David Thurtell Quotations

The only way we can avoid yet higher prices is if President Bush releases supply from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

There are worries about demand going forward, but in the overall scheme of things, oil prices are still exceptionally high and are still vulnerable to supply hitches.

We're just going into the peak season. Anything that is going to disrupt supplies is very unwelcome.

Let's not forget that refining capacity in the U.S has been severely knocked out by the hurricanes, which hit the Gulf Coast in September.

Lost refining capacity in the Gulf of Mexico and problems in France are a short-term weakness in crude.

People will start to pay attention to peak demand looming, with heating oil a worry.

If we could get a decent drop of rain everything would be absolutely humdinger.

I'd be surprised if oil ticks much lower, stocks are good but you only have to have Iran start to threaten the loss of barrels. I expect the Iranians to take this to the wire.

I'd be surprised if oil ticks much lower. Stocks are good, but you only have to have Iran start to threaten the loss of barrels. I expect the Iranians to take this to the wire.

From his language he recognizes that while higher prices are good for revenues in the short run, longer term they help destroy demand. OPEC is probably going to increase by 1 million barrels a day.

Funds appear to be buying the dips, still wanting to raise their allocation to commodities in their portfolios.

Global demand has pushed oil prices to a new higher platform, and risks of serious supply disruption (Iran, Nigeria) are adding a premium to prices.

We can expect two months of lost production, and coming in the peak-demand period this is the worst possible news.

Gulf production is really struggling. It's very unlikely that prices are going to come significantly under $60 in the next few months.

I suspect jewelers and other fabricators probably haven't got enough stocks yet. So we can expect some more physical buying.

I think we'll stay in a $58 to $66 range for the next couple of months. If prices get too weak OPEC, will just cut back.

I think this demand-destruction idea is being a bit overdone at the moment. The stocks numbers were very bearish, but I think that it's still difficult to read through a lot of this data noise.

OPEC is set to keep production quotas unchanged... and investors are hopeful that the International Atomic Energy Agency will strike a deal with Iran.

OPEC is set to keep production quotas unchanged ... and investors are hopeful that the International Atomic Energy Agency will strike a deal with Iran.

Peak demand for winter fuel in the northern hemisphere is what is going to be driving oil prices in the fourth-quarter.

Rising U.S. (crude) stocks could put a bit of pressure on prices, but I suspect we are at the time when stocks will stop rising and will start falling soon.

Refiners don't want to get caught out in the next six months, with the hurricane season, Iran, etcetera. Where you'd normally expect at these high prices refiners trying to cut down on stocks, I think they're saying there's big money to be made if you've still got inventory when the hurricanes hit.

Literally and figuratively, I think we've weathered the storm, as the release of strategic reserves has calmed the market.

(That's) the only thing that will prevent further significant price rises from here.

We're at the top of the commodity cycle right now. Moderating demand and improving supply will see a fall in prices going forward.

We're at the lowest available output I've seen in maintenance season for some years. There's a cleaner fuels impact and then other work was delayed after last year's hurricanes when supplies were short.

Traders and investors alike both succumbed to the temptation to take profits in a variety of commodities that have made big price gains.

The demand for uranium is very strong, and countries are trying to diversify away from oil and coal which contributes to global warming. It appears Australia is happy to sell it to China, or anyone else, so long as they abide by specific guidelines.

While Iran said last week that it would separate nuclear and oil as issues, it was only last year that it warned that oil could be used as a weapon to get its own way on the nuclear issues.

Everything's gone wrong in the oil market recently. If you wanted to paint the worst scenario picture, you couldn't do much better.

There's just been too much disruption to too many parts of the whole supply chain. There's a worry that it's going to take longer to get things back.

The worry is that if prices come off a bit, demand will rebound and we've still got to deal with the Northern Hemisphere winter.

The stocks numbers are extremely bearish. You wouldn't want to be short though. You've just got to watch what's going on with Iran.

Provided we don't get any disruptions to supply, it looks like prices could have short-term weakness. But if we get a much colder winter, it could send prices into the sixties range again.

A few more refineries going on scheduled maintenance and a tapering off on imports will bring stock levels back to that seen about a year ago.

Oil could ease back a bit today, though the hurricane season runs into November so we're not out of the woods yet. Asian demand is still pretty strong, so we're likely to see some buying if it goes much below $60.

Companies will still deal with the Chinese in the future. They are big players, and it's a brave player who refuses to deal with them. But companies and brokers may demand deals be confirmed all the way up the line.

Coming so early in the season, these storms raise the odds that there will be a repeat of last year's large disruption to H2 U.S. production.

There was more relief in Asian trade today that Hurricane Wilma seems to be staying out of the way of Gulf facilities.

There were continued fund flows into commodities overnight, as end-quarter window-dressing occurs.

There's a little bit of dollar weakness, and that's giving gold a lift.

There's been a lot of damage to refineries in the region and that's the main concern. You can have as much crude as you want on hand but if you've got no way of turning it into product you do have a problem.

It seems that crude is suffering because there's little capacity to refine crude. We are missing so much refining capacity now.

It's a question of whether Iran or the U.S. blinks first.

It's not hard to imagine, you know, that there could be safe-haven flows for the rest of the week.

It looks like she could have an impact on facilities that were untouched by Katrina, and while we don't really know where she will go at present, it really is a case of kicking a man while he's down.

It looks now as if Rita is not going to go through the main refinery region. Because all these plants have closed for precautionary reasons there have been problems with gasoline supply, which drove prices higher yesterday. Still, it looks as if there's not going to be so much damage to the bigger refining sites.

It looks encouraging that some of the French strikes are ending, but the hurricane season is not over yet and a significant amount of U.S. production remains shut.

The Nigerians indicated capacity could be back on line next week. That's could, not will, and the reality is we could be missing those half million barrels for some time yet.

The Nigerian attacks have really sparked concerns about supply. People are wondering how deep is it going to go and how long will it go on for?

It was no surprise that OPEC came out and said 'no change' to supply.

Oil production is pretty close to capacity at the moment. The market is going to be very jittery until the Iranian issue is resolved.

The US economy looks healthy and it's safe to infer that the demand for oil and diesel will remain pretty firm and that the price of oil should be helped along as well.

In my view, prices had probably gone down too far, especially with peak demand winter season looming.

Iran will take the nuclear situation to the wire, making the market nervous. It will wax and wane diplomatically and they'll extract a price before agreeing to any deal with the west.

Heating oil is a concern as we're heading into winter.

The Iranians shouldn't be underestimated. If they were to cut supply in protest, there's really not enough capacity to absorb the loss of their exports.

The Iranians are taking this right down to the wire.

All eyes are still waiting to see what happens with Iran, and what the outcome will be when the IAEA makes its report to the U.N. Security Council next month.

The hurricane season goes on till the end of November, so we're not out of the woods yet. But at least the chances of another hurricane forming are getting narrower and narrower.

All we need is a bit of a cold snap and suddenly it could easily push back up. We're still in that lull period where the summer driving season is over but we haven't hit peak winter demand.

The Ecuador barrels missing from the market are another little unwelcome disruption to supply, and we're not even halfway through the Atlantic hurricane season.

The crude stock build exceeded expectations and that was an excuse for some guys to take money off the table.

The market was disappointed about the data but I think it's way too early to get uptight about stocks.

The market's reacting to forecasts that heating oil demand will be 20 percent below normal this week, giving refiners a little breathing room to boost supply ahead of winter.

The market is very vulnerable to a supply shock like this. This news will push up prices when trading starts tomorrow.

The market is expecting another significant jump in U.S. stocks later today, and this focus has pushed geopolitical uncertainties off to the side, for now at least.

The lingering political risks to supply mean we're not going to drive prices down too far or too fast.

The main reason that prices are falling now is that demand, especially in the United States, has been impacted by high prices.