Once Flush Global Economies, Energy Projects Slow

(Via Washington Post)

 

A worker monitors an automated manifold as it directs oil in Cushing, Okla. (By Shane Bevel — Bloomberg News)

Extracts from the article:

“The precipitous fall in the price of oil in recent months, while good for consumers, has contributed to the confusion in the global economy, wreaking havoc with the budgets and economies of oil exporting nations and putting many expensive energy projects on hold.”

“Just one year ago, the price of oil finished trading at more than $100 a barrel for the first time, fueling speculation about a new era of oil prices. Yesterday, oil finished trading in New York at $39.15 a barrel, and that, after surging 13 percent for the day.

The overwhelming cause of the collapse in oil prices has been the faltering world economy, which has fueled the drop in consumption.

Oil use in China, which most forecasters a year ago assumed would be the engine for increasing global demand, has screeched to a halt. Paul Ting, an independent oil analyst, says preliminary estimates suggest that petroleum consumption in China fell more than 6 percent in January compared with the month in 2008. Crude oil imports hit a 14-month low, he said.

In the United States, where passenger vehicles use about one of nine barrels produced worldwide, strapped motorists in December traveled less than they did a year ago, even though gasoline prices are more than a $1 a gallon cheaper.

The Federal Highway Administration said it was the 14th consecutive month in which American motorists drove fewer miles. In 2008, U.S. motorists drove 3.6 percent less, or 107.9 billion fewer miles, than in 2007, the FHA said. Total miles driven, which normally rise every year with the population and number of cars on the road, fell slightly below 2004 levels.”