If the peak oilers need any more evidence that today’s high oil prices are the result of today’s speculation, and not some looming peak of oil production two or five or ten years in the future, Dow Jones reports the following:
Witnessing new record-high oil prices and wild volatility, market participants are wondering whether market fundamentals have gone out the window. Are high prices drawing in so much fresh speculative buying that nosebleed-level oil prices are a self-fulfilling prophecy? “It’s not about the barrels or the BTUs anymore,” says John Hill of Broadway Futures, in an e-mail message. “It’s all about the Benjamins, massive amounts of capital chasing yield in the commodity markets and succeeding. OPEC can’t produce enough crude. They can produce enough crude to feed the world’s refineries, but not enough to meet the demand from speculative capital.“ [Emphasis mine.]
2:36 pm on March 17, 2005
