Yikes.......$104 a Barrel !!!!!

widowmaker said:
Does Sea Ray offer a latte machine option??
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You joke about that but I have really wanted to put an espresso machine in my galley (see Frank... I didn't say "kitchen"). If I drink Lattes instead of just coffee, I have learned I can measure my weekly coffee intake by "cans" and not "cups". It keeps me calm as you see here on CSR.

I am not an addict. I can stop anytime I want. I just don't want.

Carry on with the "we should feel guilty for being human beings" discussion.
 
I noticed something kind of interesting over the past year or so. Hugo Chavez has been selling his gasoline for several cents per gallon less than other brands. In our little down town area there are 3 gas stations on a corner. Hugo's and two others. Hugo's was never very busy even when the other two were lined up with customers. The Citgo station owner announced yesterday that he is closing due to lack of sales. I wonder how many other Citgo stations are going belly up even as American complain about the price of oil? Many of us chose to pay more even when we are given cheaper alternatives. Kind of makes you wonder who does shop at Citgo.
 
We have two separate energy needs. One is electricity to power our homes/factories/businesses -- which except for some homes in very rural areas....do not have wheels and tend to stay in the same place. :) The other is transportation, which has other requirements (portability, ease/speed of refueling, infrastructure, etc).

For Electricity, everyone talks about solar, wind, nuclear etc. But I think the most viable is tidal power. 80% of the US population lives within 100 miles of the ocean. Theres a company that developed a floating buoy that rises up and down with each wave on a cable and that powers a turbine. A few square miles of these, combined into a grid and anchored 20 miles offshore, can power a small city at a cost per kw/hr similar to nuclear and sure to decline in the future. Environmentalists at first said no way, until they studied it and found that they created artificial reefs that were teaming with sea life. It won't be visible to anyone, so it does away with the NIMBY! argument, and could be clearly marked and placed out of navigation channels. PG&E is testing this technology now with very positive results. Its already used as a backup some navy bases.

As for vehicles, electric will only work if the source of the electricity is cleaner and cheaper than foreign/domestic oil production. Other alternatives have potential, such as bio-mass ethanol (not corn), bio-diesel, and some day fuel cells -- assuming hydrogen production can be improved. Right now, the cheapest sources of hyrdrogen are natural gas and oil, so that doesn't help much. Cracking H20 into H and O requires more electricity than the hydrogen can generate, so thats not an option today.

In any case, I still think we need to produce more oil domestically, use less, and encourage investment into alternative energy. One way would be to offer oil companies a financial advantage to stop fighting and lobbying against alt energy, and start making money off it. For every barrell equivalent of alternative energy they produce, they would get a tax break equal to the profit made on 2 barrells of traditional petroleum energy. But that would be labeled a "tax break for big greedy oil companies" and would be DOA before it ever hit Washington. But it just *might* work.

In the mean time, I'll keep running my 22 offshore boat that gets 4-5mpg instead of my old 320DA that got 0.8mpg!

-Dave
'07 Sea Hunt 220
'04 Sea Ray 280DA
 
sbw1 said:
I noticed something kind of interesting over the past year or so. Hugo Chavez has been selling his gasoline for several cents per gallon less than other brands.
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Citgo was created by nationalizing the VZ oil infrastructure that US companies invested in and developed. Right now, there is a major lawsuit where the US companies are suing to sieze Citgo assets in the US unless Hugo releases their investments in Venezuela. And they just might have a case.

THAT is why Hugo's actions are driving up the price of oil. He is rattling his sabre at his neighbors to say to us "don't try it"....

-Dave
 
billandamy said:
Unless you have any idea how to move a boat without a motor right now.
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I love burning fuel, so neither would be my first choice, but sail and oar come to mind...however, if I was really worried about it, I wouldn't own a boat ...which was my point in the first place...
 
Four Suns said:
You joke about that but I have really wanted to put an espresso machine in my galley (see Frank... I didn't say "kitchen"). If I drink Lattes instead of just coffee, I have learned I can measure my weekly coffee intake by "cans" and not "cups". It keeps me calm as you see here on CSR.

I am not an addict. I can stop anytime I want. I just don't want.

Carry on with the "we should feel guilty for being human beings" discussion.
Click to expand...
Do you measure your boat's mileage in GPH, MPG, or CPH (Cups per hour)?
 
osd9 said:
I love burning fuel, so neither would be my first choice, but sail and oar come to mind...however, if I was really worried about it, I wouldn't own a boat ...which was my point in the first place...
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You can notice a problem and still not be able to do anything about it. I have never stated that we should stop completely living our lives and enjoying luxuries. I was merely pointing out that it is the oil companies themselves, more or less, that have secured their place in the world by lobbying for their source of energy. There are other sources available, viable sources for most of the energy needs in our homes and businesses, not so much with transportation, but that as well could be expedited if more capital was put into that research and development.

Just getting where we live off the grid would be a huge difference alone.
 
I admit, I do not understand all of the things that drive the oil prices. But what ticks me off, is the barrel prices go up a little bit and the gas stations raise their price 15-20 cents per gallon...and the the barrel prices drop back, and the prices drop back 2-3 cents. Then Exxon posts its largest profit ever last year...$40B:smt021:smt021. I wish I owned their stock.

I recently heard/read that about 30% of the price of a barrel was due to "uncertainty" in the world (i.e. war on terror, etc). Does this sound accurate?
 
Bottom Line said:
I recently heard/read that about 30% of the price of a barrel was due to "uncertainty" in the world (i.e. war on terror, etc). Does this sound accurate?
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According to Wall Street analysts, the market supply and demand for oil would probably support a trading range of $70-80/bbl, exclusive of geopolitical and natural forces. The premium we pay above that is because supply constraints are so tight and demand is so inelastic that a minor temporary decrease in supply could cause prices to shoot up. Commodity traders are hedging that *something* might happen before their contracts expire. That forces businesses dependent on oil to buy contracts to secure their supply at a fixed price.

Think about it. When Katrina hit, it caused a temporary 3% drop in capacity. That sent oil prices up from $50 to over $70. Anything that remotely sounds like it might impact oil is being watched closely. Its not so much the war on terror -- which to some point has stabilized production in Iraq and opened that supply up to US consumption -- but things like Hugo Chavez, the turmoil in Nigeria, the wacko running Iran, hurricanes, etc. Just yesterday, OPEC told the US that "we don't care if your economy is in shambles, we're not going to increase production"..... These are the people our oil based economy depends on. These people are not our friends. Even though we only get a small portion of our oil from them, they largely control the price. If they want to hurt us, they can by simply cutting production 3%. Global demand will increase the price per bbl, regardless of who we get it from, and our economy will suffer a LOT.

I am much more concerned about economic terrorism than I am violent terrorism. The only way to protect ourselves is to become energy independent -- increase domestic production, use less, and find alternatives.

-Dave
 
Got a call from a friend who has his boat at Marco Island, FL for the winter. The only diesel pump on the island had fuel for the low low price of......get ready for it.... $5.60/gal. Gotta agree with Dave....start drilling, who cares about some stupid caribou that I will never see anyway! And I understand they are not very tasty as well.
 
I'm going to Home Depot at lunch to buy some bits....maybe there's some oil out back under my shed!!!
 
I'm trying to look at the bright side...

I can now replace all the canvas/strataglass on my bridge for the cost of 2 tanks of fuel.
 
Many analysts are forecasting a correction. Here is one person's opinion as stated in this article. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080307.ROIL07/TPStory/Business

The stunning price rise has been driven almost exclusively by investors who were bailing out of the dollar and other financial assets and pouring into commodities, Judith Dwarkin, chief economist at Calgary-based Ross Smith Energy Group, said yesterday.
"The fundamentals don't support prices at $80, let alone $100," Ms. Dwarkin said. She said global demand growth has slowed in recent years, while spare capacity among members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has expanded somewhat, even as inventories of gasoline are at robust levels.
"The greater prices diverge from what is fundamentally supportable, and the longer they stay at a distance from what is fundamentally supportable, the greater the risk of a correction, and a large one."
She has forecast an average price of $75 a barrel for this year.
 
ImpulseIII said:
Got a call from a friend who has his boat at Marco Island, FL for the winter. The only diesel pump on the island had fuel for the low low price of......get ready for it.... $5.60/gal. Gotta agree with Dave....start drilling, who cares about some stupid caribou that I will never see anyway! And I understand they are not very tasty as well.
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:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
So. Tank of fuel = 1 Boat Dollar?

- - - - - -

And if you start drilling for oil up north, what makes you think the price of gasoline at the pump will go down?

Just curious on that point. I have a few reasons to be skeptical.

First, I am being told the price of oil will go down by the same people who told us that Iraq oil money will pay for Iraq reconstruction (I *think* oil production in Iraq has just recently reached the level of production before the war. . . when they officially had no customers. . . )

We are being told the price of oil will go down by the same people who thinks you can have a healthy economy by increasing spending and cutting taxes. . . .well. . some of the taxes are scheduled to increase a year or two after the administration is out of office. . how convienient.

I won't even talk about what has happened to Fed money policy. OMG! What a bunch of BOZOS! This is costing me real money (or rather. . very real unrealized capital gains!)!!

We are being told the price of oil will go down by the same raw-material-intensive industry that is turning record profits in a time when raw material costs have tripled in 3 years.


I have no reason to think increasing supplies from Alaska and Northern Canada will result in *lower consumer prices*. Producers can simply reduce production elsewhere to compensate.

No. . .the smart money will be to *invest* in those companies doing the drilling. That would be a safe bet. The key is to pick the right times to place the bets. (there are three points in my mind)
 
It's going to correct itself. Just like the housing market is correcting itself, the stock market, the oil market will follow suit. As soon as the US gets any traction on developing alternatives to middle east oil, Opec will drop the price to stop it dead in it's tracks.
 
Correction? We don’t need no stinking correction.

We were all making money, you got a problem with that? :grin:
 
Even if the price of crude drops, the damage to our economy is already done.

Yes, you may see the prices of fuel, home heating oil, etc, drop but don't think for one minute that companies that manufacture products that rely heavily on crude byproducts (such as boats) and have raised their prices because the cost of raw materials went up will suddenly lower them. Ain't going to happen.
 
True. When prices go down, that's called deflation. Deflation is just about as bad for an economy as inflation. Sorry to say. . .but $1.50 oranges are here to stay.

BUT. . reduced oil prices will make room for wage improvements and other forms of economic growth. . which is a good thing.
 
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