The kind of crazy up-and-down movements of the oil markets in recent weeks and months is not a ripe opportunity for a major trading company like Vitol. In fact, its CEO and chairman Ian Taylor says that whipsaw activity is a nightmare for his company. “A market that is up $3 in the morning, down […]
The oil industry has often heard itself being criticized from within for not being bolder in sending a broadly positive message about what it does. Hydrocarbons make modern life possible; without them, we’re back to the mid-1800’s. And we should be telling the world that, pushing back against the naysayers. That’s the gist of the […]
Energy economist Phil Verleger has been waging a steady war against the argument that “too much” trading of energy futures contributes to higher prices. To the contrary, as he has written many times, in the long run it will contribute to lower prices, and current government efforts to curb speculation by diminishing volume is laying […]