Anno Zero?

[Cristoforo]

*Gibberish*

[Marco Polo]

the peak oil theory is quite scary. It is one of the primary reasons i think that america is oil grabbing. With all its faults at least the eu is trying to shift to renewables. Let's hope we have hydrogen cars soon.

[SetteCento]

[QUOTE=Marco Polo]the peak oil theory is quite scary. It is one of the primary reasons i think that america is oil grabbing.
China is also!
With it`s fastly rapid developement they are consuming and genertating as much material and resources they can. they are one of the main consumators of international oil.
Should be there to see and confirm!

[Marco Polo]

china is one of the reasons the peak oil phenomenon is happening. too many oil consumers, not enough oil

[etoile noir]

China, the World's Capital - By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, NY Times (http://http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/22/opinion/22kristof.html?th&emc=th)

KAIFENG, China

As this millennium dawns, New York City is the most important city in the world, the unofficial capital of planet Earth. But before we New Yorkers become too full of ourselves, it might be worthwhile to glance at dilapidated Kaifeng in central China.

Kaifeng, an ancient city along the mud-clogged Yellow River, was by far the most important place in the world in 1000. And if you've never heard of it, that's a useful warning for Americans - as the Chinese headline above puts it, in a language of the future that many more Americans should start learning, "glory is as ephemeral as smoke and clouds."

As the world's only superpower, America may look today as if global domination is an entitlement. But if you look back at the sweep of history, it's striking how fleeting supremacy is, particularly for individual cities.

My vote for most important city in the world in the period leading up to 2000 B.C. would be Ur, Iraq. In 1500 B.C., perhaps Thebes, Egypt. There was no dominant player in 1000 B.C., though one could make a case for Sidon, Lebanon. In 500 B.C., it would be Persepolis, Persia; in the year 1, Rome; around A.D. 500, maybe Changan, China; in 1000, Kaifeng, China; in 1500, probably Florence, Italy; in 2000, New York City; and in 2500, probably none of the above.

Today Kaifeng is grimy and poor, not even the provincial capital and so minor it lacks even an airport. Its sad state only underscores how fortunes change. In the 11th century, when it was the capital of Song Dynasty China, its population was more than one million. In contrast, London's population then was about 15,000.

An ancient 17-foot painted scroll, now in the Palace Museum in Beijing, shows the bustle and prosperity of ancient Kaifeng. Hundreds of pedestrians jostle each other on the streets, camels carry merchandise in from the Silk Road, and teahouses and restaurants do a thriving business.

Kaifeng's stature attracted people from all over the world, including hundreds of Jews. Even today, there are some people in Kaifeng who look like other Chinese but who consider themselves Jewish and do not eat pork.

As I roamed the Kaifeng area, asking local people why such an international center had sunk so low, I encountered plenty of envy of New York. One man said he was arranging to be smuggled into the U.S. illegally, by paying a gang $25,000, but many local people insisted that China is on course to bounce back and recover its historic role as world leader.

"China is booming now," said Wang Ruina, a young peasant woman on the outskirts of town. "Give us a few decades and we'll catch up with the U.S., even pass it."

She's right. The U.S. has had the biggest economy in the world for more than a century, but most projections show that China will surpass us in about 15 years, as measured by purchasing power parity.

So what can New York learn from a city like Kaifeng?

One lesson is the importance of sustaining a technological edge and sound economic policies. Ancient China flourished partly because of pro-growth, pro-trade policies and technological innovations like curved iron plows, printing and paper money. But then China came to scorn trade and commerce, and per capita income stagnated for 600 years.

A second lesson is the danger of hubris, for China concluded it had nothing to learn from the rest of the world - and that was the beginning of the end.

I worry about the U.S. in both regards. Our economic management is so lax that we can't confront farm subsidies or long-term budget deficits. Our technology is strong, but American public schools are second-rate in math and science. And Americans' lack of interest in the world contrasts with the restlessness, drive and determination that are again pushing China to the forefront.

Beside the Yellow River I met a 70-year-old peasant named Hao Wang, who had never gone to a day of school. He couldn't even write his name - and yet his progeny were different.

"Two of my grandsons are now in university," he boasted, and then he started talking about the computer in his home.

Thinking of Kaifeng should stimulate us to struggle to improve our high-tech edge, educational strengths and pro-growth policies. For if we rest on our laurels, even a city as great as New York may end up as Kaifeng-on-the-Hudson.

[naggar]

source: http://www.mosnews.com/money/2005/05/20/oilprice.shtml

The world oil price could grow to 80-100 dollars per barrel by late august, experts from the Russian centre of Strategic Developments said.

... Currently the world oil market is looking to hoover between the 45-50 quota. The only thing that could prompt rapid growth is the start of a US military campain against Iran.

[Marco Polo]

first of all oil will increase in cost with the onset of winter (energy is needed for heating)

griffin spoke of the peak oil crisis at the euro conference in america. http://www.vivamalta.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1197&highlight=griffin

[Admin]

BNP is the first political party I know of which is talking about the Peak Oil. I cannot understand why this subject - which is potentially more devastating than anything we ever saw, including world wars, tsunamis and ozone layer depletion - is not being discussed more.

It would not do for the sheep to panic. We would have a stampede.

[Marco Polo]

nat van had mentioned peak oil quite a while ago. the peak oil theory sounds very valid. it would destroy the western economy. insomma, listen to griffin.

[Cristoforo]

Just a month-old article from the Guardian - - http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,,1464050,00.html

Some extracts:

Campbell reckons global peak production of conventional oil - the kind associated with gushing oil wells - is approaching fast, perhaps even next year.

"About 944bn barrels of oil has so far been extracted, some 764bn remains extractable in known fields, or reserves, and a further 142bn of reserves are classed as 'yet-to-find', meaning what oil is expected to be discovered. If this is so, then the overall oil peak arrives next year," he says

If he is correct, then global oil production can be expected to decline steadily at about 2-3% a year, the cost of everything from travel, heating, agriculture, trade, and anything made of plastic rises. And the scramble to control oil resources intensifies. As one US analyst said this week: "Just kiss your lifestyle goodbye."



The study of "peak oil" - the point at which half the total oil known to have existed in a field or a country has been consumed, beyond which extraction goes into irreversible decline - used to be back-of-the envelope guesswork. It was not taken seriously by business or governments, mainly because oil has always beencheap and plentiful.

In the wake of the Iraq war, the rapid economic rise of China, global warming and recent record oil prices, the debate has shifted from "if" there is a global peak to "when".

According to industry consultants IHS Energy, 90% of all known reserves are now in production, suggesting that few major discoveries remain to be made. Shell says its reserves fell last year because it only found enough oil to replace 15-25 % of what the company produced

http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,,1464050,00.html

[Mazzola75]

So, basically the price of anything in the market will start going up from next year? Surely this will be an Age of Scarcity as Griffin called it in his speech.

[Mirko]

i'm really interested to hear NL's view on this subject!

[Marco Polo]

2012 does seem quite a realistic date now doesnt it? Ill be 31, just the right age to start a political career :)

[Mazzola75]

i'm really interested to hear NL's view on this subject!

Even I would like to hear his thoughts on this.

[Gladiator]

Just today in the newspaper The Globe & Mail, there is an article ( By Madelaine Drohan) regarding the price of oil. The point made was whether to beleive the economist and the analysts, should the price of oil will go up $100.00 per barrel?

Like any commodity, the price of oil will rise and fall.

[Mazzola75]

Just today in the newspaper The Globe & Mail, there is an article ( By Madelaine Drohan) regarding the price of oil. The point made was whether to beleive the economist and the analysts, should the price of oil will go up $100.00 per barrel?

Like any commodity, the price of oil will rise and fall.

Flawed assumption. The stock of oil is finite.

[Gladiator]

Flawed assumption. The stock of oil is finite.

You mean the supply or price per barrel?

http://www.hotstockguide.com/?src=IO

Have a look at this link.

[Mazzola75]

You mean the supply or price per barrel?

http://www.hotstockguide.com/?src=IO

Have a look at this link.

I meant that as the various links above said, the amount of oil we can extract is finite. So, at a certain point, the oil price will go up and up and up....

[Gladiator]

I meant that as the various links above said, the amount of oil we can extract is finite. So, at a certain point, the oil price will go up and up and up....

Mazzola75, I shall be sending some newspaper articles about this topic to the Media dept of VivaMalta, through the mail, in the coming weeks. You should have a look at them.

[Marco Polo]

[source: BNP (http://www.bnp.org.uk/news_detail.php?newsId=310)]



A world without oil

13th May 2005

News article filed by Steve Blake, webeditor

http://www.bnp.org.uk/images/newsarchive11/lastdrop.jpg An opportunity or a nightmare? http://www.bnp.org.uk/images/bullets/spacer.gif

http://www.bnp.org.uk/images/bullets/spacer.gif
Imagine for a moment a world without oil. Almost everything we do and take for granted would be impossible. We may have to walk to work, but what kind of work would we do? What would be in the warehouses, shops and factories? There would be no supermarkets, no DIY superstores; every city would fall silent as no petrol or diesel fuelled vehicles filled its streets. Aeroplanes would be left gathering dust at the edge of empty and abandoned airports. Nights would be a lot darker as the millions of traffic lamps would become redundant, long stretches of concrete motorways would become home to foxes, rabbits and badgers along the overgrown embankments.

We might have to learn to “make do” with locally produced food; it might taste better and have more nutritional value than the mass produced commodities we consume today. We may have to grow our own food in our own gardens. We may have to do a bit more exercise in our daily lives, and as a nation we might not be so obese, so vain and so narcissistic. We have to be ever more resourceful to survive and prosper, both at a individual and family level and at a national and regional level.

We might have to learn to be responsible for own our actions and our own protection as it would be impossible for a centralised Whitehall based administration to tax, police, fleece, protect and control the entire population. We might have to learn to make decisions for ourselves without a centralised and tightly controlled media spewing forth misinformation, determining fashions, political views and lifestyles.

Apocalypse or renaissance

Some people may see the scenario as a catastrophe of unprecedented proportions, as an apocalyptic vision. Others however may see the end of oil as an opportunity to correct the wrongs that have been inflicted upon our planet, an opportunity to live in harmony with the cycles of nature, an opportunity to lead healthier, more satisfying and more fulfilled existences, a renaissance of learning, culture and spirituality rather than shallow material obsessed consumerism.

This is not a hypothetical situation. A major change is going to happen which will have global consequences and politicians of all persuasions are becoming gradually aware of a concept which we are all going to hear a lot more about in the coming months and years. It is the recognition of the fundamental observation that the entire developed world’s infrastructure is dependent on a finite resource - namely oil. The problems will not suddenly occur when the last drop has been extracted from the deserts of Arabia; the problems will start when demand exceeds supply and when more than 50% of the reserves have been extracted. That is happening now! “Peak oil” is going to become an everyday household phrase but only those that are aware of the existence of the issue and only those with a concrete plan of action are going to last the course.

BNP Chairman, Nick Griffin attended a “Peak Oil” conference in Edinburgh last month and gives us a flavour of the issue in his latest contribution over at the Chairman’s Column. (http://www.bnp.org.uk/columnists/chairman2.php?ngId=19)

[Cristoforo]

Finally, even some established politicians like Griffin are realizing what the Peak Oil is about. There must be an unprecented scale down in our consuming and an equivalent spike in investment in alternative energy research to give us hopes for the future.

Meantime, a party, be small as it may be, has to work on a contingency plan. BNP are spot on here.

[Marco Polo]

ive been stuck on this damn essay for months now.

I was writing an essay on environmentalism with overpopulation as the main cause of environmental degradation and oil played a starring role. im too lazy and too busy too write. hope to get around to it soon.

[bennej]

Do you really think that peak oil is about. As time passes man is reaching deeper and deeper wells previously thought beyond extraction. Also Canada has started for the first time economic extraction of oil from its vast tar-shale deposits in its outback. As oil price soars technology compensates to adjust or absorbe impact.

[Marco Polo]

didnt you hear the griffin speech? he explains these new discoveries more.

[argo]

The sooner this apocalyptic scenario becomes reality, the better for us all. It might finally get western governments to pull their thumbs out of their collective a$$holes and do something to boost R & D in alternative energy, most likely hydrogen. This would reduce our dependence on oil from volatile west hating countries to a minimum. On the contrary, they will become dependent on western technology.

[naggar]

source: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=641172

The pipeline will make its tortuous way from the Caspian in Azerbaijan, through Georgia to the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. It will shore up energy supplies in the US and Europe for 50 years, protecting our gas-guzzling way of life and easing our reliance on the House of Saud.

Honestly I think it will make also the entry of turkey in EU more easier, making turkey an important player in the EU.

[etoile noir]

Is There Life After Oil?
James Howard Kunstler on The Long Emergency - by Brian Kaller


James Howard Kunstler ... warns of dark days ahead if we do not change the way we live.

"People will either adapt or perish in the Long Emergency. We've already made a whole lot of bad choices, collectively, including our decision to build a drive-in, easy-motoring utopia. Let's not continue to make bad choices, okay? Let's not mount a stupid and futile campaign to prop up the fading "entitlements" of suburbia. Let's prepare to downscale and live locally. Let's rebuild the U.S. passenger railroad system—that's something we already know how to do, and it is a symptom of our obdurate cluelessness and lack of seriousness that we refuse to do it.

Life is tragic. History doesn't care if we fail as a civilization. Others have gone before us. We have to take responsibility for what we are facing and quit expecting to be rescued by wishes, dreams, and miracles."

http://www.pulsetc.com/article.php?sid=1853 (http://www.pulsetc.com/article.php?sid=1853)

[Cristoforo]

The Amish alone have a head start on where we are headed This quote from the article EN linked is definitely the simplest way to explain what can happen!

[Cristoforo]

Unprecedented warnings from the scientific community indicate that the planet's ecosystems are stressed near the point of collapse; business as usual is no longer possible, and we have little time left to respond. Civilization is also approaching a nexus of social crises. All of these problems result from the nature of our existing economic system, and we cannot expect solutions from political leaders or corporations.


Therefore, this author is soliciting advice from experts and from anyone who might have suggestions as to what measures can people of limited means undertake to ease their transition into a post- petroleum world

http://www.survivingpeakoil.com/

[Cristoforo]

Facing the New Dark Age: A Grassroots Approach

John Michael Greer

ABSTRACT: Despite four decades of detailed warnings, industrial civilization has failed to turn aside from self-destructive policies of exponential growth and dependence on nonrenewable resources. At this point, stark limits of time and resources as well as a failure of political will make attempts to prevent the fall of industrial society an exercise in futility. Individuals, small groups, and communities can still prepare for the approaching crises by mastering low-tech survival skills now to lay foundations for a sustainable society in the future.

In 1972, the Club of Rome's pathbreaking study The Limits to Growth(1) sent shockwaves around the world. At a time when politicians and pundits across the political spectrum argued that infinite economic growth was not only possible but desirable, The Limits to Growth showed that infinite growth on a finite planet was a recipe for disaster. They predicted that depletion of vital resources and increasing impacts from pollution would break the back of the global economy, leading to industrial collapse and massive dieoff in the first half of the twenty-first century. Further studies(2) over the next few decades confirmed and expanded the warning, while economists and energy scientists showed that a sustainable steady-state economy was in reach if the process started at once.(3)

Continued on -->

http://www.survivingpeakoil.com/article.php?id=facing_dark_age

[Cristoforo]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4581955.stm



As oil prices continue to hover above the $50-a-barrel mark, amid fears that the world may soon run out of fossil fuels, carmakers and politicians alike are desperate to come up with alternative ways to power the world's motor vehicles.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41186000/jpg/_41186489_saopaulo_bbc203b.jpg Sao Paulo's traffic congestion is notorious in Brazil



Even a man as closely linked with the oil industry as President George W Bush is now spreading the message that one day we may be growing our fuel instead of digging it out of the ground. "An interesting opportunity, not only for here but for the rest of the world, is biodiesel, a fuel developed from soybeans," he said on Tuesday night at his joint news conference with UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. ......

[wiking]

Hello

just found out this. I don't know what to make of peak oil arguments yet.

http://www.vialls.com/wecontrolamerica/peakoil.html

[Gladiator]

source: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=641172

The pipeline will make its tortuous way from the Caspian in Azerbaijan, through Georgia to the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. It will shore up energy supplies in the US and Europe for 50 years, protecting our gas-guzzling way of life and easing our reliance on the House of Saud.

Honestly I think it will make also the entry of turkey in EU more easier, making turkey an important player in the EU.

That is one of the reasons why Britain wants Turkey in the EU lol. I shall give you rep points for this.

[Mazzola75]

Żejt, jilħaq prezz rekord storiku. $59
Miktub: 20/06/2005 13:56:23
Awtur: maltarightnow.com http://www.maltarightnow.com/content/images/OIL%20PRODUCTION%202.jpg SINGAPORE - Prezz rekord storiku għaż-żejt fis-swieq internazzjonali, hekk kif kmieni dalgħodu tela' għal $59.18 dollaru għal kull barmil. L-esperti spjegaw li din iż-żieda hi riżultat ta' spekulazzjoni dwar is-sigurta' fl-Asja hekk kif kien ordnat l-għeluq tal-konsolati ta' l-Istati uniti, tar-Renju unit, kif ukoll tal-Ġermanja f'Lagos fin-Niġerja minħabba l-biża' ta' attakk terroristiku.


http://www.maltarightnow.com/news/portal.asp?module=article&t=a&aid=3130&cid=19

[Marco Polo]

so there isnt even a word for something so simple as barrel either? what is gonna happen if we ever strike oil here? we call it barretta, tank tal-hadid, tank tonda or barrill???

[PERICLES]

so there isnt even a word for something so simple as barrel either? what is gonna happen if we ever strike oil here? we call it barretta, tank tal-hadid, tank tonda or barrill???

"tank taz-zejt" ;)

[Freedom]

so there isnt even a word for something so simple as barrel either? what is gonna happen if we ever strike oil here? we call it barretta, tank tal-hadid, tank tonda or barrill???
Buzejt or Muzjet. :p

just found out this. I don't know what to make of peak oil arguments yet.

http://www.vialls.com/wecontrolamerica/peakoil.html (http://www.vialls.com/wecontrolamerica/peakoil.html)

Seems that fighting for oil monopolies is the best thing to do now.

[Admin]

so there isnt even a word for something so simple as barrel either? what is gonna happen if we ever strike oil here? we call it barretta, tank tal-hadid, tank tonda or barrill???

Actually, the name of the person who practices the traditional craft of barrel making is named "buttar" if I remember correctly. The craft is all but extinct now, of course. From "buttar" which derives from the italian "botte" meaning barrel, I'd hazard a guess of "botti" meaning barrel in maltese. Of course "botti" does have another meaning too...

[Marco Polo]

oh great, so we can call a barrel a butt? lol

[Admin]

oh great, so we can call a barrel a butt? lol
Yeah. A big blue butt with yellow stars.;)

[Mazzola75]

Żejt, rekord ieħor. Jitla' għal $60. OPEC, issejjaħ laqgħa straordinarja
Miktub: 20/06/2005 19:04:06
Awtur: maltarightnow.com http://www.maltarightnow.com/content/images/OIL%20PRICE%20RISE.jpg NEW YORK - Żieda oħra konsekuttiva fil-prezz internazzjonali taż-żejt. Ftit qabel il-17.00, (ħin ta' Malta) barmil żejt ġie jiswa' 60 dollaru. Prezz li ftit wara niżel għal ftit u stabilizza fil-livell ta' $59.20. Jibqa' madankollu prezz rekord assolut li qed jitfa' kriżi l-ekonomiji madwar id-dinja. L-Organizazzjoni tal-Pajjiżi Produtturi taż-Żejt (OPEC) sejħet laqgħa straordinarja urġenti għar-rappreżentanti tagħha bl-iskop li sib soluzzjoni u trazzan il-prezz dejjem tiela' u twassal biex tkabbar il-produzzjoni b'mill-anqas nofs miljun barmil ieħor kulju

http://www.maltarightnow.com/news/portal.asp?module=article&t=a&aid=3142&cid=19

[Artist]

The price of oil

The Times of Malta

Paul V. Azzopardi

This year's oil price advance is different from last year's. During the summer and autumn 2004, the price of oil was increasing but the dollar was falling against the euro. Now, the price of oil is again advancing and so is the dollar. For us in Europe, therefore, the squeeze is more painful, comparatively speaking, than for the Americans.

There is another aspect too: as the price of oil increases, more dollars are required to buy one barrel and, although an increasing price somewhat dampens consumption in the short-term, the price of oil increases the demand for dollars. This works in favour of the dollar and against the euro.

The price of oil has a glass ceiling. Oil fuels the world economy and as its price increases, growth slows, and inflation rises. The IMF had calculated that a $5 per barrel increase reduced global growth by 0.2 per cent in the first year.

In recent years, western governments have steadily pumped oceans of money into their economy in order to avert a deflation, and they have succeeded, so far, albeit by the skin of their teeth. This money is sloshing around creating bubbles here and there and pushing up asset prices, many of which don't get caught in conventional inflation measures, at least not immediately.

The way money has been pumped into economies makes investment today seem like hopping from one bubble to the next.

Resources, especially energy and metals, are in heavy demand due to the rapid expansion of the Chinese and Indian economies. The US economy, considering its size and maturity, is doing well too. The US is the largest consumer of oil, using one-fourth of the oil produced, followed by China.

China and India are indeed producing some very impressive economic statistics. It does not mean that all the projections one reads about China and India are going to come true. The main challenge in China is whether central political control can withstand a rapidly expanding, increasingly complex economy which itself fuels the population's democratic aspirations. The question is there but the positive way the politics is evolving is very encouraging and the economy there is aflame.

Regretfully, I am not as positive about India, notwithstanding its great potential. The infrastructure seems lacking, the culture somewhat anti-capitalist, things take a long time, different rulers and governments over recent centuries have somewhat injected a great people with a sense of fatalism, the public sector has a heavy hand.

Often, it is people's attitudes and the way a country is organised, including respect for property and human rights (in its wider sense), that determines whether a country develops or not. For example, whoever thinks that Africa is going to develop and eliminate poverty by having its debt written off must be living in a different world. The countries in Africa which are actually progressing are doing so under inspired leadership and irrespective of the debt. Wiping off debt would give many corrupt heads of state and their cronies a fresh slate on which to borrow again, spend again and steal again.

The pressure on oil, and other resources, is likely to remain, but it may not be as high as some speculators are assuming. Apart from the possibility of a less-than-expected Chinese/Indian demand for oil, for the last 10 years, both Opec and non-Opec countries have been increasing production steadily.

It is refining capacity which is suffering from a bottleneck and pushing up prices; in the last thirty years or so, there's been a lack of new investment in refining plant. In fact, excess capacity fell sharply in late 2002 and early 2003, resulting in the oil price increases witnessed in 2004.

However, Opec has recently stated that it might not be able to produce enough oil to fill the projected increase in demand and this means that production must increase from all sources.

Japan and the US are also putting a lot of effort in developing alternative energy sources and reducing the dependence on oil, for example by developing hybrid cars.

The latest price increase past $60 per barrel has variously been put at the door of potential troubles with Iran, Tropical Storm Cindy and Hurricane Dennis, which are disrupting transportation.

As with any commodity, one has to try and distinguish between three sets of demand and supply sources. First, the actual demand and supply for consumption. For petrol, for example, this reaches a peak during the driving months of June to October and for heating oil and diesel the peak is in the winter months. Then there is stockpiling by governments and companies, creating demand as stocks are built up and releasing supply as they are run down.

Finally, there are speculators who try to anticipate consumption and stock levels, and the actions of other speculators, and take positions in the market to try and profit from these price movements, in the process often smoothening out price fluctuations by taking the brunt of market imbalances.

As I write, we are witnessing the horrific killing of the innocents in London and this will certainly not help sentiment.

Market View will return in September. pva@onvol.net (http://www.timesofmalta.com/core/<a%20href%20=''%20class='bn'%20target%20=%20'_blank'>mailto:pva@onvol.net</a>)

Paul V. Azzopardi is managing director of Azzopardi Investment Management Limited (www.azzopardi.com (http://www.azzopardi.com/)) which is licensed by the MFSA to provide investment services, including stockbroking. Mr Azzopardi or related parties, including the company, and their clients, have an interest in securities mentioned.

This article is only meant to provide information, which the writer believes to be accurate at the time of writing, and is not intended to give investment advice and its contents should not be construed as such. The value of securities, and the currencies in which they are denominated, may go down as well as up. Readers are requested to seek professional financial advice tailored to their own personal circumstances.

[Mazzola75]

It is refining capacity which is suffering from a bottleneck

And can someone ask Mr. Azzopardi why NO ONE is investing in new refineries? That answer is simple, in the medium term there will be no oil to refine!

[Gladiator]

And can someone ask Mr. Azzopardi why NO ONE is investing in new refineries? That answer is simple, in the medium term there will be no oil to refine!

Mr. Azzopardi, should know better. He lived and studied in a country which runs on the simple dictum of supply and demand and the price of a commodity will raise and fall accordingly.