Nigeria says it's a "fear premium" that's pushing oil prices up

[bigtree]

DOHA -(Dow Jones)- Against a backdrop of growing alarm about the threat high oil prices pose to the global economy, OPEC ministers Monday blamed a lack of global refining capacity and geopolitical risk, saying there was no point in offering more crude to the market.

"Today there is plenty on the market," said OPEC President and Nigeria's Oil Minister Edmund Daukoru. "It's refining constraints and a fear premium pushing up prices."

He said OPEC stands ready to provide more oil if the market needs it, though few expect that.

http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/139466428?-821


my take: A Militarist Manipulates the Oil Market

[aquart]

1. So if George stops threatening to nuke Iran....

Prices will come down?

So threatening Iran is George's gift to the oil moguls?

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. The latest rises do seem due to the threats to Iran

but I don't think you can put more than $5 a barrel or so down to that. Which may be say 20 cents a gallon.

[bigtree]

3. you're not including our occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan

they factor into the price. Bush's militarism has made the entire region unstable. The potential areas of concern for instability also include those countries who appear to be allied with us.

the 'fear premium'

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. True, that did add some at the time

and Iraq in particular is still unstable enough to be a problem not only to its own production, but to the Gulf as a whole.

[DrGonzoLives]

4. No, it's speculators

Who pushed the price of crude high, high, high, and are now forced into a cycle of having to push it even higher to get their money back. Unless they suck it up and let it start dropping again, each and every one of them will find out what it was like to be involved with the 1929 crash.

[bigtree]

7. the speculators are enabled by the atmosphere of fear

created as a result of Bush's militarism.

[DrGonzoLives]

8. They use it as an excuse

What it costs to pump and ship oil does not really change all that much - it's not like there is a Terrorist Navy sinking oil tankers, and the only oil fields vulnerable to terrorists are in Iraq, and we have those secured quite well at the moment (wonder why?).

So, then, the only reason to jack up the futures price of oil is to claim that the "fear of instability in the Middle East" is doing it, when, in fact, the cost of doing business has not yet changed. You can argue that Bush has reated an atmosphere where this is easily claimed and believed, and you'd be right, but the truth is that oil really should cost about the same as it did a year ago (after Katrina, which did legitimately cause oil prices to rise).

It's completely artificial, and that's why it can't be sustained.

[bigtree]

9. of course they use it as an excuse

it will be sustained and deepened if Bush manages to shift from his verbal assault on Iran to a military one.

[ComerPerro]

6. And who keeps pushing the fear? Oh yeah, the Bush White House