Word: petroleum
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...Weasel, Slippery Mick, Flying Pharaoh & Co. are the sobriquets of truck drivers who make the overland shuttle from England to Saudi Arabia, carrying heavy machinery to and cheap petroleum fro. Several years ago, British Journalist Robert Hutchison enlisted in the small army of these diesel gypsies, sharing their home cooking and their raunchy exploits. Aside from engine trouble and the occasional stray bullet, his lively memoir records few acknowledgments of the 20th century. Ancient hostilities persist, and bribery remains endemic. Still, customs inspectors prefer modern baksheesh. At one checkpoint, the presentation of a girly magazine "got us all waved...
...prices will rise. Reason: both Iran and Iraq have pumped as much oil as possible to pay for their holy war, helping depress prices. Peace could eliminate the glut, the theory goes, by bringing back tighter production quotas from Iran, Iraq and the other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Such thinking caused the price of oil futures to seesaw violently last week. The price of a barrel of West Texas crude jumped 84 cents, to $15.70, when Iran first proposed peace, then plunged 47 cents per bbl. the next day, after Iraqi fighters bombed Iranian targets...
Even if a cease-fire takes hold, however, the long-term outlook for petroleum prices is far from settled. Economists estimate that the two countries will need a total of at least $300 billion to rebuild their ravaged economies, twice their annual gross national products. The simplest solution is to sell more oil. Analysts predict that Iraq could nearly double its current production of 2.4 billion a day by 1990; Iran's daily capacity might jump from 2.5 million to 6 million. If they pump that much oil to pay for reconstruction, prices will plunge...
...prices much higher. "If the war ends, the geopolitics of oil are changed greatly," says Daniel Yergin, president of Cambridge Energy Research Associates in Cambridge, Mass. "But the price may not be changed nearly as much." The possibility of peace in the Persian Gulf seems to have left the petroleum community as bewildered as the rest of the world...
...British government promised a thorough inquiry, as did the Piper Alpha's owner, Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. After the accident, Occidental promptly shut down the pipeline that services Piper Alpha and five other platforms, thereby temporarily cutting British North Sea oil production by 12.9%. The losses in export earnings and tax revenues from Piper Alpha alone were expected to cost the British government at least $1.2 billion a year, while the losses to insurance companies were likely to exceed $1 billion. Occidental Chairman Armand Hammer promised a contribution of $1.7 million to a Piper Alpha disaster fund...