Fracking or offshore exploitation for example cost more than pumping Saudi oil out using conventional methods.

And it's relatively available, their product, without much drama--it's light and sweet, and needs very little refining, for the most part.

That said, the fact that they aren't "holding back" hoping for better prices down the road tells me that they can afford to make less on their product as a consequence of smart investments over the past half century bringing the bacon (pardon the expression) home--i.e. they are less dependent on oil than many other nations to get by, day-to-day. They've diversified.

It could also mean they realize that the days of oil are numbered, that solar and wind are ascendant, and they might as well sell the stuff while people still want to buy it, because there will come a day when no one wants what they've got...no one wants to be sitting on a warehouse full of buggy whips when the automobile becomes king, after all.

even if all cars went solar.

Oil is needed in making fertilizers, plastics and other materials, the use of which is going to increase.

Perhaps some genius will find a way to make ceramics cheaply, that are thin and light and strong. Who wouldn't prefer a ceramic piece of tupperware if the weight was the same? As for fertilizers, what did farmers do before them? Maybe we need to go back to cowshit and clippings...?

big farms that processes the "business" and spreads it efficiently, without the stanky-stanky, and without the mess.

One way or another, they need to find a way to make their money and not kill us at the same time!

Plus if they can derail solar and wind for another 30 years like they did last time, it's a sweet bonus.

So I couldn't be happier

wants to buy....?

and it's only a matter of time before solar and wind are the new kids on the block. I wouldn't be surprised if the House of Saud is already heavily invested in those technologies, along with other forward-looking enterprises.

The pusher wants to sell his inventory for as long as people keep buying, no matter what the price point. Even a small profit is better than none.

One of the things their stooges do is compare cost curves as if PRICE is the final word.

Forget the environment.

Their oil fields are o-l-d and have been in use for a long, long time. In two decades, some say, they'll be largely played out. I think the Saudis are looking at a post-oil economy already, but they'll keep selling until it's no longer cost-effective to do so.

See:

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-30047096

Then you have the NONSENSE of Republicans claiming God is refilling the oil fields.

woods)....

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dannykennedy/2012/12/10/saudis-invest-heavily-in-solar-just-as-the-us-tries-to-catch-up-to-saudis-in-oil/

...

He says his members in the home heating oil business, like Sean Cota of Bellows Falls, Vt., were the first to notice the effects a few years ago when prices seemed to disconnect from the basic fundamentals of supply and demand. Cota says there was plenty of product at the supply terminals, but the prices kept going up and up.

"We've had three price changes during the day where we pick up products, actually don't know what we paid for it and we'll go out and we'll sell that to the retail customer guessing at what the price was," Cota remembered. "The volatility is being driven by the huge amounts of money and the huge amounts of leverage that is going in to these markets."

About the same time, hedge fund manager Michael Masters reached the same conclusion. Masters' expertise is in tracking the flow of investments into and out of financial markets and he noticed huge amounts of money leaving stocks for commodities and oil futures, most of it going into index funds, betting the price of oil was going to go up.

Asked who was buying this "paper oil," Masters told Kroft, "The California pension fund. Harvard Endowment. Lots of large institutional investors. And, by the way, other investors, hedge funds, Wall Street trading desks were following right behind them, putting money - sovereign wealth funds were putting money in the futures markets as well. So you had all these investors putting money in the futures markets. And that was driving the price up."

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/did-speculation-fuel-oil-price-swings-08-01-2009/

from the article:

it looks like cheap oil is here for a while, and what happens to all those derivatives will clarify who is full of shit real soon now.

We Shall See......

The current attempt to destroy the Ruble is a perfect example.

I've heard a couple of speculations that it has to do with hurting Russia. And Putie.

...for Those Who Still Have Them...and many still do........

http://ellenbrown.com/2014/12/19/russian-roulette-taxpayers-could-be-on-the-hook-for-trillions-in-oil-derivatives/

Do you have savings? A 401-K or Other?

Or, are you wealthy and don't need to bother with that stuff because of Indie funds from Family left to you?

No longer will opec be able to price set barrels of crude. Plenty of other countries are willing to sell(wholesale) for less. I use a lot of gas and the lower gas price means I spend less on gasoline. I mean what is the worse that can happen if Saudi Arabia disappears off the face of the earth? A couple stocks crash other investments go up.

No money from family. I left a difficult home situation at age 16 with nothing, and never looked back.

The Chinese are bailing out the Russians with currency swaps. It's not bankrupting Putin, it's driving him to forge a stronger alliance with the Chinese. I say world war within 2 years.

With so much of the U.S. oil boom funded by junk bonds, it was a really bad gamble. Now CDS's on that junk paper are through the roof and we just may have another crisis like 2008. Venezuela is toast at this point.

Oil Price is yet to be revealed. Junk Bonds, Hedge Fund "over commitment" and CDS that Jamie Diamon lobbied Congress about to EXCLUDE from the "CROMNIBUS BILL" ...all would seem to be clues as to what this was about and what has not been revealed. We probably wont know for awhile.

They are demanding they cut production first....just heard it on Bloomberg Asia Edge.

China recently agreed to cut consumption and "green up" is energy use. Which means....less need for Arab oil.

Then you have USA/Canada ramping up production. Which competes with Arab oil at higher prices.

Iran is the other big dog on the street with oil, and with a nuclear deal, sanctions will be eased and guess what....more competition against Arab oil.

Russia is another large oil producer....a producer OPEC has courted many times and Russia has some influence on Iran. Putin has always maintained he prefers Russia to be independent of OPEC. This may change his mind.

Flood the market, kill green initiatives (get people to think cheap oil is here to stay as evidenced in this thread), and get some major non-OPEC nations on board (Saudi Prince: So you see Tsar Putin, we can guarantee you price that is sustainable for you and should we have to flood the market, you would know in advance and could prepare).