'Today's price of around $70 a barrel is increasingly viewed as a new floor for the [oil] industry.'  Perhaps the reason why Russia is wary of coordinating production limits with OPEC can be explained by the success achieve by Russian oil companies in upping production over a year of reduced output from OPEC producers and higher prices.  The Ministry of Natural Resources is looking for new measures that will bolster the country's crude output, which is already at record highs. The FT says the new Oando-Gazprom alliance is bad news for Brussels.  Lukoil has put in a bid for Iraq's West Qurna-1 oil field, which is preparing to award development rights within two weeks.  Ukraine's Naftogaz has had to restructure its $500 million eurobond and offer higher payout rates after failing to meet its September payout deadline. ...

By Keith Fitz-Gerald Investment Director Money Morning/The Money Map Report Congress is talking about going after oil speculators in an effort to lower prices by limiting the amount of money flowing into oil contracts. We realize that they’re upset, but they’re going about this the wrong way. What’s more, they’re demonstrating a near complete ignorance as to how financial markets actually work. It doesn’t help that they’ve got energy analysts from some of the top firms telling them the price of oil could drop as low as $65 to $75 per barrel, bringing gas down to around $2 per gallon within 30 days of legislation that puts limits on speculation. While we normally wouldn’t give a darn about the ignorance of elected officials, the bad news is that, judging from the solutions on the table, Congress is just crazy enough, and the vast majority of ...