Iranian gasoline useage dropped by 16.6 percent on the first day after the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad implemented a deeply unpopular four-fold price rise, the oil ministry website said on Monday.
The year 2008 saw the American economy topple over like a towering stack of light weight cards with the financial and market crash.
Subsidiaries of conglomerate Israel Corp (ILCO.TA: Quote) are to buy Egyptian natural gas in a 20-year deal worth between $5 billion and $10 billion that adds to uncertainty over the future of Israel’s own Tamar gas development.
The current oil price at around $90 per barrel is good and crude prices over that level will not hurt the global economy, the chief executive of France’s Total said Monday.
Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan on Saturday signed broad agreements at a summit on a $7.6 billion transnational gas pipeline, though the talks yielded few concrete details.
Oil prices hovered below $89 a barrel Tuesday in Asia as traders look to weekly U.S. crude inventory figures for signs demand could be improving.
Brent oil prices close a bullish trading week firm over $91 a barrel and with uncertainty in stocks and foreign exchange markets, analysts are forecasting that Brent crude could start 2011 close to, or over $100.
Brent Oil Futures – Closing Price
Brent crude oil futures for January 2011 delivery ended the week at $91.58 on the ICE Futures Exchange, $5.83 a barrel higher than last week’s close of $85.75 a barrel.
Leading gas exporting countries agreed Thursday to hold their first summit in Qatar next year, as they reiterated calls for gas prices to reflect parity with oil.
Oil prices hovered near $88 a barrel Friday in Asia, with losses tempered by hopes of strong growth in demand for crude and Europe’s progress in containing its debt crisis.
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov inaugurated on Sunday the last section of a pipeline to export Turkmen gas to northeast Iran, media reported.
