Member Info for Harmonica

The problem of stating that the Saudis would prefer $80 per barrel rather than $60 per barrel is that the government needs a certain total of income to pay civil servants, hospitals, defence etc. To achieve $80 per barrel, perhaps only a limited amount of stock can be sold, insufficient to meet national needs. At $60 per barrel, perhaps that can be achieved by selling way more stock without causing a drop in price.

Tell you what is "criminal"...it is typing "its", when it should be 'it is' or 'it's'!

If inflation is due to the strength of demand in the economy, then than that will be good for BP as oil will be needed to service that demand.
Mind you, if the price of oil rises far enough, OPEC may ease production volume restrictions and flood the market, bringing down the price.

I cannot see the price of oil reaching $110 per barrel. Long before that, the oil producers of the world would turn on the taps to take advantage. Only a war could bring about those prices.

With demand only expected to go up strongly as vaccination programmes progress in the developed world, oil companies will profit.

Demand for oil will rise enormously when airlines are flying their full schedules. This will eventually come when countries get their populations vaccinated.

The Covid-19 statistics on a Monday should be entirely ignored as there is a delay in gathering data due to the weekend effect. Better to look at the weekly averages. So whilst 'only' four deaths sounds great, it could simply be data lag.

BP share price, like all others, is determined by expected supply and demand of and for the shares. For BP this is determined by the spot and futures prices of crude oil, mostly. However, since crude oil is priced in US dollars, the US dollar exchange rate plays a part. How well the company is perceived to be run and market sentiment for the overall world economy also plays a part. As for the share buyback policy, this will probably provide a lower limit 'floor' but will not necessarily raise the share price significantly if the other determinants of the price are negative.

BP share price was somewhat lethargic this morning, then ramped up in the afternoon. What happened? What was news in the afternoon that was not known earlier?

Dividend is paid about Dec. 21st.

I can find no obvious reason why the BP share price has gone up so sharply today. The pound against the dollar and the price of crude oil do not seem to be significant in the change. Any ideas why? Harmonica