Oil Price War

[Econoline]

$1.889/gal. for regular unleaded (87 octane/10% ethanol) at the gas station nearest to me; according to GasBuddy there's a station 11 miles away that's selling it for $1.649.

[Darren]

Oh, grow up Darren.

N. Korea, Stalinist Soviet Union, the Taliban &c are proof that no amount of suffering by itself will dislodge a political regime.

They are driving down oil prices to hurt US suppliers who have recently become important exporters of oil but need continual fracking to keep production up.

yrs,
rubato

I'm sure they'd like to see fracking stopped in the US. The Saudis were rumored to be behind an anti-fracking campaign. During the process of drilling, casing. cementing, etc. fracking is one of the last steps in the work on the hole in the ground. After that the well IS NOT immediately produced. Collection lines and other infrastructure is necessary to produce the well.

There are thousands of wells that are not being produced in the various shale plays. If the company that owns the wells and the leases goes out of business the assets find a ready home with another buyer.

The rig count may go down (drilling tapers off) but there's a large infrastructure that never goes away.

Oil and gas companies are in a bind because the contracts with the rights owner specify a period during which drilling must happen otherwise the company loses the permission to drill. During the rush to drill, WV county courthouses were filled with company people researching the owners of oil and gas rights.

If you wanted to check plats or deed books it was almost like going into a packed concert venue. The upshot is there's a huge overhang of wells ready to go except for the infrastructure to move the gas from the well to market. Even w/o those wells the current supply is so great it's depressed gas prices to an unseen level by many.

After all that above.

Fracking isn't needed for more production until some time in the future. How far, I don't know. You only frack a well once.

After the well is put into production it's a matter of the well tender's attention and work over operations to keep the well productive,

[Econoline]

[Scooter]

So Trump, Putin and MBS are all trying to help Iran?

[Darren]

So Trump, Putin and MBS are all trying to help Iran?

Iran is already road kill given how much Iranian oil China stockpiled before Chinese industry shut down. Add the fact that almost all available storage is filled.

With over 15,500 deaths, the Iranian regime has a lot of splaining to do. China claims less than 4,000 deaths while we're about that now.

[Scooter]

I'm trying to figure out the level of sociopathy that would revel in imagining the complete destruction of a human society.

Oh, yeah, Trump supporter, so...

[Bicycle Bill]

Or to put this in words even his own support base can understand .....

"My rich friends in the oil and gas industry are being pinched because of the low usage caused by the coronavirus lockdown, the subsequent surplus of oil and gas, and the resulting decrease in prices at the pump which are now at levels unseen since the late 1970s.  So me, my Russian puppetmaster, and some rich Saudi prince are going to work as hard as we can to Keep America Great™ and get the prices back up to where they used to be, no matter how tough this makes it on you."

-"BB"-

[Econoline]

Jim Wright put it this way on Facebook:

Imagine during a pandemic when most of America is out of work and without a paycheck, a US president calling Saudi Arabia and asking them to work with Russia to RAISE the price of gas so that Exxon can make some more money.

And then BRAGGING about it on social media.

Right now, all across America, Trump supporters without a pot to piss in are shouting: Oh! Cool! I get to pay more for gas! God Bless Donald Trump, he's so awesome!

Republican Logic: everybody needs to pay more for gas because we have to help out the poor beleaguered oil industry, they barely made $3.2 BILLION in the last quarter!

Also Republican Logic: We can't pay a little more in taxes so that everybody can have healthcare. That's socialism!

Maybe he could call China next and see about raising the price of prescription drugs!

[ex-khobar Andy]

Yes that definitely falls under the 'just when you think he could go no lower' rubric.

Usually the mastermind of evil is smart enough to cover his tracks, or at least attempt to. This one is just too fucking thick to even do that. Boggle boggle.