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.
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.
BUMP!
Screw the Saudis - they’re no friends of ours.
They financed 9/11 and smiled in our faces as Americans died.
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!!!! :(
I can only imagine the fun when *their* welfare leeches get uppity.
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.
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]
Their best bet is, kill the Royal Family, kill the Religious Police, optionally adopt Christianity, and start over.
Round about time for the Saudis to go back to camel riding and sheep herding.
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!
Plus being pro-fracking would be a winning issue in Pennsylvania.
Disgusting. And to think I admired GW back in the day.
Besides the oil issue, another reason US governments have been absurdly friendly with Saudi Arabia is because of Iran.
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.
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?
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