They're to the bottom of the wells now, so open up the spigots to make some quick cash and quietly retire to whatever 8 or 9 figure mansion strikes their fancy that week.

They upped their "proven" reserves without finding a drop of new oil. The true reserve number is a state secret.

So many countries are projected to surpass Saudi Arabia's oil production. The US is actually projected to do so very soon if they haven't already. 2015 or 2016 I've seen reported projections.

We are so far beyond screwed the light from screwed won't reach us for ten billion years.

I was also told energy can't be created or destroyed. Is that also wrong right now?

I have Maxwell's Equations tattooed on my arms, but I will need to add a new term to Ampere's law because of this.

There is an entire industry dedicated to creating energy out of matter.

Can you be more specific?

That talks about how shale oil producers are pushing down the price. Sounds reasonable but who knows. What I do know is that low gas prices are good for the economy, public and small business.

To maintain market share. It cost the Saudis $30 to pump a barrel of oil. Shale oil is much more expensive to produce.

The article I saw said shale oil costs about 50/barrel.

Venezuela is in opec right? If the goal is to put the shale oil producers out of business it's going to destroy the Venezuelan economy in the process. One important point to remember is the sunk costs the shale producers have incurred, like the article said, the price of production doesn't really matter after the fact, all the shale producers want to do is get the oil out of the ground, regardless of price.

But I don't think the Saudis care.

Kneecap their rivals in North Dakota and yet still keep their American allies happy by screwing over the Russians.

The shale producers will just ramp back up when the price goes back up. It's not like they're going away.

or any oil producer for that matter.

This actually hurts their rival Iran more but the global politics don't matter so much for the price war. Defending their market share which it lost a considerable amount will come in handy when the prices go back up.

The Saudis really hate the Iranians, and by keeping the price of oil low, they're making it difficult for Iran while Iran is trying to fight Isis.

Not good for those entered the game late.

Of course markets are entirely unrelated to any physical reality. It's impossible to distill every economic transaction down to a single measure of "hard" currency, dollar or otherwise.

The physical reality is that a high energy fossil fueled economy is unsustainable. One way or another, it collapses.

As they took money from the working and middle class and transferred it to energy speculators.

A cartel artificially sets the price. And now we know that what they cried about for decades is pure bullshit...along with other FUD like 'peak oil'.

But, George H.W. Bush rode that popular meme in to the White House in 1988.

Do you know WHY crude oil is below $60? Weak demand from China and Europe because of slowing economies, which is a sign of a potential new global recession; this isn't really a good thing. (NB that oil hit $34 a barrel in December of 2008.) The Saudis are taking advantage of declining demand to drive prices down by maintaining production in order to put US fracking out of business. Fracking isn't very profitable at current prices; a lot of drilling rigs in North Dakota and Texas are idle, now. If US producers blink, then you can expect prices to rise as fracked oil production declines. However the fact remains that conventional crude oil production peaked nearly a decade ago.

be pretty fucked soon. Not the ''masters of the universe'' types, but the rest of us for sure.

But very destabilizing, that it will be.

And then were made to look like fools when it went back over $100.

You'll have to show your work if you want to convince us that this time it's any different.

This is happen literally because the OPEC cartel wants to redefine the market because it's lost its mind.

Of course if countries that produce oil have to compete with much cheaper oil their oil-related economic sectors will slow down thus reducing the demand for that very same oil.

OPEC is oversaturating.

Low demand is not a reason for the low prices, it's a response to the low prices' effect on economies that profit off of oil.

Which brought prices down in the first place. OPEC (for which read, the Saudis) have elected not to reduce production to maintain prices at a higher level. And yes, low demand is a reason for the low prices; that's how market pricing works. If it weren't the reason we would have seen prices falling a year or more ago when US production was at eight million barrels a day.

Such as the Saudis not reducing output in the '80's (as a result, partly, of diplomatic manoeuvring by the Reagan White House, aimed at depriving the Soviets of lucrative oil revenues).

If it is, it's definitely a smarter move than any kind of direct military confrontation (and more effective than sanctions, in the short term at least).

I personally think that it is a reaction to US oil production, and an attempt to scuttle it, since it's been the main driving force for excess oil production. US / Canadian oil is profitable above $60 / barrel. They've hit the mythical sub-60 price point now but Bakken and Canadian production can continue until $55. And Bakken will continue for a year or so since most of the costs there are sunk costs.

I think it's a coincidence. It just so happened that Russia was meddling in another country when shale and tar sands brought prices down in the US. The US is reducing oil consumption by 100-200 million barrels a year. It's not a lot when you consider the billions the US consumes, but it's a slow and straight trajectory to zero, which isn't very palatable to middle eastern interests. I personally believe they're trying to keep us from getting there sooner rather than later. And they certainly fear the exploitation of harder to get shales in the Green River Formation, which renders foreign oil irrelevant.

And the Saudis are probably afraid of Arab Spring type uprisings. So I wouldn't be surprised if the US did in fact have some influence. And oil is traded on a global market. Weakening demand from slowing economies is behind the decline in the crude price, not US production (which has been rising steadily for the past five years without oil going below $100 a barrel, on average).

Other than Norway, there are no major oil exporters in Europe, and China has never been an oil-exporting nation. Low oil prices should benefit them greatly.

So why would their economies, and their oil consumption, slow in response to low global oil prices?

I don't know where I said anything about China and EU profiting from high oil prices.

Driving down the price of oil: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/dec/12/oil-price-plunge-brent-crude-iea-forecasts-weaker-demand-2015

Time will tell if this slow-down turns into a full-blown recession.

The economic slowdown is attributed to the lower price stuttering economies and sanctions on Russia.

to set up a Republican for the 2016 election. Koch brothers at work?

By keeping the price low, shale oil (aka sludge) is too expensive to produce and there will be no need for a pipeline.

What a "lucky" coincidence.

precisely for that reason, to kill Putin's ability to stay in office in the hope the next guy is more interested in improving Russia than expanding it.

My guess is it was instigated by a large release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, filled to overflowing by Stupid who was hot for more wars he didn't have to fight.

It was just enough to drop oil to a point where OPEC states didn't dare drop production since their own people would start to get squeezed if they did.

I wonder what excuses the Republicans will make when they try to force it through BOTH Houses of Congress next year?

2016 is looking up for Democrats.

but it's also going to kill off a lot of research and implementation of renewable energy.

Gas price in north central NM: $2.12 as of 10 minutes ago.

Bakken and tar sands don't produce it so much. Natural gas is needed to solve renewable energy intermittency with peaking plants.

It may delay the uptake of electric vehicles, though, and delay the upgrade to a smart grid. People won't spend the extra $10-20k on an electric car if gas is cheaper than milk again...

What is and why? Do you mean peak oil? If so, you aren't clear to what it is about it you find wrong.

I always felt the concern was overblown but mainly when it came to talk about pricing, they assumed the prices would be high that would only work if there was still the demand, the high prices would only work if consumers still purchased at the price.

Peak oil generally focused on conventional oil--before the boom in the shale gas production of the 2010s. Prices fell as a result of the production as well as Saudi Arabia cutting its prices, also testing the sustainability of the US & Canada shale gas production at the current prices.`

With the business side effect of weeding out some smaller fish along the way. I don't see this as a long term change, but rather more of a momentary break in higher prices to effect an end goal. It's also a possible learning moment for some in how easily the oil market can be manipulated, but I doubt that lesson will sink in very deeply.

That's just how I'm seeing this event, of course your view may be different from where you're sitting. No matter how one views the creation of this event, it's a boon to the average person globally. It's as if we've all received a raise, or gotten a tax break. Suddenly there's a little bit more we can spend or put back each week.

which will lead to higher prices.

In the meantime, every big price drop in crude tends to wipe out alternatives, if sustained. That's more or less what happened in the 80's; Reagan's policies had a lot to do with it, but the politics follow the money in most cases.

and not a speculator-influenced level. Funny how low it goes when the only customers for crude left in the market are the actual users.

Short term, the Saudis are trying to break some shale oil operators. OK.

Reality stays that the proven oil reserves + the estimates of new finds don't cover till the end of this century. If we're lucky, shale oil will cover demand till that point.

The next generation of safe nuclear plants could bring us forward to the 24th century.

Four centuries is probably enough time to find much more efficient ways to release energy.