High Oil Prices: Structural or Cyclical? The international petroleum industry has intuitively recognized that cheap oil might just be a thing of the past. Now, producers and consumers alike wonder how high will prices go and most importantly how long will they stay there. Recently, a BP pipeline closing coupled with a foiled terrorist plan in London pushed oil prices to new highs as markets immediately responded to both events. But amid the myriad of drivers pushing prices up, which ones are cyclical or structural? |
Russia's energy strategy A major program is underway inside Russia – and, if it succeeds, it will develop a unified system for the production, transportation, and distribution of natural gas in the Russian Far East and Eastern Siberia. One key goal is to create a new gas outlet into the Pacific Rim. |
Crisis in the Pipeline The abrupt shutdown of the Prudhoe Bay oil field on Alaska's North Slope adds to the slow-motion supply shock that's been pushing oil prices up the "wall of worry." It comes on top of the interruption of production by insurgents in Iraq and Nigeria, continuing production declines in Venezuela since President Hugo Chávez consolidated his rule, and some supply that has yet to come back after last year's Gulf of Mexico hurricanes. |
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