something even more impressive right here

These 17 companies have averaged an even more impressive 78% return in the past year

ACM AECOM Technology Corp
BCKBF.PK Babcock & Brown Infrastructure Group
BKR Michael Baker Corp
CBI Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V.
FLR Fluor Corp (NEW)
FWLT Foster Wheeler Ltd.
HINT Hill International, Inc.
ICA Empresas ICA SA (ADR)
JEC Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc.
LAYN Layne Christensen Company
MCQRF.PK Macquarie Infrastructure Group
MDR McDermott International
MTRX Matrix Service Company
PCR Perini Corp
SGR The Shaw Group, Inc.
VSR Versar, Inc.
WNG Washington Group International, Inc.

 

todays oil is $90.84

interesting read here



LONDON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - World oil production may peak in the coming years, but it will be because of a decline in demand for petroleum, not a lack of supply, a BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) economist said on Wednesday.

"I believe there is a realistic possibility that world oil production will peak within the next generation as a result of peaking demand," BP Special Economic Advisor Peter Davies told a meeting at parliament of a group of lawmakers formed to study peak oil.

He said environmental regulations, including efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, could cause energy consumers to move away from petroleum.

"I think we will run out of demand before we run out of supply," he said.

A rally in oil prices, which hit a record high above $100 a barrel earlier this month, is leading to growing interest in peak oil -- the view that supply has reached, or will soon reach, a high point and then fall.

Some leading industry figures -- the CEOs of Total (TOTF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) and ConocoPhillips (COP.N: Quote, Profile, Research) among them -- have questioned mainstream long-term forecasts for oil supply, suggesting a growing challenge to sustain production.

But London-based BP, the world's third-largest fully publicly traded oil company by market value, has said there is no need for concern.

"I am no subscriber to the theory that oil supplies have already peaked," Tony Hayward, BP's chief executive, said at a conference in November. (Reporting by Alex Lawler; editing by Jim Marshall)

 

finally the whole oil patch is getting sold off by wall street, COP ConocoPhillips was down 3.52 to $77.00 from a recent high of $90. fears of resession and oversupply

 

To an extent I believe this and I hope It's correct. My limited understanding of things is that this recent hike is due to all of the investors jumping from the real estate market into the gas/oil market. If that's in fact true then this current pricing should have a finite lifespan and will probably end fairly soon if the hosing market is any indication.

Thoughts?

 

this could be interesting as 4th quarter results are starting to hit the news .............hehehehehhe wait and watch


Oil Profits Could Spark Some Backlash
Thursday January 17, 6:53 am ET
By John Porretto, AP Business Writer
As Economy Weakens, Strong Fourth-Quarter, 2007 Results for Oil Companies May Raise Eyebrows


HOUSTON (AP) -- Historic oil prices and $3-a-gallon gasoline have been contributing to fears of a recession, but they've yet to cause the hue and cry that some might expect. Americans may simply be growing more accustomed to high fuel costs, analysts say.


All that may change beginning Friday, when oilfield services giant Schlumberger Ltd. kicks off earnings season for the oil sector. Companies may not post record profits, but certainly may report big enough earnings to raise some eyebrows.

Given the weakening economy and prospects for $4-a-gallon gasoline, hefty oil profits are almost sure to renew debate over whether Big Oil is profiting at the expense of most Americans.

"This wouldn't matter if we were talking about shoes," said Judy Dugan, research director at the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, which advocates more government oversight of the industry.

"But oil is like water. It's a necessity," she said. "And (oil producers) don't want to give up these profits even though they know what it's doing to the economy."

In 2005, when the price for a gallon of gas first hit $3, top oil executives were hauled before federal lawmakers to explain profits and assure customers they weren't being gouged.

Whether similar grillings or protestations take place this year could hinge on what occurs in the next couple of weeks, when oil majors such as Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips report fourth-quarter and 2007 earnings in the wake of $100-a-barrel oil.

Already, Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company, has predicted it will earn a bigger profit in the fourth quarter than it did in the third, when it earned $3.72 billion, because of higher energy prices. Last February, Chevron reported its third consecutive year of record profits: $17.1 billion for 2006.

ConocoPhillips, meanwhile, has said it produced more oil in the final three months of 2007 than in the third quarter, but likely made less money refining it into gasoline and other products.

Refining margins, which hurt many oil companies' earnings in the third quarter, are the difference between what refiners pay for oil and what they are paid for the products they make from it. Those margins have been squeezed as spiking oil prices outpaced increases in gasoline prices and other refined products.

Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, has offered no guidance for its upcoming report, expected Feb. 1. But Wall Street analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial predict the company to top its year-ago result and post quarterly revenue of $112.7 billion, a 25 percent jump from the fourth quarter of 2006.

Exxon Mobil's $39.5 billion profit for all of 2006 was the largest annual profit by a U.S. company.

John Felmy, chief economist at the American Petroleum Institute, the industry's top trade group, acknowledged the staggering profits in recent years but said some of the criticism has come from people who simply don't understand how oil markets operate.

He said part of the blame belongs to the industry itself, which is trying to do a better job of explaining to the public how it works.

"Buyers and sellers set the price of oil," Felmy said. "It's a function of what's being produced around the globe. So it really is a world price."

Felmy said it's also important to note that oil companies invest large portions of their profits back into the business. ConocoPhillips, for example, earned $15.5 billion in 2006, its best-ever result. This year, it says, its capital-spending budget is forecast to be $15.3 billion.

While Exxon Mobil often grabs headlines for its enormous earnings, most people don't realize it produces only 3 percent of the world's oil, Felmy and others note. National oil companies, like those in Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, control almost 90 percent of global oil reserves.

"Exxon, frankly, is pretty small potatoes in the world oil market," said John Moroney, a Texas A&M economics professor who just finished a book on energy production and consumption. "It's a huge company, but that doesn't mean it has a stranglehold on oil prices."

Dugan said one way to help keep prices in check is greater regulation of energy trading markets, but Congressional efforts to do so have been blocked by the industry's powerful lobby.

Many analysts believe speculative investors played a major role in driving oil prices over $100 earlier this month. The falling dollar fueled the speculative frenzy because crude futures offer a hedge against a weak dollar, and oil futures bought and sold in dollars are more attractive to foreign investors when the greenback is falling.

"If Congress and the Bush administration don't act now to regulate energy markets," she said, "they're throwing ordinary consumers and the national economy to the speculative wolves."

 

All oil companies, along with the entire stock market, has been taking a hit b/c of the "R" word going around.. it will hit everyone, but will go back up eventually.

I've been watching our COP stock doing down for the last week or so, but thats the stock market for ya...

funny how the world says screw you when the US asks for more oil production and things to ease prices on the american public, but say no way... then they realize that if the US economy tanks, so does a major part of their purchases.. (ie the rest of the worlds economies the last several days have been falling b/c of US recession fears)

I think it will be interesting to see how this all plays out, but as long as I have a job I'm good... and if not, I still have my insurance adjusters license!

 

from a 1-30-08 article

Distillates, which are used to make heating oil and diesel fuel, fell by 1.5 million barrels. Analysts were looking for a 1.6 million barrel gain.


we continue to use more crude and more diesel................not good for prices



http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/30/mark...ion=2008013012

 

here we go some more

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela has moved oil revenue into Swiss banks to avoid a possible seizure of funds by Exxon Mobil in a legal battle that pits leftist anti-U.S. President Hugo Chavez against America's biggest company.

The Texas energy giant won court rulings that froze assets belonging to Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA in a hardball maneuver meant to ensure the OPEC nation pays compensation for taking over a multibillion-dollar oil project last year.

Chavez vowed to fight back, threatening to stop oil sales to the United States -- Venezuela's biggest oil customer -- if it kept up its "economic war" through proxies such as Exxon.

 

looks like this could cost us all.................again
.................................................. ......................
Venezuela Suspends Exxon Oil Shipments
By Raul Gallegos, David Luhnow, and Russell Gold

Venezuela said it will suspend oil shipments to Exxon Mobil Corp. in an escalating dispute that pits the world's biggest oil company against a country with one of the planet's biggest reserves of oil.

State-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, known as PDVSA, said it would halt shipments to Exxon and suspend commercial ties. It said the one exception would be joint ventures overseas -- an apparent reference to a Chalmette, La., refinery owned by the two.

Exxon, of Irving, Texas, has refineries in the U.S. Gulf Coast that can handle Venezuela's sulphur-heavy crude, which can be difficult to ...

 

Reuters
Venezuela halts oil supplies to Exxon Mobil
Tuesday February 12, 11:20 pm ET
By Frank Jack Daniel


CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stopped oil exports to Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM - News) on Tuesday, escalating a multibillion-dollar fight with the U.S. company two days after threatening to cut off all supplies to America.


The anti-U.S. president's retaliation for Exxon's legal offensive, which froze $12 billion in Venezuelan assets, pushed oil prices higher in late trading.

State oil company PDVSA said it broke off commercial ties and halted the supply of crude and petroleum products to America's largest company in a fight over Exxon's demand for compensation after Chavez seized a crude project last year.

"Faced with the legal-economic harassment started by Exxon Mobil against PDVSA and as an act of reciprocity, PDVSA has decided to suspend commercial relations," the Venezuelan company said in a statement.

Venezuela is the No. 4 energy supplier to the United States, which is its biggest customer.

Washington has played down Chavez's threat, industry analysts say it is unlikely he will carry it out and even his deputy energy minister said Venezuela wanted to avoid a general cutoff because it would be costly for the OPEC nation.

But after regularly issuing conditional warnings over ending exports to what he calls the evil superpower, Tuesday's albeit limited move was the first time Chavez has taken any concrete action over supplies in a dispute.

PDVSA said it would not break certain contracts with Exxon, an apparent reference, analysts said, to the jointly owned Chalmette refinery in Louisiana.

Venezuela's other sales to Exxon in November were about 90,000 barrels per day, a drop in the bucket for the world's largest oil company.

'SABER-RATTLING'

Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates oil consultants, said Chavez's move was "saber-rattling."

"It is to Venezuela's interest to keep oil prices high and its response to the Exxon Mobil asset freeze orders has done just that," he said.

With two-thirds of Venezuela's oil exports going to the United States, industry analysts believe Chavez is unlikely to carry out his supply threat because it would slash revenue he uses to fund the social programs that underpin his popularity.

The Exxon battle pits Chavez, a leading proponent of resource nationalism who calls capitalism an evil, against one of a giant company seeking access to increasingly restricted oil deposits around the globe.

Chavez, a self-styled socialist revolutionary who clashes with Washington over everything from oil prices to democracy, says Exxon is a proxy in a U.S. economic war against him..

Venezuela's oil minister, Rafael Ramirez, said fellow OPEC members had expressed solidarity with the South American nation in the fight and consulted with the oil producers group's lawyers on a defense strategy.

But an official of the Bush administration, which has distanced itself from the Exxon action, said the United States had lined up allies in the spat too.

Other major oil producers have assured Washington they would make up for any interruption to Venezuelan supplies, said the official who declined to be named, adding a cutoff would hurt ordinary Venezuelans.

And the head of the International Energy Agency, which coordinates the release of global crude oil and refined product stockpiles in the event of a major supply disruption, said the group was willing to act if needed.

It was not immediately clear whether PDVSA would still supply some crude to Chalmette or what it would do with the excess crude that would normally go to the U.S. company.

Exxon Mobil said it will act to ensure supply to its clients.

"It is our long-standing practice to take appropriate steps to meet our customer needs," spokeswoman Margaret Ross said.