{"id":616,"date":"2014-10-26T09:29:50","date_gmt":"2014-10-26T13:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=616"},"modified":"2014-10-26T09:29:50","modified_gmt":"2014-10-26T13:29:50","slug":"resource-crisis-oil-prices-keep-going-down-but-this-is-not-good-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=616","title":{"rendered":"RESOURCE CRISIS: Oil prices keep going down, but this is not good news"},"content":{"rendered":"

RESOURCE CRISIS: Oil prices keep going down, but this is not good news<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There is plenty of movement in the oil world<\/span>:<\/span>\u00a0after five years of<\/span>\u00a0relatively stable prices<\/span>, the legendary“<\/span>barrel”\u00a0is coming down<\/span>\u00a0from<\/span>\u00a0over<\/span>\u00a0$ 100<\/span>\u00a0to<\/span>\u00a0under 90<\/span>,\u00a0and<\/span>\u00a0it\u00a0looks like it will keep falling<\/span>.\u00a0What’s happening<\/span>?Has anyone found<\/span>\u00a0new<\/span>\u00a0resources<\/span>?\u00a0Or<\/span>\u00a0is it Saudi Arabia<\/span>\u00a0using<\/span>\u00a0the “<\/span>oil weapon”\u00a0to bring down<\/span>\u00a0Russia<\/span>, the heir\u00a0of the old “<\/span>evil empire”?<\/p>\n

In<\/span>\u00a0reality, it\u00a0<\/span>is<\/span>\u00a0nothing like that<\/span>.\u00a0There are no major<\/span>\u00a0new\u00a0<\/span>discoveries<\/span>\u00a0of oil<\/span>\u00a0in the world and the\u00a0Saudi oil weapon is much less fearsome<\/a>\u00a0than it is normally described\u00a0in the media.<\/span>\u00a0But, then, why<\/span>\u00a0are\u00a0prices<\/span>\u00a0going down?\u00a0There are<\/span>\u00a0good reasons<\/span>,\u00a0but we need to understand them and,\u00a0<\/span>more importantly,\u00a0to explain why the<\/span>likely<\/span>\u00a0future\u00a0drop<\/span>\u00a0in oil prices<\/span>\u00a0would NOT be a<\/span>\u00a0good thing<\/span>;\u00a0indeed it could be<\/span>\u00a0a<\/span>\u00a0planetary disaster<\/span>.<\/p>\n

First of all, we should take into account that oil is<\/span>\u00a0a finite resource<\/span>,\u00a0but<\/span>\u00a0also<\/span>\u00a0that it\u00a0is subject<\/span>\u00a0to the laws of<\/span>supply and demand; it cannot escape the\u00a0<\/span>control<\/span>\u00a0of the entity<\/span>\u00a0we call<\/span>\u00a0“the market<\/span>“.<\/span>\u00a0So, we are seeing twocontrasting<\/span>\u00a0trends<\/span>\u00a0in the oil market.\u00a0One is the<\/span>\u00a0gradual<\/span>\u00a0depletion of<\/span>\u00a0the so-called<\/span>\u00a0“conventional”<\/span>\u00a0oil; that isliquid oil<\/span>\u00a0extracted<\/span>\u00a0at relatively low cost<\/span>\u00a0from wells<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0As a consequence, the production of conventional oil is static or declining almost everywhere. The other trend is<\/span>\u00a0the increase in the production<\/span>\u00a0of “<\/span>unconventional” oil, that is\u00a0combustible liquids<\/span>\u00a0which are obtained<\/span>, for example,\u00a0by treating<\/span>\u00a0oil sands<\/span>, or\u00a0biofuels,<\/span>\u00a0or<\/span>\u00a0“oil<\/span>shale<\/span>,”\u00a0the kind you obtain by means of\u00a0<\/span>the<\/span>\u00a0“<\/span>fracking<\/span>” process.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RESOURCE CRISIS: Oil prices keep going down, but this is not good news. There is plenty of movement in the oil world:\u00a0after five years of\u00a0relatively stable prices, the legendary“barrel”\u00a0is coming down\u00a0from\u00a0over\u00a0$ 100\u00a0to\u00a0under 90,\u00a0and\u00a0it\u00a0looks like it will keep falling.\u00a0What’s happening?Has anyone found\u00a0new\u00a0resources?\u00a0Or\u00a0is it Saudi Arabia\u00a0using\u00a0the “oil weapon”\u00a0to bring down\u00a0Russia, the heir\u00a0of the old “evil empire”? In\u00a0reality, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[588,594,723,782,823],"class_list":["post-616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","tag-oil","tag-oil-prices","tag-shale-oil","tag-tarsands","tag-unconventional-oil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}