As we see a more and more call options on commodities like gold and silver, their prices are still low today. This is largely due to the US Federal Reserve’s reluctance to expand Quantitative Easing (QE3) and instead opting for “Operation Twist”. While hedge funds and portfolio managers increased their buying on most futures and […]

Oil workers in Norway have launched a strike closing down gas and oil production at 2 North Sea oil fields — part of the Brent Group. Union and industry negotiations collapsed Saturday night. 700 oil workers are striking of the nation’s 7,000 workers. The oil workers have been fighting for better pensions, as the union […]

Colombia is planning to auction off plots of land all the way from the Pacific Ocean to the Amazon jungle. These plots are expected to hold deposits of gold and copper, with additional actions in 2013 for reserves holding coltan, uranium, and platinum. The goal of this auction is to gain more foreign investment. Colombia’s mining industry […]

As Syria’s civil war escalates, we see the situation get closer and closer to a larger military campaign with foreign intervention. So aside from the civilian catastrophe, how will this affect world crude oil prices? In recent days, a Syrian fighter pilot defected to Jordan along with his MiG-21 fighter jet, even more atrocities committed […]

Silver stock prices for the week of June 18 -22, 2012. Hecla Mining (HL) → down $0.19 or 4.0% to $4.52. Pan American Silver (PAAS) → down $1.10 or 6.0% to $17.23. Silver Standard Resources (SSRI) → down $0.72 or 5.8% to $11.63. Silver Wheaton (SLW) → down $1.64 or 5.9% to $26.20.   This volatility […]

Angola is planning to open their first liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal in June 2012. Operated by Chevron, the facility will country’s natural gas, mostly from Angola’s offshore gas and oil fields. The LNG facility is located near Soyo, and has been under development since 2008 by Chevron with a cost of $10 billion with […]

Crude oil prices fell to an 8-month low after crude oil inventory figures were released by the US Energy Department. Inventory levels in the US are now the highest since 1990. Oil future dropped 2.7% and briefly reaching below $81 per barrel. US inventory levels rose 2.86 million barrels to 387.3 million barrels — levels unseen […]

Crude oil prices have been rising all day as Spain’s bond yields fall to acceptable levels after a successful auction. Greece’s pro-European Union pro-bailout New Democracy party won the elections over the weekend, which puts hope in a more stable Europe. The US Federal Reserve is meeting today to discuss further stimulus efforts in for […]

The BBC has published a feature on Iraq’s oil sector: Iraq could be one of the oil-producing countries hardest hit by a fall in the price of oil. The country’s reconstruction efforts are largely underpinned by oil revenues and it has some of the world’s largest undeveloped oil fields. But security risks, political feuding and […]

Glencore, the world’s largest commodities trading company, has agreed to buy 50% of the nickel and copper mined from the seafloor by DeepGreen Resources. DeepGreen, based in Vancouver, Canada, is using the Nautilus underwater harvester to mine the seafloor of the Pacific off Mexico’s shore. This has been a volatile time for Nautilus coming off 2 […]