US oil over $50 per barrel: Global Economy warning
September 28, 2004The price of oil from the US has risen over the $50 mark. This reflects the serious problem of increasing global demand (not least from China), coupled with problems with production - an insurgency in Nigeria; hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico stifling US output; the continued crisis in Iraq as pipelines are targeted; plus of course Western oil workers being targeted with shootings and bombings in Saudi Arabia.
What does this mean? It means we are looking at a major brake being applied to the Global Economy. Coupled with the over-valued housing problems in many Western countries, not least here in the UK, means that the world is literally teetering over the precipe of a new recession. Economic inertia makes it almost a certainly that markets are going to be impacted - the question is simply a matter of scale. How quickly issues relating to oil supply and demand is going to be a key factor in that.
The BBC provides a pretty excellent summary of the problems here.
More later…