Peter Hitchens Quotations

If we get a cold snap we could spike towards $30 and it is sustainable at $25 for a month or two.

There is an acute shortage of product (from refineries) and this is drifting back into the futures market, ... But OPEC is passing the buck for high oil prices, it doesn't want to be held responsible for a possible worldwide recession.

Hunting has reported a good set of final results ... We believe that the group will be one of the prime beneficiaries of the increase in upstream capital expenditure by the integrated oil companies.

supply and demand price for oil stands at around $27, so $5 to $6 (of the current price) is pure speculation. There is no demand for oil at these prices, buyers are sitting and hoping oil prices will fall, but prices could shoot up if there is a panic. There is real concern heating oil could run out.

We all put in the same parameters for BP and Shell, but BP just comes out better. The differences in management between the two groups are really beginning to show through.

Earnings tend to follow the cycle in oil prices, and this is the peak of the cycle. Going forward, there is a lot of investment from the industry in capacity.

Eni had always been regarded as a likely predator.

The whole of the U.S. system seems to be creaking at the moment,

(The target) would require the group becoming one of the best explorers among the integrated oil companies, rather than one of the worst.

The myth about Muslim tolerance needs to be exploded, Behead those who insult Islam.

Despite the increase, there is nothing to suggest that the group will be able to increase its growth prospects, which should depress returns.

There was huge pressure on Elf to come to an agreement, ... The French government didn't want a messy situation, and Elf's (counter-)bid was not accepted as credible by the market.

It's a better performance from refining and marketing.

It still seems in the balance and it is very difficult to call,

Shell is getting near crisis point. Although the Asia crisis has bottomed out, the rest of the world has dropped off.

Shell has had another poor performance with the drill bit.

In other words, it will go Total's way.

Governments in Europe are still concerned about national interests, ... they see oil companies as important for national security.

These are attractive assets, and an interest in upstream assets is always valuable,

This is a good deal, BP had a hole in its lubricants portfolio and need a quality lubricant following the Mobil venture's breakup,

The compromise could be 700,000 barrels but the actual production increase could be around 400,000. At 1 million extra barrels prices may be drawn lower but at 500,000 prices could hit $40.

A nation is the sum of its memories, and when those memories are allowed to die, it is less of a nation.

Evolution is an unproven theory. If what its fundamentalist supporters believe is true, fishes decided to grow lungs and legs and walk up the beach. The idea is so comically daft that only one thing explains its survival-that lonely, frightened people wanted to expel God from the Universe because they found the idea that He exists profoundly uncomfortable.

Is there any point in public debate in a society where hardly anyone has been taught how to think, while millions have been taught what to think?

Abortion is the only event that modern liberals think too violent and obscene to portray on TV. This is not because they are squeamish or prudish. It is because if people knew what Abortion really looked like, it would destroy their pretence that it is a civilized answer to the problem of what to do about unwanted babies.