Posted on 11/19/2008 1:21:02 PM PST by Star Traveler
By Alan Beattie in Barcelona
Published: November 18 2008 20:35 | Last updated: November 18 2008 20:35
[ ... ]
A recent meeting of the national oil companies in Beijing had predicted oil prices would fall to about $40 a barrel, Fu Chengyu, chief executive of China National Offshore Oil Corporation, told a conference in Barcelona.
[ ... ]
Mr Fu said that about 27 companies from 23 countries attended the meeting in Beijing, which he said was on October 17 or 18, though he declined to name those present. He described the tone of the meeting as one of “panic” at falling prices.
[ ... ]
“If the oil price remained around $50 or $55, that would mean cutting at least 60 per cent of budgeted projects for the next one or two years from the national oil companies,” Mr Fu said.
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
$1.49 a gallon gas... "here we come!".... LOL...
Sweet. I’d prefer $25, but its a start
...and not a peep from the “evil speculators, evil oil companies” crowd...
Rush was saying look for the Obammy crowd to put huge tax increases on at the pump.
How long before we have to start bailing out the big oil companies?
NYMEX crude index $53. From here $40 is well within possibility. How’s the vacant office space in Dallas? Up a tad as yet?
Well, there can be no doubt that this is all Bush's fault.
They can slide in there if they grease the right palms.
You said — “NYMEX crude index $53. From here $40 is well within possibility. How’s the vacant office space in Dallas? Up a tad as yet?”
Yeah, I hope it does go down there and stay there for a while. But, most likely it will bounce back up to over $50 a barrel and start climbing back up again. I think we have this low price only until, perhaps, this early Spring...
But, about Dallas, it’s been a while since I’ve been there, but they are pretty well diversified, I think. I would wonder about Houston..., though... :-)
Now, Tulsa was the previous “Oil Capital of the World” before the last big bust the had on oil and then it went to Houston (for that title). Maybe Houston will bust this time. Who knows...
$1.67 in St. Louis, MO.
When OPEC tries to control the price of OIL, isn’t that considered price fixing? I believe that is illegal in the US. Could charges be brought against them in a US court when they try to fix the price back up above $50 ?
Rio De Janeiro. Next door to the giant Brazilian field, and a short hop over the Atlantic to the new offshore projects in West Africa.
Fortunately for the time being the hugh profits of the past few quarters will delay the bust somewhat.
Maybe that kind of price would kill ethanol.
It would certainly be a much needed infusion of cash to the economy and a cut in the imbalance of payments (more cash remaining on our shores as opposed to petrodollars going off shore).
The price of oil is a moot point. Obama is going to fill my tank for $0.00 per gallon.
Yes, but he’s going to fill it with hope, not gasoline.
OPEC is not a US corporation. They are no more subject to our laws than we are to theirs.
Or until Russia and Iran decide that they can't afford to sell at $40/BB and engineer a little funny business in the Gulf.
OPEC does not per say fix prices. They set targets for production intended to achieve a given price.
OPEC is the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. You would have to bring charges against the individual nations.
Given that these are sovereign nations how would you enforce a judgment in a US court against these countries? You could freeze bank accounts but considering how many dollars these countries hold doing so could start a financial war that the US at present is not in any condition to fight.
Isn’t calling someone a Conooc Head kind of rude?
Probably..., but welcome to the 1930s economy! Assuming you have an income, you can fill your tank (but try to purchase a locking gas cap..., shades of the 70s!!!)
“...and not a peep from the “evil speculators, evil oil companies” crowd...”
The speculators are going bust. Not only are their companies stock prices dropping toward zero, but their main product to speculate (oil) is dropping. Unfortunately for them, they were leveraged up to their eyeballs and praying the price would continue to go up. Too bad : \
You said — “When OPEC tries to control the price of OIL, isn’t that considered price fixing? I believe that is illegal in the US. Could charges be brought against them in a US court when they try to fix the price back up above $50 ?”
Ummmm..., are you just “discovering” OPEC for the first time, today? LOL...
It’s been around for a while, and if there was a lawsuit to be brought — I think it would have been done many years ago (OPEC was formed in September, 1960 in Baghdad...). That’s how long they’ve been doing this... :-)
Maybe on Planet Melmac.
Yeah..., I hope they’ve still got the money.... LOL...
Still 2.19 here.
Oil has always been a $35-$45 bbl commodity, ever single dollar over that that’s been paid over the past few years was nothing more than greed tax.
I believe Congress voted to sue OPEC some time over the Summer. I can’t find the article in archives, though.
I think you have the right idea. Obama wants gasoline at around $4/gal. so he can peddle all his AGW/renewable energy socialism. Despite the struggling World economy, I am still a bit surprised that crude prices continued to drop after Obama was elected.
I think it will be mid-summer before we start seeing prices like the ones we escaped this past summer. The lower it goes now, the better. When Bush hands over the reigns to zero and the price is $1.40/gal. and is then $4/gal. this summer I wonder how the left will blame Bush for it. My battle cry will be, “Obama is taking this country in the wrong direction!” :)
Can we check their balance sheets? Are they spending $2 billion a month like GM? Or $5 billion by some reports.
You said — “Oil has always been a $35-$45 bbl commodity, ever single dollar over that that’s been paid over the past few years was nothing more than greed tax.”
Well, I’ve read that some of these oil producing countries have the costs for running their own internal economies pegged at around maybe $60-$70 a barrel or so (different countries at different price points).
So, they figure that they’re *losing money* right now (when it comes to the costs of running their country), when oil is supposed to be paying the bills for them.
And, in addition to that, the oil companies have pegged the cost for a barrel of oil at around that same price point, in order to calculate out the profitability of projects that they’ve got online and for the future. So, if it drops below those price points, they figure they’ll be losing money on these future projects.
All this says to me — that oil is going to come back up to around $80 to $100 a barrel, soon (by Spring of next year)....
Speculators can make money on falling oil price just like a rising oil price. It is a steady oil price that leaves no room for a speculator to profit. It doesn't matter if that price is $200 or $20.
You said — “Despite the struggling World economy, I am still a bit surprised that crude prices continued to drop after Obama was elected.”
Well, to me, that’s a reflection of the seriousness of the world-wide depression that is coming...
Just in time to get all the sheeple to buy Christms gifts.
My concern about low gas price: If Russia or Iran want to get the price back up, all they have to do is bomb someone. The whole market will skyrocket.
New domestic fuel sources just aren't going to be pursued. This is a replay of our previous oil bust, as far as developing anything in this country, drilling or alternative. So much for energy independence.
No but I just thought of the price fixing thing.
Now if we just had the leadership to take advantage of the situation to decisively win this war.
Yeah, the idea has been discussed before, but the problem is, with price fixing (in this country), it applies to “entities” that are under the jurisdiction of our law in this country. This “OPEC” is an entity that is a part of the actual *government* of different nations. So, these other “governments” are not under the jurisdiction of U.S. law...
Y’all are on the way down to $1.49 a gallon gas, too... :-)
No kidding. Mr Obama will get nowhere with his alternative energy hopes. Next time, coming sooner than we might want, will be more series than this time. About two years.
“Speculators can make money on falling oil price just like a rising oil price.”
I don’t think to many speculators were shorting the oil market. They got caught believing that there was an oil shortage, and now they are holding long contacts priced at $150+.
I guess the only good to come out of our recent pain is the falling price per barrel means the goofy terrorists won’t have as much money to play around with. It does make it tough to “sell” energy independence, however, and it’s really going to be a kick in the head the next time prices soar.
I don’t agree. There was a major firm that got caught by starting the run down just a few weeks too early.
“I don’t agree.”
If speculators didn’t cause the increase in price then what did?
My belief is speculators blindly bought long. Once the house of cards started to fall, they ran as fast as they could.
Obliviously the market for oil contacts isn’t the same as a few months ago.
Wonder if those those sold their SUVs are reggreting it now
As the saying goes, "you can hope in one hand and...see which one fills up first." (Heavily redacted in the interest of good taste)
I don’t think the Russians would try something like that again.
After they invaded Ossetia huge amounts of foreign and domestic investors pulled their money out of Russia.
It doesn’t pay the Russians to remind people who they really are.
You asked — “Wonder if those those sold their SUVs are reggreting it now”
Well, since it takes a 100-year financial event/disaster/depression to create the conditions that led to the bottom dropping out on the oil market — I suspect you won’t see this again — or — for very long (in its depressed condition).
So, that means the lower prices are temporary (just for the time being), and those who got rid of their SUVs will soon be glad (once again, when the prices climb up) that they did... :-)
Along with the lower oil prices, I take great satisfaction in the silence of the “Peak Oil” crowd. Those smug SOB’s were breathlessly proclaiming that the world was running out of oil and that prices would never again go below $100 a barrel. How does the crow taste, boys!?
Wrong on both points. This is peak oil, this is what peak oil is like.
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