Why in the world is oil priced at $76+ when there is so much of the stuff out there, the tankers carrying it have to park off coast and wait for room in the pipelines to free up?
SOUTHWOLD, England — Café owner Ken Kennard sees the glut in the global oil market as a potential environmental threat to this sleepy seaside tourist hub.
Mr. Kennard is worried about a fleet of oil tankers — almost 40 in all, each packing hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude and oil-derived products — that have anchored several miles off the coast of southeast England in recent months.
The heavy traffic stems from a near-record excess oil supply, a byproduct of the recession, that is prompting producers to stash oil offshore until they can find customers. The excess supply hasn’t stopped oil prices from surging almost 80% this year and padding the pockets of big oil producers like Royal Dutch Shell PLC and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Oil tankers have had a small presence off Southwold’s coast for almost two decades, a function of the relatively calm waters and proximity to European and U.S. markets.
If our distribution channels are so flush with oil, why are we still paying so much for it? Could it have anything to do with the tax revenue connected to the price?
For all of the government whining about evil oil companies and their excessive profits, does it ever occur to anyone that governments have a stake in the price of oil being high? Not so high as to destroy productivity, but high enough to reap maximum tax revenue. Plus, most governments are facing record revenue declines, and are probably petrified of what would happen if oil prices fell to historic lows.
The American government demonizes its own citizens for being addicted to oil, yet they never utter a peep about their own addiction to oil tax revenue. Why do American citizens tolerate this hypocrisy?
Imagine how inexpensive energy would be if the Progressive Congress unlocked America’s producing capacity. It’s easy if you try.
It could be that oil is expensive because of the falling value of the dollar.
Yeah, the “addicted to oil” meme is wearing thin. Those of us familiar with the laws of physics know that oil contains a great deal of energy, much more than wind or solar. In addition, so many things can be made from it that almost none of it is wasted, so in terms of effieciency, oil has no peer. Using it is an act of common sense, not addiction.
If you were a Christian, you could call it a gift from God. I do.
This, among other things. The columnist on the link, Ed Wallace, actually is a car guy, but right on the money related to this kind of issue. He called it on the 2008 bubble and why it happened.
http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/apr2009/bw20090421_862314.htm
Over the past year, retail prices of gasoline and heating oil have increased by almost 50 cents per gallon. Diesel fuel prices have increased by more than 50 cents per gallon. One major cause of these dramatic increases in oil prices is the rising price of crude oil. In the United States, various types of crude oil are priced by using the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil as the benchmark.