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Why Oil Prices Are Headed Below $35 a Barrel
Fiscal Times ^ | 01/09/2015 | BY ANTHONY MIRHAYDARI

Posted on 01/09/2015 8:07:02 AM PST by SeekAndFind

It's getting serious now: On Wednesday, West Texas Intermediate futures tested a low of $46.83 a barrel before rebounding.

That's down nearly 57 percent from the summertime high of $107.68 and pushing toward the depths last seen during the 2008 financial crisis and recession that followed. Wholesale gasoline futures tested a low of $1.31 a barrel.

The wipeout in energy prices has been covered on all angles in recent months — including my recent piece on the negative repercussions for the U.S. economy, corporate earnings, and energy independence. Now, the focus is increasingly turning to how bad the damage could get.

New estimates from Bank of America Merrill Lynch put the short-term floor somewhere below $35 a barrel — a drop that would represent a decline of nearly 30 percent from here as the market is oversupplied by about a million barrels of oil per day.

SNIP

Oil demand is unlikely to soak up the excess supply anytime soon, with Europe stalled, Japan picking up the pieces from its recent sales tax hike and China still trying to control its runaway housing and fixed-asset investment bubbles without pricking its bad debt problem.

The demand situation also has an element of negative self-reinforcement: Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts note that 50 percent of the global oil demand growth of the last decade has come from oil producing countries. That's a problem, with Russia heading into recession and sovereigns in the Middle East drawing down currency reserves. And besides, they estimate that any response on the demand side would occur with a six month lag anyway.

(Excerpt) Read more at thefiscaltimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: energy; gas; oil; oilprice
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To: Sherman Logan
No it is not.

It was talked about, but not opened up.

Atlantic Oil and Gas Information
http://www.boem.gov/Atlantic-Oil-and-Gas-Information/

At present, no active OCS oil and gas leases exist in any of these four planning areas, and no oil and gas lease sales are proposed under the current Five Year Leasing Program 2012-2017.

41 posted on 01/09/2015 2:20:37 PM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: mosesdapoet

What is your question?


42 posted on 01/09/2015 2:21:25 PM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: mosesdapoet
Still doesn’t answer the question on refineries in Alaska for local use to lower gas prices there.

There hasn't been a new refinery opened ANYWHERE in the U.S. for decades (though old ones have been expanded.) Gasoline costs more in North Dakota, as well. I don't know how much modern refining is strictly an economy of scale, but that certainly plays into things (less so if refined product could be sold to the pacific rim)


43 posted on 01/09/2015 2:24:44 PM PST by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics)
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To: USNBandit
what if cheap oil prices make fracking unprofitable.

The oil business is cyclical. Exploration will continue in the most promising areas.

When (not if) prices rebound, exploration will pick up.

The market at work...it's a beautiful thing.

44 posted on 01/09/2015 3:33:18 PM PST by gogeo (If you are Tea Party, the Republican Party does not want you.)
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To: thackney

n the General/Chat forum, on a thread titled Why Oil Prices Are Headed Below $35 a Barrel, thackney wrote:
What is your question?

See my posting #21


45 posted on 01/09/2015 4:11:35 PM PST by mosesdapoet (Serious contribution pause.Please continue onto meaningless venting no one reads.)
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To: gogeo

If we look really long, all of this oil will eventually come out of the ground. My question is what the Saudis intentions are. Who are they trying to hurt? This won’t hurt America? It will hurt some oil workers and the boom towns. If they are trying to hurt Russia or Iran, that would make more sense.


46 posted on 01/09/2015 4:46:55 PM PST by USNBandit (sarcasm engaged at all times)
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To: gogeo
I was surprised to read in this article that Alberta oil shale is cheaper than US oil shale to pull,out of the ground. I thought location would make US costs of extraction cheaper.

Anybody know what the difference is?

47 posted on 01/09/2015 5:15:13 PM PST by USNBandit (sarcasm engaged at all times)
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To: USNBandit

I know enough to know that the oil business is boom and bust....lots of folks are gonna lose their jobs ...lots of businesses will fail
It costs Millions of $ to drill.

Some where in the future prices will go up again


48 posted on 01/09/2015 5:19:29 PM PST by woofie
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To: thackney

I’m alberta, Shell has already paid my one client for 3 years of work, I have three years lined up solid and I work through weekends, we’re going flat out and looking to hire more.


49 posted on 01/09/2015 6:05:52 PM PST by Bulwyf
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To: mosesdapoet

http://articles.ktuu.com/2012-08-31/state-senator-bill-wielechowski_33527129

this was from 2012

State legislators trying to find blame for high Alaska gas prices.


50 posted on 01/10/2015 12:35:59 PM PST by hattend (Firearms and ammunition...the only growing industries under the Obama regime.)
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To: nascarnation

In the same sense, won’t this piss off the envirmentalists also. Most of them are semi illiterate college students. If they read Obimbo did this, well that should send them into therapy.


51 posted on 01/10/2015 4:17:33 PM PST by I_be_tc
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To: SeekAndFind

Europe and Japan are “stalled” because they’re socialist centrally planned economies.

Disintermediation is needed in both.


52 posted on 01/12/2015 10:50:45 AM PST by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: bigbob

It’s already been considered and in a free market the net beneficiaries are consumers. In the free market consumers are kings!


53 posted on 01/12/2015 10:52:11 AM PST by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: USNBandit

The oil’s still there to grab once prices come back up. It’s all supply and demand, unless government comes in, and high prices cure themselves.


54 posted on 01/12/2015 10:53:16 AM PST by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: Jim from C-Town

Government land is the problem. The feds aren’t supposed to be big landholders. Government is political by nature and America was designed to be a giant free trade zone.


55 posted on 01/12/2015 10:54:09 AM PST by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: Sherman Logan

The hidden drivers of gas prices are taxes and EPA regs.


56 posted on 01/12/2015 10:55:13 AM PST by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: bgill

Limit their access to unemployment checks and they’ll find new jobs quickly.


57 posted on 01/12/2015 10:57:08 AM PST by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: 1010RD

That’s what makes me wonder why OPEC (the Saudis) are doing this. It may be a Russian or Iranian angle.


58 posted on 01/12/2015 12:55:10 PM PST by USNBandit (sarcasm engaged at all times)
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