Friday 6 June 2008

Black Gold

Its the last day of the week but I knew it was gonna be a long day today. All Board papers & related materials need to be completed today. Oil settled up 8.4% at a record-high $138.54 on the New York Mercantile Exchange today.

The United States - the world's biggest oil consumer - stands mostly powerless as national oil companies like Venezuela's PDVSA and Russia's Gazprom block access to key oil reserves and demand a larger share of the profits in exchange for allowing international oil companies to drill.

Suddenly the 41% hike in Mesia (and 10% in India) almost seem justified. Today I read someone wrote about how Malaysians have been paying off their subsidies via the taxation imposed on cars. Quite true - check out the Kastam website .. the duty, excise & sales tax slapped on imported cars are crazy! In other words, the government have it both ways!

And it's not the end .. more to come. Goldman Sachs is forecasting $152/bbl by end of next year. At this rate, looks likely to hit by end of this year. Not to mention the possibility of the black gold spurting to $200/bbl!

Quarterly price forecasts

Teringat kat Mar .. kena tuang minyak every few days, coz kereta buruk tu minum minyak!

So what are we to do?

Some really good suggestions:
1. Changing your driving habits
2. Cheap car maintenance
3. Drive less
4. Use fuel efficient cars

I especially like the slip-string idea. Tried it before - memang frictionless. Rasa macam Schumacher lak.

And oh .. Tan Sri Sarji got his Tun-ship today. Congratz Tun.

2 comments:

Dentist and Me said...

masa wa pakai kete V S40 2.4i, yr 2005, I spent RM100 for 700 km.

By the way, TDM arguement seems reasonable. What say you Mr Dicken?

Dicken said...

I believe Mesia can actually be the oil & gas hub for Asia .. something like Silicon Valley. Tun,s argument OK but I sense he is not exactly opposed to the price hike - except that the quantum is rather shocking. Thats gonna make inflation hit the roof.

Only PM is privvy to Petronas books, but I suspect we can actually still afford to hang on to some subsidy, especially in this trying times when food has also become a major problem to the world.