I love it

[Commercialfarmer]

Low cost of fuel is a good thing for the country.

I take offense to all the cussing of an industry that has bettered our lives and kept our depression from being worse. I really don't think people understand what it's done for the country.

It's the industry being cussed that caused the drop in oil prices by making more oil available, not only more oil but a consistent supply. That's actually done more for national security than anything .gov has done in the past 6 years.

Reduced fuel cost... I think it's good. Saudi trying to run out American start ups.... not so much. But they won't last as long as many think they will. Too much government dependence. They can drill cheap, but they have too many dependents to support.

Those in favor of sticking it to the energy explorers, you should be happy with the Methane (Natural gas) regulations that the EPA is about to enforce. When the cost of fuel starts climbing, just remember that those evil oil men are getting it in the shorts before it was passed along to you.

 

[highgrit]

If somehow we could get a referendum on the next presidential election to abolish the EPA. The oil barrons would still be making a killing and the price of fuel would be reasonable to the peasants. But the oil folks with the money are scared to stir the pot. Even though they know if the conservatives ran the country it would benefit the oil and gas companies and us. There's just to much money in gas and oil the way it is for them to want a change.

 

[M5farm]

I am not cussing the oil industry and I know that the low prices are a derivative of our production. I have always said energy is our way to rebuild this country. the result of drilling is excess oil. The oil boom will continue and the companies will still see profits but it can not be lopsided every segment of our society depend on fuel. A lot of the oil workers in the last 3 years came from other aspects of the economy because high oil cause other businesses to cut back and lay people off those people just moved or transitioned into other jobs. you will see a rebuilding of jobs in other facets of industry and the oil demand will become greater as these businesses rebuild and strengthen the economy because of lower cost.

 

[Anonymous]

Oil companies cost me a fortune every year in lost fishing gear. Shrimp are sea bottom creatures. I trawl the bottom from 3 fathom to 300 fathom. Literally thousands of miles of used AND UNUSED pipelines are laying on the bottom of the Gulf. Many can be trawled across, till a spell of bad weather and current uncovers a valve or hold down and WHAM! Hang up tight or walk right out of a $5000 net(we pull 4 nets). Or the trawl door which spreads the net jams under the pipeline, then may loose a whole side, nets, trawl doors, ss cable and tickler chain($40,000 per side). We can't trawl an hour without crossing pipes. Many unused abandoned rigs dot the Gulf. Louisiana Conservation is compounding the problem by making artificial reefs from these abandoned rigs. Moving them from where they stand and dumping on good trawling bottom. So I cant trawl across the new fish haven or the rig site because it's littered with debris. If I throw a green bean can overboard, I get fined. Now the waste: Good friend told me he burned 8000 gallons of diesel on a oil supply boat bringing a 5 gallons of ice cream to deep water oil rig for a party. Another captain told me that every morning he had to make a 2 hour run to pick up a morning paper for the chief on the rig. That supply boat burns 300 gallon per hour. All that being said, I need diesel to trawl. Oil company has to pump oil and be profitable pumping it. But... I cant feel not one little bit sorry that fuel is coming down.

 

[greybeard]

I wonder what percentage of the population in total are affected by closing of an oil rig. .0005 maybe? And of that number how many actually lose the job instead of transferring. I know it must be tough for those that do get shut down but most likely they get transferred to another operation or rig.

Butcher the baker and the candlestick maker.
The rigs each already have a full crew--no where for the laid off roughnecks to go. I've been thru a couple of these "busts" before. It ain't pretty. A good analogy is a bad drought in the agriculture sector, and most of us here have seen what that does.

Most of the jobs and lost revenue will be in the upstream sector--exploration, drilling, crude oil/gas production. The drilling contractors themselves, the people that make and sell products associated with them include OCTG (drilll and production pipe) companies that service the drilling sector, the list is just too long to list, tho in the bigger scheme of 350 million US population, it may be considered small, tho no smaller than any other major sector--Auto makers-airlines/transportation/tourism.


Some will be lost in the midstream--pipelines that move oil from new fields to refiners--welders, heavy equipment operators, surveyors--some tubular goods orders will be cancelled..
Every state, that gets either tax revenue from produced oil or royalties from produced oil will lose $. Some states of course more than others.
The big refiners in downstream energy will lose some $$ but not as much as one might think--for a couple of reasons.
Most refiners do not produce enough oil on their own to meed their feedstock needs--they buy a lot from companies that produce it, sell it, and trade it. With crude benchmarks low, the refiners can buy oil cheaper than when the benchmark is high. Where the big companies like Exxon lose $ is on the upstream end--selling their excess oil. There's more profit--a LOT more--in selling crude oil than in selling refined energy (gasoline/diesel) .
They won't lose as much $$ on refined products as one might imagine, because when gasoline is cheap, consumers buy more, and since it costs the same to refine it no matter what, the increased volume of sales partly offsets the loss of higher at-the-pump price--which is set by the daily rack price --not by the gasoline refiner. An analogy for this is selling a steer at a less price/lb but at a higher weight.

Then of course, are those who hold energy stocks in their portfolio--most mutual funds have an energy stock or 2 in their core basket.
I'll see some loss in my XOM investment, but I too have to buy gas and diesel every week. I do like the low price at the pump, but I know in the long run, it's hurting me. It's also hurting all those millions of people that have investment in their invested retirement funds. Rate of growth slows down, and in some cases, reverses itself. Dividends may drop or the company may not even declare a dividend, tho I don't see XOM not ever declaring a dividend--but the smaller companies could easily go that route,

 

[john250]

I'm selfish. Happy to admit. I didn't denigrate oil business when gas was $4.00, but I'm loving gas at $1.75.

 

[Bigfoot]

I've got a theory, it might sound silly, but it makes sense to me.-----------If we were all doing good, we'd all be doing better. Unfortunately, it has been years and years, since we were at that point in our country. Our economy has gotten to be such, that for somebody to prosper, it has to be at the expense of someone else. Between importing everything, (including laborers) and exporting jobs, we may never be able to get back to that point.