Right now it’s a squeeze play for oil industry, … But if they can get by from here to February, I think the coast is clear.

The easing of the tensions in the Middle East has calmed down the oil market and there appear to be no immediate plans to conduct military action against Iraq. So that has eliminated the second...

Traders are using the conflict to push prices higher. Everybody now is hiding behind the umbrella of the Iran nuclear stalemate, but we have to remind ourselves that Iran cannot afford to stop its shipment...

Investors need to think first, and not put money randomly into oil stocks,

Oil prices have been exceeding the most bullish forecasts for the past year and a half, and that’s not driven by industry fundamentals, but largely by speculation and fears of a potential supply disruption,

Rumors and speculation have taken over the market.

We’re still in a delicate balance, with people still concerned about a major supply disruption.

My expectations were extremely high; we missed big time.

Basically the stocks are following the sentiment on the crude side more than anything else. There are no big surprises.

High oil prices will come and haunt us.

The market is therefore focused on two things: No additional supplies coming from OPEC. The other factor is that we should be entering what is a high demand period for oil products with the start...

They were hitting on all cylinders. … It’s good news for Exxon shareholders and likely to continue in ’06.

Exxon Mobil should be a core holding for long-term investors seeking superior risk-adjusted return.

The only option for these companies is to merge and seek yet more job cuts and savings.

The conventional wisdom was that we were going to see immediately after the terrorist attack a spike of oil prices,

What he’s saying makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately, the source of the comment is going to send jitters in the market.

maybe sprinkle a few names from refining, marketing, some independent stocks, and energy services stocks.

Occidental is paying more than double what its own stock is valuing its existing reserves,

It’s cheaper for companies to buy production and reserves on Wall Street than go drill for it. It’s instant gratification.

It’s the only way, there’s nothing else

All these things are beginning to show up. When you have rising energy prices, something has to give. It’s not going to go unmatched by costs.

Refining margins across the board obviously cooled off from their all-time high in the third quarter, and obviously that was very clear and expected.

The infrastructure was already strained before the hurricane. The hurricane has made a bad situation worse.

The more President Bush talks about releasing strategic reserves, the more we understand that weve got no more production to give.

I would be very surprised if they don’t beat ’05 by double digits. Something would have to go dramatically wrong.

We reiterate our buy rating, as we believe the upside potential is greater than the downside risk from sharply lower oil prices given the strong demand, tight supply and lack of spare capacity.

A rise in oil prices is not good news for the equity market or the economy.

The only thing keeping prices artificially high is the potential for supply disruption, … Fundamentally, prices should be at $20-to-$25.

Given the current market fundamentals we expect average prices for both oil and gas this year to be significantly above 2005 record levels. As a result, we expect 2006 earnings to be above 2005 record...

The demand for gasoline is very strong. And obviously now people are thinking ahead. And if we have a cold winter, we’ll see a run up in home heating oil to above $2 per gallon,

But oil is unlike all other commodities, … It is a political commodity. We will go to war to protect it, to ensure adequate supply, which makes it very, very hard to predict.

We’ve given them enough of a scare the last few days, a preview of things to come when demand is not strong,

Lee Raymond really set the standard for other CEOs in the industry. Everybody else copied Lee Raymond, but you can’t duplicate what he’s done.

All these companies have so much money, they don’t know what to do with it.

I think OPEC is showing tremendous strength in keeping oil prices firm, but they cannot push it much further, … If they do, they will have to contend with things that they do not want...

Losing the Saudi oil would immediately shock the U.S. economy to the worst level in decades,

There are mandatory evacuations in the Galveston area, and most of the operating companies near Texas City are preparing to shut down completely by this Friday. They believe, at best, they will be shut down...

These stocks are not reflecting $50 or $60 oil. They are probably reflecting $40 oil. But this is not realistic. The fundamentals support a higher price.

They’re not taking any chances,

The drop in prices is long overdue,

At the end of the day, people who lose their jobs aren’t going to go anywhere.

You put all these headlines together, you see the situation is getting charged up and getting out of control. That’s why oil traders and speculators are having a field day – this is exactly the...

A lot of people were expecting that Saddam Hussein would pull a trick before year-end because he was trying to put pressure on the U.N. to lift sanctions or try to alter the position of...

The speculators are going to have a field day playing with emotion and rumor.

Part of the reason (companies are having trouble adding real reserves) is that there has not been an elephant discovery — one over a billion barrels — for 15 years.

The hurricane might not have to damage refineries to keep them off line.

We’re a bunch of crybabies. They pay the equivalent of $6 a gallon for gas in Germany.

Obviously, if they had cut production more, prices would have probably moved higher, and that would have curtailed economic growth, … They want to make sure they will not be blamed for any economic slowdown...

This is an industry in crisis. Every oil company will reduce their production forecast as lower spending will immediately be followed by lower production and lower reserve replacement.

We have not even recovered from Katrina, so it would be another big blow.