the day that the price of oil surpassed the $ 130 barrier, executives from five major U.S. oil companies defended before the U.S. Senate gasoline prices and, above all, its opulent benefits.
One by one, the executives of Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, Shell, Chevron and BP are shielded in the eternal law of supply and demand to justify the acceleration of the rise in gasoline prices and deny that the huge profits they are enjoying having no sinister origin.
For example, Shell President John Hofmeister said that what is happening "is the operation of the fundamental laws of supply and demand."
Robert Malone, chairman of BP, said that the big oil companies can not "change the world markets." Although he said he would like to relieve the consumers.
He added that "today's high prices are linked to the failure both here and abroad, to increase the supply (energy) renewable and conservation."
Of course, this last point in the interests of the sector that the authorities want to approve the exploitation of resources in environmentally sensitive areas in Alaska, something opposed by large segments of Congress and the American public.
Returning to the subject of prices, the top five executives repeated again and again that both the present and the future, the markets that determine prices.
Some U.S. senators, mostly Democrats but also some Republicans, are not convinced that the situation is less clear. Or that the billions of dollars in company profits justified.
Sen. Arlen Specter summed up the feelings of many when he noted that in the last five years, Exxon's profits have increased from 11,500 million to 40,600 million. According to Specter nobody has explained why "the benefits have gone up so much while the consumer is suffering so much."
The background to the questions of the senators is to know exactly why the price of oil has shot in this way. For example, other commodities have experienced a great increase in their prices. But if oil is unique.
is the case of copper. The reserves of this metal are under pressure to soaring demand. But the price increase is comparable to that of oil.
In 2006, Senate Democrats directly pointed to speculation as the cause of rising gasoline prices.
A report prepared by Sens. Carl Levin and Norm Coleman, noted that "market speculation has contributed to rising oil prices and many energy-market transactions are occurring without regulatory oversight." Recently
an analyst at the Center for Research on Globalization, a Canadian organization that identifies itself as progressive, said that current oil prices are not supported by the law of supply and demand.
contrast, 60 percent in oil prices is due to speculation that are having hedge funds and large commercial banks.
As in the report of Senators Levin and Coleman, in his analysis, William Engdahl, also referred to the lack of controls on trade in oil futures over the past decade as a source of the current "bubble." According to Engdahl
this has allowed oil prices are no longer really set by OPEC countries but for Wall Street in New York and ICE Futures in London.
In January 2006, the administration Bush allowed the U.S. oil futures contracts traded on the ICE Futures in London, which in practice prevents the regulatory controls on U.S. markets.
In January 2006, the price of a barrel of oil stood at $ 60. Two years later the figure had more than doubled. To Engdahl is not surprising that the prices of oil futures contracts just skyrocketed since January 2006.
Especially because ICE does not have to report daily on large transactions in the energy sector, making it impossible to detect price manipulation. Via = www.es.biz.yahoo.com
