Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Business economics - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,6, Humboldt-University of Berlin (School of Business and Economics ), course: Power Games in Energy Markets, language: English, abstract: Crude oil is currently the most important source of energy in the world. Thanks to advanced production and extraction methods, and due to new discoveries, the available reserves have grown over the last ten years. During this period of time, oil prices rose considerably. These increases in price are associated with the increasing energy demands of growing economies across the planet and a shifting of weight between the physical and financial oil market. The goal of this work is to examine the correlation between physical and financial crude oil markets as well as establish an explanation for the drastic increase in crude oil price in the past decade. The work is organized as follows: To begin, the characteristics of crude oil as well as its value chain are presented and examined. This is followed by an explanation of the physical and financial oil trade. To conclude, the fundamentals of the world oil market and the financial oil trade are examined to determine the relevance of causation with respect to the recent price increase.

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Business economics - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,6, Humboldt-University of Berlin (School of Business and Economics ), course: Power Games in Energy Markets, language: English, abstract: Crude oil is currently the most important source of energy in the world. Thanks to advanced production and extraction methods, and due to new discoveries, the available reserves have grown over the last ten years. During this period of time, oil prices rose considerably. These increases in price are associated with the increasing energy demands of growing economies across the planet and a shifting of weight between the physical and financial oil market. The goal of this work is to examine the correlation between physical and financial crude oil markets as well as establish an explanation for the drastic increase in crude oil price in the past decade. The work is organized as follows: To begin, the characteristics of crude oil as well as its value chain are presented and examined. This is followed by an explanation of the physical and financial oil trade. To conclude, the fundamentals of the world oil market and the financial oil trade are examined to determine the relevance of causation with respect to the recent price increase.

Master's Thesis from the year 2011 in the subject Economics - Finance, grade: 8,0, Maastricht University (School of Business and Economics), language: English, abstract: This study finds that while a large part of the variation in crude oil futures prices is driven by fundamental factors, financial investment and speculation has the potential to aggravate reactions to changing fundamental variables and furthermore move prices on its own. The evidence is gathered by performing linear regressions and Granger Causality tests on futures returns, position data of different categories of futures traders on the New York Mercantile Exchange and proxies for relevant fundamental factors such as equity and exchange rate returns gathered from August 2006 to December 2010. While higher prices for crude oil naturally come along with increasing physical demand and finite world supply, future regulation might temper market volatility and guarantee that prices reflect a sustainable physical market equilibrium. The study also gives an overview of commodity market regulation and position limits on futures markets.

This is a book about the international oil market. It takes a historical perspective on how the market emerged, developed, and became what it is today—the biggest commodity market in the world. It is mature and complex, but far from perfect. Throughout most of its 150-year history, the oil market has been monopolised by companies and governments. For only a fraction of that, oil traded in a relatively free market. As a result, we had to live with ‘big oil’, economic shocks, high oil prices, instability and wars. Using a simple concept of market power, this book will explain the meaning of ‘oil price’ and how it is established while offering a valuable lesson for other commodities. Market power is the key to understanding the ‘price of oil’. This book uses a simple concept of price-makers and price-takers to examine the evolution of oil markets, their structure, and prices. The early decades of the oil industry were competitive with low barriers to entry. Barely 25 years later, the Standard Oil company created a refining monopoly, buying oil at its own ‘posted’ price. In the following century, the cartel of major oil companies, helped by their governments, did the same at the international level. OPEC helped producing governments regain control of their own resources, but the organisation was never able to retain a similar level of control. After 1986 price collapse, OPEC abdicated the price-making function in favour of the market. While it never gave up attempts to influence prices, OPEC had to link their official prices to one of the global oil benchmarks. Modern international oil markets function because of oil benchmarks such as Brent, WTI and Dubai. This book showcases: • How oil traders played a prominent role in development of the industry • How policies of consuming nations helped oil cartels • Why and how the US price of oil was negative • How AI has changed the way markets operate and the way in which the markets are likely to change in future This book explores how oil markets grew, functioned, and have occasionally failed to do their job. The ecosystem of derivatives or ‘paper barrels’ trading in far greater volume than physical oil plays a very important role in mitigating risk. With this core tenant, setting the ‘price of oil’ is explained in detail.

GARP's Fundamentals of Energy Risk Management introduces investors to the basic components and some of the basic terminology used in the energy industry. It covers the commodity cycle, energy use and sources, and various risk types, various energy products and the markets where energy is traded. It also introduces certain risk management fundamentals and real option thinking. The book is GARP's required text used by risk professionals looking to obtain their Certificate in Energy Risk Management.

With twenty-two chapters written by leading international experts, this volume represents the most detailed and comprehensive Handbook on electricity markets ever published.