Explain it to me...

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George777

George777

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Perhaps I am naive. Some may call me dumb. But this doesn't make any sense to me.

I was watching the news this morning, and saw that OPEC is going to start limiting the oil output and set quotas. After a 5 month low in prices, it makes me ask why? Are they trying to make us all suffer at the pump? Weren't they the same people that told us they were going to investigate the price of oil in the first place?

Did I miss something here?

The Associated Press: OPEC decides to curb overall output through quotas
 
reckedracing said:
opec doesn't give a shit about us
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seriously though, why should they??
we use oil... we use oil regardless of price... maybe we use a little less when the price gets really high... but we still use it...
they produce oil... its all that they produce... there is a finite supply of it.... when they run out, they're fucked... they know this... (this is why Dubai is developing like fucking crazy now... so they have a tourist industry to survive and thrive on when the oil runs out )

so if we will use every bit of it that we can get our hands on regardless of price, and they know that they will run out in time... why should they blow the flood gates open and shower us with the only thing that gives them an economy... they need to sell oil just as badly as we need to buy it... it would be stupid for them to simply throw it at us in huge quantities for low prices... they need to look out for their best interests... we need to look out for our own best interests and develop/allow more fuel efficient vehicles, create more efficient home heating systems, better insulate and design our homes so they do not require as much to heat or cool, build or re-engineer power plants to be more efficient and make more usable power with the same or lower amounts of fuel, etc... if we do not or can not create enough of our own sources of energy it is our responsibility to use what we purchase more efficiently
 
US invasion of OPEC countries...NOW!

Seriously though...E is right...we're still going to buy it no matter how expensive...and we still have some of the cheapest gasoline prices in the world (as far as countries where people actually drive).
 
It's a "perfect storm" of several things coming together and making a huge impact. Islamic assholes hating on the world, playing favorites, US prices at the pump affected by a broken corporate system full of greed and oversight, and then the fact that it's a CARTEL selling us the goods.

Remove any of those problems from the equation and things will fall, but none is "the single problem"
 
OPEC is nothing more than a union.

fuck unions.
 
stupid corporations, being all corporationy (name the movie I hijacked that from...)

but really, there's nothing we can really do about the situation other than maybe invade all of the middle east! I'm not suggesting we do that, but it seems the only way possible for us to control oil prices. Whether we start using a lot more oil, or we start conserving it, we're going to continue to see an upward trend simply because they can. Yeah, alternative fuels are really the way we need to be pushing, but the problem with that is that in the meantime oil will skyrocket in price from lack of demand. we're screwed any way you look at it really. The one thing that might help to soften the blow is if the US starts drilling up north. I can't imagine it will make prices drop signifigantly, but i can see it helping to stabilize the price where it is
 
opec investigating prices, they know why the price is where its at and don't care. its a PR move, like big tobacco and 'kids shouldn't smoke/crappy cartoon singing the truth' ads all the while selling as much as they can to kids. you could argue the saudis hooked us up a little w/ their 500g barrels/day increase a couple months back after we asked for it. price isn't always just supply and demand. speaking of oil futures/prices, the market can be irrational.

look at oil futures/prices since the drilling talk. ~145 to 105. and US demand only dropped ~4%. china did end some of their oil subsidies too though. drilling will help, even refining in the US will help. when did it 1st spike? katrina, when the rigs and refineries in louisiana were in danger. and don't even bring up unused spots. there are regulations on top of regulations on top of treehugger lawsuits. drilling contracts differ, but generally you can only drill so long once you start. and if you don't find oil w/in a certain amount of time, bye bye contract.

at least w/ cartels they lie to each other, 'sure i'll only produce 100g of barrels', while secretly producing 200g barrels. cartels are worse than unions.

if 500g barrels/day didn't affect price, opec wouldn't be cutting oil production, drilling naysayers. opec gets it, why don't you? iran has stated their lowest acceptable price. supply and demand affect price, they lower supply to raise price. higher supply=lower price. economcs 101.

the trick for opec is the sweet spot price. too high and alternative energy becomes more profitable and more likely due to increased investment. too low and they're not making as much money as they would like.

the world is constantly finding more oil. recently: SD and brazil.
we can drill and refine cleaner and more efficiently than anywhere in the world. look at all the US companies setting up the drilling and refining internationally.
oil free in 10 years, no frickin way.
ever see the strip mining in canada where they get the materials for hybrid car batteries? wasteland.
 
ok, You've done a lot more research on this, or you've just paid more attention. lol. I'll stick to my statics and thermodynamics....
 
I dont wanna be around when the oil runs out. The world will probably be a little chaotic. Like what was said before, we need it, so we will buy it. Like food, if its expensive, are we gonna stop buying it? lol
 
yeah ej i'm an economist that works in securities. thermo, reminds me of my mech eng days. funny 91accordwithwork reference.
some think food will run out (malthusians? i think, soylent green), some think over-population will suffocate the earth.
i forget which one, but some mid-east country will prob run out in ~60 yrs if they don't find more. its a smaller country and they have been actively looking so they prob won't find anything. they are using that oil revenue to bolster other industires so they aren't left high and dry.
in theory, it could run out. and in theory we could still be addicted to it at the time. but technology will prob save us.
 
hell yeah, mech E. that's my field of study. I can't see a soylent green situation ever arising. While oil will very likely deplete severely, we will have the alternatives available by that time to save ourselves.
 
ME was fun. went from CS to ME cuz of all the math. was afraid i'd end up designing lame production machinery, the field was less creative than i had hoped. sometimes i regret leaving it. we used to build robots and stuff. i wanna read soylent green, sounds funny.
 
On the bright side, I just heard over on the turbo dodge forum that Saudi Arabia is now leaving opec. Reason cited was that they got tired of Venesuela and Iran bitching and trying to get oil prices back up. Saying on the way out "we will meet market demand."

I think this is a step in the right direction. Opec's greediness fucked itself, cause they're nothing without saudi arabia
 
Got a link? I'd be interested in reading about that.
 
E_SolSi said:
seriously though, why should they??
we use oil... we use oil regardless of price... maybe we use a little less when the price gets really high... but we still use it...
they produce oil... its all that they produce... there is a finite supply of it.... when they run out, they're fucked... they know this... (this is why Dubai is developing like fucking crazy now... so they have a tourist industry to survive and thrive on when the oil runs out )
Click to expand...

That's assuming oil is going to run out anywhere near within our lifetime.
 
George777 said:
Got a link? I'd be interested in reading about that.
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OPEC may be disolved! - TurboDodge.Com - Turbo Dodge forum for Turbo Mopars, Shelbys, Daytona, SRT-4, PT Cruiser, Omni and more!

The thread's right here. But it's in the lounge so i think you need to be a member.

Saudi Arabia leaves OPEC. That's pretty much the whole story in a nutshell.


jeffie7 said:
That's assuming oil is going to run out anywhere near within our lifetime.
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Scientists predict we have enough oil to last us at least 150 years. By then we likely won't need it.
 
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no problem. I look forward to what comes from this. Cause i can barely afford to keep gas in my car
 
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