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Oil plunges to 11-year lows on gas supply shock
- Thread starter Vanillalite
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Muppet of a Man
Member
Guess it's time we actually invest in alternative fuels, energy, and infrastructure to resupply those lost jobs and the future. But why do that with short term profits, boom and bust, and fuck the earth and all life on it mentality, right?
If we want these people's livelihoods to be secure you are going to have to subsidize and invest in the future to displace the incumbents of power, else this shit will keep happening, and we will collectively keep throwing our hands up in despair.
I've been living high on some small oil royalties from a single well in the Eagleford area in South Texas, but they are almost nothing now. Although this is really bad timing considering my wife and I just had our first child and childcare is...expensive, I managed to save a lot from the first couple of years of royalties. One of my geologist friends told me to treat the money as windfall and not income which was probably some of the best advice I've ever received. Everyone kept telling me things like, "You worry too much! Oil is never going to go below $100 a barrel again!" Yeah, glad I didn't listen to them.
This so such bullshit!!!! I was happy to see prices in the mid $2 range and then within a couple days prices shot back up to $3 bucks. I'm so ready to move out of this fucking state with everything being over priced. The weather is no longer worth the bs I have to tolerate in California.
psynergylover
Member
I don't see why people can't be happy with gas prices being lower. Them being happy for low price of gas doesn't mean they're cheering for the lost of jobs or lives. People are dependent on gas whether it high or low; right now they're people who can spend money on things they couldn't have before thanks to these low gas prices. When it goes back up and people in the oil business will be happy jobs are back and not that people have less to provide for their families.
Stabby McSter
Member
what the fuck i paid 2.87 yesterday
where's my cheaper gas
where's my cheaper gas
The problem is that while the price of oil drops, the value of the canadian dollar also drops as well. Think about it this way, if you were paying for oil in Toronto with US dollars a year ago vs now, you'd be paying a lot less now.
Not going to lie, I'm pretty pleased to see gas prices low here in Oklahoma, despite our state leaders constantly trying to guilt and shame the public for enjoying cheap fuel. Our state has a $900 million budget shortfall, which it's blaming solely on low oil prices, which is a bit ridiculous, since more tax cuts for the rich are going into effect extremely soon. Honestly, this may suck for people who work in the energy industry and that's a shame for them, but that's the risk one runs when working in such a volatile industry.
yes it is ok. it's not our faults people bet their entire lives on oil. i'm sure these workers were crying tears of joy when gas was really high and people were struggling to fill their tanks. im not cheering for those people losing their jobs but i am cheering because i will have more money to spend.
JimmyRustler
Gold Member
Even here in Austria it's below a Euro per litre at the moment. I didn't think I'd live to see that day.
ghostofsparta
Member
Californians stay losing :/
rokkerkory
Member
WTF? Who do they actually work for?
they can't really stop production because as soon as it goes up somebody will want to get more of that money and will increase production and others will follow. many have to keep pumping oil as they still have entire economies that depend on that oil and need revenue coming in.
Oklahoma has a $900 million budget shortfall that's being blamed on low oil prices. So obviously, it's our fault for enjoying those oil prices, which is going to lead to across-the-board cuts for all state functions -- including our already sapped social welfare programs and public education. Let's ignore the income tax cut for top earners that's going into effect soon. If we didn't have cheap oil, we would have a solvent budget! That's literally how it's being packaged and sold to the public. I hate this state.
Failin (is that as bad as M$?) and her cronies want education here to fail. As long as the majority of Oklahoma is stupid and ignorant, they'll keep their wealthy and wannabe wealthy powerbase, long after Fallin is gone and oil is back.
So a couple of million people get turned upside down collectively as they have been subsidizing the rest of the country, and now that things take a turn they should be ready to flip careers to alternative energy.
Fuck them for doing something necessary for decades.
The Conservative party is already out of there and things keep getting worse, so...
I guess those riggers should start building wind farms...or something. Flip a switch.
I understand wanting lower gas prices, but there's a cause and effect to everything and when it happens this suddenly, you can expect sudden effects.
People in this thread are basically saying "fuck them, got mine" regarding Alberta.
Saving 5-10 bucks on a tank of gas isn't going to do much in comparison with what's happening to the people in Alberta losing everything they have.
SlickShoesRUCrazy
Member
fucking criminals.
More like 2022-2027. These prices will take a long long time to come back up. I don't see a big rebound for a decade. And then it's quite possible we will have moved past a large dependence on oil making prices never rebound at all.
What did these people do in the 90s and early 2000s when gas was cheap as dirt? Sounds more like there was a boom then a bust. This happens in plenty of other areas too. When a field is booming you shouldn't over extend or you become susceptible to the bust.
Muppet of a Man
Member
Hey look man, it sucks and I'm not pointing the finger at the workers themselves for trying to make a living, but things have to change at a societal level if we ever want to move past this. We are talking about a commoditized, fungible good in a global market here. Saudi Arabia can play this game for the next 100 years. We are not sitting atop the same easily accessible bank of crude that they are. So, NA countries will always lose out. I empathize with those who lost there job, but we DO need to retrain these people for the future of energy or this boom/bust cycle will keep happening from fracking and tar sand crude extraction.
This is about the bigger picture in the longer term--not about short term economic lose.
I wasn't pointing at you specifically, your response is well reasoned. There are others.
The issue isn't the change, it's the sudden change which has hurt Alberta and is about to hurt the whole country as the equalization payments disappear.
From what I know, Saudi can't do this that long. I've heard 2017, not 100 years.
God Dayumm
Banned
This is not sudden change, it was predicted about 2 years ago
pr0cs
Member
Pretty clear you have never been to Alberta.
Paid $1.59 visiting family in NJ Saturday. Saw $1.56 a bit further down the road. Nuts.
That amounts to $0.58 a liter, after USD CAD conversion. We're paying $1.02 locally, or the equivalent of $2.75 USD a gallon.
airlines don't buy fuel a la carte, they buy it ahead of time at a fixed price
yeah that's been the old excuse but oil has been pretty low for a good while now so new contracts should have already been made at lower prices.
You have two years to change your career and everyone you know needs to change their careers. Never mind that you have plans for the future and the direction your life is taking.
Annnnd go.
Its not just Saudi and most people are actually saying 20-30 years for oil to maybe rebound. Now when you think about the oncoming electric cars do you really think oil will be booming in 15-30 years? It's doubtful to me.
Texas would look like North Dakota if it had not. The Houston area is still reliant on the oil industry though.
The government (or whoever) can't prop up a failing market forever. Your basically advocating for nothing to ever allowed to fail. Where I live we have a forestry industry that's been artificially propped up by government for years, but is still failing. They've could've put that money into something more useful. There are always people that are going to lose when economic times change, look at the Luddites. It's the job of government to support and re train the losers, but they shouldn't be propping up industry, especially environmentally destructive industry.
God Dayumm
Banned
I can change industry and location easy in a matter of months, I just did it 2 years ago coincidentally. But this is not about about my personal anecdotes, it's about the direction the Canadian government wanted to take their economy after the clear warnings over the last 2 years. Did they expand any new industries? Are they giving tax breaks to oil companies to alleviate the burden? Did they expand their welfare to support the incoming unemployed people?
It is your government's responsibility to manage that. It is mine to enjoy the cheap gas prices.
biggersmaller
Banned
Petrochemical companies won't die. Everything you use in your life comes from oil, from plastic to medicine. Also, the oil companies are the one with their fingers in the renewable/alternative energy R&D because each one wants to be the first in line with the best technology to make money. The lower the oil prices, the less money will be spent on other energy source R&D.
Mr. Giggles
Member
Damnit Harper, hope you're happy
Alberta weeps
Alberta weeps
You can base your economy on natural resources just fine
You can't base your economy on one natural resource that you have no control over the price of
No incentive to fly <800 miles anymore. It would cost me ~$120 to do so round trip.
AzureSkies
Member
$100 video games for Canada in 2016
are we ready?
are we ready?
Suikoguy
I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
I was taking about this with my Father. Now is the perfect time to increase it, it's long overdue, just increase it to where inflation would have it now.
(Of course, in my mind, I would rather see a substantial increase with increased incentives for alternative energy vehicles)
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