und die neue Deka-Tante, die ähnlichen dümmlich Müll labert, nicht wahrhaben, wollen: Die Saudis haben kein Interesse an zu hohen Preisen, da das nur kurzfristig die Einnahmen steigert, aber langfristig durch Subsitituion und Sparen kontraproduktiv ist. Ein Land wie der Iran, dem sehr viel schneller das Öl ausgehen wird, hat sicher andere Interessen. Mein Tipp ist: Die Saudi setzen sich durch - $40 wir kommen, der heiße Tanz mit den schwachsinnigen Ölkälbern beginnt. Hoffentlich sind das nicht nur Private, die sich von Goldman Sachs und anderen Bängstern mit Hilfe einer ekelhaften unanständigen Journallie zu Höchstpreisen in Rohstoffe getrieben wurden und jetzt auch noch dazu animiert werden an ihren horrenden Verlusts festzuhalten und sie durch weiteres Festhalten noch zu steigern. Die ekelhafte Unständigkeit, mit der hier eine extrem verlogene und kriminelle Seilschaft das private Schlachtvieh zur Schlachtbank führt, proviziert geradezu eine Reglementierung, die wir sicher alle nicht wollen.
Aber so ist das nun einmal; "Macht führt zur Verderbheit, unendliche Macht zu unendlicher Verderbheit." Das war nicht Karl Marx, sondern Adam Smith.
AP
Oil Slides on Saudi OPEC Comments
Tuesday January 16, 4:13 pm ET
By Madlen Read, AP Business Writer
Oil Prices Below $52 a Barrel After Saudis Say No Need for Further OPEC Production Cuts
NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices dropped below $52 a barrel to new 19-month lows Tuesday on a report that OPEC powerhouse Saudi Arabia said further production cuts aren't necessary right now.
Crude oil has fallen more than 16 percent this year in a sell-off triggered by a historically warm winter in the Northern United States and sustained by large funds taking short positions in the market, or bets that prices will fall.
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Some market participants believe that another production cut by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries could halt the price drop, but until that happens, there's little to stop prices from sliding further.
"It doesn't feel like it's run its course yet. It will probably fall below $50 a barrel -- then the Saudis may be more amenable to an emergency meeting," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates in Galena, Ill.
Light sweet crude futures for February fell $1.59 to settle at $51.21 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after hitting a low of $50.53 in earlier trading. Tuesday's settlement price was the lowest since May 26, 2005, when crude closed at $51.01.
Nymex heating oil slid 2.33 cents to settle at $1.4803 per gallon; gasoline fell 6.27 cents to settle at $1.3693; and natural gas futures inched up 3.7 cents to settle at $6.638 per 1,000 cubic feet.
February Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange fell 86 cents to settle at $52.26 on Tuesday on London's ICE futures exchange.
The U.S. retail price of gasoline has fallen 4.5 percent in 2007 to an average of $2.229 a gallon, according to AAA. As of Tuesday, more than half of U.S. states were seeing average pump prices of less than $2 a gallon.
Drivers should see further savings if crude prices stay low, but only about half of the retail cost of gasoline is determined by the price of crude oil, the U.S. Department of Energy says. The rest factors in distribution and marketing, refining costs and profits, and taxes.
Nymex crude's losses Tuesday were sparked by comments from Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi that diminished the chance of an emergency OPEC meeting this week -- a possibility that had boosted prices Friday. The Nymex was closed Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
"There is no need now (for further cuts) on the basis of what market conditions are," Dow Jones Newswires quoted Naimi as saying after he arrived in New Delhi for an international conference organized by India's Oil Ministry.
The comment followed a call on Monday by Venezuela's oil minister Rafael Ramirez for an emergency OPEC meeting to push for another cut.
OPEC in recent months has committed to a total cut in output of 1.7 million barrels per day, including a 500,000 barrel-a-day reduction set to begin Feb. 1. Compliance is believed to be halfhearted. According to Dow Jones Newswires, independent surveys suggest OPEC has cut output by little more than half of its pledged levels. Production remains near 27 million barrels a day or about 700,000 barrels a day above OPEC's target.
"It is not that OPEC is not capable of 100 percent compliance, but trying to support prices at such high levels invites noncompliance. There is no urgency to cut output," wrote Peter Beutel of Cameron Hanover in a research note.
This is because prices are still high in historical terms, so OPEC members continue to pull in big profits. The last time crude oil traded at $40 a barrel was in 2004, but Beutel noted that for roughly 94 percent of OPEC's history, its daily sales have been at prices below $40 a barrel.
Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it expects warmer-than-normal weather in the Northern United States to continue through March, while the U.S. government said supplies of gasoline, heating oil and diesel fuel remained abundant.
The energy market has deflated despite rising tensions in the Middle East, growing global energy demand and escalating violence in Nigeria, Africa's largest oil exporter and the fifth-largest supplier of crude to the United States.
Associated Press Writers George Jahn in Vienna, Austria, and Derrick Ho in Singapore contributed to this report.