Oil Falls Below $40 for First Time Since 2009 as Glut Grows • Hacker News Board

Re: Oil Falls Below $40 for First Time Since 2009 as Glut Grows

#171

Post by eloff » Sat, Aug 22, 2015, 2:59 PM UTC

crdoconnor wrote: post #167

eloff wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you can get all of the world's major economic powers to agree on that, then you can say it's easy. In principle it's easy, but in reality good luck!

Australia managed to do it without the agreement of other countries. It wasn't any bullshit about competitiveness that caused the repeal either. It was pressure from the coal industry.

Yes any country could do it alone, but all it does is slightly reduce global demand, Australia being a fairly small country population-wise likely didn't make a dent. All other things being equal it doesn't leave fossil fuels in the ground, just increases the amount of time before we extract them. That does buy time for the human race to find a lasting solution.

Re: Oil Falls Below $40 for First Time Since 2009 as Glut Grows

#172

Post by saryant » Sat, Aug 22, 2015, 4:07 PM UTC

a8da6b0c91d wrote: post #159

saryant wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America is now the world's swing producer, because our drillers are more sensitive to market pressure than the sovereign producers of OPEC or Russia. If supply becomes tight, American producers can very quickly ramp up production and then shut it in again when demand falls. There's also no reason to believe that further technological innovation won't further reduce the costs of American production, especially in tigh…

American producers are bankrupt. The fields are worth pennies on the dollar. Wake up. It's over.

And the remaining producers and service providers will buy the others for pennies and bide their time. Halliburton bought Baker Hughes. Weatherford cut costs and will be fine.

The resiliency of the American energy industry should not be underestimated.

Re: Oil Falls Below $40 for First Time Since 2009 as Glut Grows

#173

Post by mtviewdave » Sat, Aug 22, 2015, 6:46 PM UTC

pm90 wrote: post #100

sliverstorm wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Capacity doesn't increase, but costs do decrease as the cost of raw materials drops. Now, obviously price is only partly determined by cost.

That's kinda the whole point. There is nothing for refineries to gain by reducing the price of gas because...nobody is going to sell gas at a lower price and take over the market because...the EPA does not allow one to build refineries. Free markets y'all.

>the EPA does not allow one to build refineries

Two refineries have opened in the US this year:

http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=29&t=6

Re: Oil Falls Below $40 for First Time Since 2009 as Glut Grows

#174

Post by brianwawok » Sun, Aug 23, 2015, 3:45 PM UTC

OniBait wrote: post #127

pm90 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's kinda the whole point. There is nothing for refineries to gain by reducing the price of gas because...nobody is going to sell gas at a lower price and take over the market because...the EPA does not allow one to build refineries. Free markets y'all.

So much this. Price is driven by supply and demand. Not the cost of materials.

But price changes supply, no?

Some oil is $1 a barrel to pump. It will always be worth pumping.

Some oil is $50 a barrel to pump. It is only worth it when oil price is greater than $50 a barrel.