Oil prices settle over $86/barrel, a new record

[NickB79]

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i5TtajgUpSm7KY5jf-lCJGHBB-tAD8S9S4N80

Every day it just keeps going higher, and higher, and higher......

[cspanlovr]

1. Its crazy. Meanwhile, the profits of Big Oil go up, up up. What a scam.

[GliderGuider]

3. How exactly is it a scam?

Who is being hoodwinked or manipulated into paying these prices? The international oil market is one of the closest approximations to a true "free market" that exists today. Just because you don't like "Big Oil" (and who does?) and are fond of detecting conspiracies (and who isn't?) don't let that blind you to the geological, geopolitical and social realities that these prices represent.

What we're seeing is Peak Oil with a dash of Turkish Fear Premium stirred in. Big Oil merely is the happy but impotent beneficiary of the situation. Watch what happens to Exxon, Chevron, Total, BP et. al. as the global supply begins to decline. These companies are remarkably toothless tigers, because they can't even replace their own production, let alone expand their reserves. Watch what happens to them as those reserves begin to run dry over the next decade.

[Maestro]

4. This is what I don't get.

If they know supplies are dwindling, why don't they do what any smart company would do and start investing in options that will allow them to continue to be energy suppliers. In other words, why don't they fund more research in photovoltaic or wind energy? :shrug:

[GliderGuider]

6. Because that would entail admitting they know about the problem

And that would spook the horses. Either that, or they've fallen victim to one of the oldest psychological traps on the market - they are defining themselves as oil companies, not as energy companies. Or else they've crunched the same numbers as I have and they know that the alternative energy sources available today are a chimera with a return on investment that's so low it makes running out the remaining oil supplies and then closing the doors look attractive. Or they believe their own press, and actually think the party isn't going to end. Or maybe they are just really, really big companies with so much historical baggage and inertia that even visionary CEOs can't change their direction.

Or e) all of the above, in some mix and measure.

[Maestro]

7. I vote for e!

Plus I think they are all a**holes

[Maestro]

2. What happened? Did Big Oil or some analyst

that is in league with Big Oil state that someone is worried about meeting demand? What a croc! Oil futures are so volatile that if someone sneezes the wrong way, the price shoots sky high, but of course, Big Oil isn't going to help us. I hope other industries start putting more pressure on the American and British Big Oil companies along with OPEC because unfortunately, they will not listen to us.

Edit: Looks like it is supply/demand. I found this thread from yesterday I think.

[NickB79]

5. What happened?

We hitched our economic wagon to a finite, non-renewable resource and coupled it with an "infinite growth" model of capitalism. We believed people who told us our car-centric, wasteful way of life could go on indefinitely, conservation be damned. We allowed our population to skyrocket from 1.5 to 6.5 billion people in the 20th century alone, based upon fossil-fuel-based fertilizers and diesel fuel. That, in a nutshell, is what happened. Now, the repercussions of those decisions are coming back to haunt us.

[Maestro]

8. My question was a bit rhetorical

but I agree with your assessment 100%. :thumbsup:

[depakid]

16. In short- classic overshoot

[hatrack]

9. Man, we're already over 2.25 Yergin Units for a barrel of oil!

Don't worry, though - CERA says we'll be back at $1.15 a gallon by, uh . . . yeah, next spring - that's it!

[depakid]

14. Yergin units!

:o

[Purveyor]

10. The CNBC talkingheads are all but promising $100 by years end and that is

without an attack on Iran...

Such an attack would most likely bring $150-175bbl until the results of that attack are realized.

[losthills]

11. It has nothing to do with "peak oil"

or "refining capacity."

Those things are real, but they are not affecting the price of oil at this time. The culprit here is the Iraq war, pure and simple. And profiteering.

The owners of these gas stations drive around town looking at their competitors' prices, and jack it up as much as they can get away with.

Peak oil is still a long ways off.

But, as far as I'm concerned they can jack it up as much as they want-- it provides a good incentive for people to switch to renewables...

[NickB79]

12. LOL, sure it isn't

Another nugget of wisdom from losthills, right up there with the dangers of radioactive granite and how ethanol will save us. I should really start writing these down.

[losthills]

13. You are uninformed, at the least....

Are you aware that Iraq is sitting on untapped and undeveloped oil reserves that are greater than Saudi Arabia or any other country posesses?

The flow of oil has not changed since it was $1.69 a gallon.

The price of gasoline today has nothing to do with oil production.

It has to do with global politics.

Educate yourself, my friend....

[NickB79]

17. I have educated myself more than you'll ever know

Have you read anything posted here by Hatrack or GliderGuider over the past year or two? The information they have provided has been eye-opening, to say the least.

'The flow of oil has not changed since it was $1.69 a gallon."

Actually, no, oil production peaked in 2005, and at the same time demand has been steadily climbing. See here, for one: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x116941

"The price of gasoline today has nothing to do with oil production.

It has to do with global politics."

And the global politics involved in invading oil-producing nations has the goal of securing a future source of oil when the rest of the world's oil production is in decline. Global politics has to do with oil reserves and oil production, and vice versa.

[Javaman]

15. At over 87 bucks now. nt