Are there alternatives to OPEC?

[Realgun]

Heres what gonna make oil prices go lower in a hurry. A plant that turns coal into gasoline. Germany did it during WW2 but was extremly in efficient and was really expensive. If an oil company were to do this then guess what the price of oil will do? It will drop quick so as to keep us from building it! Same with the oil sands in Canada. There is as much oil locked in the oil sands in Canada as in Saudi Arabia but it costs a lot to get it out which means that if we start building a plant to extract that oil then OPEC will reduce prices.<br /><br />The biggest issue is that eventually there will be no oil. This will happen in 80 or so years then what will we do?

 

[kenimpzoom]

Re: Are there alternatives to OPEC?

A little birdy told me that there are several companies looking at how to get the oil out of shale.<br /><br />Trust me, these guys are looking.<br /><br />Ken

 

[JasonJ]

Re: Are there alternatives to OPEC?

All we have to do is get that oil out of the Colorado/Utah/Wyoming shale, drill the Gulf of Mexico more, drill Anwar, etc, and build us some more refineries. Yeah, The tree huggers hate that idea, but we need that near term solution while we work on the far term solution of energy alternatives...

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Are there alternatives to OPEC?

I lost $100,000 in the late '80's, in an investement with an American firm that had a environmentally sound process for removing shale/tar sand oil. They even worked with Shell Oil for a period of time to determine the efficacy of the process. They ended up failing due the inability to attract capitol to start a pilot plant in the Canadian shale region.(Athbasca)<br />For years the Canadian Government has been subsidising the extraction of oil from the tar sands deposits in Alberta. They do it to help employment in the area and they are creating huge environmental waste deposits in the process.<br /><br />My investment may have just been 25 years early.

 

[fireman57]

Re: Are there alternatives to OPEC?

It's not OPEC raising prices it's the commodity traders.

 

[CJY]

Re: Are there alternatives to OPEC?

Supply and demand fireman. OPEC produces less, demand remains...prices go up. Traders are just getting a cut, OPEC runs the show when it comes to crude.

 

[rolmops]

Re: Are there alternatives to OPEC?

In the 1970s Exxon started building a huge plant for changing coal into fuel oil.After having invested something like a billion dollars,they decided it was not worth their while and they stopped the project.Somewhere out west there must be this huge unfinished coal to oil conversion plant just sitting there gathering rust.Maybe some of you guys know more about this.I just remember it from news blurbs.

 

[tomatolord]

Re: Are there alternatives to OPEC?

The problem is not demand or supply it is refining capacity here in the US. <br /><br />When the refinery's were going to take the hurricane hit - there is NO WHERE to make up the lost capacity.<br /><br />Oil has not gone up in price - only the ability to make has been the problem.<br /><br />"In 1981, the US had 324 refineries with a total capacity of 18.6 million barrels per day, the Department of Energy reports. Today, there are just 132 oil refineries with a capacity of 16.8 million b.p.d., according to Oil and Gas Journal, a trade publication"<br /><br />They want to build a new one in Arizona - the environmentalist have not had their say yet - but interesting enough the locals are saying stay away - we need the jobs, the tax money and everything else that goes with a refinery.<br /><br />Tomatolord

 

[Haut Medoc]

Re: Are there alternatives to OPEC?

Can't we just keep Iraq?....Puerto Rico doesn't want to be a state...But.....Why not them? ...JK

 

[Haut Medoc]

Re: Are there alternatives to OPEC?

Wouln't this quell all the N.I.M.B.Y. issues here? ...JK

 

[CJY]

Re: Are there alternatives to OPEC?

Tomatolord,<br />Gas prices were high prior to the hurricane. I agree, they have gone up due to refinery damage, but the original reason prices were above $2.00 was because OPEC cutbacks on production.