[Oil's slump has roiled markets from the Russian ruble to the Nigerian naira and squeezed government budgets in producing nations including Venezuela and Ecuador. It's also boosted China's emergency crude reserves and helped shrink fuel subsidies in India and Indonesia. OPEC has signaled it won't cut supply to influence prices, instead preferring to defend market share amid an unprecedented U.S. shale boom.]
http://www.firstenercastfinancial.com/news/story/60980-oil-set-biggest-slump-2008-opec-battles-us-shale Featured Articles Jan 04, 2015 Forecast & Analysis - Top News Stories - Financial - Releases - Weather Oil Set for Biggest Slump Since 2008 as OPEC Battles U.S. Shale Published: Dec 30, 2014 By Sharon Cho Dec 30, 2014 Oil Price Decline Is `Unsustainable,' Gramatovich Says Oil headed for the biggest annual decline since the global financial crisis as neither U.S. producers nor the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries show signs of ceding ground in a battle for market share amid a supply glut. ***Futures slid as much as 1.1 percent in New York, bringing losses for 2014 to 45 percent. U.S. guidelines allowing overseas sales of ultralight oil without government approval may boost the country's export capacity and "throw a monkey wrench" into Saudi Arabia's plan to curb American output, according to Citigroup Inc. U.S. crude inventories are forecast to rise to the highest level for this time of the year in three decades.*** [Emphasis added.] ***Oil's slump has roiled markets from the Russian ruble to the Nigerian naira and squeezed government budgets in producing nations including Venezuela and Ecuador. It's also boosted China's emergency crude reserves and helped shrink fuel subsidies in India and Indonesia. OPEC has signaled it won't cut supply to influence prices, instead preferring to defend market share amid an unprecedented U.S. shale boom.*** [Emphasis added.] "For this year, the biggest factor driving down oil prices was U.S. shale production followed by a price war," Hong Sung Ki, a commodities analyst at Samsung Futures Inc. in Seoul, said by phone today. "The possibility of U.S. curbing output will be the only booster but nothing has been done, so we're seeing a continuation of the price decline." West Texas Intermediate for February delivery dropped as much as 57 cents to $53.55 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $53.69 at 9:11 a.m. Singapore time. The contract climbed 51 cents to $54.12 yesterday, gaining for the first time in four days. Total volume was about 82 percent below the 100-day average. Brent for February settlement fell as much as 55 cents, or 1 percent, to $57.35 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Prices are down 48 percent this year. The European benchmark crude traded at a premium of $3.75 to WTI. To contact the reporter on this story: Sharon Cho in Singapore at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pratish Narayanan at [email protected] Yee Kai Pin -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
