The Observer: The high price of investing in oil’s future
Heather Connon
Sunday July 24, 2005
The oil price has risen more than 50 per cent over the past year and almost six-fold since the lows of the late Nineties, and some experts predict that it will double by the end of the decade. But, for most of us, the only way we are exposed to soaring oil prices is through higher prices of everything from petrol to heating oil.
Buying barrels of oil and storing them in your cellar is hardly an option and, while some commodity funds will have exposure to oil, they will also invest in metal, gold and other resources, which will affect their performance. Firms such as Cantor Index and IG Index also offer oil futures, betting contracts or warrants, but these are for professionals, rather than retail investors, according to Cantor’s David Buick, as their price depends as much on political and economic factors as on the oil price.