Oil prices slump again……

Despite the OPEC’s attempts to cut output to artificially short circuit the supply, oil prices tumbled to USD33 per barrel…….. I keep my fingers crossed that it will go below USD10 per barrel soon. Not possible ? Remember, in March 1999, oil prices were USD11 per barrel. For far too long, the OPEC countries have been making too much sinful profits.

My gut feeling is, the higher the oil price, the more incidents of terrorist acts committed worldwide. So when the oil price is low, probably there will be no fundings and sponsorships for terrorists to commit crimes against humanity.

God is great, and Praise be with the Lord……..

By the way, why are we still paying more than RM 1 per litre at the petrol station ?

Boycott Petronas ?

It seemed to me that, maybe, it is part of our our culture to call for boycott this or that.

Today, a local newspaper carried a news report of Petronas urging Malaysians not to join email campaign to boycott Petronas service station. Interesting. I guess the email campaign had, in one way or another, did affect pump sales at Petronas stations nationwide.

About 2 weeks ago, I received an email titled “Pesanan dari pekerja petronas”. The email was purportedly issued by a “Muhamad Adib Mahadi” of Petronas to the “Kakitangan HQ”. The contents of the email basically seeked every one help to spread the message among Malaysians to boycott 1) ESSO/MOBIL, 2) SHELL, and 3) PROJET. The email claimed that, if everyone boycotted these three petroleum companies, the price of petroleum at the pumps will drop. Anyway, I doubt the email was originated from Petronas, and I don't think such a profitable and huge corporation like Petronas would resort to such despicable marketing tactic to gain market share.

The interesting thing is, there is a reversal of karma. Early last week, I received another email titled “Let s do it, That's people power”. The content of the email is quite similar to the email I received 2 weeks ago, with the exception that, this time, the email is asking all Malaysians to spread the message and to boycott Petronas. To quote the email “Here's the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY petrol from Petronas - the biggest price-up driver company. If they are not selling any petrol, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Petronas petrol buyers. It's SO simple! “

Did the three major oil companies joined hand to counter attack Petronas ? Well, when the wheel of karma is set in motion. Vipakka is always assured for those wrong doers. They shall reaped what they sowed – that has always been the law of nature.

Now, if I follow the calling of these two emails, I would probably have to park my cars in the garage and walk to work daily. I have worked hard to afford this little luxury, why should I ill treat myself to suffer by walking to work ? Whatever it is, I will not let all these emails influence my preference of where to pump petrol into my car. I have been using Shell throughout my adult life, so there is really no incentive for me to boycott Shell to switch to Petronas. As far as I am concerned, Shell is a more Malaysian and multi-racial company than Petronas. So, come what may, and as a open minded person, my customer loyalty remained with Shell.

The high price of petrol is a fact and certainty. As a consumer, there is nothing much we can do except to consume petrol with care and to limit unnecessary wastages. However, I do sincerely hope that, with the high prices of petrol, the creative minds of the West can came up with alternatively cheaper and environmentally friendly substitute to send all those immoral and greedy oil producing countries and oil brokers crumbling to their knees. I will prayer to that. I hope in my life time, this black blood of the earth can be do away with to cause less hardships and economic uncertainties.

Ahh.... I digressed ! Now coming back to the boycotts, I did a casual surveys of the petrol stations in my neighborhood over the past few evenings, I noticed, the petronas station is almost deserted, while the other non Petronas stations are still enjoying the usual crowd of customers. Maybe the email campaign calling for boycott has began to negatively impact Petronas service stations. Perhaps, Petronas should now seriously consider dropping its price to attract back the customers to its pumps. Makka Sakti ? Minyak Sakti ? Whatever it is, I will pray to that also................

Tank you very much.......

I understand, the MSM and the government that cares has been telling us, the petrol in Malaysia at RM 1.92 per litre is one of the cheapest in the world, so the Prime Minister announced today that, the government will not fund the “subsidies” for petrol, so effective tomorrow, the price per litre will be revised to RM 2.70 per litre. Comparing the prices of petrol in the following countries, aren't we Malaysians has been very lucky to enjoy such low prices ?

Norway USD6.82 per Gallon, Hong Kong USD6.25 per Gallon, Belgium USD6.16 per Gallon, UK USD5.96 per Gallon, Italy USD5.80 per Gallon, Japan USD5.25 per Gallon, Brazil USD4.42 per Gallon, India USD3.71 per Gallon, Australia USD3.42 per Gallon, South Africa USD3.39 per Gallon

The above countries are not petroleum producing countries. How about those countries who are net exporter of petroleum ? How much does the people in the so called petroleum countries paid for per litre or per gallon of petrol ? Now let us take a look : Saudi Arabia, USD0.09 per Gallon, Kuwait USD$0.08 per Gallon, and Venezuela USD 0.12 per Gallon.

Now, where do Malaysia stand compared to all those petroleum producing countries ? Are we managing our natural resources well to take care of the well being of Malaysians ? Whatever it is, not wanting to sound “ungrateful” for all the “cheap” petrol prices I enjoyed all these years, sincerely, from the bottom of ass, I like to say this to our “Dear Leaders”, “Tank you so much”.

honestly, I still don't quite comprehend the mechanism of petroleum pricing. Malaysia is an exporter of petroleum. For domestic consumption, why do we have to follow international prices, and why does the government claims that, if we do not follow international prices, the government will have to fund the differences between domestic price and international price as subsidy ?

Anyway, petrol is our basic necessity. Like it or, the government has decided to raise petrol price by a whopping 30%. The certainty is, the spiral effects of this drastic price increase will result in rising costs of living and cost of doing business. For sure, there will be hardships. I guess, as a ordinary citizen, it is pointless for me to complaint about this and that. I will just have to managed to cut down my costs of living, costs of doing business, and increase by revenues.

Well, drastic change in environment calls for drastic action. I have decided, tomorrow, the immediate things I am going to do are :

• Reducing my office head counts. Maybe get rid of one or two personnel to cut down operation costs.
• Terminate all unnecessary subscriptions such as astro, terminate extra phone line, magazine subscription, etc.
• Inform my tenant that starting next month, the rental will be increased by 30%
• Inform the customers that there will be additional “fuel surcharge” for delivery and customer service.

I hope these actions will compensate for the rising costs of living and doing business. Anyway, this is an opportunity for me to scale down my business to do things at a more relax and casual manners. Now, don't call me an opportunist or whatever derogatory terms. I am entitled to my rights to survive.

Yah... go ahead, they can even raise the petrol price to RM10 per litre ! Bring it on, who cares ? I am sicked and tired of a bunch of bloody inefficient people misallocating and mismanaging resources to mess up the economy. From now on, I am going to spend more time to sip my favorite cup of coffee, smell its aroma, and smilingly watching the clouds move in the sky...... Life is too short to be burdened by actions of morons and idiots.

Whatever will be, will be. Que sera sera.

Please, Please drop the petrol price !!!

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China, announced on January 13th 2007 that it would cut the wholesale price of gasoline (petrol) by 220 yuan (28.21 U.S. dollars) per ton and the price of kerosene by 90 yuan (11.54 U.S. dollars) per ton. "The local price cut that took effect (on Sunday) was necessary and well-founded because crude prices have declined......" NDRC told China Daily yesterday.

World crude oil prices has been steadily on a downward trend from the height of USD 75 a barrel in June 2006 to USD 50+ per barrel. The current oil price is the lowest since the previous 19 months. I am not an economist, but looking at the trends and moving averages, most likely, in the longer run of next 2 - 3 years, the world oil price will continue to slide to mid - USD 40s. In the mean time, our Malaysian Ringgit has also strengthened against the USD. Since the world oil price is pegged using UD dollars, the petrol price should now be even cheaper for Malaysians.

Since the retail prices of petroleum based products are controlled, when are average Malaysians going to enjoy the decency of lower petrol and derivatives' prices. I hope, since Malaysia is a net exporter of oil, the government would not resort to the reason of declining income as a result of declining oil prices to justify for the stay of current prices.

Head you win, tail I lose ? What's yours is yours, what's mine is up for grabs ? Arroganomics 101 ?