The Real Culprit For Rising Oil Prices.???..and theres plenty of oil......

by chrisjoel 79 Replies latest jw friends

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  BurnTheShips
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  zeroday

  ...reallly we don't need you but you need us lets just be glad

  Zero, looks like Canada is keeping you employed.

  And vise versa...
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  Preston

  I like to think of myself as more pragmatic on this issue.

  I think there is plenty of supply, but don't think rising oil prices are a manifestation of the oil companies exploiting the consumers, I think this is simple supply and demand. There is less allowable supply through environmental regulations decided by the government but the greater demand for oil by means of affluence in more countries (China), and greater difficulty in producing it, has resulted in price increases. In Russia not only do they have plenty of oil for consumption, but unlike the US, they have plenty to export as well to middle eastern counties. I do think the technolgy will be there in the future but until people consume less oil in tjhe US the price for it will increase from the high demand.

  In the meantime the US will need to take a good hard look at its laws and regulations regarding domestic drilling, and how much it is willing to invest in locating resources withing its own country. In Canada it is not atypical to walk out in public within eyeshot of a pump jack or some means of oil extracation. Is the solution ANWR, or drilling in Alaska? I don't know to what extent ANWR will enable the oil companies to extract oil. But I do think a good hard look at our countries current laws regarding where we can't drill is a factor.

  Greed isn't the main reason why prices are high, its the legislation

  - Preston
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  chrisjoel

  Here in Canada...4 gas retailers were charged with fraud in price fixing..In quebec.....Here in southern ontario...UltraMar has its price at 1.36 per litre. 20 minutes away the same company has another station at 1.26 per litre. . NO price fixing??? The price at the pump can be stabilzed to a lower price if THEY want. They dont want they dont care.
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  BreakingAway

  Various countries are now taking a good, hard look at where oil prices are headed and seem to realize they've got a beast of a problem on their hands.Everything is being affected by high gas prices, including a food crisis.If oil prices continue to steadily rise, to the point where it means total economic breakdown is inevitable, they know it will lead to complete anarchy.At that point, the governments and the rich, will not be able to live high on hog when you've got a revolution on your front door.It's in their own best interests to stabilize this problem....and fast ! For that reason alone I think that eventually things will be straightened out, but it certainly is going to take time and sadly lot of suffering will take place in the meantime.
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  Mary

  This is horeshit-----We're getting screwed over because a) oil production has purposely been slashed (OPEC has openly admitted this), so that they can keep the prices high and b) speculators are taking it to the next step and screwing us over even further. This is why 13 people in Quebec were charged with price fixing the other day.

  Demand for oil here in Canada has not doubled over the past two years-----that's just a pathetic excuse given to try and justify the price gouging that's going on. And if it had doubled, then why hasn't production doubled? Why was production purposely slashed?? The oil and gas companies both here and in the States are all making record breaking profits at our expense. There's enough oil out in Alberta for another hundred years, so I don't buy that bullshit that there's a shortage or that it's 'supply and demand'. Anyone believes that and I've got some swampland in Florida to sell you.
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  1914BS

  What came first the chicken or the egg?

  First there was oil then there was demand. The demand usually lags behind supply but recently emerging 3rd world countries are screaming for oil (oil = growth) so at this point the demand is out-stripping the supply
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  shamus100

  You can't just snap your fingers and have instant gas at the pumps. This is only a new phenomenon in the oil and gas world. Construction and exploration takes years.
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  Mary

  High oil prices are to big oil company profits what steroids are to home run records—number inflators. It costs oil companies less than $10 per barrel to extract and ship a barrel of oil. The costs to explore and develop an oil field range anywhere from $5 per barrel in the Middle East to $67 per barrel off of the U.S. coast. These are production costs. So when the market price jumps due to speculators, political unrest, supply disruption,(which are ALL happening right now), it's like a never-ending lottery win for the oil companies. And there's no end in sight. Speculation and purposely cutting back on production will continue to flood the coffers of big oil giants with money from the average working man who sure as hell hasn't seen his paycheque jump by 40% in one year.

  And we can forget Bush doing anything about it while he's in office. It's no secret that he's protecting the oil company profits at the public’s expense. Six months ago he threatened to veto the Energy Bill because of its tax package, even though it included incentives for "a new generation of clean energy technology" that he gave lip service to in January of this year. The reason for his threatening the veto? Because the energy tax package would have closed tax breaks for all his big oil buddies in Texas that are worth more than $1 billion each year.

  The big five oil companies "only" made $123 billion in net profits in 2007; the closed loopholes would be less than one percent of their 2007 profits which would surely see the top executives sleeping on a park bench.

  Large petroleum companies find all sorts of excuses to raise the price of fuel and increase their already obscene profits. But when the "crisis" is over, it takes months before their inflated prices are reduced. These excuses can include anything from Hurricane Katrina to Britney Spears buying a new pair of sunglasses. What is just as significant is the inability (or unwillingness) of our governments to get involved in protecting us from this exploitation.

  Consider that Imperial Oil announced that the "shortage" would only affect 40 of its stations. Then the other companies began to realize the huge profits they could make by closing their stations. Is there any right-minded person who truly believes this shortage of gasoline is real and not just a money grab?
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  shamus100

  It's a combination of poor policy and speculation.

  Had the oil companies fully understood how the prices were going to jump ten years ago, it would have been a different story today. They would have been making a lot more money now with increased oil production and reduced oil prices, rather than higher oil prices and reduced oil production.

  There is not a huge conspiracy theory, here, IMO. The U.S. is not the only place that has oil, as I'm sure everyone realizes. Oil companies are international, and they would have planned to drill other than the U.S. if they're policies were not up to snuff.