Oil

(Newser) - Russia's gas export monopoly has cut off Ukraine's supply over a contract dispute, and has boosted European supply to head off worries about reliability, Reuters reports. The EU gets 20% of its gas from Ukrainian pipelines. Kiev has already tapped the country's reserves, and maintaining the pressure in the supply pipelines is a concern. Crisis-battered Ukraine is sending negotiators to Moscow later today. More »

(Newser) - The price of oil jumped to $40 a barrel this morning, a gain of 8% over the previous session, as violence between Israel and Hamas threatened to destabilize crude supplies from the Middle East. Oil has been rising slightly after falling by more than $100 a barrel since July. The president of OPEC said this weekend he expected the price of oil to stabilize over the next two months as output cuts take hold. More »

(Newser) - Stocks fell today as oil futures declined, the jobs picture remained grim, and two of the Detroit’s Big Three announced production stops due to lack of funds, MarketWatch reports. The imminent expiration of options and futures contracts also bedeviled the markets, and the Dow closed down 219.35 at 8,604.99. The Nasdaq fell 26.94 to close at 1,552.37, and the S&P 500 19.14 to 885.28. More »

(Newser) - OPEC ministers are expected to back the biggest reduction in oil production in the history of the cartel when they meet today, Reuters reports. The exporters widely support a cut of 2 million barrels a day. Oil prices neared $43 per barrel yesterday, down over $100 from July. Officals from Saudi Arabia, which heads the cartel, are seeking action expected to boost prices to $75 a barrel. More »

(Newser) - Nearly 20 years after the Exxon Valdez spill, what little oil remains in the soiled Prince William Sound is harmless to plant and animal life, scientists agree. The last oil deposits remain deep in the cracks between shoreline rocks, inaccessible to animals and degraded enough to be "biologically insignificant." But what scientists don't agree on is whether the site can be categorized as clean, New Scientist reports. More »

(Newser) - Presidential candidate Bloomberg? Nope. Russia invading the Ukraine? Hardly. Foreign Policy takes a look back at the worst predictions of the year: A stabilized banking system: Shortly after Henry Paulson forecast stability on Wall Street, Citigroup’s stock price dropped 75% and closed below $5 for the first time since 1994. More »

(Newser) - Oil is officially entering a recession of its own, as a foundering global economy has caused the first reduction in consumption in a quarter-century, the Wall Street Journal reports. The International Energy Agency estimates that 2008 demand for oil will finish down some 300,000 barrels a day, the first decline since 1983. More »

(Newser) - The price of oil continued its descent today, settling at $42.07 a barrel amid new signs of collapsing demand worldwide, the Financial Times reports. Global consumption will shrink by 50,000 barrels a day in 2008 and by a whopping 450,000 barrels a day in 2009, the Energy Department says. Meanwhile, prices aren't expected to return to the sky-high levels of this summer for the foreseeable future. More »