The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Friday said it would cut oil production quotas by 1.5 million barrels a day in an attempt to put a floor under oil prices, which have plunged nearly 60% from their July record.
On the supply front, Nigeria’s president said the country’s state-owned oil company will take over operations in the Ogoni district of southern Nigeria from a Royal Dutch Shell joint venture. President Umaru Yar’Adua made the announcement after talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, saying that the move will “calm down” unrest among local residents.
US commodities regulator the Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC) has launched begun to investigate possible market manipulation in the US crude oil market amid record oil prices and oil company profits. This from The Daily Telegraph:
The Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC), working closely with other international regulators including the Financial Services Authority in the UK, has begun a series of detailed inquiries over concerns that energy speculators are behind the rising oil price.
Recent Brazilian oil discoveries have lead Brazil’s richest man, Eike Batista, to take his company OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes SA public in a $3.37bn share offering. This from Bloomberg:
Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista is planning a 5.59 billion real ($3.37 billion) initial public offering of OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes SA, betting the country’s recent oil finds will lure investors who snubbed 20 IPOs this year.
Gold was very rangebound from the foreign markets through the New York session on Monday, with buyers emerging when it dropped below $880 and sellers equally present when it topped $885, and it stumbled into a finish at $882.20, down $1.80.
It’s enough to set off one’s contrarian radar. I mean, predictions of $200-a-barrel oil have been everywhere over the last week. CIBC analyst Jeff Rubin, with an eerily accurate track record of previous predictions, kicked it off last week with a forecast of $225 by 2012 with $7 gasoline to match.