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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNo Pun Intended But Could An Oil Rich Country Be Fueling A War....
to get oil prices up?
This came to me in a dream (more like a nightmare). Just woke up in a cold sweat and thought I'd post this.
Think about it. No better way to jack up the price of oil then to foment a war.
Is there something going on behind the scenes that we're not privy to?
global1
(25,272 posts)I paid $1.79 per gallon yesterday for gas. I can't remember the last time it was so low. I read somewhere the other day that there are a number of oil tankers out at sea just milling around and not going into port. Could they be waiting until the price goes up to deliver their loads?
We're doing great with alternate sources of energy. That is helping drive the price of oil down. U.S. has become more energy independent over Obama's term. Where was the price of gas when he started?
Now all of a sudden - we get the Paris attack; the Mali attack; the terror level is being raised around the world; the Turks shoot down a Russian jet over Syria; we had the Russian passenger plane over Egypt shot down.
All of this seems to be adding up to a world war - starting in the Middle East. What countries are supporting ISIS? What countries aren't really joining the coalition to fight ISIS?
I'm just now connecting the dots. Is this what is going on behind the scenes to jack up the prices?
PADemD
(4,482 posts)Gas is $2.29 in PA, but heating oil is $1.75.
Jim Beard
(2,535 posts)I use this link to keep retailers honest. Crude Oil Prices
A HERETIC I AM
(24,380 posts)squash the US Dakota play. Oil at <$50 a barrel has been VERY effective in seriously curtailing, if not completely shutting down much of that enterprise. Oil business layoffs worldwide are huge at the moment, particularly in fields that require Hydraulic Fracturing procedures ("Fracking" .
They don't want to run it up. They want it cheap to keep out the competition from the US upper Midwest.
Edit to add that I heard an analyst a couple weeks back that suggested we have seen the last of +$100/barrel oil for quite some time, as the cost of Solar gets cheaper by the day and there will come a time when it and other alternative energy sources make crude oil of extremely diminished usefulness.
Jim Beard
(2,535 posts)I am talking several wind fields over 100 of the huge windmills. Huge transmission lines with 10 large CABLES carrying the power. Largest area in Texas is in the Abilene area. More are being with another large one starting North East of Lubbock, TX , close to an existing 100 windmill farm.
www.slate.com/articles/business/the_juice/2015/09/texas_electricity_goes_negative_wind_power_was_so_plentiful_one_night_that.html|The Night They Drove the Price of Electricity Down
Wind power was so plentiful in Texas that producers sold it at a negative price. What?
Having problems making link work
A HERETIC I AM
(24,380 posts)And it was apparently a unique event that didn't last long, but yes, Energy prices went negative for a short time a few weeks ago.
As far as Texas is concerned, it is important to remember that it is an energy "Island", in that there is no electrical transmission capability to move produced power out of or into the state.
applegrove
(118,808 posts)and down for geopolitical reasons. Could be Putin wants an oil shock. But mostly I think he wants a way back into the West's good books.
A HERETIC I AM
(24,380 posts)the primary one, the one that drives the prices of most things - is supply and demand.
The others are speculation and THEN Geo-Political forces.
Crude and it's derivatives are Fungible commodities. Buyers and sellers the world over bid on the same fuels on a daily basis.
200,000 barrels of #2 Diesel is exactly the same product in Perth as it is in Rotterdam and it makes no difference where the well or the Cat Cracker is.
PosterChild
(1,307 posts)...reasons for price shifts. But they are always much more prosaic and boring than we can imagine them to be.
applegrove
(118,808 posts)meetings. That not supply and demand. That's a command market and a cartel. There is still lots of supply in the earth in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. They just are not using it to the maximum. When they want the price to rise. When they want the price to fall they'll produce lots of oil.
A HERETIC I AM
(24,380 posts)They can ask $100 a barrel all day long but if no one is willing to pay it, they won't get it.
The reason it is currently at the $42 - $45 per barrel level is because the big producers are flooding the market. There is also a bit of a commodities rout across the board right now.
http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/commodities
Click on the "5Y" tab at the top of the graph. Scroll down for specific commodities. Look at the five year graph to get a better idea of how much prices have fallen.
global1
(25,272 posts)one other thing I recall reading was that the Saudi's might be financially hurting because of the glut in oil and the low prices.
The post above also makes sense - try to drive up the costs for fracking in the U.S. to get that oil off the market.
But again - nothing can increase the cost of oil (especially with the knee jerk reactions of the Wall St. speculators) than the threat of war. Either a threat of lack of supply of oil or the threat of a great increased use of oil will do it.
Could the West countries (led by Obama) be playing some 3 dimensional chess with the Saudi's? Are the Saudi's financially backing ISIS? Is this war on ISIS trying to thwart that effort?
My mind is racing here. I was really spooked by my nightmare. Then you have the Pope saying that we're on the brink of WWIII.
I'm not going to have a very Happy Thanksgiving today. I shudder the thought of a world war.
Betty Karlson
(7,231 posts)Helen Borg
(3,963 posts)Also, I wonder about all the money lots of big players have invested in futures and other casino gambling speculations regarding oil prices. Those same players may be able to affect real world events so that they win their own gambles.
GoneFishin
(5,217 posts)motive, and opportunity are still fundamental even in unfathomably large scams.
Question everything you are told by people whose primary goal is profit not truth.
Puppyjive
(506 posts)We are using up the oil in the Middle East first. When the oil is gone, life will change drastically for all. We would not be defending a country like Saudi Arabia if it were not for the oil they sit on. And in this defense of Saudi, we have found ourselves in a no win situation. We must involve ourselves in a war over religion and belief systems that are counter to our own. I would be worried about the shootdown of the Russian military jet. This could spiral out of control and I would bet my last paycheck that the US is heavily involved.