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Shale Production Has Reduced Energy Prices To Levels Where Saudi Arabia Can't Fund Its Welfare State
Townhall.com ^ | August 3, 2016 | Matt Vespa

Posted on 08/04/2016 12:58:31 AM PDT by Kaslin

Saudi Arabia knew that North American shale production could potentially torpedo their hold on the energy market via oil. So, they decided to trounce the natural gas market by opening the floodgates with petroleum. It didn’t work. The Telegraph now reports that shale production has cut prices so low that they can produce at prices that are lower that what’s required to keep Saudi Arabia’s socioeconomic fabric healthy:

Opec's worst fears are coming true. Twenty months after Saudi Arabia took the fateful decision to flood world markets with oil, it has still failed to break the back of the US shale industry.

The Saudi-led Gulf states have certainly succeeded in killing off a string of global mega-projects in deep waters. Investment in upstream exploration from 2014 to 2020 will be $1.8 trillion less than previously assumed, according to consultants IHS. But this is a bitter victory at best.

North America's hydraulic frackers are cutting costs so fast that most can now produce at prices far below levels needed to fund the Saudi welfare state and its military machine, or to cover Opec budget deficits.

[…]

Scott Sheffield, the outgoing chief of Pioneer Natural Resources, threw down the gauntlet last week - with some poetic licence - claiming that his pre-tax production costs in the Permian Basin of West Texas have fallen to $2.25 a barrel.

"Definitely we can compete with anything that Saudi Arabia has. We have the best rock," he said.

And yet, Democrats can’t stand this type of energy production. They’ve banned it in New York over trumped up fears about environmental damage. The most insane being that fracking causes earthquakes. It doesn’t. Oh, and that fracking pollutes drinking water. Again, it doesn’t.


TOPICS: Front Page News; US: Colorado; US: New Mexico; US: North Dakota; US: Pennsylvania; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: energy; energyindependence; muslimworld; naturalgas; oil; saudiarabia
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1 posted on 08/04/2016 12:58:32 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
Makes you wonder whether 911 was an attempt to destroy us before we destroyed them economically.

Oh, and by the way...




2 posted on 08/04/2016 1:11:43 AM PDT by 867V309 (It's over. It's over now.)
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To: 867V309

Bush nauseates me more because he was supposed to be a GOOD GUY.

I’d life to shove his face onto the graves of firefighter pals who died of lung cancer after working in “The Pit”, as they called it.

That picture of him with the Saud is actually making me sick.

That ####. just like pop. and #### you too, jeb.


3 posted on 08/04/2016 1:19:05 AM PDT by dp0622 (The only thing an upper crust conservative hates more than a liberal is a middle class conservative)
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To: dp0622
Bush nauseates me more because he was supposed to be a GOOD GUY.

Most of us rallied around boosch because of the clintoon-gore disaster.

Now we recognize him and his family as GLOBALIST liar dickweeds.

Live and learn.


4 posted on 08/04/2016 1:28:22 AM PDT by 867V309 (It's over. It's over now.)
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To: 867V309; dp0622

BUMP!


5 posted on 08/04/2016 1:34:40 AM PDT by PGalt
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To: dp0622
The Saudis are in trouble? Can't fund their welfare state? Oh gee, I feel so bad for them. NOT. 😭😄😆
6 posted on 08/04/2016 1:38:31 AM PDT by Mark17 (The love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong. It shall forevermore endure.)
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To: Kaslin

Screw the Saudis - they’re no friends of ours.

They financed 9/11 and smiled in our faces as Americans died.


7 posted on 08/04/2016 1:39:28 AM PDT by Jack Hammer
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To: Mark17

Yeah, when it come to the sauds, Im sick of the “what replaces them could be worse” theory.

They KILLED 3000 of our people!!

If worse takes over, make the whole area glow.

Geez.

9/11

Never Forget!!!! :(


8 posted on 08/04/2016 1:50:58 AM PDT by dp0622 (The only thing an upper crust conservative hates more than a liberal is a middle class conservative)
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To: Kaslin
My favorite oil grue said, over a year ago that SA’s true cost of production was near $100 because of their welfare state.
9 posted on 08/04/2016 2:01:14 AM PDT by razorback-bert (Due to the high price of ammo, no warning shot will be fired.)
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To: Kaslin

I can only imagine the fun when *their* welfare leeches get uppity.


10 posted on 08/04/2016 2:02:53 AM PDT by PLMerite (Compromise is Surrender: The Revolution...will not be kind.)
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To: Kaslin

If Hillary gets in the will find a way to tie Fracking to ground water pollution. Which is bunk, but it will give the EPA the power to essentially shut us down.

On another note, I work in the Eagle Ford and everyone has cut their pricing drastically. We have seen a little uptick in the amount of work we have been doing and the conan I work for is hiring. Some of it may be because oil hovered around $50 for a while and the work may slow down now that it has fallen back to the low $40’s, but talking to some of the other service companies on location a number of them are hiring. The money isn’t as good as it was, but it is still good honest work.


11 posted on 08/04/2016 2:09:23 AM PDT by rwh
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To: Kaslin

And yet they can finance this: http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3456307/posts [World’s largest hotel with 10,000 rooms, 70 restaurants to open in Mecca by 2017]


12 posted on 08/04/2016 2:10:54 AM PDT by BullDog108 (A Smith & Wesson beats four aces!)
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To: Kaslin
The Saudi people need to realize that, despite the success of US ingenuity in reducing the price of oil, there would still be enough for them, had not the Royal Family been ripping them off for decades!

Their best bet is, kill the Royal Family, kill the Religious Police, optionally adopt Christianity, and start over.

13 posted on 08/04/2016 2:16:15 AM PDT by cynwoody
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To: Kaslin

Round about time for the Saudis to go back to camel riding and sheep herding.


14 posted on 08/04/2016 2:25:07 AM PDT by Jimmy Valentine (DemocRATS - when they speak, they lie; when they are silent, they are stealing the American Dream)
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To: Kaslin

Fantastic! The first thing we should have done after 9/11 is focus on North American energy (hope Trump okays the Keystone pipeline, btw).

It would bring jobs to both countries and would be a source of “ethical oil”, as Ezra Levant says.

Stop depending on ME oil! Dry up money to fund terrorism!


15 posted on 08/04/2016 2:32:36 AM PDT by proud American in Canada (God bless the United States of America)
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To: Kaslin

Plus being pro-fracking would be a winning issue in Pennsylvania.


16 posted on 08/04/2016 2:34:56 AM PDT by proud American in Canada (God bless the United States of America)
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To: 867V309

Disgusting. And to think I admired GW back in the day.


17 posted on 08/04/2016 2:36:48 AM PDT by proud American in Canada (God bless the United States of America)
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To: 867V309; Kaslin

Besides the oil issue, another reason US governments have been absurdly friendly with Saudi Arabia is because of Iran.


18 posted on 08/04/2016 2:37:43 AM PDT by wideminded
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To: dp0622; 867V309; Kaslin
This is where it began

Let me point out something else.

The article above is not accurate. It is based solely on the article written by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, who writes a lot of goofy articles.

The premise of both articles is that shale oil drillers have reversed the rapid depletion of shale oil wells.

Not true. Because drilling in the US has been curtailed drastically, the producers have limited their drilling to the sweet spots with the least amount of depletion.

Both articles are about Pioneer Energy Services. Here is another recent article about that company.

Pioneer Energy Services Narrows Losses

They are still losing money, but they are not losing as much money as they were last year.

19 posted on 08/04/2016 2:47:17 AM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: Ben Ficklin

How much is there in the ground? It’s such an incredible procedure that it boggles the mind.

Seems like it would cost FIVE HUNDRED a barrel to extract.

I have to marvel at the genious in this country that obama is trying to destroy.

Will the shale deposits be around for the distant future, in your opinion?


20 posted on 08/04/2016 2:53:52 AM PDT by dp0622 (The only thing an upper crust conservative hates more than a liberal is a middle class conservative)
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