Jet Fuel Prices WILL Be Climbing A LOT, and Soon

[Soverytired]

Why doesn't anyone talk about the need to drill more AND conserve more. We need to drill more and also conserve, plus switch to alternatives all at the same time, if we are to preserve our future.

THANK YOU!

That's what I'm talking about. The reason no one talks about it though is all the competing interests start screaming and drown each other out. You can't drill for oil, install solar/wind, process tar sands/oil sands, build nuclear, rationally grow ethanol (non this corn ethanol cripe), etc. without some do-gooder group screaming bloody murder.

 

[Soverytired]

T
As far as the price of gasoline, consider that Londoners pay something to the tune of $9/gal and seem to get along just fine. Energy costs have been very highly subsidised in the USA for a very long time. Most of our development and planning has been made with cheap energy as a fixture in our future vision. I feel reality is going to hit hard!

True. They don't really NEED to use much gas though. If you've ever ridden the Tube in London, you know their public transport is first rate. But it took 100 years to build, so don't expect it here. Most European countries are like this.

Actually, major cities here do ok in that regard (NYC, the BART in SFN). Problem is, unlike Europe, Americans have fully embraced the suburban lifestyle. Public transportation simply isn't feasible to our large cities with gigantic footprints (or "sprawl", which is too pejorative).

Ultimately, one of two things will have to happen. An alternate fuel that is affordable will be introduced, or suburbia will disappear and we'll return to a mix of heavily urbanized or highly rural areas. That's a bit down the road, but I'm not sure how else a nation built on cheap oil can endure.

 

[Lear70]

I think you're wrong. I think there's a psychological barrier at $5/gallon for most Americans and you'll see consumption take a dive once we reach that level. Time will tell, however, since I think $5/gallon is likely within the next year thanks to ridiculous speculators.

At the rate we're going, you're going to have $5 gas by the 4th of July...

That's going to kill summer vacations by car or by air, and a lot of angst is going to start, but I don't think people will suddenly stop buying gas. They still have to go to work, go to the grocery store, take the kids to little league, Sunday Church, etc., and they will...

 

[Soverytired]

Although I'd like to reach though the TV and punch whatever talking head is saying stupid things like "don't by gas from Company X to teach them a lesson", there is a VERY easy way Americans could put a huge dent in gasoline usage.

It's so simple . . . .drive 5 mph under the posted speed limit.

Most, if not all cars, perform better at constant slower speeds. Especially for anything over 65mph. I suspect the conservation impact of 100 million cars doing this immediately would be huge.

Never happen, of course. Nor should it, I guess. Those who can afford to fill up $75 dollar tanks shouldn't be denied their fun.

 

[spitfire1500]

My wifes company is looking at a 4 day work week at 10 hrs a day to cut a day of driving. This isn't some small mom and pop company she works for the state of NC.

 

[PCL_128]

What's becoming more and more appearant though is that it is no longer American demand alone setting the market price.

Irrelevant. The supply/demand curve has absolutely nothing to do with the absurd price that oil has risen to. It's all about speculators. The OPEC countries are currently producing an extra 2 million barrels of oil per day that they can't find buyers for. There simply isn't an excess in demand. Most experts put the non-speculation-induced price of a barrel of oil at around $75/bbl or less. This is all speculation, just like the real estate bubble and the tech bubble before that. Eventually the speculator dollars will come out, and it will all come crashing down. It's taking longer than I thought it would, but it'll still happen. Bubbles always pop. Only a matter of time.

 

[ATRCAPT]

Irrelevant. The supply/demand curve has absolutely nothing to do with the absurd price that oil has risen to. It's all about speculators. The OPEC countries are currently producing an extra 2 million barrels of oil per day that they can't find buyers for. There simply isn't an excess in demand. Most experts put the non-speculation-induced price of a barrel of oil at around $75/bbl or less. This is all speculation, just like the real estate bubble and the tech bubble before that. Eventually the speculator dollars will come out, and it will all come crashing down. It's taking longer than I thought it would, but it'll still happen. Bubbles always pop. Only a matter of time.

I think you're absolutely right. I just read an article that talked extensively about the oil bubble. The author figured that oil can sustain a price (minus the speculator factor) of 65 to 75 bucks a barrel. Not as good as 25 a barell in 2000, but a heck of a lot better than 135 plus!

If I can find the article online I'll post a link.

Fly safe

 

[JumpJetter]

The OPEC countries are currently producing an extra 2 million barrels of oil per day that they can't find buyers for.

Can you provide a source for this?


Cause there are reasonable arguments against it.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon...gy/stories/050508dnbusoilsidebar.3b519e7.html

Veteran oilman T. Boone Pickens has been beating
the drum about the supply and demand disconnect in the worlds oil supply for quite a while.
According to Pickens, “All the world can produce is 85 million barrels of oil per day, but the
world demand is nearer 87 million barrels of oil per day. Something has to give. It's the price.”

Supporting Pickens view about oil is a new report by the chief economist of the International
Energy Agency, Fatih Birol. Birol stated that the supply and demand disconnect “is a dangerous
situation”. His staff just finished a study of about 400 oil fields across the world, and as a result
he announced that the IEA will lower its oil supply forecast in its next annual report. This has
never happened before.

"We are entering a new world energy order,” Birol continued. “The prices are very high, and
demand did not respond in the last few years as much as one would have expected. The growth
in terms of production was not great. We did not see enough investment… The oil investments
required [to meet future demand] may be much, much higher than what people assume.”

In the past we have stated that the although there is rampant speculation in the oil markets
because of the supply and demand disconnect the current rally in the price of oil (priced in
dollars) has been caused by the government cheapening our currency thus making all things more
expensive. Consider the following the next time you have to pay $4.00 for a gallon of gasoline,
“since 2002, the U.S. dollar has lost 50% of its purchasing power”. 2002 was only 6 years ago!
So when you hear politicians screaming about what they perceive are predatory prices by the oil
companies, just remember that we have no one to blame but our free spending politicians and
the Federal Reserve for destroying the value of our currency.

 

[Two Feathers]

Is $130 oil a bubble?

Some say no. They say unlike the tech and real estate bubbles, there's no overabundance of supply. Others say these high prices are not sustainable.

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By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer
Last Updated: May 23, 2008: 12:35 PM EDT

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What is to blame for high oil prices?

• OPEC
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• Supply and demand
• They are unavoidable

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Oil prices have doubled in the past 12 months, surging nearly $8 a barrel in the past four days alone.
Big investment funds are putting money into oil futures as if Saudi Arabia's spigots will run dry tomorrow. At the same time, the supply of oil and the demand for it hasn't changed much in the last year.
So it raises the question: Is $130 oil nothing more than one big bubble?
The answer depends on who you ask.
"A bubble is where supply overwhelms demand," said Stephen Leeb, an investment manager who has authored two books on oil scarcity.
Leeb pointed to previous bubbles - like the tech bubble in the late 1990s where companies with zero earnings issued massive amounts of stock, and the real estate market a decade later where home builders went on a frenzy, overshooting the number of homes the market could absorb.
"But unless I'm missing something here, I don't see any massive increase in the supply of oil," he said.
Like many in the not-a-bubble camp, Leeb pointed to surging demand from places like China - some estimates see auto ownership there surging 30-fold in the next few decades - coupled with dwindling supplies as the main reasons behind pricey oil.
Thursday, the International Energy Agency gave advance warning that its previous forecast for supply and demand remaining in pleasant equilibrium over the next two decades was flawed. Its new projections, due in November, will say supplies may fall 10 percent short of demand, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
Leeb said Russia was already seeing a drop in production, and there's little evidence Saudi Arabia could increase production even if it wanted to.
"If the two biggest oil producers in the world can no longer increase production, that's a catastrophe, not a bubble," he said.


I sure hope that I'm wrong on this whole issue as does everyone else in the "Peak Oil" awarness camp. But I don't think that is the case. If you are interested in further research I recommend getting ahold of "A Crude Awakening". It's a well made documentary on the subject and everyone interviewed minus one lawyer has some serious credentials in related fields. It's a good starter kit.

 

[PCL_128]

Can you provide a source for this?

Just read it in a couple of articles within the last week or so. I'm sure you could find a reference with a thorough google search. I'm about to go fly, so I don't have the time to dig it up.