Forget About Iran, Canada a Bigger Risk to Oil Market, Energy Trader Says

Forget About Iran, Canada a Bigger Risk to Oil Market, Energy Trader Says

The eyes of the world are fixed on the election protests in Iran. Yet, while unrest reigns in one of the world’s largest oil producers, crude prices have actually fallen below $70 a barrel. Stephen Schork, editor of The Schork Report, says that’s because traders have already priced in the risk.

Get this: The big risk to prices, Schork says, comes from our friendly neighbors to the north. Canada is America’s biggest supplier of oil - most of it coming from tar sands. The problem, according to Schork, is that the Obama administration has taken “a rather belligerent stance” toward that supply because it’s not environmentally friendly. If the administration increased taxes on Canadian oil it “could be displaced...that will have an uplift to prices,” he goes on to say.

And, don’t forget the risk south of the border. Maturing oil fields, drug cartels and political instability in Mexico have the potential to drive up prices. If the U.S. doesn’t pay more attention to these risk factors, investment will continue to dry up and leave us paying more at the pump, Schork warns.

So while everyone is focused on geopolitical “hot-spots” like Iran, Nigeria and Venezuela, the real risk to crude prices may be much closer to home.

Today in Russian Business - June 15, 2009

Today in Russian Business - June 15, 2009
http://www.robertamsterdam.com/2009/06/today_in_russian_business_-_june_15_2009.htm

(Source Robert Amsterdam Blog)
Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has said that he believes the dollar is in 'good shape' and does not need to be replaced as a global reserve currency. Russia will not 'significantly' change the structure of its reserves, he added. The Moscow Times examines the place of Russia within BRIC, as its economy falters and its lack of a 'properly developed financial sector' becomes problematic. At the first formal summit of the BRIC nations, new global reserve currencies will not be discussed, but reforming international financial institutions will be. Russia and Canada will support Germany's deal to sell Opel to Magna. China Development Bank has extended a $1 billion credit line to VEB. Oleg Deripaska has invited two of Putin's allies, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, to join the board of a paper mill that he owns in a conciliatory gesture towards the Prime Minister. Bloomberg looks at Deripaska's links to Putin, and how as 'Russia's largest non-state borrower', the oligarch will manage to emerge from the crisis.
http://www.robertamsterdam.com/cgi-bin/mt4/mt-t.cgi/15145

IMF says worst not over

IMF says worst not over

LONDON (Reuters) - The head of the IMF questioned on Monday any debate about when to roll back stimulus spending, saying the world economy had yet to weather the worst of a recession that claimed a record number of European jobs.

The 16-country euro zone lost a record 1.22 million jobs in the first quarter, official data showed. Employment during the first quarter fell 1.2 percent year-on-year, the deepest annual drop since measurements started in 1995.

Even if some form of economic recovery is not far off, analysts say unemployment will climb for many months to come.

Underlining the fragile state of the global economy, an influential economist said China would not see a rapid rebound and South Korea's finance minister said its economy was still sliding, although the pace had slowed.

But in southern Italy, Group of Eight finance ministers meeting at the weekend described their economies in the most positive terms since the collapse of U.S. bank Lehman Brothers nine months ago heightened the world's worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

"Their (G8) stance is that we are beginning to see some green shoots but nevertheless we have to be cautious," International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said during a visit to Kazakhstan. "The large part of the worst is not yet behind us."

Pressure has been building in the G8, particularly from fiscally conservative nations such as Germany and Canada, for plans to wind down stimulus as soon as it is no longer needed. Read Article... http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE55E0BJ20090615

What Obama Needs to Do to Get the U.S. Off Oil -- for Good

What Obama Needs to Do to Get the U.S. Off Oil -- for Good