Posted on 12/11/2014 9:04:47 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Oil is crashing. On Thursday, WTI crude oil was falling again, moving back below $61 a barrel.
Much has been made of the "breakeven" oil price for the world's drilling projects. This is the level at which the price of oil covers the cost of extracting the oil.
A simpler way to look at when the biggest oil players will start feeling the squeeze from lower prices is the "cash cost."
"Without OPEC action, an outage, or other response, cash cost is the only true floor," Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Longson said.
Cash cost is basically what it takes to keep oil production going, not what it takes to make oil production profitable or for a government to hit its budget projection. If you drop below your cash cost on a project, you've got to turn out the lights.
As you can see on the far right, the Canadian oil sands and the US shale basins are very expensive to tap. Meanwhile in the Middle East, the Saudis, the Iraqis, and the Iranians basically stick a straw in the ground, and oil comes out.
Morgan Stanley
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
OK I see what it is now.
Well, remember...that’s the Obama Administration “environmental concerns” in regards the Keystone pipeline. It’s not the pipeline itself, it’s the availability of fuel delivered by the pipeline.
Kansas City?
Wonder what they would charge to build an earth type planet that would be inherently toxic to people with liberal mindsets? It would be well worth the price no doubt.
A cheaper way would be to build Chia earth in the pinky and the brain episode where the gullible went because of free t-shirts.
I know nothing about the oil business, but wouldn't you have already spent the bulk of production cost already when you have the well in place? Are the owners of the land you leased going to be happy with no production?
The Saudis are willing to let the price fall because they have enough cash reserves to survive for years at their current level of spending. In Venezuela, they spend it as soon as they receive it.
If I were the Saudis, I’d be a little worried that the Democrats will invoke the Soros plan of Responsibility To Protect and then it don’t matter how much oil they have. They’ll be running like Qadaffi.
You advocate letting Saudi Arabia drive domestic producers out of business via a price war just so they can control the market and set the prices high again?
They got some pretty little women there.........
gonna get me some.
I don't advocate Saudi Arabia doing anything. And nothing is what they have done.
I work in the industry, have for decades. Boom and Bust is part of it. The companies that take on too much debt will be selling assets to those that didn't.
Our domestic producers were growing production the last time prices fell this low. We are not on death's door.
The worst thing that could happen to the industry, is having the federal government try to "fix" it.
I would. But only because that would cause the oil production company to lose the lease. I would get to sell it again and make more money with a proved producer.
In reality, no production company is going to do that. They have to keep production to maintain the lease, as well as not cause problems in the well.
How would you do that? You want the federal government to tell private industry who they can buy from at what price?
It’s not an assumption it was based on a news article not just some person commenting on a forum ;-)
Let me see if I can find that article for you. I always like to educate people :-)
You have to flow the well to keep the production. But the volume you have to flow is very little. Many companies will shut the wells in and flow them the one day a month or whatever to hold the lease.
> “And nothing is what they have done.”
You are pathetically ignorant or deliberately misinformed.
Saudi Arabia has declared war on US oil drilling.
Please do. I always like to find knowledgeable sources about the industry I work in.
Especially ones more knowledgeable than a guy actually doing the work in the North Dakota for a couple decades.
What is wrong with lower prices? What is right about higher prices? Do most people go looking for the highest priced items?
You continue to be very entertaining when talking about the oil industry.
Saudi Arabia is actually producing less oil now than they were last year.
They have also stated that Iran, Venezuela and others need to get their spending under control and quit believing they can hold the world hostage under high prices.
Congress has passed many moratoriums in its history. It is not a new thing.
Saudi Arabia has also been behind much press to pass moratoria against fracking and has also supported hysterical claims of ground water contamination by fracking.
You are not an oil expert by any stretch of the imagination.
At best you are a laid off oil rigger, oil production office gopher or retired or laid off government bureaucrat in oil permitting.
You do not hold a degree in petroleum engineering nor have you ever worked with a statistical service covering the petroleum industry.
Your knowledge is barely rudimentary and your political expertise is zero.
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