Monday, August 01, 2005

Fahd dead; oil up

Crude oil rose above $61 a barrel in New York after Saudi Arabia's King Fahd, ruler of the world's largest oil exporter, died, heightening concern about supplies following refinery disruptions in the U.S. and Europe.

The Saudi throne, held by Fahd for 23 years, will pass to his half-brother, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, Saudi State Television said. The Crown Prince has been running the kingdom's day-to-day affairs since 1995, when Fahd suffered a stroke. Prices had already gained after BP Plc shut a refinery unit in Texas.

"It's a combination of today's news about the king's death and all these refinery outages that just keep coming," said Edward Meir, a commodity analyst at Man Financial Ltd. in Darien, Connecticut. "It's hard to make the case for a substantial retreat" in oil prices this week.

  Bloomberg article

This week?

Another bogus reason for oil prices to rise. Please. Abdullah had been running the show since 1995. What changes?

Now, the refinery shut downs - that's another thing.

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