jjhman

What Can Possibly Explain the Price of Oil?

Both Basbak and most of the posters here seem to miss the simple fact that the amount of oil on the planet is finite. I can't imagine where the idiot calling himself "paulk8756" gets his notions about the amount of oil that could be produced from domestic sources. Certainly no one in the oil industry or in the U.S. Department of Energy or the USGS thinks there is enough productive capacity left in the U.S. to meet a fraction of current, or projected, demand.

There is almost certainly some speculative fat in the current price of petroleum. But try to remember that Texas, the North Sea, Indonesia, Prudhoe Bay and Mexico's Cantarell field have are all in decline after having been managed with the most modern technologies and aggressive operational regimes. Oil fields are finite sources of the stuff and virtually all of the big fields have been found and developed.

So perhaps, just perhaps, the recent run up in oil prices is a result of the beginning of awareness of the finite nature and unique characteristics of petroleum.

But it sure ain't the fault of the hapless "Greens" who couldn't manipulate a congressman or presidential candidate if they had him (or her) locked up in the back of a Prius.