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For how long? Surely we can't go toe to toe with them, especially SA. IIRC, oil is very cheap there to get out too. Also, looks like USA decided that oil is a
by onetimemanytime 8y ago
For how long? Surely we can't go toe to toe with them, especially SA. IIRC, oil is very cheap there to get out too.
Also, looks like USA decided that oil is a has-been, otherwise we'd be keeping it in reserves (Gov drilling policies ensure that.) Or maybe just wants to bankrupt OPEC and then stop?
- hangonhn 8y agoIt mainly puts a price ceiling on oil. Fracking can be turned off or on on relatively short notice. Anytime the price dips too low, those rigs can be idled. If OPEC raises prices above breakeven for fracking, the rigs turn back on and pushes the price back down.
- hnnh44 8y agoCan you provide a source for how this works? AFAIK the u.s. doesn't operate the oil rigs, and oil companies will operate in their own self interest. Does the u.s. government pay oil companies to suspended operation?
- jandrewrogers 8y agoThe US has enormous hydrocarbon reserves, and they have been adding technically recoverable reserves at an astonishing rate. Given current crude oil production rates and reserve estimates, the US could likely keep up the current pace into the 22nd century -- so very sustainable. And that ignores the mindbogglingly large natural gas and coal reserves in the US (effectively unlimited), which can also be used for the same purposes as crude oil albeit at higher cost. Realistically, that is more than we're ever likely to need given the ongoing electrification of transportation. It doesn't make sense to "save it" for the future and US crude oil has the advantage that they do not need the profit margins that would allow them to prop up a country with it.