Oil and Gas

Thought from another thread about DeSantis holding the state gas tax cut until October, perhaps it was held for political reasons… but if it had been used in June or July and not now gas would be higher now right before the mid terms…
Wouldn’t that hurt the Dems more if gas was higher the month before the election?

 

This is MBS and Putin helping their friends, Trump and the Republicans. This election is about democracy vs. fascism, and the Republicans are being materially helped by a new axis of fascism. There is a clear message from the reality that many of the world's fascists support Republicans. That message: "We fascists realize that the Republicans are on our side, so we are on THEIR side, all in an effort to support the institution of fascism in the USA by the GOP".

 

The OPEC+ cut is just a formality. They were already under producing their current quota by 3.5 MB/D. Prices will rise on the short term but demand has been weak.

 

The “gas station” countries are not allied with the western world. Releasing strategic reserves is dumber than cutting the taxes.
Can’t drive 55 is coming back! The world knows how to be more fuel efficient (tiny cars) we just don’t want to.
Time to keep all that good sweet Texas crude here and build refineries in cali and Jersey

 

Also knife in Biden’s back. He visited SA in July and keeping oil prices low, in part because of the war in Ukraine, was a major topic of discussion.

 

Never thought of that. Could be.

 

I’d say it’s more like OPEC finally realizing we have absolutely zero will or the balls to spend the R&D or take a short term hit to get off their oil, so they can demand any price they like, the world will bend over and take it,

 

Sorry, that is an overly benign interpretation of the ongoing scenario. This is a Putin/MBS/Trump operation. We KNOW that Putin wants the Republicans to win, and as for MBS, his friendship with Trump and Kushner ($2 billion gift by MBS to him recently) surely is a strong factor, as is the fact that Trump and company refused to condemn the murder that MBS ordered. This altogether points to malignant political motivations.

 

if you read around, the consensus from the experts is that this wasn’t political. OPEC are afraid a recession will lower demand, so announcing it now gives them a chance to show unity over something that will likely have to happen anyway, and not have to fight about it later when income is a larger issue. They already below their quotas.

But the fact that $80-90 a barrel is the new normal is the problem and why they don’t care. We have accepted it.

 

I've been reading around, and many experts disagree with you. This is part of the ongoing effort to destroy our democracy, something Trump/Putin/MBS all want.

 

here are some unbiased sources.

A policy think tank on the geopolitical concerns:
OPEC to Cut Oil Production, Dealing a Blow to Biden

A financial site on the macro financial aspects:
What's next for oil prices after OPEC+ delivers a big production cut

and an oil specific site on the industry specific reasons:
Why OPEC+ Is Considering A Production Cut | OilPrice.com

All that said, to your point, I’m sure MBS in particular isn’t crying over sticking it to Biden in the process. While oil specifically isn’t my realm, the macro economic environment is central to my job, so I follow it all fairly closely. If it’s political, it’s a fairly well kept secret.

 

Apparently Trump is the boogeyman behind everything.

 

Inflation, energy prices and supply are an issue of a global scale. Everyone is feeling the pinch and the debt crisis is looming ever larger. Over $31 Trillion in debt and higher interest rates is a disaster for every nations budget as well as consumers. As interest rates rise it wont be long before servicing the debt exceeds expenditures on social programs.

So what to do about it? UNCTAD released a report that does not paint a pretty picture. Further more the UNCTAD is recommending strategic price controls, windfall taxes, anti-trust measures and tighter regulations on commodity speculation.

We will see how this plays out as UNCATD has no authority to implement any of their recommendations. That doesn't mean that these recommendations will not be implemented by individual nations. We are already seeing this happen in European countries.

Launch of the Trade and Development Report 2022

In many developing countries, inflation has been largely driven by energy and food prices and exchange rate depreciation, which has made imports more expensive.

Even as international prices have gone down, domestic prices in developing countries have gone up because of the depreciation of the currencies. So, large corporations with considerable market power appear haven taken undue advantage of the current context and financial speculation has also played an important role.

As inflation is beginning to ease in advanced economies, we call for a correction in favour of policy measures targeting price spikes in energy, food, and other vital areas directly.
.......
We call then for a more pragmatic policy mix that deploys strategic price controls, windfall taxes, anti-trust measures and tighter regulations on commodity speculation. I repeat a more pragmatic policy mix that deploys strategic price controls, windfall taxes, anti-trust measures and tighter regulations on commodity speculation. For example, the European Union is pursuing a policy agenda along these lines – promoting demand reduction, taxing windfall profits, sheltering consumers from rising fuel prices.​

 

Yep. It’s all about the USA. And, if it happens to hurt Biden it’s all about DJT.

No wonder the world thinks we’re arrogant.

 

If you bought the new Rover EV truck, it would take 4 days to charge on your regular 120 voltage. it would have been tough to get it charged in time to flee a hurricane.

If everyone had EV vehicles now, the grid would collapse. Most houses will have to upgrade their fuse box to handle EVs. Of course, almost every single EV is currently powered by coal, oil, nat gas or nuclear power. EV is creating its own environmental disaster with batteries that are made of highly toxic materials that can't be recycled. It also takes tons and tons of rare earth minerals to make the batteries currently.

Wind power has failed to power England and Germany. Those countries are reimplementing coal and wood as fuels. It will take time to implement a shift from fossil fuels to cleaner technologies. It won't happen by 2035. This doesn't mean we don't move forward with a move to cleaner energies. Just do it in a reasonable, achievable timeframe.

Most Americans did not appreciate the strategic value of the energy independence we had just 2 years ago. We were not subject to other countries deciding issues about energy. We would have been in a position to help Europe with nat gas.

I prefer to think of all this as fighting pollution, from whatever source. As long as we have plastics, we will need oil. So we have to develop an alternative to plastics too. Some drugs use oil, so we have to change that as well.

Progress to cleaner energy is an evolution not a revolution.