The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Oil price hits $70 milestone amid Iran uncertainty
U.S. oil prices crashed through the $70-a-barrel mark on Monday for the first time since late 2014, foreshadowing costlier gasoline and consumer goods.
It’s not clear that pricey crude will slow down the economy, however. The stock market moved higher in afternoon trading as investors bet that companies and consumers can cope with the increase.
Benchmark U.S. crude rose $1.03 to $70.75 a barrel in afternoon trading on the futures market in New York. The international standard, Brent crude, was up again, to around $76.
Analysts cited concern that Iranian oil exports will fall if the U.S. withdraws from a 2015 deal that eased sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits on its nuclear program. Also, U.S. stockpiles of crude are down from this time last year.
The national average for gasoline is now $2.81 a gallon, according to the auto club AAA, and it’s not even the peak driving season yet. Pump prices are up 15 cents from a month ago and 46 cents from a year ago.
Eventually fuel prices show up in the costs of all sorts of consumer goods that are hauled by plane, train or truck. Online shoppers could see fewer offers of free shipping, said Diane Swonk, chief economist for accounting firm Grant Thornton LLP.
Swonk believes that oil prices are not yet high enough to derail economic growth.
“We are still adding jobs, and that is helping us to absorb it,” she said. “Wages aren’t accelerating as rapidly as we would like, but we are hearing a lot of anecdotal reports of wages picking up and that should help.”
Others are less sanguine. Longtime energy economist Philip Verleger believes the run-up is enough to trim growth “because consumers are going to have to cut expenditures on stuff other than gasoline.” And he believes that oil prices are heading much higher.
Verleger cited several factors in addition to the possibility of renewed sanctions on Iran, including comments by Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih that current prices aren’t hurting demand, implying that they could go even higher. He also pointed to a report that U.S. oil company ConocoPhillips is trying to seize Caribbean assets of Venezuela’s staterun oil company to recover a $2 billion award for Venezuela’s nationalization of the company’s projects there. Throw in a proposal by a UN agency that wants ships to use less highsulfur fuel, and he thinks oil might hit $200 — a level never seen — by the end of 2019.