Most Popular
1. Banking Crisis is Stocks Bull Market Buying Opportunity - Nadeem_Walayat
2.The Crypto Signal for the Precious Metals Market - P_Radomski_CFA
3. One Possible Outcome to a New World Order - Raymond_Matison
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
5. Apple AAPL Stock Trend and Earnings Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
6.AI, Stocks, and Gold Stocks – Connected After All - P_Radomski_CFA
7.Stock Market CHEAT SHEET - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.US Debt Ceiling Crisis Smoke and Mirrors Circus - Nadeem_Walayat
9.Silver Price May Explode - Avi_Gilburt
10.More US Banks Could Collapse -- A Lot More- EWI
Last 7 days
Stock Market Volatility (VIX) - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Investor Sentiment - 25th Mar 24
The Federal Reserve Didn't Do Anything But It Had Plenty to Say - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Breadth - 24th Mar 24
Stock Market Margin Debt Indicator - 24th Mar 24
It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - 24th Mar 24
Stocks: What to Make of All This Insider Selling- 24th Mar 24
Money Supply Continues To Fall, Economy Worsens – Investors Don’t Care - 24th Mar 24
Get an Edge in the Crypto Market with Order Flow - 24th Mar 24
US Presidential Election Cycle and Recessions - 18th Mar 24
US Recession Already Happened in 2022! - 18th Mar 24
AI can now remember everything you say - 18th Mar 24
Bitcoin Crypto Mania 2024 - MicroStrategy MSTR Blow off Top! - 14th Mar 24
Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - 11th Mar 24
Gold and the Long-Term Inflation Cycle - 11th Mar 24
Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - 11th Mar 24
Two Reasons The Fed Manipulates Interest Rates - 11th Mar 24
US Dollar Trend 2024 - 9th Mar 2024
The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - 9th Mar 2024
Investors Don’t Believe the Gold Rally, Still Prefer General Stocks - 9th Mar 2024
Paper Gold Vs. Real Gold: It's Important to Know the Difference - 9th Mar 2024
Stocks: What This "Record Extreme" Indicator May Be Signaling - 9th Mar 2024
My 3 Favorite Trade Setups - Elliott Wave Course - 9th Mar 2024
Bitcoin Crypto Bubble Mania! - 4th Mar 2024
US Interest Rates - When WIll the Fed Pivot - 1st Mar 2024
S&P Stock Market Real Earnings Yield - 29th Feb 2024
US Unemployment is a Fake Statistic - 29th Feb 2024
U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - 29th Feb 2024
What a Breakdown in Silver Mining Stocks! What an Opportunity! - 29th Feb 2024
Why AI will Soon become SA - Synthetic Intelligence - The Machine Learning Megatrend - 29th Feb 2024
Keep Calm and Carry on Buying Quantum AI Tech Stocks - 19th Feb 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

Why Oil Prices Not Debt Will Be Europe's Next Big Worry

Commodities / Crude Oil Sep 21, 2011 - 06:59 AM GMT

By: Money_Morning

Commodities

Best Financial Markets Analysis ArticleDr. Kent Moors writes: As I met with the Polish officials last Friday in Krakow to begin government sessions on shale gas policy, and European Union (EU) ministers met in the southwestern city of Wrocław, Poland, thoughts turned once again to oil pricing.


In case you haven’t been watching, Brent prices in London are approaching $113 per barrel, while the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) benchmark traded in New York is about to break the $90 per barrel level again.

The spread between the two remains at all-time highs, indicating that Brent will continue to appreciate quicker than U.S. pricing, although both are rising.

That spread is “in favor” of Brent.

This creates a continuing problem for the EU, which is faced with mounting Eurozone currency and liquidity problems, weakness in its banking sector, and a European Central Bank (ECB) that’s experiencing dissent – within its own ranks – over the proper course of action regarding Greece’s debt issues.

Friday’s meeting in Wrocław concerned whether Greece will receive the next tranche of a bailout package. That package is already widely perceived as being insufficient to prevent some sort of Greek default. Plus, the Germans are taking a hard line on what is necessary for that largess to keep coming.

Meanwhile, the internal dispute is getting intense.

A good example is the decision made last Friday morning by the ministers. Or perhaps more accurately, the non-decision. The ministers decided, well, not to decide until next month.

The prospect of higher prices for Brent further complicates matters with the common currency.

The euro has been losing ground against the dollar throughout the latest period of the debt crisis. Of course, that says less about the dollar’s strength than it does about the euro’s enduring weakness.

That, combined with a rise in the cost of energy, means Europe is facing the prospect of a new economic crunch.

This one has the potential of completely derailing this continent-wide recovery already distinguished by its anemic performance.

In Krakow, Too, Our Problem Is Oil
There are essentially three reasons Poland has decided to expedite decisions on developing its domestic shale gas.

First, they may well have a lot of it. The estimate I gave them puts the extractable reserves in the five basins already identified in the country at more than 187 trillion cubic feet – five times the rest of Europe combined.

Second, Poland is dependent upon Russian imported gas, the latest stage in a political disagreement 500 years in the making.

But it is the third reason that is most compelling.

Russia sells that gas to Europe according to long-term contracts of 20 years to 25 years in duration, and two provisions of those contracts are causing great concern in places like Poland.

The first is a “take-or-pay” provision. That requires an importing country either to take at least 80% of the contracted gas … or to pay up anyway.

As grating as that is, though, it is less significant than the second troubling provision.

That one lets Russia set the price for gas according to a basket of crude oil and oil-product prices. This means, as the price of oil increases, the price of natural gas increases right along with it. With Brent pricing levels moving up, staying warm in Europe this winter is looking more and more expensive.

That is, of course, if the latest row between Russia and Ukraine does not turn into a repeat of January 2009. Then, a similar dispute prompted Kiev to cut gas passing through its territory to Europe. You see, 70% of all Russian gas going west crosses Ukraine.

It could get ugly.

As we sat down to a late lunch Friday, a reminder of the massing problem began to circulate: Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) issued a report forecasting the price of oil to exceed $130 a barrel in the next year.

Most of us just smiled.

There wasn’t anybody at the table who thought the price would be that low 12 months from now.

Source : http://moneymorning.com/2011/09/21/how-high-oil-prices-will-fuel-europes-next-economic-crunch/

Money Morning/The Money Map Report

©2011 Monument Street Publishing. All Rights Reserved. Protected by copyright laws of the United States and international treaties. Any reproduction, copying, or redistribution (electronic or otherwise, including on the world wide web), of content from this website, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of Monument Street Publishing. 105 West Monument Street, Baltimore MD 21201, Email: customerservice@moneymorning.com

Disclaimer: Nothing published by Money Morning should be considered personalized investment advice. Although our employees may answer your general customer service questions, they are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular investment situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized investent advice. We expressly forbid our writers from having a financial interest in any security recommended to our readers. All of our employees and agents must wait 24 hours after on-line publication, or 72 hours after the mailing of printed-only publication prior to following an initial recommendation. Any investments recommended by Money Morning should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

Money Morning Archive

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in