Oil Continues To Confound

From CNNMoney.com

LONDON (AP) — BP PLC said it shut down an oil pipeline that runs through Georgia on Tuesday as a precautionary measure, but added that it is unaware of any Russian bombings on pipelines in the region.

BP (BP) said the 90,000-barrel-a-day pipeline to Supsa on Georgia’s Black Sea coast from Baku in Azerbaijan will remain closed indefinitely.

Another pipeline operated by the London-based oil company in the former Soviet Republic, the larger Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, is already out of action after a fire last week on its Turkish stretch. The BTC pipeline usually provides around 1 million barrels of Caspian crude to international markets.

This just goes to show you that there is no rhyme or reason to justify the price of oil today. How is it possible that a storm 500 miles away from the Gulf of Mexico has the ability to drive up prices $6 a barrel two weeks ago, but a complete shutdown of not one, not two, but three hunks of major oil carrying pipeline throughout Europe drives the price of crude down?

Georgian ports on the Black Sea are a main shipping point of Caspian Sea crude from Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. More than 500,000 barrels leave these ports daily. Not to mention the uneasy felling everyone has over the Russia/Georgia pissing match should have pushed prices above the $150 threshold. Please, someone tell me what market forces are conspiring against war and political strife