Better Fill up today

frawin · August 01, 2008, 05:57:56 AM

Sept-08 Crude is trading at $123.30, down $0.78, Sept-08 Natural gas is trading at $8.94, down $0.179.

frawin · August 01, 2008, 09:23:57 AM

Front Month Crude Oil is trading at $128.10, up $4.02, and Natural Gas is trading at $9.415, up $0.296.

Tobina+1 · August 01, 2008, 09:34:11 AM

Why such the swing in 3 hours, Frank? Is there some event that caused the Specs to go crazy?

frawin · August 01, 2008, 09:41:45 AM

Tobina, the news services are crediting it to a "Surprise spike" in Gasoline futures.

Diane Amberg · August 01, 2008, 12:39:50 PM

So what has become of our natural gas? I thought we had at least 150 years worth here?

frawin · August 01, 2008, 01:05:02 PM

Diane, our reserves are still there. Alot of the high volume reserves are off shore, in Alaska and in the Rockies. At present the infrastructure to move the Alaskan gas is not in place and the same for the Rockies. Alot of the large volume reserves are in the OCS as well.

Diane Amberg · August 01, 2008, 01:10:48 PM

So is any serious talk going on about getting the infrastructure built? Is that as complicated as I think it is?

frawin · August 01, 2008, 01:20:02 PM

There is a big move underway now, ConocoPhillips and another group have made a proposal and are trying to get the necessary approvals from Alaska and the Feds. It is a 20-25 Billion Dollar project at today's estimates. I am sure the cost will go up substantially every year. It has been awhile since I read much on it but i think estimates are like a 10-15 year project. Maybe Queen Nancy Pelosi can kill it by putting a big windfall profits tax on the industry. The delays in the necessary infrastructure from the Rockies faces the same problems but the Terrain and the surface structure presents big problems in building pipeline from those areas. It is a serious enviromental issue and will be delayed for years.

frawin · August 01, 2008, 02:07:41 PM

Sept -08 Crude settled at $125.10 up $1.02 on the day, the back months were also up all the way out, Sept -08 Natural Gas settled at $9.389 up $0.27 on the day, the back months were up about the same all the way out. Any hurricane threat is going to push natural gas up.

frawin · August 04, 2008, 05:50:42 AM

Sept -08 Crude is Trading at $124.40 , off $0.70, Sept -08 Natural Gas is trading at $9.265, off $0.124. Natural Gas is trading up in the winter back months. Natural gas inventories continue to be under last years volumes for the same period and under the 5 year averages as well. I think we continue to use more Natural Gas in place of Crude Oil derivative Fuels, on a BTU basis Natural gas is much cheaper than Fuel Oil. On a BTU Basis Natural Gas should be much higher.