Oil brokerage PVM names rogue trader behind oil spike

[Gneisenau]

Oil brokerage PVM names rogue trader behind oil spike | U.S. | Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - PVM Oil Futures Limited said on Friday Steve Perkins, a senior broker based at the firm's London office, was responsible for unauthorized trades earlier this week which landed the firm with a loss of nearly $10 million.

The heavy buying during the Asian trading day when volumes tend to be lower caused global crude prices to spike to their highest level this year. Traders and analysts initially struggled to explain the price move.

Brent was trading at about $66 a barrel on Friday, down from the high of $73.50 struck on Tuesday.

Wow, one person is all it took.. Someone get a rope.

[SuperFly03]

Wow, one person is all it took.. Someone get a rope.

Now do yall understand the need for futures regulation?

[albundy2]

uh yeah, since i first heard this was causing $4 gas. i heard something about an idea to make these smartasses actually take delivery on a portion of what they're speculating on. i think that could solve a good deal of this problem, though i'm sure it would cause other theoretical problems.

[X-Ray]

uh yeah, since i first heard this was causing $4 gas. i heard something about an idea to make these smartasses actually take delivery on a portion of what they're speculating on. i think that could solve a good deal of this problem, though i'm sure it would cause other theoretical problems.

Nah, it won't cause problems. Sounds like a great idea.

You think oil is gonna go up? Here, buy it and hold it. You can sell it then when it goes up. Jackasses.

Demand is still down, supplies are still in excess, and the economy has not started a recovery yet, but we're already paying way too high prices for gas. It just isn't right.

[BaldEagle]

uh yeah, since i first heard this was causing $4 gas. i heard something about an idea to make these smartasses actually take delivery on a portion of what they're speculating on. i think that could solve a good deal of this problem, though i'm sure it would cause other theoretical problems.

Yep, That was my idea, based on my experience with corn futures which I bought when oil was headed north of $100/bbl...

Had there been a requirement to take delivery I wouldn't have had a use for it, nor a place to store it, let alone tie up my money to actually pay for it. When the contract expires is when it's paid for so it's musical chairs on corn until Cargill, General Mill's etc... step in on expiration day to buy out the traders contracts.

[BaldEagle]

Nah, it won't cause problems. Sounds like a great idea.

You think oil is gonna go up? Here, buy it and hold it. You can sell it then when it goes up. Jackasses.

Demand is still down, supplies are still in excess, and the economy has not started a recovery yet, but we're already paying way too high prices for gas. It just isn't right.

Steer clear of oil as Obama is likely to push to tax the sh*t out of it cutting demand in favor of "green" energy like ethanol. Corn is where the action will be next year.

[Gneisenau]

Steer clear of oil as Obama is likely to push to tax the sh*t out of it cutting demand in favor of "green" energy like ethanol. Corn is where the action will be next year.

Considering it may be the absolute worst choice for fuel, you know the government is going to invest our future in it whole hog.

[fidgewinkle]

Considering it may be the absolute worst choice for fuel, you know the government is going to invest our future in it whole hog.

The problem isn't ethanol. The problem is liquid fuel, which is inefficient to produce whether it be from petroleum or from biomass. The inefficiencies of gasoline production are at least as staggering as ethanol production.

[Gneisenau]

The problem isn't ethanol. The problem is liquid fuel, which is inefficient to produce whether it be from petroleum or from biomass. The inefficiencies of gasoline production are at least as staggering as ethanol production.

I wasn't talking about ethanol. I was talking about making ethanol out of corn. There are better crops for that and I still think it's a horrible idea to use food as fuel.

[BaldEagle]

I wasn't talking about ethanol. I was talking about making ethanol out of corn. There are better crops for that and I still think it's a horrible idea to use food as fuel.

Read an excellent article in national geograpic a couple years ago that described how Brazil used sugar cane to get ethanol better than corn but still not "green".

Biofuels - National Geographic Magazine

Even sugarcane isn't without its problems. While nearly all of São Martinho's cane is machine harvested, most Brazilian cane is cut by hand; the work, though well paid, is hot, dirty, and backbreaking. Cutters die of exhaustion every year, say leaders of their union. And to kill snakes and make the cane easier to cut by hand, the fields are usually burned before harvest, filling the air with soot while releasing methane and nitrous oxide, two potent greenhouse gases.

The expansion of Brazil's cane acreage—set to nearly double over the next decade—may also be contributing to deforestation. By displacing ranching in existing agricultural areas, sugar may be adding to the pressures that send cattlemen deeper into frontier territory like the Amazon and the biologically diverse savannas known as the cerrado. "If alcohol is now considered a 'clean' fuel, the process of making it is very dirty," says Marcelo Pedroso Goulart, a prosecutor for the Public Ministry of São Paulo. "Especially the burning of cane and the exploitation of the cane workers."

Cellulosic ethanol...

So far, only a few pilot plants are making ethanol from cellulose in the U.S. A small operation at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) in Golden, Colorado, has been running the longest. It can convert a ton of biomass—shredded cornstalks, switchgrass, wood—into 70 gallons (265 liters) of ethanol in about a week.

WOW...a whole 70 gallons per week we'll only need a couple hundred million plants!

Now as for that algae...

GreenFuel Technologies, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is at the head of the pack. Founded by MIT chemist Isaac Berzin, the company has developed a process that uses algae in plastic bags to siphon carbon dioxide from the smoke-stack emissions of power plants. Algae not only reduce a plant's global warming gases, but also devour other pollutants. Some algae make starch, which can be processed into ethanol; others produce tiny droplets of oil that can be brewed into biodiesel or even jet fuel. Best of all, algae in the right conditions can double in mass within hours. While each acre of corn produces around 300 gallons (1,135 liters) of ethanol a year and an acre of soybeans around 60 gallons (227 liters) of biodiesel, each acre of algae theoretically can churn out more than 5,000 gallons (19,000 liters) of biofuel each year.

A quick check of their website finds.
GreenFuel Technologies Corporation: Sale of Intellectual Property and Other Assets

After leading the algae clean tech industry for the past 8 years, GreenFuel is entertaining offers for the sale of its intellectual property and other assets in these areas:

Hmmmm Does this mean the end???

Algae front-runner GreenFuel shuts down | Green Tech - CNET News

GreenFuel Technologies, one of the first companies to enter the algae biofuels business, is shutting down after running out of money.

Investor Duncan McIntyre of Polaris Venture Partners on Wednesday confirmed GreenFuel Technologies' demise, saying that the company is a "victim of the economy." The closing was reported by Greentech Media earlier on Wednesday.

McIntyre said investors, who have raised more than $70 million for GreenFuel Technologies since 2001, are exploring ways to sell the company's intellectual property and assets.

Yep!!!! and with $70M pissed away. You know that used to be big money before we had those $$B busts like GM, Chrysler, AIG, etc...

Algae is considered a promising feedstock for those products because it's rich in oil and can grow on marginal land. But no company has made algae at commercial scale that can be grown and harvested at a price competitive with petroleum-based products.

But algae looks to have more companies die trying.

[fidgewinkle]

I wasn't talking about ethanol. I was talking about making ethanol out of corn. There are better crops for that and I still think it's a horrible idea to use food as fuel.

Producing ethanol from corn rather than sugar makes sense if you plan to develop some sort of liquid bio-fuel system. The process is much closer to cellulosic ethanol production process than sugar cane, which would have to be imported. Sugar beets are an option, but it seems that the US agricultural system is optimized for corn and soy beans.

As for using corn for fuel, there are some benefits. Having a second source of fuel can help to reduce price shocks. This will push some of the cost into food prices, but not necessarily to the poor of the world. They mostly eat rice and wheat rather than corn, which is used to fatten livestock mostly. Considering that fuel prices increase the cost of most everything that the bottom half of the economic spectrum consumes, an alternative fuel buffer is not entirely a bad idea, even from the perspective of those that spend a large portion of their income on food.

[SuperFly03]

We have movement...

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/US-age...&asset=&ccode=

[albundy2]

good, will be nice if it actually gets anywhere.

[SuperFly03]

good, will be nice if it actually gets anywhere.

Been calling this for awhile.