OPEC Maintains Oil Quotas as IEA Raises Global Demand Forecast

OPEC said it will keep oil production quotas unchanged, banking on a recovery in the world economy to maintain prices near today’s $72 a barrel as the International Energy Agency raised its global demand forecast. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to maintain total production quotas at 24.845 million barrels a day and will urge members to adhere to targets, OPEC Secretary General Abdalla El-Badri said. The IEA raised its global oil demand estimate for next year for a second month, citing growth in Chinese consumption and stronger-than-expected U.S. oil use. “Holding production was the prudent thing to do,” Jason Schenker, president of Texas-based consultants Prestige Economics LLC, said in an.....Read the entire article

How to Trade Gold, Natural Gas & Crude Oil ETF Funds

From guest analyst Chris Vermeulen at The Gold and Oil Guy

How to trade hot commodities like natural gas, oil and gold – We should see big moves in the coming weeks as gas bottoms, and oil & gold breakout or breakdown. A lot of money is going to be exchanging hands quickly and the key is to be on the receiving end of things. Below are some charts showing where these commodities are trading.

How to Trade Gold – Weekly Chart
How I trade gold is relatively straight forward. I use a simple trading model which allows me to identify the down side risk for a potential gold trade. I also use the same model for trading oil, gas and silver.

Beyond finding good entry points, it is crucial to know when to take some profits off the table. The weekly gold chart clearly shows gold trading at a resistance level which means there are going to be more sellers than buyers, hence the reason it is called resistance.

To trade gold I enter with my low risk entry points and sell half my position once I reach a resistance level. Today for example gold moved up into this long term resistance level and then started to head south. We took some profits off the table before gold dipped in the late afternoon for a healthy gain. Taking profits is a must or you’ll simply hold onto winning positions until they eventually turn into a loser.


How to Trade Crude Oil – Weekly Chart
Trading crude oil is exciting because it moves much faster than gold. How to trade crude oil with low risk can be done by using my simple trading model which is a combination of indicators like momentum, support & resistance, volume, price patterns and media coverage. All these things combined allow for highly accurate trades with minimal down side risk.

Crude oil looks ready to make a big move. The odds are pointing to higher prices because oil has a multi month bullish price action and the falling US dollar helps increase the price of oil. I can see oil breakout and rally into the $95 per barrel level if things go that way in the coming weeks.


How to Trade Oil (USO Fund) – Weekly Chart
USO tracks similarly to the price of crude oil and it provides some great trades for both swing traders and day traders. I focus on trades that bounce off support with low downside risks, which occur on both the daily and weekly charts.


How to Trade Natural Gas – Weekly Chart
Natural gas is looking ready to bottom here. If you go back to the early 90’s the $2-3 range is a major support level. While I don’t generally try to pick bottoms, there are some signature price patterns and volume patterns that have proven to be very profitable for catching sharp bounces.


How to Trade Natural Gas – Daily Chart
The daily chart shows a perfect waterfall sell off with the price of natural gas dropping to a long term support level. This pattern combination shows panic selling which indicates a short term bottom is close.

The extreme panic selling and sharp decline in price, removes much of the down side risk. Scaling into a position over a few days, if the price continues to move lower, is important for this strategy to work its magic.

The black horizontal lines show my resistance levels for taking profits. If the price were to drop below $10 then I would exit the second half of the position to lock in the rest of the profit.


How to Trade Commodities Conclusion:
Trading commodities is very simple with all the ETF’s and funds available. The energy funds like oil and gas have some issues with following the prices of their underlying commodity but I do not find it a problem with my style of trading.

I would really like to know the entire story about what is going on with the oil and nat gas funds which have crazy contango issues??? Why do other commodity funds like GLD (gold bullion) and SLV (silver bullion) not have these issues?? Why can’t they make a fund which follows oil and gas properly? All I know is that there are a lot of dishonest people in the financial industry taking honest hard working peoples money.

If you would like to receive Chris Vermeulen's free weekly trading reports visit The Gold and Oil Guy to join his newsletter.

Stimulus Money To Fund Propane Fueling Stations

The U.S. Department of Energy on Wednesday awarded $12.9 million in two stimulus grants to CleanFUEL USA, a leader in propane engine technology and alternative fuel infrastructure solutions. The funds will be used to establish more than 100 state of the art liquid propane (Autogas) refueling stations in major U.S. cities in coordination with CleanFUEL USA partners, including ConocoPhillips. Other supporting partners include the Texas State Technical College, the Central Texas Clean Cities Coalition, Rush Truck Centers, 16 additional area Clean Cities Coalitions and the Propane Education and Research Council. The propane network will provide retail consumers as well as municipal, state and private fleets greater access to a cost effective and clean-burning alternative transportation fuel.....Read the entire article

Oil Rises Above $72 as Dollar Weakens to Lowest Level This Year

Crude oil rose above $72 a barrel as the dollar dropped to the lowest level against the euro this year before OPEC’s scheduled announcement today that its members will maintain output targets. Oil added to yesterday’s gain of 4.5 percent in New York as the falling U.S. currency spurred investors’ demand for dollar priced assets to hedge against inflation. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries should maintain existing output quotas and improve compliance when it meets, the group’s production-monitoring committee recommended late yesterday. “The oil market is going to remain focused on the dollar and what other commodities do,” said Phil Flynn, vice president of research at PFG Best, a Chicago based brokerage. “We are all expecting OPEC to celebrate where prices are and pay lip service to better compliance in the future”.....Read the entire article

Oil Demand To Return To Pre-Recession High In 2012 - Report

World oil demand is set to grow next year for the first time since 2007 and return to pre-recession levels by 2012, according to IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates in its quarterly World Oil Watch report. The rebound would mark a turnaround from the largest drop in global oil demand since the oil crisis of the early 1980s. IHS CERA expects oil demand growth to resume by 900,000 barrels per day (bd) in 2010 and return to its 2007 high of 86.5 million barrels per day (mbd) by 2012 a five year turnaround. "There are a lot of questions as to whether things will be 'different this time' in terms of the recovery of oil demand," said IHS CERA chairman and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Prize, Daniel Yergin. "While the answer is that it will be shorter, it is still going to take a substantial amount of time".....Read the entire article

How Low Can Natural Gas Go?

From guest analyst Jena Cartter of PCIFX, A New Horizon Of Perfection.

If one were to look up a textbook definition of a bear market, this year's natural gas market would be it. Yesterday, lead month Natural Gas futures fell to lows not seen since March of 2002, as the EIA weekly storage report showed 65 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas was placed into storage last week. Although this figure was in line with expectations and well below the 95 bcf injected into storage this time last year, traders continued to focus on weak industrial demand as well as burdensome supplies.

Including last week's build, U.S. supplies of Gas in storage now total 3.323 trillion cubic feet (tcf), which is 18% above the 5-year average. It was a perfect storm for gas bulls this year, with industrial demand expected to be down just over 8.5% this year and summer cooling demand which never really materialized due to relatively cool summer weather in the Midwest and on the east coast. The market psychology is so bearish that traders have not been able to build a 'weather premium' into prices, despite entering the peak Atlantic hurricane season during the month of September. Should the storm season spare the Gas infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico this year, it is possible we may see a record amount of Gas in storage going into the winter.

November 1st is considered the 'official' start of the heating season in the U.S., in which energy producers begin to draw Gas out of storing to meet heating demand. Some traders believe we may reach maximum storage capacity of just under 3.9 tcf before this occurs. The previous record was 3.545 tcf of gas in storage in 2007. Large speculators are holding a large net short position in Natural Gas futures according to the most recent Commitment of Traders report (COT). According to the COT, large non-commercial traders were net short 89,239 contracts as of August 25th. Small speculative traders were net long 49,161 contracts.

This information really highlights the trading styles of large and small speculators, as large speculators have historically been trend followers who will add to wining trades as the market moves in their direction. Small speculators like to try to pick tops and bottoms in a market, which is a difficult task for those lacking the funds to hold a position in the midst of a strong trending market.

Technical Notes
Looking at the daily chart for October Natural Gas, we notice prices accelerated to the downside once the July 13th low of 3.584 was taken out. This was the bottom of a two month long consolidation pattern that gave way in the direction of the major trend. The 14 day RSI is currently reading an extremely oversold 18.24, but has not yet shown any signs of reversing. 2.250 is seen as the next psychological support point for the October futures, with the 20 day moving average, currently near the 3.325 area, acting as resistance.

Visit the PCIFX website for more great analysis.

Oil Rises Above $71 as Dollar Tumbles, OPEC Ministers Gather

Crude oil rose above $71 a barrel after the dollar declined, spurring demand for commodities, and as OPEC ministers gathered in Vienna to decide on output levels. Oil increased the most in more than two weeks and gold climbed above $1,000 an ounce as the U.S. currency dropped to the lowest level this year against the euro and on speculation inflation will accelerate. The oil market is in “good shape,” Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said, signaling the group is unlikely to change output quotas. “Today’s move in oil is all about the dollar and inflation concerns,” said John Kilduff, senior vice president of energy at MF Global in New York. “These concerns are also reflected in the gold market, which broke through resistance at the important $1,000 level”.....Read the entire article

Schlumberger CEO Says Smaller Services Companies to Fold or Merge

Chief Executive Andrew Gould of oilfield services giant Schlumberger predicts that further consolidation in the services industry, as well as the fall of smaller U.S. rivals, is likely to occur in the year ahead, according to a report by Dow Jones Newswires.

"There will be even more consolidation of smaller services companies in the U.S., if not mortality for some, as some will just not be able to service their debts," Gould said at the Offshore Europe conference in Aberdeen, Scotland.

Gould cited the cancellation or delaying of industry projects, which has made capital less readily available, as one of the primary challenges the oilfield services sector has faced during 2009.

From the staff at Rigzone

Crude Oil Rises the Most in More Than a Month as Dollar Tumbles

Crude oil rose the most in more than a month after the dollar declined, spurring demand for commodities, and as OPEC ministers gathered in Vienna to decide on production levels. Oil topped $71 a barrel and gold climbed above $1,000 an ounce as the U.S. currency dropped to the lowest level this year against the euro and on speculation inflation will accelerate. The oil market is in “good shape,” Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said, signaling the group is unlikely to change output quotas.“Today’s move in oil is all about the dollar and inflation concerns,” said John Kilduff, senior vice president of energy at MF Global in New York.....Read the entire article

Crude Oil Daily Technical Outlook

Crude oil's consolidation from 67.43 is still in progress and further recover cannot be ruled out. But still, another fall is still in progress as long as 71.60 resistance holds. Break of 67.43 will indicate that fall from 75.0 has resumed for 65.23 support next. Break there will confirm the case that whole rise from 58.32 has completed and will bring deeper fall to test this key support level. On the other hand, strong rebound above 65.23, followed by break of 71.60 resistance will suggest that fall from 75.0 is a correction only and rise from 58.32 is still in progress. Intraday bias will then be flipped back to the upside for a 75.0 and then long term fibonacci resistance at 76.77 (38.2% retracement of 147.27 to 33.2]. In the bigger picture, there is no.....Read the entire article