Some Interesting Insight Regarding Lower Oil Prices
From the Financial Times:
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Saudi Arabia's oil minister: $100 oil may be gone forever.
If you've had any doubts about the brutal nature of Saudi Arabia's
strategy, well -
Just read this (via FT):
Opec will not cut production even if the price of oil falls to $20
a barrel, the cartel's de facto leader said, spelling out a dramatic
policy shift that will have far-reaching implications for the global
energy industry.
In an unusually frank interview, Ali al-Naimi, the Saudi oil
minister, tore up Opec's traditional strategy of keeping prices high
by limiting oil output and replaced it with a new policy of defending
the cartel's market share at all costs.
"It is not in the interest of Opec producers to cut their
production, whatever the price is," he told the Middle East Economic
Survey. "Whether it goes down to $20, $40, $50, $60, it is
irrelevant."
He said the world may never see $100 a barrel oil again.
Saudi Arabia wants to force a mental paradigm shift.
There can be no doubt… none, zero… that Saudi Arabia is trying to kill
off high-cost marginal production.
Whether ali-Naimi is right about "$100 oil gone forever" or not (and
many believe he is wrong), the point is scaring the crap out of oil
investors and oil project planners.
Saudi Arabia wants all manner of high-cost marginal production, all
across the globe, to get moth-balled.
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In my opinion this also has some unfortunate implications for energy
saving technologies. Industries like solar power, compressed natural
gas, electric cars and wind energy have all made great progress in
recent years. It it would be too bad if those efforts were reduced
because of lower oil prices. I hate to say this but it might be a
good time to impose some sort of sliding petroleum tax designed to
stabilize prices at the consumer level, prop up the alternative
technology businesses, fund new research and reduce the national debt.
European countries have done something similar for many years with
high energy taxes which incentivize fuel economy. It's hard to
believe that any US politician would have the stomach to back a
program like that however. Some would view it as a communist plot
similar to attitudes toward the metric system.
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