Value Microcaps Motherboard

[Bobwins]

Argyll, you've got to get out more. Oil price should be $3 a barrel??

Moms shouldn't work, Wally and the Beav should have a great time this year kicking rocks on the way to school. Cmon, get serious. This is not some conspiracy. Do you really think if it was that easy and cheap to produce oil that the Chinese would pay $50/barrel??? NO WAY. They are cheap. They would spend as much as possible at 2.99/barrel to produce their own. I would bet money that they have already tried and come up empty! That is why they are now an importing country vs being an exporting country, like they were a decade ago.

Don't you think the Chinese would control oil prices if they could?? They control prices in many parts of their economy. If oil was so EASY to find that it only COSTS $2/barrel, then why don't more countries just mandate their STATE OWNED enterprises find it and charge $3??

BECAUSE IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO DO!!!

Check the foreign drillers. They all have Production Sharing Agreements with state owned enterprises charged with increasing national production for their countries. Most of these countries have brought in private enterprise because their state owned companies have declining production and they have ruined their oil resources by overpumping or poor application of current technology.

The oil industry is no different than any other big business. Yes, there are examples of price gouging but overall it is becoming a very difficult business and the chances of success are not increasing. The cost of finding another North Slope have gone thru the roof. Put "Deep Gulf of Mexico drilling costs" into google and check out how much Shell or Exxon is risking every time they start a new Deep Gulf project.

Check out how much a barrel of Coca Cola has gone up in the last 70 years. That would be 42 gallons of Coca Cola. Let's be generous and say you were a smart consumer and bought it in 2 liter bottles. 42 gallons=approx 84 2 liter bottles. Each 2 litter bottle costs 1.50? That's $126/barrel for Coca Cola. What do you think it costs them to make it???

Do they have to drill 15,000ft into the Deep Gulf to try to find it? Do you think the cost of making Coke has gone up or down with mechanization in the last 70 years???

Let's look at Starbucks coffee and talk about price gouging.

Do we need Pop or Coffee to survive on the planet??? NO!

Blaming oil companies for price gouging is ridiculous in my opinion. We are energy pigs. We are using up a finite resource and want "someone else" to find it, keep supplying it at a fixed low cost and be happy with whatever we think is a fair price for it. We are energy junkies!!!

Now that the resource is getting harder to find and maybe, heaven forbid, we may start running out, we want to go back to the "good old days" and not pay for it.

Do you believe for one second that if the price wasn't $50/barrel that the American consumer would change their consumption habits??? NO! They would use ten times as much if oil was $3/barrel, even if you told them they were using the last drops!! Price increases are the only way that Americans will "start" to conserve. It's the only language they understand. We don't get it. So you have to hit them in the face with a price increase. Maybe if Oprah starts talking about it, some will start to conserve. Until then, there isn't much hope. Bobwins