Understanding Oil Prices: A Guide to What Drives the Price of Oil in Today's Markets - Hardcover

Carollo, Salvatore

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1119962722 ISBN 13: 9781119962724

Publisher: Wiley, 2011

Synopsis

It’s a fair bet that most of what you think you know about oil prices is wrong. Despite the massive price fluctuations of the past decade, the received wisdom on the subject has remained fundamentally unchanged since the 1970s. When asked, most people – including politicians, financial analysts and pundits – will respond with a tired litany of reasons ranging from increased Chinese and Indian competition for diminishing resources and tensions in the Middle East, to manipulation by OPEC and exorbitant petrol taxes in the EU. Yet the facts belie these explanations. For instance, what really happened in late 2008 when, in just a few weeks, oil prices plummeted from $144 dollars to $37 dollars a barrel? Did Chinese and Indian demand suddenly dry up? Did Middle East conflicts magically resolve themselves? Did OPEC flood the market with crude? In each case the answer is a definitive no – quite the opposite in fact.

Industry expert Salvatore Carollo explains that the truth behind today’s increasingly volatile oil market is that over the past two decades oil prices have come untethered from all classical notions of supply and demand and have transcended any country’s, consortium’s, cartel’s, or corporate entity’s powers to control them. At play is a subtler, more complex game than most analysts realise (or are unwilling to admit to), a very dangerous game involving runaway financial speculation, self-defeating government policymaking and a concerted disinvestment in refinery capacity among the oil majors.

In Understanding Oil Prices Carollo identifies the key players in this dangerous game, exploring their competing interests and motivations, their moves and countermoves. Beginning with the1976 oil embargo and moving through the 1986 Chernobyl incident, the implementation of the US Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, and the precipitous expansion of the oil futures market since the turn of the century, he traces the vast structural changes which have occurred within the oil industry over the past four decades, identifying their economic, social and geopolitical drivers, and analysing their fallout in the global economy. He explores the oil industry’s decision to scale down refining capacity in the face of increasing demand and the effects of global shortages of petrol, diesel, jet fuel, fuel oil, chemical feedstocks, lubricants and other essential finished products, and describes how, beginning in the year 2000, the oil futures market detached itself almost completely from the crude market, leading to the assetization of oil, and the crippling impact reckless speculation in oil futures has had on the global economy. Finally he proposes new, more sophisticated models that economists and financial analysts can use to make sense of today’s oil market, while offering industry leaders and government policymakers prescriptions for stabilising the market to ensure a relatively steady flow of affordable oil.

A concise, authoritative guide to understanding the complex, oft misunderstood oil markets, Understanding Oil Prices is an important resource for energy market participants, commodity traders and investors, as well as business journalists and government policymakers alike.

About this title

From the Back Cover

This book addresses electrical engineers, physicists, designers of flat panel displays (FDPs), students and also scientists from other disciplines interested in understanding the various 3D technologies. A timely guide is provided to the present status of development in 3D display technologies, ready to be commercialized as well as to future technologies.

Having presented the physiology of 3D perception, the book progresses to a detailed discussion of the five 3D technologies: stereoscopic and autostereoscopic displays; integral imaging; holography and volumetric displays, and:

• Introduces spatial and temporal multiplex for the two views needed for stereoscopic and autostereoscopic displays;
• Outlines dominant components such as retarders for stereoscopic displays, and fixed as well as adjustable lenticular lenses and parallax barriers for auto- stereoscopic  displays;
• Examines the high speed required for 240 Hz frames provided by parallel addressing and the recently proposed interleaved image processing;
• Explains integral imaging, a true 3D system, based on the known lenticulars which is explored up to the level of a 3D video projector using real and virtual images;
• Renders holographic 3D easier to understand by using phasors known from electrical engineering and optics leading up to digital computer generated holograms;
• Shows volumetric displays to be limited by the number of stacked FPDs; and,
• Presents algorithms stemming from computer science to assess 3D image quality and to allow for bandwidth saving transmission of 3D TV signals.

From the Inside Flap

“A very complete analysis of the crude oil market, the final product markets and the refining industry – I highly recommend this book.”
—Frédéric Lantz, Program Supervisor and Master in Environmental Economics, Sustainable Development and Energy, IFP-School

“Salvatore Carollo makes a hard issue seem easy. Balanced, comprehensive and clear, this book will enlighten anyone interested in oil prices. It is a must read!”
—Giovani Machado – DSc. in Energy Planning, Advisor at Energy Research Company – EPE, Brazil

“In addition to historical and theoretical background, Carollo's book provides an excellent ground-level view of the way oil markets really work. He explains not only the impact of product regulations on markets, but shows the way in which the trade is carried out in financial markets, such as the Brent forward market.” 
—Michael Lynch, President and Director of Global Petroleum Service, Strategic Energy & Economic Research Inc. (SEER)

“It is very hard to accurately anticipate the fluctuations of oil prices. Yet, understanding what drives these fluctuations is possible and this book offers a rigorous and intelligent synthesis of what we know about the forces and institutions that shape energy markets and, thus, oil prices. Salvatore Carollo has written an invaluable reference for professionals interested in the formation of oil prices.”
—Moisés Naím, PhD, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1119962722
• ISBN 13: 9781119962724
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208