On line editor: What you are saying is that multi billions of dollars, we are talking immense figures being speculated on higher oil price futures will make no discernable difference to the price at the bowser. And subsequently the oil/petrol cartels will not regulate supplies to leverage this enormous inflow. They will just twiddle their thumbs. Oil and petrol prices have been manipulated by the most powerful corporate and financial interests in order to serve their profit interests.

Last year British Petroleum agreed to pay $373 million to end a US Justice Department investigation into price-fixing by BP in the heating oil market. Mentioning Enron again, its manipulation of the electricity supplies, including the deliberate provoking of rolling blackouts in California, is infamous.

In the case of the oil bubble, hedge funds and major finance houses, such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan, have reaped up to 200 percent returns on their investments. Kenneth Griffin, head of energy trader Citadel Investment Group, made $1.5 billion in 2007. Steven Cohen of SAC Capital Advisors made $900 million.

In addition the rise in prices has produced a windfall for Big Oil, with ExxonMobil, Chevron and the other top five corporations raking in $36 billion in profits during the first quarter of this year and rewarding their corporate CEOs with multi-million-dollar pay packages.
Yes China is the worlds major purchaser of energy which is increasing. India is not in the same league yet but a large purchaser too.

I am not the "on line editor", just ED_online. If there is an online editor, it isnt me.

"What you are saying is that multi billions of dollars, we are talking immense figures being speculated on higher oil price futures will make no discernable difference to the price at the bowser."

That is exactly what I am saying. The volume of trades can spike when prices are rising, but can also spike when falling. If I went to the casino and found only 1 person playing on the roulette wheel, would the outcome be different if there were 100 people playing?

You list a number of companies that made lots of money investing in oil. Good on them! If I was a shareholder in those companies I would be very pleased. Plenty of people are making money investing in Rio Tinto and BHP shares as well. None of this proves that oil prices are being manipulated by investors.

Instead, you should look at the factors impacting on supply and demand I mentioned earlier.