The US producers have promised they would turn fracking back on if oil crossed above the mid-40s. Canada will also be back online as the wildfires have burned out. http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/29/us-shales-message-for-opec-ab...
Oil soars 6 percent as OPEC reaches deal to limit output in November
21–30 of 51 posts
Re: Oil soars 6 percent as OPEC reaches deal to limit output in November
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Major energy sources and percent share of total U.S. electricity generation in 2015 Coal = 33% Natural gas = 33% Nuclear = 20% Hydropower = 6% Other renewables = 7% Biomass = 1.6% Geothermal = 0.4% Solar = 0.6% Wind = 4.7% Petroleum = 1% Other gases = An electric fleet (powered by coal, natural gas, and nuclear) will reduce demand for oil, so movement in that direction is likely cause falling oil prices. Which could…
I think the genie is out of the bottle with regards to electric cars. They've proven they work and can compete with internal combustion cars on most metrics that people care about and exceed ICEs in a number of ways. Battery capacity generally increases 8% per year, and battery production is ramping up in ways never seen before. The mindshare has already left Gas cars, it's just a matter of time before sales slip to…
Re: Oil soars 6 percent as OPEC reaches deal to limit output in November
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
The 60-80$ range US Oil only lasts for a few years at US consumption rates, but that's plenty to influence OPEC. The real issue is Expensive Oil has a lot of competition but Cheap Oil does not. Further, it takes years for substitutes to get onto the market. So, OPEC is better off with large price swings than a steady state which causes long term demand to fall off a cliff or uses up their supply at very low prices. O…
> small scale Russian aggression Let's hope they keep it small and don't try to covertly start a big fire that will drive oil prices back up. It's scary to see a world economic situation where starting/fueling wars starts to make more and more economic sense... I can almost imagine a future "WarEnron" selling the future profits indirectly caused by future wars :) We should find a way to make sure we have profits alig…
Pretty sure you just described every fund that's big into Honeywell, General Dynamics, Lockheed, etc. Many of these companies profits depend on the US insisting on maintaining the largest military in the world (by a lot) as a hedge against just these sorts of "profit wars" from being waged.
Re: Oil soars 6 percent as OPEC reaches deal to limit output in November
#24Possible corollary: "Tesla stock rises in response." We may be heading towards a world of permanently low oil prices, as rising prices will cause more people to switch to electrics or plug-in hybrids. Car buyers exhibit amazingly lemming-like behavior, switching to more fuel-efficient cars as prices rise and switching away from those fuel-efficient cars as prices fall. That process is likely to become more pronounced…
Yes, we saw people switch to more efficient transport in the US at $4/gallon. I think this is the long term ceiling, where people will switch to at least a plugin hybrid and cover 90% of their driving on electricity.
People started trading in their SUVs last time, this time they will be getting something that doesn't need gasoline at all.
I don't think OPEC realizes how dangerous of a game they are playing.
Re: Oil soars 6 percent as OPEC reaches deal to limit output in November
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
The 60-80$ range US Oil only lasts for a few years at US consumption rates, but that's plenty to influence OPEC. The real issue is Expensive Oil has a lot of competition but Cheap Oil does not. Further, it takes years for substitutes to get onto the market. So, OPEC is better off with large price swings than a steady state which causes long term demand to fall off a cliff or uses up their supply at very low prices. O…
> small scale Russian aggression Let's hope they keep it small and don't try to covertly start a big fire that will drive oil prices back up. It's scary to see a world economic situation where starting/fueling wars starts to make more and more economic sense... I can almost imagine a future "WarEnron" selling the future profits indirectly caused by future wars :) We should find a way to make sure we have profits alig…
[1] Price of Oil Chart: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DCOILWTICO [2] Dolar Chart: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DTWEXM
Re: Oil soars 6 percent as OPEC reaches deal to limit output in November
#26The US producers have promised they would turn fracking back on if oil crossed above the mid-40s. Canada will also be back online as the wildfires have burned out. http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/29/us-shales-message-for-opec-ab...
"Tight oil companies outspend cash flow by an average of 120%: spend $2.20 for every dollar earned from operating activities." "Tight oil company debt-to-cash from operating activities ratio averages 3.3: would take more than 3 years to pay down debt if all cash flow was used."
Please see: http://www.artberman.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Shale-Revolu...
Re: Oil soars 6 percent as OPEC reaches deal to limit output in November
#27Is it possible that oil prices will never be that high again due to renewables? Part of me feels like the games OPEC members are playing will be to their long term detriment. Renewable cost is only going down year after year, really the oil states have a limited time to extract as much money as possible before alt energy kicks into high gear. By the time they're done fighting with each other it may be too late to get…
I'd say say that transport electrification is going to be more directly responsible for reducing oil demand. It's very important to the climate that electric vehicles get charged with low-emissions sources, but the petrostates are equally in trouble whether people are driving EVs charged with wind power or coal power. It's hard to tell when electrification is going to kick into high gear. Projections for numbers of E…
I do agree that people all but throwing away large SUVs when gas hit the mid $4 range was mystifying to me. I work with and hang around generally smart people and I saw people trading in 2-3 year old cars for brand-new fuel efficient cars.
Re: Oil soars 6 percent as OPEC reaches deal to limit output in November
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the genie is out of the bottle with regards to electric cars. They've proven they work and can compete with internal combustion cars on most metrics that people care about and exceed ICEs in a number of ways. Battery capacity generally increases 8% per year, and battery production is ramping up in ways never seen before. The mindshare has already left Gas cars, it's just a matter of time before sales slip to…
By the time electric cars are ready for ubiquity, transportation-as-a-utility will have exploded thanks to autonomous vehicles. Why buy an electric car with less maintenance than a gas one when you can just skip out on owning a car entirely? Governments and/or insurance can directly or indirectly subsidize this move for the sake of safety.
Re: Oil soars 6 percent as OPEC reaches deal to limit output in November
#29The US producers have promised they would turn fracking back on if oil crossed above the mid-40s. Canada will also be back online as the wildfires have burned out. http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/29/us-shales-message-for-opec-ab...
Smoke & mirrors. Art Berman has shown that none of the Tight&Shale producers are/has been profitable. They are largely there because of credit/debt (which of course can't grow for ever) "Tight oil companies outspend cash flow by an average of 120%: spend $2.20 for every dollar earned from operating activities." "Tight oil company debt-to-cash from operating activities ratio averages 3.3: would take more than 3 years…
Re: Oil soars 6 percent as OPEC reaches deal to limit output in November
#30Is it possible that oil prices will never be that high again due to renewables? Part of me feels like the games OPEC members are playing will be to their long term detriment. Renewable cost is only going down year after year, really the oil states have a limited time to extract as much money as possible before alt energy kicks into high gear. By the time they're done fighting with each other it may be too late to get…
Renewables depend on oil. You can't make renewables with renewables energy, because their overall EROI is insufficient to both maintain the current standard of life, and make them. The other issue is mobility, oil has the best volume/energy content ratio of all energy sources we know (except uranium). Renewables can only make electricity and you need about 10x the same battery volume (and weight) to move a vehicle, c…
If renewable energy becomes abundant/cheap enough, you can convert electricity into hydrogen or other high energy density chemicals.