[A CA Guy]

Somehow the Europeans are paying $11+ a gallon for gas.

Don’t know how they can’t get a lower price for a gallon.

IMO probably is their own government sucking $8 a gallon out of their peoples with taxes.

[eyedigress]

25 bucks in 1998. Explain that....

[Cowboy Bob]

How much will Russian Natural Gas be this winter?

[ckilmer]

An interesting historical footnote here. But the article doesn’t get the story quite right. from 1981 to 1985 Reagan steered the price of oil from about $105@ barrel in today’s dollars to about $60@barrel in today’s dollars by cutting some taxes instituted by carter. This caused oil production to rise for the first and only time between 1970 and 2005.

What the article does not say is that it was Reagan who in 1985 convinced the Saudis to stop cutting back on production and pump as much as they could to force prices down. Reagan knew that by doing so the old soviet union would be bankrupted because then as now the government there depended on oil revenues to pay their bureaucracy.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Some may disagree but I remember..

The Collapse of the Soviet Union and Ronald Reagan

"Because of the high oil prices of the 1970s the Soviet leadership avoided serious economic reforms, such as those that saved Deng Xiaoping’s China. Instead, it relied on oil revenues as a means of keeping its decrepit economy going . . . 'One of the most effective ways in which [Reagan's] economic policies weakened the Soviet Union was by helping bring about a drastic fall in the price of oil in the 1980s, thereby denying the Soviet Union large inflows of hard currency.'"

Turn our oil loose. The Islamists will be the losers-- if only we did not have a president who seems to favor them.

[PizzaDriver]

So why is ISIS a villain for selling millions of barrels of oil per at a prices well below the $100 mark?
Why isn’t Putin BOMBING their camps and convoys?

[RayChuang88]

One thing though: Russia knows that natural gas may make more money down the road than crude oil. China's need to phase out their highly-polluting coal-fired power plants and Japan's need to replace the power generation lost when their nuclear reactors shut down means Russia will have at least two major customers for their natural gas, especially now that new natural gas pipelines distributing natural to China or to a new natural gas terminal at Vladivostok or Nakhodka for sea shipment of natural gas to Japan could be constructed in the next ten years.

[Smokin' Joe]

The writer conveniently ignores that much of the economy in the US is depending directly or indirectly on oil prices and production, and that the technology used to get that oil is expensive. The only other real growth sector in the US economy has been government jobs, and we're up to our collective keester in debt.

The question arises of who would fold up first.

[Vendome]

Let’s drop kick these A-holes and frack the world to our abundance.

[wetphoenix]

It is somehow ignorant idea.
At first it ignores a fundamental difference between USSR and Russia.
True, energy exports are the largest exports for Russia and it contributes the most to the government revenues but government is not everything these days.
In USSR it was the opposite as far as there was a command economy and every single thing was a government-run.
Despite being the biggest earner for the government, energy sector is not higher than a fifth of total Russian economy.
Even if this sector would be hurt really bad, all they need is to cut some spending or increase taxation for other sectors.

[WildWeasel]

Our best weapon to hurt Putin is domestic oil and Nat gas production. The President is locked within the left wing paradigm that oil and Nat gas is bad, so unfortunately our best épée apron to hurt Russia is not used.

[Georgia Girl 2]

If we can get oil down to $80 per barrel they are toast.

[LonePalm]

Part of the problem for the Russians is that many of the wells they rely on for production are located in the Northern part of the country. The oil is relatively heavy and has to be heated just so that it will flow through the pipelines and not congeal during much of the year.

The Russians can not just stop and start production as you might in Texas, Saudi Arabia, or the North Sea. These wells MUST continue to produce just to keep the system functional for future production. If they stop there is a risk of systemic failure when the oil congeals in the pipelines. It is possible to clean out the congealed oil but it takes time and considerable expense.

Therefore, some currently unprofitable wells are kept in service just so they will be available when the price eventually rises.

"Ceterum censeo 0bama esse delendam."

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)