Current Oil Price

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 22 Jan 2015, 17:18

Hmmm....you'd think, once all the hard work had been done, the sunk costs sunk and you just had a nodding donkey nodding away, the actual day-to-day production cost would be pretty low and they would keep going until the well ran dry.

Post by **kenneal - lagger** » 22 Jan 2015, 18:17

It takes energy to run the pump to pump the energy. And then there's maintenance and overheads and loan charges and ...

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 22 Jan 2015, 21:40

The oil comes mixed with water and gas, which needs separating and safely disposing of. That all takes energy and money.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 22 Jan 2015, 22:21

Loan charges are still there where or not you pump (until you declare bankruptcy). Yes yes of course there are costs, I just doubt that they add up to much compared to oil at ~$50. There's a little oilfield near my house that nods away at maybe 50 barrels per day. That's $2500 per day. A lorry comes every few days to carry the stuff off. There'll be some maintenance but there's nobody on site most of the time. Still seems a nice little earner.

AutomaticEarth · Post by **AutomaticEarth** » 22 Jan 2015, 22:59

Brent down a smidgen.

WTI down much lower at over $1.

Mario Draghi sets QE in motion. No effect on the oil price.......

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 23 Jan 2015, 01:49

King abdullah of Saudi arabia dies, oil up one dollar. Most
T us strippe r wells are just a few barrels a day and high water cut. They are more geographically remote and water costs about a dollar per gallon to reinject into a disposal well.

AutomaticEarth · Post by **AutomaticEarth** » 23 Jan 2015, 14:14

Brent oil was well up over a dollar but now up about 50 cents...WTI dropping by 28 cents - some 'jump'.

Guess the market has priced in the succession in KSA??

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 23 Jan 2015, 14:29

Given the tradition of keeping their kings on life support long after brain function has ceased, I would expect that the succession was agreed months ago and current oil price policy will not change at all. I wouldn't surprised if the new king decided the production hold leading to the current price falls. He is more hard line Islamic than the previous one, which is to say even more of a hypocrite.

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 23 Jan 2015, 16:16

A realistic take on America's butcher ally.

Given the foundations upon which American-Saudi ties rest, its unlikely that the relationship will be drastically altered by the passing of King Abdullah and the succession of his brother Prince Salman. Regardless of how venal, reckless, or brutal his government may choose to be, as long as it protects American interests in the Middle East it will inevitably be showered with plaudits and support, just as its predecessor was.

It's not yet time to 'bring democracy' to Saudi Arabia. But their turn will come.

And Glen Greenwald's take, highlighting the hypocritical gulf in the western reactions to a democratically-elected leader's death and that of a vicious dictator.

One obvious difference between the two leaders was that Chávez was elected and Abdullah was not. Another is that Chávez used the nation’s oil resources to attempt to improve the lives of the nation’s most improverished while Abdullah used his to further enrich Saudi oligarchs and western elites. Another is that the severity of Abdullah’s human rights abuses and militarism makes Chávez look in comparison like Gandhi.

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 23 Jan 2015, 16:26

I read a potted summary of the Saudi Royal politics over at peakoil.com
suggesting that SA are in a bit of panic about the near civil war in Yemen, where AQ are gaining ground again among the Sunni tribal leaders. The new king is said to have advancing senility which makes him a very shaky hand on the tiller - but he is said to be putting feelers out to bring the Muslim Brotherhood in from the cold, after they were kicked out by a SA backed coup in Egypt.

Without oil money coming in, I guess they can't afford to keep paying the Egyptian food import bills for ever.

AutomaticEarth · Post by **AutomaticEarth** » 23 Jan 2015, 22:28

Amazed to see WTI up be nearly $3 over Brent.....

Would have thought they'd be nearly at parity...

AutomaticEarth · Post by **AutomaticEarth** » 25 Jan 2015, 23:07

What will the events in Greece have on the oil price do you reckon?

vtsnowedin · Post by **vtsnowedin** » 26 Jan 2015, 11:28

AutomaticEarth wrote:What will the events in Greece have on the oil price do you reckon?

Little if any based on the size of their economy.

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 26 Jan 2015, 12:25

Greece becomes a problem if they do an Iceland and start bankrupting the bankers. They 'owe' a lot of money, and if they walk away from the repayments schedule other countries might elect new governments with a similar approach. The big question for the new government is how well they get to grips with cleaning out the corruption in their own systems. All of politics is compromise, and the more radical the movement, the quicker they can come unstuck when faced with establishment stonewalling.

The alternative is the Iraqi solution - sack the lot at the point of a gun and wait for the armed insurrection.

AutomaticEarth · Post by **AutomaticEarth** » 27 Jan 2015, 09:44

$200 a barrel oil? I thought that $140-plus was too expensive last time.....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... slump.html