The Saudi prince says "Never Again" to excessively high crude oil prices.
Contract DELIVERIES for crude oil are in place for the next twelve months. This means contracts were made to supertankers to haul already paid for crude to refineries. Defaults and demurrage are KILLER penalties. Refineries MUST keep processing crude and the only hope they have to find an unplugged-up market is for that market to need product. Low prices encourage consumption.
Oil companies lie like hell. There is enough PROVEN crude oil reserves in the world to last half a dozen centuries. Manufactured shortages are now king in the speculation of every commodity. Like the ONE TRILLION carats of gem quality diamonds being sat upon in Siberia.
I was at the Shell Oil refinery back in the early seventies. Tankers were anchored FULL of crude out in San Pablo Bay. High plimsoll counts do not lie. The refinery was running at 10% capacity. It helps to go eyeball to eyeball with gauges in LOP (light oil processing) control center, which I did.
The oil glut is designed and not a freakin' miracle. Saudi Arabia understands high crude prices and fracking will leave him sitting on billions of barrels of thick, tarry crude nobody wants. The USA on the other hand thinks it's just ducky Russia is on the verge of bankruptcy. Oooooooo, have you heard anything about Ukraine and the Crimea lately? Oooooooo the worsening economic crisis in Venezuela is going to topple the government. Some of the most coveted crude oil on the face of the earth LAGOMAR is beneath Lake Maracaibo. Refineries use it to flush the processors out. it is so light it carries heavy ends out of the units.
The days of four dollar a gallon gasoline are over at least for this decade.
Just My Most Humble Opinion
By the way where IS Al Gore?
