Time magazine carried an interesting story Friday, on the same day that crude oil posted its biggest one-day jump in history, an increase of about $11/barrel.
Legendary upstream oil investor Richard Rainwater, at least for now, thinks the price has peaked.
In the story, which author Justin Fox describes as an exclusive -- and we could find no reference to Rainwater's activities anywhere else -- Rainwater says he believes that oil prices have come to a short-term high point, and he has sold all his oil holdings. The story quotes Rainwater saying "I sold my Chevron. I sold my ConocoPhillips. I sold my Statoil. I sold my Ensco. I sold my Pioneer Natural Resources. I sold everything." Pioneer was a company that Rainwater put together. Fox describes it as a "big deal."
The story says he sold in May, and the price went to its $135 earlier peak soon after. A decline to $121, as everyone knows by now, now looks like it happened months ago. It didn't; it happened just a few days ago.
But Rainwater doesn't believe the long-term climb in energy prices has come to a permanent halt. He describes the current market as being ready for a "pause," not an end point.
The term Peak Oil is not in the story, but it might as well be. He's not as apocalyptic as he had been in the past, but as Time notes, "he has seen nothing to make him think oil supplies will become abundant again or that an adequate replacement for oil will be found anytime soon."
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