Omens

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Petroplus Chief Executive Jean-Paul Vettier said in a statement: "We have worked hard to avoid this outcome, but were ultimately not able to come to an agreement with our lenders to resolve these issues given the very tight and difficult European credit and refining markets."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/9034701/Petroplus-bankruptcy-Government-confident-no-petrol-shortage-as-refinery-stops-sales.html

[Serial_Apologist]

I had no idea about this until the news was announced just now. It appears to be yet another gross miscalculation among the many that immediately come to mind, that subcontracting "services" is all part and parcel of oiling the wheels of the market for purposes of cost-saving and "efficiency".

[Mr Pee]

What have the pretty pictures got to do with the Telegraph link?

[3rd Viennese School]

looks like the view out of my window at home

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

“I am not here to cheer you up. The situation is about as serious and difficult as I’ve experienced in my career,” Soros tells Newsweek

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/georg...#ixzz1kOMgXdIP

the pictures refer to the blockade build up in the Strait of Hormuz and the text to the bankruptcy of Petroplus which operates a refinery in Essex that is closing in consequence, and the powers that be announcing there will be no shortage, keep calm and carry on .... so duck!


...and ahem ....i do like piccies of ships ....

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

and charts

[Mahlerei]

Thanks for that info, Calum. Sobering indeed.

[Serial_Apologist]

looks like the view out of my window at home

Has the Sahara reached Medway??

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks for that info, Calum. Sobering indeed.

Were the Irainians to blockade the Straits of Hormuz, it would of also stop their own oil exports... said a BBC "expert" this morning.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

no but it just might ......

and yes aren't experts on Auntie reassuring .....

[Mahlerei]

I'm sure Gingrich will sort out those pesky Aye-rabs.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

The global economy has slowed, financial volatility and investor risk aversion have sharply increased, and performance has continued to diverge across regions (Figure 2.1). In the United States, weak growth and the lack of a credible medium-term fiscal plan to reduce debt are draining confidence. Europe is gripped with financial strains from the sovereign debt crisis in the euro area periphery. How these advanced economies confront their fiscal challenges will profoundly affect their economic prospects. Emerging and developing economies as a group continue to expand, a few at rates well above their precrisis averages. However, growth will likely moderate as the slowdown in major advanced economies weighs on external demand.
from here

[Mahlerei]

The IMF has just predicted that disruption to oil supplies could push fuel prices up by 30-40%.

[ahinton]

The IMF has just predicted that disruption to oil supplies could push fuel prices up by 30-40%.

20-30% according to Reuters (see http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...80O1LH20120125) - but that's only if Iran does what it might be threatening to do; Iran may be getting increasingly isolated on the world stage but, if it nevertheless carries out its threat by closing the Straits of Hormuz and is successful in maintaining that closure for any length of time, other major international oil suppliers with quite different political agendas (e.g. the Arab League, Russia, Saudi Arabia, China, Mexico, UAE, Brazil, Kuwait, Venezuela, Iraq, Nigeria, Algeria, Angola, Libya and Kazakhstan which together account for more than 75% of the world's oil supplies) might see this as an opportunity to ratchet up their prices and/or refuse to supply, in which case oil prices could well rise by a three-figure or even four-figure percentage - an unlikely but by no means impossible scenario.

[Mahlerei]

ahinton

Thanks for the correction: it is indeed 20-30%.