THE Brent Crude Thread (merged)

[No-Oil]

It is estimated that every UK tax payer has benefited from a 10p reduction in income tax because of UK North Sea oil revenues for the last 20+ years. The decline in production which was 20% this year in 10months according to some sources (RBS Bank) could have major implications for the UK over the next few years, because if the decline rate remains constant, we could stop producing meaningful amounts of oil in 4-5years time. Thus we will lose the tax dividend & at the same time have to pay increased costs for imports on the open market!!!!

Hold on to your hats, the kack is heading for the rotary oscillator.

[KevO]

I don't understand why though.
The article doesn't explain the reason.. ??

(Bloomberg) -- Daily shipments of North Sea Brent crude, part of the price benchmark for almost two-thirds of the world's oil, will fall by about 8 percent in February.

Tankers are set to load 184,552 barrels a day of Brent crude in February, down from 200,645 barrels a day scheduled for January, according to the loading program of field operator Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's largest oil company.

A total of 5.35 million barrels will be shipped next month, compared with 6.22 million barrels in January.

Brent is one of the four North Sea oil varieties used to price crude from the Middle East, Africa and Russia. The other grades are Forties produced by BP Plc, Norsk Hydro ASA's Oseberg blend and ConocoPhillips's Ekofisk.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski in London at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net

Bloomberg

and will it make a difference? and if so to what or whom?

[pup55]

http://peakoil.com/fortopic33846.html

This was announced a couple of months back.

Maybe one of the wells that was producing this shut down.

[cudabachi]

http://peakoil.com/fortopic33846.html

This was announced a couple of months back.

Maybe one of the wells that was producing this shut down.

Sounds more like a number of wells being shut down as opposed to a single. JMHO.

[worrier]

I've been watching the oil prices as they are reported on the news for a while. They usually report the price of West Texas Crude versus Brent Oil. West Texas is usually about $5 per barrel more expensive than Brent. I understand that West Texas is sweeter than Brent and is therefore more valuable. But yesterday West Texas was reported at about $117 per barrel and Brent at about $110. Does anyone know why the gap is bigger? Is it due to temporary events or is it peak oil making the sweeter crude more scarce and even more valuable than before? Is the gap going to keep on getting bigger?

[Twilight]

Dante might chime in, but as far as I can see, the gap has not really got bigger, because the price of a barrel of oil has got bigger too. The gap was only a dollar or two several years ago, but then oil was only $30 or $40. And we saw a $5-6 gap when US storage was getting low last summer, and that was at $70-80 oil. It does vary with events, but its absolute size at this point seems to be proportional to where the prices are.

[mefistofeles]

What's with the huge spread between Brent and WTI? At $9/barrel the spread is quite significant in absolute terms and at these prices relative terms,representing a 20%+ premium.

[misterno]

I think it is an indication of production increase or decrease in Texas

[GoghGoner]

I think it is an indication of production increase or decrease in Texas

Huh?

CRUDE: WTI $42.81/bbl, up 45 cents; BRENT $44.00/bbl, up 64 cents

that's for feb futures. I guess January close is what you were looking at -- sounds like folks closing out there positions must have caused the temporary margin b/w WTI and Brent.

[AirlinePilot]

WTI spread is due to the full up inventory at Cushing. Thats where they get the WTI number from. Its just recently reached full up inventory.

Lots of big players storing huge quantities at 36-40$/bbl. Hmmm, I wonder why?

[yesplease]

Lots of big players storing huge quantities at 36-40$/bbl. Hmmm, I wonder why?

Because OPEC sucks at production cuts, so there's a clear window before they can implement 'em, if they do implement them that is.

[Sixstrings]

A $10 move in a week is just what the doctor ordered to destroy the last trace of surreality in the whole "economic recovery" story. At this rate we will take out all time high crude prices by mid March. As we have been saying since December, a rapid move in oil will undo years of carefully planned propaganda and money printing.

Yet the weakness that "nobody could have possibly predicted" is just as we had forecast: global and US weakness in late February/March, market swoons in March/April (as per DeMark's repeat appearance), Fed releases early indications of QE3 in May. In the meantime, we also get a war as a bonus to boost the US military-defense industrial complex. Pretty much a rerun of the first great depression to the dot.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/brent-passes-110

If the price of oil gets out of control, the whole quantitative easing house of cards will crumble.

[Plantagenet]

If the price of oil gets out of control, the whole quantitative easing house of cards will crumble.

All of Obama's efforts to prop up BAU have been stupid and counter-productive. The stimulus bill, the supplemental budgets....its fixed nothing. Its all just wasted money.

Obama and the democrats have just wasted two valuable years and blown through 3 TRILLION dollars of new debt to accomplish....nothing.

As oil prices rise again we're looking at another recession caused by high oil prices----just like the last one.

Will Obama figure out what is happening this time? Surely Obama isn't so stupid that he won't figure it out this time? We can't keep propping up BAU and pretending the economy is recovering while ignoring the fundamental problem----cycles of high energy prices due to peak oil cause cycles of global recessions.

[vision-master]

Are you a manic hand washer?

[Sixstrings]

US crude crossed the $100 mark.. brent now at $111

US Crude Crosses $100 Mark; Brent Tops $110
http://www.cnbc.com/id/41726474

[Plantagenet]

Its hilarious to see Geithner out today claiming that the US economy is now STRONGER then it was before the 2008 recession, and so better able to handle high oil prices. Do Geithner and Obama ever actually look at the foreclosure rate, deficit, unemployment rate, trade deficit, value of the dollar or any of the other data or does they just make up new BS each and every day?

[eXpat]

Back to 2008!

[TimH]

Back to 2008!

Hey it could be worse and be "Back To The Future" Double

Oh how I wished I had a time machine.

[Ferretlover]

or do they just make up new BS each and every day?

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! (just teasing, Plant )

[gnm]

Obama and the democrats have just wasted two valuable years and blown through 3 TRILLION dollars of new debt to accomplish....nothing.

Nothing? Surely you jest - You wouldn't have wanted all those bankers to pay for the results of their fraud would you? How would they have managed without multi million dollar bonuses this year? /sarc

Not nothing... he paid his masters well.... with our and our children's money...