Today, a talking head over at Yahoo suggests oil could surge to $150 this year. He even sees a $200-scenario.
I'll go on record here, based on RBN Energy posting this past year and futures trading going two months forward: it is more likely we will see $90-oil before the year (2014) is out than we will see $105-oil. I don't think we will ever see $75 oil again, in my investing lifetime, but I wouldn't rule out $85-oil. I'm talking WTI oil, priced at Cushing. [Update, April 5, 2015: boy, was I wrong.]
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A Little Bit of Humor
The Bismarck Tribune is reporting:
Amtrak officials say the company is changing the schedules of its Empire Builder passenger train because of congestion from increasing oil freight along the line.
The Empire Builder runs daily between Chicago, Seattle and Portland, OR, passing through Glacier National Park and North Dakota. In recent months, it has been consistently late because of freight traffic, particularly trains from the Bakken oil region.It's my experience -- after many, many trips on Amtrak -- that Amtrak is seldom late. The problem is in the definition. Airlines define an "on-time" take-off if they pull away from the gate no later than fifteen minutes after the scheduled departure time, regardless of how long they remain on the tarmac getting de-iced or waiting in line to take off.
Likewise, Amtrak needs to re-define "on-time" arrival. No one travels by train to get somewhere on time. From Williston to Spokane folks ride the train for the scenery. I always considered Amtrak on schedule if it arrived within 24 hours of scheduled arrival time. That goes back to my days in high school (1967 - 1969) when I would help a friend pick up the Sunday edition of The Minneapolis Tribune for delivery here in Williston. If the train arrived on Sunday during the winter, I was always surprised.