Re: Gas prices rises 10 cents a gallon over 2 weeks

On Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:19:07 -0700, Robert Sturgeon
<rsturge@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:15:12 +0000 (UTC),
radicalmoderate@xxxxxxxxx (RadicalModerate) wrote:

Bob Brock <bbrock@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
poster who told us that oil could be gotten from coal for much less
than $100/barrel.

Odd, none of them seem to be mentioning it these days.

Indeed MS NBC not too long ago ran a story about how the governor of
Montana (a likely "Blue Dog Democrat") wanted to get some coal-to-oil
plants going using Montana coal.

Problem I see with the synfuels is the difference between what it costs
to produce a barrel of oil (in the Persian Gulf region probably less than
$5/bbl) vs. manufacture it from coal (probably $20/bbl).

The private capital markets aren't going to risk multi-gigabuck
investments in synfuel plants due to risk that if these are built the
petroleum cartel will simply lower prices below what it takes for these
plants to be profitable.

OPEC doesn't control the price of oil. They can't just
lower it any time they want to. ANY production facility
that has a cost of production significantly higher than the
cost of the lowest cost producers is a risk. It is up to
the investors to decide whether the risk is worth taking or
not. The costs you mention above seem to be enough lower
than the market price of oil that investors would be willing
to go forward. But if not -- not.

And if the oil producers decide to lower the price of crude to put
them out of business, so be it. We would not have oil monopolies if
we had not allowed them to do it. We have been here before.
Capitalism doesn't have a conscience does it?

Let them starve all year round, walk to work, and freeze in the winter
as long as ROI is maximized.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: UNITE! Info #221en: 1/2 Gold was right: Plenty of oil
    ... Wells drilled to such depths cost some ... the oil will just surge up to ... As for production costs, I first of all must admit ...
    (sci.energy)
  • Re: linear programming problem
    ... and then schedule the production for the ... inventory models available); and, of course, you also need somewhere ... Altogether, the cost of inventory, I, may ... between the products and possibly even between production plants. ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: Using nuclear power to make renewables and a hydrogen economy cost effective
    ... > current vegetable oil production would replace. ... > Unless you figure we're going to strike vegetable oil wells. ... >>There is plenty of shit for fertiliser and since the plants are not being ... >>producing desalination units to ensure water supplies in SoCal so making ...
    (sci.energy.hydrogen)
  • Re: Using nuclear power to make renewables and a hydrogen economy cost effective
    ... > current vegetable oil production would replace. ... > Unless you figure we're going to strike vegetable oil wells. ... >>There is plenty of shit for fertiliser and since the plants are not being ... >>producing desalination units to ensure water supplies in SoCal so making ...
    (sci.energy)
  • Re: Fischer-Tropsch News Item
    ... :*marginal cost of production* of the Saudis and the Kuwaitis ... I presume that if the Saudis were losing money on every barrel of oil ... even if the plant itself never produced a drop of fuel. ...
    (sci.space.policy)
Loading