Osama bin Laden

Oil settled lower Monday after the dollar rose in afternoon trading.

Benchmark crude for June delivery fell 41 cents to settle at $113.52 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude lost 77 cents to settle at $125.12 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Oil dropped below $111 a barrel early Monday, after President Barack Obama announced Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan. The dollar rose at the same time. Oil is priced in dollars, so as the dollar strengthens oil becomes less attractive to investors with foreign currency, and the price falls.
Later in the day, the dollar weakened and oil recovered some ground.

Bin Laden's death represents a tipping point for global oil and commodities prices, and the exit of Libya's Moammar Gadhafi could remove further uncertainty about oil supplies in the region.

The main concerns are the lingering issues of sovereign debt such as Greece, Irland and Portugal and the economic recovery, WorldWatch warns that if the consumer petrol pump prices in Portugal continues to rise, as it is already one of the most expensive in the world, then economic recovery will be a dream.
Gas pump prices are still climbing. The national average for a liter of regular 95 Octane is a staggering 1.641€, the most expensive ever.

Deep-Water Pause

A list of 33 deep-water Gulf of Mexico floating rigs affected by the Obama administration’s drilling moratorium as of May 26, according to an official with the Minerals Management Service:

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (5 rigs)
Eni SpA (3)
Marathon Oil Corp. (3)
Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (3)
Statoil ASA (2)
Chevron Corp. (2)
Noble Corp. (2)
Devon Energy Corp. (2)
BP Plc (2)
BHP Billiton Ltd. (2)
Hess Corp. (1)
LLOG Exploration Co. (1)
Walter Energy Inc. (1)
Petroleo Brasileiro SA (1)
ATP Oil & Gas Corp. (1)
Newfield Exploration Co. (1)
Nexen Inc. (1)

WorldWatch News..

Once more SPECULATION is on the move, now we have Traders, energy economist and OPEC Oil Minister trying to force the crude prices up... The steepest plunge in crude prices on record is not over, Commodities prices last year fell the most in five decades as crude dropped more than $115 from the peak of $147.27 in July. OPEC is determined to inflate crude prices, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said Dec. 21 in London, and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah said in November that $75 was a fair price. That month his nation cut output by 3.2 percent, the most since April 2006..
This will have a reverse effect on the crude prices as the world economy sinks further and demand will no doubt continue to fall, the so-called forward curve of futures suggests crude prices will fall 27 percent in the first quarter of 2009, the steepest drop in seven years... The world economy will get into a more stable environment most probably in the second half of next year.. Crude for February delivery traded at $46.89 a barrel at 9:50 a.m. in London today, compared with $60.10 for the December 2009 contract.
The U.S. economy will shrink 2.4 percent this quarter while Europe will shrink 1.8 percent according to economists surveyed by WorldWatch. Oil tumbled almost $115 a barrel from its July record. however there are some Countries that continue to practice inflated final consumer prices, one example is Portugal were energy prices are one of the most expensive in Europe...