fuirst of all, these aren’t ‘crashing oil prices’- they are prices getting back down to what they SHOULD BE- like they were for 8 years during bush’s term- it’s awful funny that prices began to skyrocket right after obammer took office- and we got all these convoluted excuses for why it was happening- and it’s funny how we were perfectly capable of maintaining our roads and bridges for many years on low oil prices, but our current government couldn’t manage to save enough money from DOUBLE the prices in taxes when gas shot up to twice the amount- and now all of a sudden we’re ‘running out of money for roads and bridges’?
Did demand for oil double from the year 2008 to 2009? Because oil prices nearly doubled- Did the world’s population double or something in one year? What exactly was the justification for going from under $2.00 a gallon at the beginning of bush’s term to over $4.50 a gallon under obeamer? There was NO honest justification for oil rising that high per barrel- none-
Oil prices are getting back to normal prices- sure, companies who extract oil and truck it etc and certain other busiensses will not get as much as they did when oil was - but the fact is they were experiencing a windfall lottery boom because of the ARTIFICIALLY inflated for political reasons rise in oil prices that they normally would NOT have received had a republican won the office- when obeamer won office, opec ‘tested the waters’ by raising prices slow but steady, then in bigger jumps, and when they saw people just rolled over and took it- they kept raising it knowing full well they were gouging us and no one was going to squawk loud enough to stop them doing so - and ocne they got that gouging practice going, there was no way they were going to relent- easy free money in their pockets- money they simply lifted from the pockets of the working class while they weren’t looking-
they, opec- (AND our government- who found out they could get DOUBLE the gas taxes if prices went up double) got a taste of greed, found out that they COULD get away with it, and they will NEVER relent EXCEPT when they are threatened like they are now with the current oil boom happening in this country- That is the ONLY reason prices are falling- to punish our oil companies by making prices so low it’s not worth the time and money to drill any longer in the expensive to extract shale oil fields-
It’s a dirty business all the way around! and WE, the working class citizens, are the ones getting screwed
Market forces correcting the price either way up or down is hardoy "dirty". What is "dirty", however, is politicians ogling $2.00/gal gasoline ready to go and "get theirs" by increasing gasoline taxes... that will not ever go down or disappear.
“That is the ONLY reason prices are falling- to punish our oil companies by making prices so low it’s not worth the time and money to drill any longer in the expensive to extract shale oil fields-”
you are getting it mostly right.
the way oil contracts are set up makes it much more lucrative to be domestic producers when prices are high.
When they crash like now, monies dry up domestically and, guess what? the majors go to international contracts to exploit as they have less downside risk.
in other words:
prices up, lots of upside to drill USA/
prices down, no one makes as much money, but one gets some downside risk lessened when drilling internationally