Better Fill up today

[frawin]

Dec-08 Crude settled at $49.62 down $4.00 on the day, Dec-08 Natural Gas settled at $6.316, down $0.427on the day. 
The close below $50.00 is below what the technical barriers were, this could signal  significantly lower numbers in trading overnite and tomorrow.


Below is the summary for the Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report that came out today. The market was calling for the first draw of the Winter Heating season, instead we had a slight build which  took the Natural Gas NYMEX Futures market down considerably
Summary
Working gas in storage was 3,488 Bcf as of Friday, November 14, 2008, according to EIA estimates. This represents a net increase of 16 Bcf from the previous week. Stocks were 51 Bcf less than last year at this time and 140 Bcf above the 5-year average of 3,348 Bcf. In the East Region, stocks were 103 Bcf above the 5-year average following no net change in storage levels. Stocks in the Producing Region were 5 Bcf above the 5-year average of 969 Bcf after a net injection of 11 Bcf. Stocks in the West Region were 32 Bcf above the 5-year average after a net addition of 5 Bcf. At 3,488 Bcf, total working gas is within the 5-year historical range.

[frawin]

Jan-09 Crude is trading at $50.00, up $0.58, Dec-08 Natural Gas is trading at $6.345, up $0.029. 

Note: Trading for Dec-08 Crude Futures went of the board  yesterday and today the front month is January 2009.

[frawin]

Crude Oil Rises as Governments May Take Steps to Revive Growth


Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) --Oil rose for the time in six days to trade above $50 on speculation governments will step up efforts to revive economic growth.

Crude gained as the Bank of Japan said it will consider pumping more money into the financial system to prop up an economy that fell into a recession last quarter. The European Commission will announce a fiscal-stimulus plan next week, President Jose Barroso told reporters in Brussels yesterday.

"If the market believes these packages are working then they can put a floor under prices," Andy Sommer, an analyst with HSH Nordbank in Hamburg. "Many analysts think these prices are not justified by fundamentals and are saying now is the time to buy."

Crude oil for January delivery rose as much as $1.02, or 2.1 percent, to $50.64 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $50.24 at 9:34 a.m. in London.

The contract earlier fell as much as $1.17, or 2.4 percent, to $48.25 a barrel. Futures have dropped 67 percent since reaching a record $147.27 a barrel on July 11.

Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa has instructed his staff to study new ways of making money available for lending, such as accepting corporate debt as collateral, the central bank said in a statement in Tokyo today.

Stimulus Package

German officials have put the size of the European economic stimulus package at 130 billion euros ($162.5 billion), a figure that European Commission President Barroso refused to confirm yesterday.

Barroso was scheduled to discuss the stimulus proposal yesterday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose government currently holds the rotating EU presidency. The plan is to be approved by the commission on Nov. 26 and put before European leaders at a December summit in Brussels.

Brent crude oil for January settlement rose as much as $1.34, or 2.8 percent, to $49.42 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange.


   .

[pam]

Gas was 1.63 in town yesterday.........

[frawin]

Below, is an interesting article on Ethanol from Switchgrass, this aired on Channel 2, Tulsa last Night.

Growing fuel with switchgrass

To cut back on our oil dependency Congress mandated that refineries produce a certain amount of 10% ethanol blend gasoline, which is made from corn. 

Scott Dewald with the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association says that's sent the demand for corn sky high, and the cost of cattle feed right up with it.

"If there's not enough corn to go around, the market goes up.  It's a supply and demand function.  All of a sudden we find ourselves in this situation, where the feed is costing us twice as much as it did a year before," said Dewald.

Dewald says it doesn't look like it's going to get any better soon.  He says the market shows we will have a shortage of corn in the future.

"Congress has said thou shall use X-amount, without regard to our ability to produce it, without regard to the American consumer's willingness to purchase it," said Dewald.

But some say there is another way to get ethanol that doesn't compete with food, and it's right here in Oklahoma.

We headed out west to the panhandle, Gymon, Oklahoma, a town of just 10,000, where the farming community holds a secret that could be a cash cow.

"Could be the future of how we fuel our cars and our vehicles," said Adam Calaway with the Noble Foundation.
He's talking about switchgrass.  Supporters say the native Oklahoma grass can be converted to the same ethanol as corn.  The Noble Foundation, a non-for-profit group, has teamed up with OSU and OU to grow a switchgrass research field in Gymon.
"It is the first of its type, and it is the world's largest right now," said Calaway.

Calaway says the field should be ready to harvest in just two and a half years.  Once it's ready, he says switchgrass can produce 800 gallons of ethanol per acre, that's almost twice as much as corn.  Once it is ready for harvest, crews will take it across the border to Hugeton, Kansas where a bio-refinery is being built to convert the grass to ethanol.

Once it is fully grown, Calaway says there's another cost benefit to switchgrass, "You don't have to establish it every year because it's a perennial, so you're not going to be using as much water or as much fertilizer."  However, he says corn must be planted every year. 

[frawin]

Jan-09 Crude settled at $49.93 up $0.52 on the day, Dec-08 Natural Gas settled at $6.48, up $0.164 on the day. 

[Catwoman]

Gas is down to 1.72 here...YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[frawin]

Jan-09 Crude is trading at $49.875, down 0.055, Jan-08 Natural Gas is trading at $6.655, up $0.152. 

Gasoline at our neighborhood station is $1.48

[frawin]

OPEC May Decide on Further Cut in Cairo, Libya Says (Update2)


Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which supplies about 40 percent of the world's oil, may decide to cut output when it meets in Cairo later this week, Libya's top oil official Shokri Ghanem said.

"It is too early to say how much needs to be cut," Ghanem said in an interview from Tripoli today. "I don't want to start throwing numbers out without consulting my colleagues. We want a consensus."

OPEC's decision to trim output by 1.5 million barrels a day at a meeting in Vienna last month failed to stem the decline in crude prices as the global economic slump crimps fuel demand. Prices have since tumbled more than 22 percent to a three-year low, raising speculation the group will reduce production again.

Shipping data released last week indicate the group will cut oil supplies by 3.8 percent this month as it implements its Oct. 24 resolution. The group's 13 members supplied 30.98 million barrels a day this month, compared with 32.2 million a day in October, according to Geneva-based consultant PetroLogistics Ltd.

The reduction failed to stop the rout in oil markets. Crude futures fell to the lowest since May 2005 on Nov. 21 on signs of lower oil consumption in Europe, Asia and the U.S. The International Energy Agency, the Energy Department and OPEC have slashed demand projections this month because of the deteriorating economic outlook.

Estimated Oversupply

Slowing global demand has left a 1 million barrel-a-day oversupply that needs to be removed by year-end, Venezuela's Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said yesterday. Crude prices are down 66 percent from a record $147.27 a barrel on July 11.

OPEC, which supplies of more than 40 percent of the world's oil, will discuss compliance with a previous cut at the Nov. 29 meeting in Cairo, according to Ghanem.

"We won't have production data yet, but at least we can consult with each other. It does not mean we can't take a decision," he said.

OPEC's main goal is to stabilize the market, Ghanem said.

"We are worried about the direction of prices -- we need to see if the oil price is falling because liquidity is leaving the market or if there is too much oil in the market," he said in the interview.

As well as this week's meeting in Cairo, OPEC is due to hold another summit in Algeria on Dec. 17 after its decision last month to slash production by 1.5 million barrels a day failed to stop oil prices crashing to below $50 a barrel.

Crude oil for January delivery traded for $49.85 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 10:44 a.m. London time.

[frawin]

Update, Jan-09 crude is trading at $51.625, up $1.695, Jan-09 Natural Gas is trading at $6.68, up $0.177.