Posted on 04/26/2016 3:22:22 PM PDT by bananaman22
Hidden among the ballyhoo about a collaborative freeze in production growth, a less visible but far more effective dynamic has affected, and likely will affect, oil supply and price: military intervention.
There have always been three routes out of the unsustainably low prices: natural decline/growth of supply/demand, collaboration constraints on supply, and military conflict. Since January, while the talk of a growth freeze had no effect whatsoever on actual supply, the natural decline/growth did reduce the overhang by a couple of hundred thousand barrels of oil per day. Meanwhile, two little-discussed and less-understood military interventions took a combined 900,000 bopd out of supply in a virtual instant.
In February, a “military type explosive charge” detonated on a subsea pipeline in Nigeria, taking out up to 300,000 bopd. The attack was characterized as “sophisticated” and “highly skilled,” not least because it was executed by divers under 20 feet of water. One source reported, “The people who did this knew what they were doing and they wanted maximum damage.”
(Excerpt) Read more at oilprice.com ...
Could be sabotage...
The most likely scenario, though, involves packs of rogue kittens, strapped head to toe with C4...
Scary stuff...
Cui bono?
Sure, it is hard to envision a way sabotage could reduce oil prices.
http://www.iea.org/aboutus/faqs/oil/
The world uses 96 million barrels of oil products per day. The world pumps 97 million barrels a day. (There is some efficiency loss so a barrel of crude does not equal a barrel of products.)
Not mentioned in the article is the logistics pipeline, which is full for the next six months to a year, depending on where you are and what is committed to reach you. Much of this oil is already and continuously in transit. Depending on the nature and scale of the disruption there is a huge amount of production sitting idle because it is not profitable to pump at the present price. But if the price goes up it will be pumped.
Also, the US could probably be the world’s number one oil supplier...except for politics. Democrats especially don’t want huge amounts of money flowing into the country as wealthy people don’t vote democrat.
Futures traders wearing scuba gear?
This is snarking, right?
The list of billionaires supporting Obama and Clinton is very long.
Wealth people often vote for crony capitalism which is a misnomer, it's really more like state fascism.
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2012/0806/leaderboard-support-obama-billioniares-follow-the-money.html
I think I read today, the Barnett basin near Dallas has 0 rigs now, the 1st time that has ever happened.
I think it’s all about price
I meant wealthy in a more general middleclass way. Cloward and Piven believed, rightly, that wealthy people...wealthy in terms of owning a house, having money to spend on luxuries like eating out, will not accept socialism. Only dirt poor people will accept socialism. Their path was to put everybody on welfare and bankrupt governments. Another path is taxation.
While employed I felt blessed with wealth. I had health insurance. I owned everything I had with no debts. I could have eaten out anytime and any number of times a week and not noticed any stress on my finances. That is what I mean by wealth. If the US pumped huge amounts of oil that money would permeate the economy and we’d have full employment. (Except where the minimum wage was ridiculously high.)
I’ve notices that most anything, including a badly placed fart, can cause oil prices to climb. In short, any excuse is valid.
Where are the enviro-whacko's? Haven't heard a peep out of them about the spill.
“Sure, it is hard to envision a way sabotage could reduce oil prices.”
Oh, I can think of a way. Obama’s been doing it for years - by sabotaging the economy.
Oh, I can think of a way. Obama’s been doing it for years - by sabotaging the economy.
That is the truth.
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