Oil prices took off this morning in early trading while President Bush prepares to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Prices for light sweet crude started climbing this morning and were up 26 cents and Brent crude was up 43 cents in London after big climbs last week continues to push crude prices close to their record highs early in the month of April.
Bush Plans to work on the Saudi prince to increase oil product to capacity in hopes of bringing oil and gas prices down by making the argument that the world economy depends on it. Gas prices at the pump are averaging $2.28 a gallon nation wide and may climb higher as the summer rolls around.
A multitude of troubles have the oil industry to create such massive speculation and driving the prices ever higher.
Fresh terrorist attacks in Saudi last week in which four were killed, widespread refinery problems in the U.S., and Chinese increased consumption all contribute to the fuel prices.
The U.S. announcement last week that oil and gas reserves were down didn’t help matters much either.
Another factor that could come into play is the future of Iraqi oil. Northern Iraqi oil pumped 800,000 bpd through pipelines into Turkey before the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the U.S. So far, getting the oil back online and into the market have been problematic as insurgents continue to target Iraq’s pipelines and pumping stations.
John Stith is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
