Horse Crash & Fuel Prices how are they related..

[High Pressure]

I spoke with my brother-in-law in Oklahoma yesterday since he was laid up from a major horse crash... He was working 1,300 head of cattle in stock pins when he spun his mare around quickly and she did not raise her head and struck a steel pipe, which caused her to throw him off and then she proceeded step on his chest.. He was in the ER in Miami, Ok and then was helicoptered to Tulsa... all seems to be fine now... He's now laughing about it... It seems when he was stripped of his clothes and was in ER for several hours.. the nurses were looking his back and sides over for other injuries... and the nurses found something they were concerned about and brought the doctor over... after further discussion they weren't sure what the skin disorder was... My brother-in-law told them it was cow shit! :laugh2:
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Fuel price discussion... While talking with my brother-in-law.. He works for a major Canadian pipe line company.. (He did work for Shell Pipeline for 20yrs but like most Corporations they sold the pipeline business) where he responsible for several pump stations between Tulsa, Ok and Joplin, MO.. He told me that his company thinks the recent price increases are primarly due to speculation buyers.. He says his pump stations are currently running at 75% rate ... and have been running at these rates for weeks... He says the tanks are full... He did say 3-6 months ago.. they were running at 90% capacity .. (100% is 10,500 barrels per hour) In addition, his company is planning to build more tanks... because the "speculation buyers" are willing to pay significant storage fees in hopes that oil prices will continue to go up... and in turn they can sell the oil for a profit!!!

As Paul Harvey would say.. here's the rest of the story.. 1 hour before I spoke with him I was watching CSPAN .. where congress was questioning our Energy Secretary.. (who spent the majority of his life in finance for the banking/investment sector)...No offense to finance people... but what could he truly understand about energy.. is this the best we can do!! The question was asked "if he thought the recent fuel pump price increases were associated with speculation buyers?" ... He said "absolutely not".... Go figure.. would you not expect any other answer from a finance person... Hell.. he probably has personal investments.... in that game...

Okay.. I'm done.. .I feel better...:banghead:

[bucketobolts]

I agree 100%! If you look at the trading daily you can see the hoard and sell trend. Since no other sector of the market is making any real money, investors are reverting back to the old stand by commodities.

Another bit of trivia I read about this past week about a reporter that was allowed into North Korea. She toured an out of commission nuclear power plant. She saw how they were dismantling the fuel rods and storing them for disposal. Then the question was asked, if all of the nuclear power stations are off line, how are they making power? By heavy fuel oil fired steam turbines. Where do you think North Korea gets the fuel oil for the power plants? We are giving it to them in exchange for dismantling of the nuclear plants.

[chuzie]

I agree with the speculation buyers theory 100% however, I do not see any real solution to the issue. There is no way of regulating those types of activities in a manner which would alleviate the current fuel costs without creating havoc in the system. IF the government were to somehow step in it would open the door to other types of regulation in market sectors which I think would eventually lead to a serous crisis.

I hate to say it, but the system is working, just not in the favor of the average fuel consumers like you and I.

In retrospect, I wish I had jumped on the speculation bandwagon a while back so I could use my current and future profits to pay for my high fuel costs. No irony there!!!

[High Pressure]

I agree the sytem of free trade will work with time. So, we can only hope that after the speculation buyers have invested their money... we as consumers are able to reduce the consumption... and in turn hopefully the speculation buyers will loose their shirts!!

[chuzie]

There you go! I hope that is what happens too.