Keystone Pipeline...Dead.

[Coiled03]

I completely understand & while I'm a geologist, I don't think I'm overly bias in one direction. If I was I'd be saying I want $100+ oil and for everyone else to go **** themselves, but I'm not.

OK - fair enough.

It's not cheap, but there's a sweet spot and I think there's one for everyone...In my opinion. There has to be as oil isn't going anywhere.

I agree, there probably is a sweet spot for everyone, and oil isn't going anywhere. The problem is, the people who make the most money from oil aren't interested in finding the sweet spot. At best, they seem to be indifferent to the cost, so long as they're making money. At worst, they intentionally drive the price up through speculation.

Companies don't always make a ton of money. It's an up and down industry, which leads to more instability in jobs, economics projections, etc. Hell, the EIA and everyone else can't even carry a forecast for a few months without pretty decent sized changes. These instabilities, along with taxes, regional demand, national/world supply & demand and may others are all factors in the price. If someone threatens Cushing, the middle east, etc then the prices are bound to rise a little if the threat is plausible. The amount of oil and gas used every day...have you looked at this? Most people don't realize the amount that is produced, used, refined, etc every single day. It's an amazing amount. A plausible threat of that being taken away and you'd have a pretty decent shortage. It's a lot easier to react to oil/gas being taken away than that predict future reserves will cover that shortage. Hence, slight price rise.

I get all that, but you're talking on a macro scale. Most people operate on a micro scale; they see what's in front of their noses. And all they know is, gas is ****ing expensive (relative to the past), they don't know why, and they don't like it. When they go to the gas station, the name on the sign is Chevron, Exxxon, Amoco, etc.., so they direct their anger towards them, whether it's right or not.

 

[low03tb]

I agree, there probably is a sweet spot for everyone, and oil isn't going anywhere. The problem is, the people who make the most money from oil aren't interested in finding the sweet spot. At best, they seem to be indifferent to the cost, so long as they're making money. At worst, they intentionally drive the price up through speculation.

True. I have no idea how something of that scale could be implemented, but little by little maybe steps can be taken to get there. I'd be nice to find a median where the consumer has some general idea of what they'll be paying (at least for awhile; obviously a 'set price' isn't going to work, but you know what I mean..no massive fluctuations), which would help budgeting, sustain jobs in the industry, sustain and likely boost economic growth, etc.

You're definitely right about speculation. The amount of random, bullshit speculation that causes the rise and fall is amazing.

I get all that, but you're talking on a macro scale. Most people operate on a micro scale; they see what's in front of their noses. And all they know is, gas is ****ing expensive (relative to the past), they don't know why, and they don't like it. When they go to the gas station, the name on the sign is Chevron, Exxxon, Amoco, etc.., so they direct their anger towards them, whether it's right or not.

Very true.


Downturns like this are horrible for this industry in 99% of the ways you can think of, but a few good parts come out. Efficiency, better balancing of budgets, tech/stimulation costs come down A LOOOOOOT and a few other things. I just have to think there's a better way to do something like this. I don't know much about macro-economics so I can't say what. Maybe there isn't.