The Crude View
Independent expert analysis on the energy world
Oil market watch: crude slips below $45 a barrel
The bear trend resumes, with oil prices dropping below $45 a barrel.
On Wednesday, oil prices had got off to a weak start, tumbling to their lowest level in three and a half years more than $100 a barrel below their mid-year highs as old worries resurfaced. For one thing, Opec may not be reducing oil output as much as promised. For another, the world economy is so bad that there just isnt enough demand around.
There was a brief recovery late in the day on Wednesday, after US oil stocks unexpectedly fell.
But it didnt last long. Analysts such as UBS brushed aside the significance of yesterdays surprise stock draw-down. The bank says a slim decline of half a million barrels of crude is no trend-break. There is plenty of evidence that more oil is being put into storage. And demand for crude from refiners isnt robust enough to mop up the spare crude.
Meanwhile, companies continue to feel the pain of low oil prices. Schlumberger has said its 2008 profits would fall short of expectations because of the slow-down in spending by its clients.
The next rung down is $40 a barrel. Six months ago, that would have seemed preposterous. But who would bet against it now?
Tom Nicholls
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
