Oil has fallen below $50/barrel....hmmmmm

[Aviation Pro]

I wonder if the oil oligarchy has been informed that the "partee" is now over and they are preparing to cry "poor mouth" when hauled in front of Congress. Don't worry, fuckfaces, we're coming after your war profits.....

[originalpckelly]

1. OPEC is specifically considering decreasing production in order...

to raise the price of oil. Thanks to Chavez and Ahmadinejad, the ones who are pushing for it.

[roamer65]

3. The Saudis shot down the idea of an emergency OPEC meeting.

This price drop is the Saudis showing their "oil muscle" by flooding the market with oil. They're trying to take a swat at Iran, by killing their oil profits. Iran prefers $70 a barrel, but the Saudis want and can survive on $40-$50. The Sunni vs. Shi'a war is spreading beyond Iraq's borders and becoming a regional issue.

[originalpckelly]

6. Yes, but Chavez and Ahmadinejad still wanted oil prices to be higher.

That's what matters, if anything I'm glad we have Saudi Arabia to help us out, though it'd be nice if we didn't any help at all.

[Rosemary2205]

12. I think the point is to hit Iran where it hurts.

between the sanctions and dropping oil prices it puts Iran in a difficult position economically. That's the reason the Saudis are putting more oil on the market to force the price down. They are using it as a tool to control Iran's ability to destroy the lives of the Sunni population in Iraq and to control Iran's ability to be THE force in the middle east.

[roamer65]

17. Exactly, the lower gas prices here are only a "side effect".

I have another theory as well. Saudi Arabia may have been given the dates of the Iran attack and they are pumping up world supply for the inevitable disruption of the Straits of Hormuz.

[Rosemary2205]

27. That a thought

get it out on the market now before the "road" closes.

[A Simple Game]

28. Really? Now all this time I thought the complete opposite of you!

I thought that Saudi Arabia gave Cheney the dates for us to start the Iran attack.

You may be right, I have been wrong before. No big deal.

[doublethink]

37. ......

you my friend have been reading between the lines...... :thumbsup:

[MyNameGoesHere]

19. help us out?

Do you really think the Saudis give a flying f... about Americans? From my experience while living in Saudi you and I are just another infidel.

[Deja Q]

36. Agreed.

But one has to wonder WHY Chavez has been so chummy toward the US with all that cheap oil he's been giving America's poor... is it really altruism? (I am skeptical...)

[northzax]

5. What? Saint Chavez?

wants to raise the price of energy for poor people? oh right, if the price of oil drops due to market forces, his token generosity through Joe Kennedy's projects loses it's allure.

Remember this, everyone who talks about how great Chavez is, and how he can do no wrong: he wants to raise the price of energy. this affects poor people first. That's some socialism.

[originalpckelly]

9. OPEC is a group of thugs driving up the price of a natural resource...

so that they can make more money. It's pretty fucked up. And Chavez is a member of it, no one should forget it.

[jsamuel]

8. OPEC has been saying that ever since it went under $65. They have no power

to enforce it on themselves.

[truebrit71]

2. ..and yet gas is still well over $2.00/ gal....

...tell me it's not gouging NOW assholes...

[Warpy]

4. Mothballed refineries = artificially low capacity = artificially high prices

We saw this one coming in the 90s when perfectly adequate refineries were being shut down.

Long term, they're doing us a favor by forcing a switch to more fuel efficient cars.

[pampango]

18. Man, I feel sorry for you. It's down to $1.79 in

southwestern Ohio today.

[Imagevision]

23. It's still $2.39 in South West Florida -- amazing!!

[Lugnut]

25. Holy crap

It's $2.259 here in NE PA. :wow:

[Deja Q]

34. $1.92 here.

Nice to see people can breathe again.

[bigwillq]

35. I paid $2.35/gal for reg. here in CT

It's even higher in some other places in the state.

[JVS]

22. $1.89 here

[WilliamPitt]

7. Um...let's have some Occam's Razor.

Oil prices are dropping because of the unusually warm winter we've been having. No one is buying or using heating oil.

It just got cold again, so that'll change.

[jsamuel]

10. it has been cold again for a week and it keeps dropping

it isn't the weather, it is the fact that it has been OVERVALUED on the futures market the whole time

I have said this over and over and over.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=1904193

[pitohui]

14. i agree w jsamuel

we were being robbed and price gouged, and the market was being manipulated to unrealistically high prices, no two ways about it

the quarter after katrina exxon-mobile posted the biggest profit of any quarter of any industry in all of human history, while we were displaced from our homes, with some of us losing everything even our lives, they were price-gouging at unprecedented levels -- this is quite simply a matter of the public record, they knew we had to buy gas to evacuate and stay evacuated and yet be able to return and check on our properties so they held us up at gunpoint basically

[jsamuel]

15. it's not really "price gouging", it's the futures market

but the higher the futures market, the more profit those companies make. I think it is not just the oil companies fault, it is the fault of anyone who went crazy buying oil on the futures market thinking it would go to $100 a barrel. Anyone who cut production or invaded a country that resulted in lowering production, sparking the $75 oil we have had. We had plenty of it, but people were willing to buy it at much higher prices for very little reasoning.

[jsamuel]

16. dupe

[NoSheep]

13. Aight...how are they managing to control the weather?

:evilgrin:

[trogdor]

26. For just a little while.

Today's high was 35 in central NY.

[NoSheep]

11. You can hear the day's news and set your watch by it. It falls when they need it to fall,

and NOT before.

[pampango]

21. Why do they need for it to fall at this time?

It was my impression that many here thought that the Big Oil oligarchs were going to drive the oil/gas price down like this before the election last November. Since we barely won the Senate, I am glad that the big price manipulators were not smart enough to do this last October. It might have saved the Repubs a seat or two in the Senate.

[NoSheep]

30. I see the price go down every time the administration needs us to turn our heads

away from something heavy. They DID do it before the elections in my state (NC). Gas prices plummeted before the elections. In this case I see it as a diversion from the pending attack on Iran. The generals said today they feel almost certain it is in the works because of the gulf buildup of our aircraft carriers.

I realize the point that some make in that energy usage is affecting price...but I see gas fall every time "they" need the people to be on their side. It's like "Wait for it....wait for it....wait for it...milk it milk it....okay NOW drop the price!"

[Az]

20. This may more likely be a fight between Sunni and Shiite

Saudi vs Iran. It smells a bit like Saudi's pulling the levers and making George dance. In order to prep the Sauds cause a drop in the price of oil. Their coffers are able to take it better than Iran. Then when Iran starts to choke thats when they send our troops in.

[ProfessorGAC]

24. Been Sayin' That For A Couple Weeks

I told my wife, friends & some folks here at work, "I can't prove a thing, but the dems take over Congress and suddenly gas is $2.05 a gallon. Things that make you go, Hmmmmm"
The Professor

[generaldemocrat]

29. GOOD.....

that means that the oil oligarchy get's to embezzle less money than usual and goons like Ahmadinejad are politically f*cked at home.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

31. saber-rattling with Iran will soon cure that drop in oil value!

[TheFarseer]

32. It's almost as if they're trying to sucker us

into buying Hummers and Escalades and mothballing all the alternative energy projects. I think it's just an over-reaction to a warm winter and some other minor factors pushing the price down.

[Odin2005]

33. Methinks the Saudis are up to something.

If they want to punish another oil producer they dump a ton of oil on the world market to depress the price. I agree with the posts above that the producer they are punishing is obviously Iran.