Strategic Petroleum Reserve Oil Sale ( Archived) (23)

lifeisadream: When (time) is the oil "put" going to be?

ooby_dooby: K@H:

I respectfully submit, your analysis doesn't hold water. Saudi Arabia isn't worried about competition from Russia. Their real fear is new technology that is enabling the US to take market share away from them.

"Though OPEC and Saudi oil ministers have denied it, the decision last November that sent global oil prices into a tumble was interpreted as a way to undercut U.S. shale oil producers.
Just before OPEC made its announcement, the "shale revolution" in North America — spurred by improved techniques in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling — pushed U.S. output past Saudi Arabia as the world's No. 1 producer of liquid petroleum.

Since production costs are higher for North American companies than they are for Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf oil giants such as the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar, the OPEC strategy made sense.

While U.S. producers are feeling some pain, energy analysts have marveled at their resiliency and Faulkner thinks shale can eventually beat OPEC countries.

"I think they expected us to be already in a serious situation when they drove down the price of oil, but frankly, it hasn't happened," Faulkner said. "We're doing a lot more with a lot less. We're able to develop the assets at a much cheaper cost now. So I think what they've done is, they've put us through an exercise that has been very beneficial for us and that long term will hurt them."