Oil prices declined more than 6 percent the first two days of this week, before recovering 50 cents per barrel yesterday to $137.54. Oil analysts said the immediate reason for the price decline included the strengthening of the U.S. dollar. Retail gasoline prices hit a record high near $4.11 per gallon, and diesel prices rose to a new high of $4.83 per gallon. Wednesday's gain in oil prices was said to be spurred by Iran’s test-firing of nine missiles, including a type capable of reaching Israel.

Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens launched an advertising campaign this week to bring more focus to solving the nation’s energy crisis. Last year, Pickens announced plans to build the world’s largest wind farm in Texas, which would cost $12 billion. This week he said, "U.S. dependency on foreign oil has reached an economic crisis point. Now dependent on foreign nations for 70 percent of its oil, the United States is exporting $700 billion annually, more than four times the cost of the Iraq war." But Pickens also contradicted ideas that oil prices have skyrocketed 88 percent over the past year because of speculators in the market. "It isn't driven by speculation," he said. Pickens blamed the gains in oil prices on global demand exceeding supplies. — G.H.

-from Drovers Alert