Better Fill up today

[frawin]

Dec-08 Crude is trading at $57.90, down $0.34, Dec-08 Natural Gas is trading at $6.365, up $0.047

[DanCookson]

LOL, great to have you back Frank....That damn NYMEX page was going to get the best of me in the long run!

If OK secedes with TX, maybe it will drag southern KS with it!

[frawin]

Dan, I don't know anyone I would rather be in the Alamo with than you and your Mother.

[Teresa]

pssttt.... ( Danny is a whole lot better shot than I am).. but I can give a better "mean face".. 

[frawin]

Dec-08 Crude settled at $57.04, down $1.20 on the day, Dec-08 Natural Gas settled at $6.312, down $0.006 on the day. Gasoline at my neighborhood station is $1.69.

[Catwoman]

Gas here is 1.86...I'll take it!    Frank, it's so good to read you again.  Missed you and your posts!

[kshillbillys]

Yes it is GREAT to see ya back Frank!! Gas is 1.95 in Independence....they even said it was gonna drop again over the weekend, but we will see.....

[Dee Gee]

Glad you are back Frank, I missed your daily reports and insight to the energy status.  Gas in B-Vlle is 1.69 so I filled up.

[frawin]

Dec-08 Crude is trading at $55.625, down $1.415, Dec-08 Natural Gas is trading at $6.385, up $0.073.

Gasoline at our neighborhood station is $1.64.

[frawin]

Crude Oil Falls as Global Slowdown Cuts Demand in China, Japan

By Gavin Evans and Grant Smith

Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Oil fell for a second day as Japan entered its first recession since 2001 and China's largest crude producer said demand has declined ``sharply.''

Japan's economy contracted 0.4 percent in the third quarter, official figures today showed. China National Petroleum Corp., the biggest producer in the world's second-largest oil consumer, said demand has fallen since September because of the global credit crisis. OPEC may wait until December to cut output, the group's president said.

``As the stream of bearish news continues unabated, oil prices are again under pressure,'' said Christopher Bellew, senior broker at Bache Commodities Ltd. in London. ``The only hope for a price recovery is a big production cut by OPEC or a shut-in of some high-cost non-OPEC production.''

Crude oil for December delivery dropped as much as $1.44, or 2.5 percent, to $55.60 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $55.83 at 11:11 a.m. in London.

Prices remained lower today even after Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Chevron Corp. announced pipeline disruptions in Nigeria. Shell extinguished a fire at a pipeline that carries crude to the Forcados export terminal. Chevron shut its onshore production in the country after a pipeline breach last week.

China Slowdown

Prices declined 6.6 percent last week, touching a 21-month low of $54.67 on Nov. 13, as world equity markets dropped, Germany entered its worst recession in 12 years and U.S. retail sales fell for a fourth straight month.

``Economies are looking poor, the demand outlook is not good, so that's why oil prices are following the stock markets,'' Johannes Benigni, chief executive officer of JBC Energy, said in a television interview. ``In due course, oil prices have to balance around $80. If prices are below, oil companies will not invest sufficiently.''

The International Energy Agency last week slashed its global oil consumption forecast for 2009 by 670,000 barrels a day. Demand will rise 0.4 percent to 86.5 million barrels a day, as growth in emerging nations partly offsets a 1.6 percent contraction in fuel use in developed economies, the Paris-based agency said.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is due to release its own monthly market report today.

Brent crude for January settlement dropped as much as $1.24, or 2.3 percent, to $53 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange. It was at $53.21 a barrel at 11:06 a.m. London time.

G-20 Meeting

Leaders from the Group of 20 urged a ``broader policy response'' to the financial crisis at a weekend meeting in Washington, citing the potential for additional interest-rate cuts and fiscal stimulus.

Hedge-fund managers and other large speculators increased their net-short position in New York crude-oil futures in the week ended Nov. 11, according to U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data.

Speculative short positions, or bets prices will fall, outnumbered long positions by 52,984 contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the Washington-based commission said in its Commitments of Traders report. Net-short positions rose by 42,441 contracts, or 403 percent, from a week earlier.

OPEC is likely to wait until December before cutting output again, the group's president, Chakib Khelil, said in Algeria yesterday. Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil producer and OPEC's largest member, will help alleviate global financial stress by maintaining stable oil markets, King Abdullah said after the meeting of Group of 20 leaders in Washington Nov. 15.

Iran, OPEC's second-largest producer, may seek a production cut of as much as 1.5 million barrels a day when the group meets in Cairo later this month, the Associated Press reported Nov. 15, citing televised comments by the nation's OPEC Governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi.

``We see OPEC reducing supply in October 1.5 million barrels a day,'' said JBC's Benigni. ``At the end of the month in Cairo there might be another cut.''

The group, which pumps about 40 percent of the world's oil, cut output by 1.5 million barrels a day last month. It will have more information on which to make a decision on further cuts at the Dec. 17 meeting in Oran, Algeria, Khelil said yesterday.