

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