Oil & Gas 01 (May 08 - Jul 08)

[blid2def]

actually...i say to make you happy one....

same effect as this kinda lips...

Yah, but at least good for a few seconds' dreaming.

[bertyeo]

Arctic may hold 90 billion barrels of oil
In other energy news, the area north of the Arctic Circle might hold an estimated 90 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil, according to a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Geological Survey, a branch of the Department of Interior.
The report said the Arctic also holds 1,670 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable natural gas, and 44 million barrels of technically recoverable natural gas liquids in 25 geologically defined areas thought to have potential for petroleum.
The report comes out at a time when talk about boosting oil production has heated up. Last week, President Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling but the move was viewed as symbolic because Congress would need to turn it into legislation, which is seen as unlikely.

[bertyeo]

Dolly expected to weaken
In weather news, storm Dolly, which has been downgraded to a tropical storm from a hurricane, is expected to weaken, further easing concerns that the storm could disrupt oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, where about 25% of U.S. oil is produced.
Dolly is moving further inland and will likely become a tropical depression later Thursday, the National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory.
Dolly was located about 50 miles east/southeast of Laredo, Texas, at 7 a.m. Central Daylight time on Thursday. It is moving toward the west/northwest at nearly 7 miles an hour, and maximum sustained winds have decreased to nearly 50 miles an hour.
The Minerals Management Service, a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Interior, estimated on Wednesday that approximately 4.47% of the oil production and 7.87% of natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico has been shut as a result of Dolly.

[millionairemind]

Just TOL, why go after the ikan bilis when you might catch GS doing the same thing, like issuing $150 oil calls to push the mkt???

Does demand destruction come so quickly in a week or two to cause oil to tank from $147 to low $120s or are speculators from GS taking profits and initiating their shorts and then 2 weeks later LONGs??

Dutch oil traders accused of crude swindle
By James Quinn, Wall Street Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:35am BST 25/07/2008

America's leading energy regulator has accused a Dutch oil trading firm and three of its employees - including British-born Christopher Dowson - of manipulating the crude oil market for their own ends.

In the first lawsuit of its kind since the agency began investigating alleged manipulation of the market in December 2007, the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed civil actions against Dutch-based Optiver Holdings and the three men, accusing them of making $1m in profit in just 11 days.

The CFTC alleges that the defendants were involved in a scheme known as "banging the close" where a sizeable position is taken in the run-up to a market's close, which is then swiftly followed by offsetting that position before the close of trading in an attempt to manipulate prices.

The three employees named are Mr Dawson, the head trader at Optiver, chief executive Bastiaan van Kempen and head of trading Randal Meijer.

All three worked largely out of the Chicago office. Charges have also been brought against Optive Holding's two operating subsidiaries in Chicago and Amsterdam.

The suit, filed in the US District Court in Manhattan yesterday, accuses the companies and the trio of manipulation and attempted manipulation of three different oil contracts - including the New York Mercantile Exchange's (NYMEX) main light sweet crude oil contract - during March 2007.

The suit accuses the defendants of engaging in 19 separate instances of attempted manipulation over 11 days in March 2007. It goes on to claim that on at least five of those days, the defendants were successful in creating artificial prices, sending prices lower on three occasions and higher on two.

In an email seized by investigators, Mr Dowson, 29, is claimed to have said he wanted to "bully the market" - which he and the other defendants allegedly did by trading in large volumes of oil futures contracts.

The filing also accuses Optiver and Mr van Kempen of attempting to conceal the scheme and making false statements about it following a request from NYMEX.

The Commission alleges Mr Meijer said the scheme "was built on the idea that we control the VWAP" - the volume weighted average price which is used to calculate the closing price for futures contracts.

CFTC acting chairman Walter Lukken said: "These charges go to the heart of the CFTC's core mission of detecting and rooting out illegal manipulation of the markets. Although this alleged energy trading scheme lasted only several days in March 2007, even short-term distortions of prices will not be tolerated by the Commission."

The CFTC worked with the UK's Financial Services Authority and NYMEX on the investigation.

[LenaHuat]

Juz read a German report ("The Spiegel") that the Americans are considering a floor on oil prices. If oil should drop below the floor price, they would be taxed in some ways. The taxes could then be used in a multitude of ways : support development of alternative fuel, return them to taxpayers in the form of lowering income taxes to spur entreprenaurship etc.

Canadians in British Columbia have started on this road :

British Columbia has shown that it's politically possible, too. On July 1, it added a small tax on gasoline designed to account for the costs of carbon dioxide emissions. The revenue will be returned in reduced income and business taxes. To ease the initial sting, the government sent each citizen a check for $100 at the end of June -- a move that will help lower-income people who are struggling with higher energy prices. Taxing energy, and returning the money to people in other ways, "is pretty much an economist's dream," says Ian Perry, senior fellow at Resources for the Future, a Washington think tank.

This brings to mind what PM LHL said on 24 June 2008 at the joint opening of the S'pore International Water Week, World Cities Summit and East Asia Summit Conference on liveable cities:

Ideally energy should be priced not just at today’s
market levels, but also taking into account the likelihood of a future carbonconstrained
world, be it due to scarcer supplies of fossil fuels or a post-Kyoto
regime to restrain carbon emissions. This will provide the right incentives to
avoid over-consumption and to economise on the use of energy.

In our SP Services utilities bill, we now pay "Water Conservation Taxes".
Get reading to pay : "Energy Conservation Taxes"
Some of us are oredi paying petrol taxes or diesel taxes (indirectly via fares).

[blid2def]

Actually I don't understand - if we (Singapore) are really so keen to encourage reductions in our consumption of resources we don't have, why don't we encourage people instead? I mean, instead of just taxing me extra for over-use, how about turning it around as well and giving me an incentive for using below the national average, eh? You can use the extra's from those who overuse, to subsidize those of us who under-use.

When you bring up kids, you also know cannot always threaten to cane everytime. Sometimes need to dangle carrots also.

[kennynah]

bcos it's all abt robbing the people....

[blid2def]

You're Under Arrest!

[kennynah]

[LenaHuat]

GR - maybe akan datang. SP Services is going to cutover to a new billing system, SAP by Accenture.