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This feels slightly more true than the comment you responded to. But I feel that important aspects are left out. I don't feel like I can make much justice for

This feels slightly more true than the comment you responded to. But I feel that important aspects are left out. I don't feel like I can make much justice for those aspects but here's my two cents: Selling oil on the free market disproportionately benefits those that own the means to process and resell it further. Or rather, those that ultimately coordinate global oil logistics. The global fossil fuel market doesn't exactly seem like a "free" market. There are few players and they are powerful.

jollybean 6y ago
The means to process and transport oil are commodity, there's very little surplus in it. It just requires a bit of investment, but not much. Exclusive control of 'easy access to Oil' is overwhelmingly the power in that value chain. The 'first order' issue is earlier in the process, it's that 'House of Saud' keeps most of the surplus for their family and furthermore use it to do some suppressive things. The fossil fuel market it is very open, and market oriented. It has obvious geostrategic artifacts (notably the petrodollar, some politicians refusal to build pipelines, military support of interventions, OPEC), but it's generally open season. Nobody controls the flow of spice melange.
- thaumasiotes 6y ago
  > The means to process and transport oil are commodity, there's very little surplus in it. It just requires a bit of investment, but not much. > Exclusive control of 'easy access to Oil' is overwhelmingly the power in that value chain. Singapore might disagree. But what do they know?
unishark 6y ago
> Selling oil on the free market disproportionately benefits those that own the means to process and resell it further. What is the basis for this comparison? Compare the profit margins of a gas station (tiny) versus the profit margin of a company that needs to purchase fuel to operate a factory (could be anything). Or for that matter a company that needs products produced at one of those factories (the rest of us). The benefit is widespread and it's not at all obvious who benefits most, commodity or not.
- jollybean 6y ago
  Those with exclusive access to the commodity make a lot of money. The Saudi Government, which is actually a 'family', are the richest 'family' on earth by leagues. That's there 'the profit is'.

jollybean 6y ago

The means to process and transport oil are commodity, there's very little surplus in it. It just requires a bit of investment, but not much. Exclusive control of 'easy access to Oil' is overwhelmingly the power in that value chain. The 'first order' issue is earlier in the process, it's that 'House of Saud' keeps most of the surplus for their family and furthermore use it to do some suppressive things. The fossil fuel market it is very open, and market oriented. It has obvious geostrategic artifacts (notably the petrodollar, some politicians refusal to build pipelines, military support of interventions, OPEC), but it's generally open season. Nobody controls the flow of spice melange.

thaumasiotes 6y ago
> The means to process and transport oil are commodity, there's very little surplus in it. It just requires a bit of investment, but not much. > Exclusive control of 'easy access to Oil' is overwhelmingly the power in that value chain. Singapore might disagree. But what do they know?

unishark 6y ago

> Selling oil on the free market disproportionately benefits those that own the means to process and resell it further. What is the basis for this comparison? Compare the profit margins of a gas station (tiny) versus the profit margin of a company that needs to purchase fuel to operate a factory (could be anything). Or for that matter a company that needs products produced at one of those factories (the rest of us). The benefit is widespread and it's not at all obvious who benefits most, commodity or not.

jollybean 6y ago
Those with exclusive access to the commodity make a lot of money. The Saudi Government, which is actually a 'family', are the richest 'family' on earth by leagues. That's there 'the profit is'.