Oil and sand: oil and gas market watchers consider the role of continued strife in the middle east, prices and rig counts.

Buyside, May, 2002 by Chensvold, Christian M.

Oil may still deserve the alias 'black gold', but maybe not 'Texas tea'. That's because oil is a major international commodity -- and much of it comes from a potential war zone.

If the war on terrorism takes on Iraq or if that "rogue nation" decides to stop exporting oil, an embargo it has urged the Arab League to join, the industry could be thrown into sudden upheaval. While investors may benefit, consumers will not. And we're all consumers.

But whatever happens in the Middle East -- and many analysts believe an embargo to be a long shot at press time -- there are still solid energy plays to be made, as commodity prices are healthy and new exploration and production technologies allow companies to streamline processes and become more profitable....

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.