By Angel Abcede 

8 April, 2011

CHICAGO -- Anyone trying to analyze the soaring price of crude--which broke $110 for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) this week, the highest since 2008--has got to factor in financial traders and the "patient, passive money" that the commodity is currently attracting, an oil analyst told about 400 attendees at the NACS State of the Industry Summit yesterday in Chicago.

Tom Kloza (pictured), chief oil analyst with Oil Price Information Service (OPIS), Wall, N.J., described an "immense amount of participation" in the purchase of crude contracts in recent years, mostly from algorithmic traders, hedge funds and 401(k)'s. He called them "massive, passive" investors willing to "park" millions of dollars for an extended period of time.

An indication of this is how much of the action and media attention goes to WTI trading on the NYMEX vs. overseas trading with Brent crude oil futures (that are more closely tied to actual supply). "It's not connected to real price," he said. "But the [NYMEX] is...where most of the action is."

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8 April, 2011 

SAN RAMON, Calif. -- Chevron Corp. said that it is planning a major expansion of its ExtraMile gas station brand in the San Francisco Bay Area and along the West Coast, according to a report by The Contra Costa Times. "We are trying to grow a critical mass of these ExtraMile stations so they become a well-known retail offering," Dale Walsh, president of Americas Products for Chevron, told the newspaper.