That was quick:
Don't get too comfy, though. Tomorrow some reporter will yell a question at MBS about Saudi oil production and he'll just flash them an enigmatic smile and then walk away. Within an hour oil will be selling for a thousand dollars a barrel or something.
Oil has been rising since the latest wave of the pandemic started waning.
The Ukraine war just made the speculation in oil worse.
I heard a discussion today about oil that showed just how ignorant we can be about it.
"Oh we need to drill baby drill."
We already export the surplus oil we extract/
"Keystone would have eliminated this shortage."
Keystone did NOTHING to impact U.S, supplies. It is Canadian tar sands oil - dirty heavy stuff that was ALREADY being shipped to the Gulf ports for either rough crude refining or export "as is". It was NEVER going to be used in the United States. And Trump, after approving Keystone only got 10% of it built in his years since approving the project
"Why were we even importing Russian oil?"
Well, it is lighter and sweeter than west texas crude - making it easier to refine into various products - meaning MORE PROFITS for refiners. THATs the issue why refine dirty heavy oil when you can refine Russian, or Brent Sea Crude oil cheaper and faster?
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Oil and fossil fuels in general have become so INGRAINED into our culture that we will now UNITE, Democrats and Republicans to impose higher gas prices on ourselves as a "stand against that invading killer Putin".
We can justify anything in our minds...........
I like your post!
> We need to drill baby drill
We need to continue developing alternatives to oil. The current round of high gas prices should help electric vehicles look very price competitive.
This drilling stuff isn't really working out that well. As you point out, the quality of the oil keeps getting worse, and we have to keep inventing new techniques to do the drilling.
Whereas manufacturing consistently produces economies of scale that lower prices over time.
These high prices won't stick. China will buy more from Russia. Iran will replace Russia in Europe. Freeing up light and sweet KSA for its old buddy, the good ole usa.
I wonder if the the Saudi's didn't trick Putin into a risky invasion of the Ukraine just for this.
We actually agree for once. I used the West Virginia/coal/China example before. 50% of it goes to China where it's turned into plastic.......where they pollute the environment. Anytime anybody uses the drill drill drill line. Just say "where to??? China". It sure ain't staying in merica".
Seems like the graph needs more context. $110/barrel sounds like the price where profits are healthy and all sorts of new drilling and new research and development is taking place to find new oil substitutes.
This is exactly the sort of carbon tax needed to deal with climate change. It’s also why all available oil and gas will be extracted from the earth and burned for fuel. There is no plausible way to prevent it. Every increase in cost is met with howls of protest and action by the political class to increase supply.
This whole "oil thing" is grating on my nerves.
The oil we extract here in the U.S. - for the most part - is dirty oil. We CAN refine it into gasoline, home heating oil, diesel fuel, bunker fuel for ships and jet fuel but that costs more money
What bothers me is the "rush" local governments put on enticing (through government incentives, including long term tax breaks) these companies to locate in their area(s). We fail to see that we are extracting a dirty product out of the ground.
And right now, we have no spare labor capacity to expand any function that requires labor. Drilling, refining all require people - loads of people and they just aren't out there.
We are for all intents and purposes at "full employment" which is driving inflation up because wages are rising because we do have a labor shortage.
Anyone who thinks we can just snap our fingers and ramp up an FDR styled WPA (Works Progress Administration, and CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) is just delusional. These two programs alone gave temporary jobs to 8.5 million men. We just don't have that level of labor available.
We have got to lower our levels of use of fossil fuels, and DEMs need to realize that we cannot eliminate them in their entirety (same as coal)
The boomer die-off will go a long way to assist in lowering our use of oil, wood, coal etc but we do need to prepare for that "shock" when it does happen. And cutting back now will help.