Oil prices could hit $80 within two years

Daily Star ^ | March 04, 2005 | Paul Cochrane

[Final Authority]

The primary source of methanol is natural gas. The primary source of fertilizer to grow crops to produce ethanol is natural gas. There is no free lunch when it comes to energy sources.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Your Merc will really like the new diesel coming in 2006...Low sulfur, higher cetane.

[Double Tap]

That is a bizarre comment. So you think that it is not simple? I'm sorry, but it is.

[tortoise]

Nonsense. Look at the futures contract prices. People who actually have money to lose on this are betting the prices are going down over the next several years.

[RobRoy]

My 2005 bicycle commuting season just started this week.

[12 Gauge Mossberg]

This is a supply-and-demand problem. The Dems and eco-fascists don't want the U.S. to drill for our own oil so we have to pay the sheiks for it. Open up production and the price will go down.

[wideminded]

OK, drill Alaska. By the time the price-gouging hits us like that, we'll have our own supply.

Let's suppose that a lot of oil was found by drilling in ANWAR. That might help our balance of payments problem, but it's not clear to me that it would reduce the price of gas and other petroleum products to the individual user. Since oil is a fungible commodity, it has a price that is determined by world markets. Oil companies drilling in ANWAR are not going to just give away the oil to the U.S. They are going to sell it to the highest bidder.

Unless enough oil was found to significantly increase world supplies, it's not clear to me that the price of gas would drop very much if we had ANWAR oil.

[rottweiller_inc]

Under Clinton the federal government locked up quite a few mineral reserves including coal and oil and those resources remain locked up.

[rottweiller_inc]

If speculators are driving the price based on futures then it's no longer a matter of supply and demand but a matter of speculating on future prices where neither supply nor demand is known.

[Lewite]

I read in the Star magazine about the new deisel, it is amazing. Fast and thrifty. I am retired and could never afford a new one. But I am so happy with my 1981.

[Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit]

You wrote 60 words without saying much of anything. Give me some clear arguments to respond to and I am happy to do so.

[Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit]

At $50 a barrel there is no production on-line that is not producing. It takes 10 years to bring oil in the ground to the market and I stand by my original statement regarding the consequences and appropriate response to the scenario.

Providing from the supply side is a necessity, but reducing demand through increased efficiency is equally needed. It is a common ground for the ( sei-reasonable) eco-facists and the realists to meet. Without recognizing that increased efficiency is a necessity, the United States will, in fairly short order, lose its economic advantage over China and India.

[roaddog727]

VW Jetta TDI (turbo Diesel) YR 2000

45 MPG

Oh Yeh!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

A 24 year old car that looks good, runs well, starts everyday. What else could a guy want ?
Years ago, I bought a well-used 1962 Volvo sedan after an idiot ran into my Chevy and destroyed it. The owner said he'd bought it new and had been down to Mexico and Central America a couple of times. His son had taken it from Des Moines to college in the east and drove it all over, including Nova Scotia and the Maritime Provinces. It had two new front fenders, a valve job and 150,000 miles.
I bought it and drove it five years and 100,000 miles before I got hit on the same street in Windsor Heights, IA. The Volvo was pushed into the car in front, so both ends were totaled. I called the original owner and told him what'd happened. He confessed that the car actually had 250,000 on it when he'd sold it to me.
The engine and 4 speed transmission were salvaged and went into a Model T street machine which is still running, last I heard. 350,000 miles on the original mains and rods...incredible !

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

With which party do you affiliate?

[bert]

Winter will be over and prices will fall.

[RayChuang88]

But alas, no power in the higher rev ranges.

What VW needs to do is put in the PD130 engine rated at 134 bhp into the new VW Jetta and Golf coming out in a few months. I believe that this engine will be available in California once the US switches to low-sulfur motor fuels in September 2006.

[MacDorcha]

Unless enough oil was found to significantly increase world supplies, it's not clear to me that the price of gas would drop very much if we had ANWAR oil.

From my understanding, ANWAR would make the mid-east look like second fiddle. Rumors about it being so abundant that in certain areas oil literally seeps out of the ground, making wildlife a laughable note at best.

[roaddog727]

"But alas, no power in the higher rev ranges"

True enough. But I no longer am a mad power freak.

I'm happy enough to get to where I'm going at a good clip and inexpensively, even if I can't go from 0-60 in 4.0 secs.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Maybe you just hum
She's real fine,
my 409.