Light, Sweet Crude Oil

With NYMEX Crude Oil Futures trading at a RECORD high of over $60/barrel it makes you wonder which backwoods Texan hick came up with the names West Texas Intermediate, Low Sweet Mix, New Mexican Sweet, North/South Texas Sweet and Oklahoma Sweet. With July contracts out of the way, and August (front-month) set to expire next I think the rationale is definitely higher. Sure its the ever supply (30mil OPEC barrels) and demand (84 mil barrels consumed) but when prices were $35/barrel a year ago it makes you wonder why my portfolio isn't heavily vested in oil companies. Profiting from the enemy? Hmm...perhaps a conflict of interest? Jury is out on that one.

ExxonMobil (XOM) - 27.8 Bil income / 276.6 Bil Sales last year
Unocal (UCL) - 1.4 Bil income / 8.3 Bil Sales last year
BP Amoco (BP) - 17.6 Bil income / 298.5 Bil Sales last year
Shell - Royal Dutch Petroleum (RD) - 11.1 Bil income / 159.1 Bil Sales last year
ChevronTexaco (CVX) - 13.4 Bil income in last year / 150.1 Bil Sales last year

Good thing I just bought a Hybrid. Now what to do with my SUV? (And btw, Bush is a very bad man.)

Which brings me to my next diatribe. See this article.

http://www.karmabanque.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=KarmaBoycott&file=boycott&id=22

Bottom line, with Nigeria being the largest oil producer in Africa (8th in the world) and yet remaining one of the poorest countries in the world it is no mere coincidence that since 1959 Shell Oil has extracted $30 billion worth of oil from Ogoniland with nothing but a puppet military dictatorship supressing the Nigerians in return.

http://www.eraction.org/index.php?page=modules&name=articles&action=view&artid=6
http://www.mallenbaker.net/csr/nl/page.php?Story_ID=616
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/nigeria.html