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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: worksinjammies who wrote (21935)	5/18/2008 5:44:05 PM
From: Nicholas Thompson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

you can imagine that the oil companies do not pay $125 a barrel or $3.00 a gallon for their crude. They pay a lot less especially those with 20 or 30 per cent controlled domestic production and long term supply contracts overseas at considerably less than $125. Using transfer pricing and ultra liberal depreciation they are hiding tens of billions of profits , as an industry, each year, lately.

To: worksinjammies who wrote (21935)	5/18/2008 5:50:14 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 149317

"I would like a good explanation as to where the bottleneck is" Physics...it just doesn't flow as fast when you get to around half depleted. Geology...we found the big fields and developed them already. What the peakers call "the low hanging fruit". Nature...takes time and massive phytoplankton blooms to make oil. And, when you get demand >/= supply, you get above the ground factors causing problems, cuz anything taking production offline produces a pinch; Katrina, storms in the North Sea and the GOM, war and insurrection, refinery breakdowns (altho that isn't a factor in the US, since we are currently only running at 85% capacity.) SA lies a lot. "I would like a good explanation as to where the bottleneck is. I don't think that China of India alone can be to blame, as it appears that the supply has not been disrupted" Mostly, China can be "blamed". marketwatch.com == According to statistics released Tuesday by the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association (CPCIA), China's apparent consumption of oil products composed of gasoline, diesel and kerosene rose by 16.5 percent year on year to 52.73 million tonnes in the first three months, and crude oil, rose by eight percent to 91.8 million tonnes. en.ce.cn Also increased diesel imports by 45%, so it is now $4.79 here. China has been importing loads of diesel since late last year, partly due to coal shortages, with imports at 132,000 barrels per day (bpd) from November to March, quadruple from 28,000 bpd a year ago. in.reuters.com But, there is also "Peak exports", the export land model. As oil profits poor in to the producers, they are becoming wealthy and increasing their own use, thereby cutting down on the amount available for export. All exports should end by about 2030. en.wikipedia.org

To: worksinjammies who wrote (21935)	5/19/2008 3:00:59 AM
From: brushwud	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 149317

OPEC said they would be willing to increase production, but it was not necessary at the moment because they were filling all their orders in a timely manner. If we are to accept this as true, then where is the shortage? There is not a shortage. Supply is meeting demand at the current price. I never have trouble finding gasoline to buy. I got an email from Barack a few weeks ago which advocated a windfall profits tax on oil companies and was very disappointed. I'd rather see a windfall profits tax on Microsoft and Intel. But really, the government takes about 1/3 of the profit of a typical large corporation, which already makes the government a 1/3 partner in any large enterprise. I don't like the idea of singling out particular industries for punishment for political reasons. If oil companies are getting an unfair tax break due to depletion which is not available to other industries, maybe that should be changed. I don't know much about that.