Latin America stocks rise on higher oil prices
Dec 29th, 2008 | By Oil and Gas | Category: Latest News
MEXICO CITY – Latin American stocks rose slightly Monday as prices for oil and other locally produced commodities climbed.
Brazil’s benchmark Ibovespa index rose 0.5 percent to 37,060. Shares for state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA gained 2.4 percent to 22.52 reals amid a jump in world crude prices. Brazil’s currency gained slightly to trade at 2.4 reals to the U.S. dollar.
In Mexico, the benchmark IPC index dipped 0.6 percent to 22,392 as the peso weakened to 13.6 to the U.S. dollar. Mexico’s Central Bank sought to auction off $400 million in currency reserves to boost the sagging currency, but only received bidders for $46 million at a price of 13.62 pesos to the dollar.
Argentina’s Merval index meanwhile gained 1.7 percent to close at 1,076, while Chile’s IPSA rose 1 percent to 2,373 and Colombia’s IGBC slid 0.5 percent to 7,523.
The world financial crisis has battered Latin American stocks as foreign investors dump local assets to cover losses at home and sales at the region’s biggest commodity exporters sink with falling prices for oil, copper, soy and other products. Brazil’s Ibovespa has lost 48 percent of its value since June 2, and Mexico’s IPC has lost 29 percent.
Still, copper, silver and sugar prices rose on Monday, and oil prices surged 6.5 percent to $40.16 a barrel as Israel’s attack on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip raised concern that oil production might be disrupted in the Middle East.
Many investors, who’ve worried that plunging oil prices signal a long world recession, welcomed the gain. Oil prices have dropped more than 70 percent since topping $147 a barrel on July 11 as the slowing world economy curbed demand.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com
Related Oil and Gas Information
Oil prices will rise again in 2009.
Independent studies conclude that Peak Oil production will occur (or has occurred) between 2005 to 2010 (projected year for peak in parentheses), as follows:
* Association for the Study of Peak Oil (2007)
* Rembrandt Koppelaar, Editor of “Oil Watch Monthly” (2008)
* Tony Eriksen, Oil stock analyst (2008)
* Matthew Simmons, Energy investment banker, (2007)
* T. Boone Pickens, Oil and gas investor (2007)
* U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (2005)
* Kenneth S. Deffeyes, Princeton professor and retired shell Geologist (2005)
* Sam Sam Bakhtiari, Retired Iranian National Oil Company geologist (2005)
* Chris Skrebowski, Editor of “Petroleum Review” (2010)
* Sadad Al Husseini, former head of production and exploration, Saudi Aramco (2008)
* Energy Watch Group in Germany (2006)
Independent studies indicate that global crude oil production will now decline from 74 million barrels per day to 60 million barrels per day by 2015. During the same time, demand will increase. Oil supplies will be even tighter for the U.S. As oil producing nations consume more and more oil domestically they will export less and less. Because demand is high in China, India, the Middle East, and other oil producing nations, once global oil production begins to decline, demand will always be higher than supply. And since the U.S. represents one fourth of global oil demand, whatever oil we conserve will be consumed elsewhere. Thus, conservation in the U.S. will not slow oil depletion rates significantly.
Alternatives will not even begin to fill the gap. And most alternatives yield electric power, but we need liquid fuels for tractors/combines, 18 wheel trucks, trains, ships, and mining equipment. The independent scientists of the Energy Watch Group conclude in a 2007 report titled: “Peak Oil Could Trigger Meltdown of Society:”
“By 2020, and even more by 2030, global oil supply will be dramatically lower. This will create a supply gap which can hardly be closed by growing contributions from other fossil, nuclear or alternative energy sources in this time frame.”
http://www.energywatchgroup.org/fileadmin/global/pdf/EWG_Press_Oilreport_22-10-2007.pdf
With increasing costs for gasoline and diesel, along with declining taxes and declining gasoline tax revenues, states and local governments will eventually have to cut staff and curtail highway maintenance. Eventually, gasoline stations will close, and state and local highway workers won’t be able to get to work. We are facing the collapse of the highways that depend on diesel and gasoline powered trucks for bridge maintenance, culvert cleaning to avoid road washouts, snow plowing, and roadbed and surface repair. When the highways fail, so will the power grid, as highways carry the parts, large transformers, steel for pylons, and high tension cables from great distances. With the highways out, there will be no food coming from far away, and without the power grid virtually nothing modern works, including home heating, pumping of gasoline and diesel, airports, communications, and automated building systems.
This is documented in a free 48 page report that can be downloaded, website posted, distributed, and emailed: http://www.peakoilassociates.com/POAnalysis.html
I used to live in NH-USA, but moved to a more sustainable place. Anyone interested in relocating to a nice, pretty, sustainable area with a good climate and good soil? Email: clifford dot wirth at yahoo dot com or give me a phone call which operates here as my old USA-NH number 603-668-4207. http://survivingpeakoil.blogspot.com/