$59.37 per barrel

John:

Unfortunately, most people still worry a lot more about how they "look" in their house or car, than how efficient they can be.

As an example, if I drive from Winnipeg to one of my favorite fishing holes just north of Dryden, Ontario, it costs around $15 one way. That's with a litre of regular unleaded at 92 cents. That's around $3.48 a U.S. gallon, in Canadian funds, or $2.81 in U.S. funds according to the Yahoo currency converter.

If I decide to go to a different fishing hole, the Prius can't make it due to the road conditions (Gravel, steep hills, etc). If I go with a coworker in his 2004 Lincoln Navigator, it costs $60 one way.

When oil prices really start to spike, making $60 a barrel seem cheap, we're going to see the true effects on our economy, our "lifestyle," and our jobs. Not a pretty picture, is it??

Jay

 

Yup. That's primarily why I off-loaded my sweet gas guzzling F-150... Awesome truck, but when you start blowing $3-400 a month on gas alone, you start to wonder exactly why. Plus, I suspected it was only going to get worse.

Thing that gets me though, if gas starts getting way out of hand, I'm talking like $4 or $5 for 87, the SUV market is going to get nailed. People can only take so much, it's just a matter of time before even the most vain SUVian starts to wonder why they're spending $600+ a month on gas and seeks to get rid of their hog. It ain't gonna be pretty, and I really hope I don't have to carry a gun in my Prius because of roving gangs stealing gas! lol...

I wonder if I'll be able to pick up an Escalade Pick Up truck for $15K one year used with 10,000 miles on the clock... lol

IMO, let's just burn all the gas/oil, the quicker we run out, the quicker we'll develop alternative energies... :mrgreen:

 

If we don't start developing the alternatives now, while we still have oil, alternative energy will be pointless. Without some energy to work with you cannot create the new stuff we're going to need.

It's always interesting to hear alternative energy critics saying that its not cost effective to use solar, or biodeisel, or whatever.

OK, and when oils is $100, or $200 a barrel and those alternative ARE very cost effective if not vital to US survival, how much will it cost to build them then? If they cost $X now, the cost to build them when oil is $100 a barrel will be twice that, or 4 times the cost if oils is at 200. And that's assuming we even have access to enough oil to do it at all. It takes energy to produce solar panels, windfarms, biodeiesel plants, etc.

I don't care if it cost twice as much for renewable electricity or for biodeisel. Without some planning ahead, we are all just lemmings running off a cliff.

 

While it is understandable that we spend a lot of time congratulating ourselves on our wisdom and prescience in buying a Prius, why don't we also consider driving less regardless of what kind of vehicle we drive. While I am glad my neighbor down the street drives an Insight for most commutes, I wonder why he needs to live 35 miles from work. I fear that better gas mileage will just encourage people to live farther from work, thus canceling out the savings incurred from increased gas mileage.

In the final analysis, it's about the oil, isn't it. It's not about your gas mileage, it's about the amount of oil you end up consuming.

 

It goes beyond driving Prii and driving less in general. The important thing to do is set up mass transit NOW, and to promote organic farming (as oil based fertilizer will become prohibitively expensive and/or unavailable), as well as promoting alternative fuels for tractors, and semi trucks to transport the food. These are the crux of our society and to fail to prepare a plan B for these important industries will be a death sentence for the society. Yet agriculture is still stuck in the mode of consolidation and huge million dollar tractors, spraying huge amounts of oils based fertilizers and herbicides. Cities are still planning huge road building projects for a future that will support far fewer cars on the road. Mass transit projects are criticized as not cost effective (rather than understood to be needed for national security reasons).
Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead towards that cliff! Wave that flag!
After all "The American way of life is non-negotiable" -Dick Cheney

 

Interesting. When the price of a barrel of oil creeps a little higher than this, the oil companies will soon be able to make a profit from extracting the tar sands and oil shales (not sure exactly, but somewhere around $70 per barrel it becomes viable?).

Years ago all the big oil companies engaged in highly ethically dubious negotiations with corrupt rulers (typically of African states) specifically to buy up the rights to oil-shales and tar-sands. Many were offered safe haven abroad from revolutions etc and large cash sums. They realised that when oil eventually hit very high per barrel prices, having the rights to these resources would be great assets. Seems that investment may be about to pay off.

 

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John:

That's why I have no sympathy whatsoever - indeed a lot of contempt - for DC, Ford, and *especially* GM when they piss and moan about all their problems.

What really irks me is that the Big Three received a lot of federal taxpayer dollars in the 90's to develop fuel efficient cars, and they apparently blew the wad in Vegas. At least we don't see any obvious result from it.

So GM is upset because all those 4-door pickup trucks and SUV's are sitting on the lot? Tough, deal with it.

Jay

 

More Cheney quotes:
"No country ever conserved it's way to greatness"
(implying, I guess, that you can consume your way to greatness)
"If you drive a hybrid or have solar panels on your roof, you probably ought to vote for someone else"

 

lol

had to bring this thread back...just could not resist. less than 3 years and oil has nearly doubled in price.... who would have thought?

PS... alberta tar sands are booming right now

 

This is great! I mean, not rising oil prices per se, but that you were able to dig up this three year-old thread lamenting oil at just under $60/barrel. And that was a shock compared to prices in the $30s/barrel a year earlier. I have no doubt we'll be looking at $200/barrel (and $5+/gallon) in another 2 - 3 years max.

 

200$ a barrel might be possible, but I feel 140-150. in 2-3 years, who know's after the elections what will happen, might go back down to 60 bucks for all we know. Most of this deals with the stock market though, so.

anyway gas was 110.54 bucks today..peaked out at 112 over the week..120$ is real this summer+ 4.25 a gallon..

would hate to be EU or aus right now!

 

Last year I was offered a job in Dubai, fixing their military's Boeing CH-47B helicopters. Unfortunately in the end I did not get the job. I remember looking for gas prices in Dubai on the internet, and found this blog of a couple living there, saying gas prices in Dubai in September 2006 were US$1.42 per US gallon:

Newlywed in Dubai: Gas Prices in Dubai

I just searched for that site again and surprisingly the price of gas there, as of March 2008, is exactly the same: US$ 1.42 per US gallon:

Newlywed in Dubai - Year 2: Gas Prices in Dubai

The author mentions that the prices for groceries and Starbucks coffee is rising in Dubai, showing an inflation, but the price of gas stays the same. I also remember seeing something on CNN that the oil price in Venezuela is close to US$0.12 per gallon... So while we in the developed world are paying a large premium for this commodity, oil rich nations enjoy much increased revenue and stable oil prices... Thanks goodness for the Prius and the renewed interest for alternative fuel sources!

 

The thing to remember is part of the reason for the price increase in USA is the cave in of the US dollar. The price of oil is always quoted in US dollars, as one of our european friends has pionted out, the value of the US dollar has actually gone down more than the price of a barrel of oil has gone up in US dollars so the actual price of a barrel of oil in euro is less now than it was a year or two ago.

The situation here is similar although not quite as pronounced. The value of an Aussie dollar was 78US cents in early 2007 but now an Aussie dollar is worth about 93US cents, an increase of 15 cents or an increase of almost 20% so we are not, or rather should not be feeling the increases as much as you would in the US. It is true that prices in Adelaide hit a record price of about $1.49.9/L which is an increase over this time last year of about 20 cents per litre or 15.4%. In the 12 months from April 2006 to 2007 the peak price of petrol in April actually fell from $1.39.9 to a peak of $1.25.5

 

I predict that oil will not drop below $100 ever again. I hope I'm wrong, but that's what my Spidey senses tell me.

At a light the other day a guy in a big black Hummer H2 pulled up next to me. He was talking on his cell-phone and in the same hand that held the phone was a wad of what appeared to be four or five $100 bills. I gathered that he was trying desperately to find a gas-station to fill up his beast.