Commodity Futures Trader

Posts Tagged ‘energy’

There are a number of reasons why a consumer would want to keep an eye on the latest oil prices. Everyone has to heat their homes and the correct timing of buying your heating oil can be costly if you get it wrong.

Oil prices can fluctuate a lot depending on weather conditions when you are buying. When winter weather hits and temperatures begin to drop, oil prices quickly respond to these changes. This is especially true when there has been a long summer and gasoline consumption has been increasing. Due to this seasonal effect refineries can put oil production on hold so they meet that demand. When lower temperatures arrive and heating oil demand increases, so will the associated oil prices. Homeowners do need to follow oil prices online to watch for these seasonal changes.

Investing in Crude Oil

There is also a different set of people who have a need to watch the latest oil prices, this group is investors. Whilst crude oil investors need to watch current oil prices, many who are involved in other related industries have a similar need. Oil consumption has huge influence on large numbers of industry sectors. Petroleum is used heavily in the manufacture of plastic, chemicals, and not forgetting the fuel that is consumed by large fleets of vehicles these companies run. Almost anything that depends on petrol is affected by severe changes in oil prices.

Planning Spending

Crude oil prices cruised to their highest level of 2010 Wednesday morning, before quickly reversing, as speculators consider new data on the level of crude supplies released by the Energy Information Administration.

The Oil price contract for April delivery reached $83.03 in early trading on Wednesday as traders showed delight in the new data. A 1.4 million barrel increase was reported in crude last week for a 343 million barrel total inventory level.

According to the Platts survey of analysts, the expectation had been for 2.1 million barrels. The much lower than anticipated level of inventory triggered an immediate upward reaction in trade as investors saw the lower than expected number as a sign of increased demand.

Analysts pointed out that despite the lower than expected inventory number, crude oil levels are still high for the current oil price. Traders seemingly agreed as after the running up to $82, oil prices dropped back in the later morning of the session to close near Tuesday’s price of $81.50.

OPEC, an amalgamation of the world’s largest oil producing and exporting nations, says a stable global economy for the remainder of the year should see an increase in demand of over 900,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

OPEC would prefer oil prices to remain at todays levels, or to go even higher. However, data continues to suggest modest demand in oil products in the US. Business and consumers are still reluctant to begin transporting at pre-recession levels. Without increased gains in US oil demand, it is hard to imagine OPEC’s forecast can hold true.

What would you use sauna heaters for? Sauna heaters are great for relaxing muscles and joints. Many people use them to rid the body of toxins. Some use it for an overall body and mind therapy. This was one way the sauna was used in an animated series King of the Hill.

On the program a new age native American has a sauna set up where he charges people to enter the sauna and allow the steam to release the toxins from the body and the mind. As the men are in the sauna sweating they all start having dreams or even hallucinations.

One man sees how he thinks he is going to die, riding a motorcycle through a giant donut. The steam has shown him his weakness for food will be his end. The sauna steam show one man, a pest exterminator, dying at the hands of a large insect. The other man is simply at peace at his job in his hallucination selling propane grills.

His mind is clear and there are no toxins to drive out by the steam and heat. The old man in the sauna heaters is a World War II vet who killed many enemies in the war. His guilt comes back to haunt him as he sweats in the sauna. He sees the men he killed in the war as he hallucinates. He runs out of the sauna blaming his son, the propane grill salesman, for taking him into the sauna.

North Sea Brent was located in the North sea at the beginning of the 60′s and is refined and consumed by; the UK, Norway, Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands.

Brent Crude is one of many classifications of North Sea oil of which there are; Brent Crude, Brent Light, Sweet Crude, Ecofisk, Oseberg, and Forties. Brent crude is the biggest of all the classifications of North Sea oil, and its name originates from the bird the ‘Brent Goose’. Exxon and Shell adopted a policy of naming their oil fields after birds. The ‘Brent’ field itself from which the crude was taken, was found by the Shell petroleum company in the North East of Shetland back in 1971.

North Sea Brent Crude is used as a benchmark to price two thirds of all the oil traded on the international market. Other remowned classifications inclue Dubai Crude, and West Texas Intermediate (WTI), which is a sweeter and lighter form of crude. Crude oil acquires the term ‘sweet’ if the sulphur content is less than 0.5%. If it is higher than 0.5% it is considered ‘sour’ crude. Crude oil with a low sulphur content is the most coveted of all oil and is almost always refined into petroleum.

The most coveted, highly prized and sought after oil in both the North Sea and around the world is,’ Light-sweet crude,’ as its the easiest to refine into gasoline, kerosene and high quality diesel.