The Death of OPEC

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DaddyRabbit

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The death of OPEC Saudi Arabia walked out on OPEC yesterday, saying it would not honor the cartel's production cut. It was tired of rants from Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and the well-dressed oil minister from Iran.
As the world's largest crude exporter, the kingdom in the desert took its ball and went home.
As the Saudis left the building, the message was shockingly clear. “Saudi Arabia will meet the market’s demand,” a senior OPEC delegate told the The New York times. “We will see what the market requires and we will not leave a customer without oil." "


I am hopeful the Saudi's elect to call in sick for good. It could help everyone's wallet if they did.
 
Thanks SpecializedDCC. I think its good news. However, Chavez just announced that our ambassador had 72 hours to get out. He is also recalling his ambassador from Washington. Chavez will more than likely find a way for revenge. Playing war games with Russia in our backyard is a pretty good start.
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Thats good news, and not an ill word about W. Good post Daddy!

 
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Thanks SpecializedDCC. I think its good news. However, Chavez just announced that our ambassador had 72 hours to get out. He is also recalling his ambassador from Washington. Chavez will more than likely find a way for revenge. Playing war games with Russia in our backyard is a pretty good start.
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Thats good news, and not an ill word about W. Good post Daddy!





If they're gonna play "War Games", they prolly should have brought more than 2 planes. They might as well be trying to shoot pool with a rope! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Wow DR, you didn't post just to poke a stick in somebody's eye! I too am impressed!

We may not need the Saudis much longer, if we can make a little more technological progress here. I was talking with a drilling mud engineer last month while working as a mudlogger out at a gas well site near Rangely CO. He had some interesting info on our own oil reserves here.

Up in the N. Dakota/Montana area there is what's called the Williston Basin. Deep underground there is a formation called I think the Bakken shale, covering a very vast area. It and a dolomite layer beneath it contain a vast quantity of oil, thought to dwarf Saudi Arabia's reserves. Greg223 posted on this last year. The problem has been that the oil-bearing layer is only about 3 feet thick, which when drilled vertically does not yield enough hole area per well to efficiently recover the oil. But, recent advances in directional drilling technology will allow holes which start vertically to be curved to horizontal and run literally for miles, opening up access to the oil layers by drilling along them instead of across them.

Second, most of you have heard of the oil shale out here in western CO. The problem is that the oil is in a waxy/solid state and needs to be heated to liquefy it. How to heat it has been the bane of the project, since the various methods dreamed up have been either energy or water intensive or both. Now apparently the answer is microwaves. The rock will be heated with microwave emitters lowered down the holes, once they get the gizmos designed properly. No water used, no fuel for heating the water, only electricity to run the microwave devices. If that can be made to work efficiently then that whole vast reservoir of oil can be tapped, and without disrupting the local water supply or producing excess pollution. Not sure how much is in there, but it's HUGE.
Time will tell...
 
Wouldn't it be nice to see the sheiks riding on rugs instead of in Bentleys again? America could make that happen if we chose to. Good post Rabbit.
 
The Saudi's are smart and they have people ten times smarter than they are in the background advising them. They realize keeping production too low and prices too high will ultimately undermine them because alternative supplies and resources will come on line.

Unfortunately, the two bit bullies that run Iran and Venezuela don't have the sense to see it. I would also assume since most dictatorial despots don't like for people to tell them things they don't want to hear neither of them have a large group of smart people helping them make decisions.

Warrants watching to see how this all plays out. . . .
 
The various members of OPEC may have come to the conclusion,
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They realize keeping production too low and prices too high will ultimately undermine them because alternative supplies and resources will come on line.


that some of our American producers are starting to reach...

And I believe this is inherent with any 'free market' enterprise....

"You Can Price Yourself Out of Business" and while the little guy will find ways to do with less, it's the big guys that really suffer if not willing to change some of their processes or approaches.

Look at GM, Ford, and Chrysler when compared to some of the foreign auto producers....The handwriting has been on the wall since 1973 when the Oil Embargo was in place, and the EPA started setting efficiency standards... The 'big three' balked, applied political pressure to maintain the 'status quo' and the foreign producers stepped in to provide more fuel efficient transportation....

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of various factors that come into play, Union Contracts, Stockholders Votes, and the willingness of the consumer to buy....But it hasn't been that long that the 'more fuel efficient' vehicles have been available from the 'Big Three' and are they really efficient....?? Do I believe there has been a conspiracy to promote fuel usage??? You Bet..

I see them promoting 30mpg small vehicles when in 1999 I had a '96 Cadillac that was getting 27mpg on the highway...and I had a lot more safety....witness: a collision where the wife and I were stopped in traffic due to an accident and a semi, doing 55mph, rear ended us, throwing us across three lanes of interstate traffic and taking out 3 other vehicles that had been in front of us...

During the previous six month period, there were eight similar accidents in MO and we were the only "non fatalities"....
KCAccident-1.jpg


The photo shows better condition than it was in immediately after the accident due to the local Fire Department using the Jaws of Life to extract several guns and tools out of the trunk... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif....and no, the guns didn't get hurt.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
You had me worried for a second about the guns after I gasped and continued reading, I breathed a sigh of relief! Glad you and your wife didnt get seriously hurt, but just curious, is that how you hurt your back?
 
Bill B is 100% correct when he said "They realize keeping production too low and price too high will ultimately undermine them because alternative supplies and resources will come on line."

The Saudi's will do what is in their best interests period. That is their sole motivation.
 
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