Why OPEC is finished

What will happen to the Middle East now that they no longer have the whip hand with oil?

Fracking technology (and a more-or-less free market) means any decrease in OPEC production means a cost cycle that will drive more US production. There's more here at the PowerLine blog.

Record Exports!

This is what happens when you let the free market do its work. Follow this link to see that the United States is now setting records for the export of oil. Not the import; the export.

If you're old enough to remember the 70s (and, unfortunately, I am) you may remember when exporting oil was made illegal. In 2015 exporting was legalized when no one outside the industry as paying attention. Now we produce so much we can export it.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. If you want to prevent wars in the Mideast, then make the value of oil lower and lower and lower. Drill baby drill.

How Boring Can One Guy Be?

I'm about to answer my own question: pretty boring and I'm the proof. This post is not about Donald Trump but it is about an action he recently took.

By now you're aware of the Carrier incident when Trump intervened in a planned plant movement from Indiana to Mexico. I won't add much to that because you'll have your own opinion.

One thing I do want to say though is that I'll be keeping an eye on this. If you've read any of my posts you know I'm a free market guy, through and through. Trump performed a direct intersession into the market. Is this good or bad? I don't know yet. Though I'm sure the new president will be giving us many such moments in the future.

Stand by for fun!

Where Is It?

I found this only recently but I wish I had years ago. Here are the oil deposits in the United States. It makes a nice mental reference.

Now He's Just Piling On!

The Permian Basin keeps on giving. Pioneer Natural Resources has found the largest shale oil deposit ever. It's bigger than the Bakken in North Dakota. It's bigger than the biggest oil field in Saudi Arabia.

I said it before, I'll say it again, and I'll tell the doubters that I told you so. If you want to end wars in the Middle East then the answer is to drill-baby-drill here in the USA.

God bless the frackers.

We Won!

... and few people seem to know it. (Few people outside of the financial markets and the oil industry, that is.)

There's a nice write-up of the story at NationalReview.com at the link.

Within my memory, the tragedy that is Syria today would have sent the per barrel price of oil through the roof. Iran's machinations would have us aggressively patrolling the Straights of Hormuz. Russia's aims at Ukraine would have Europe in a panic at the threat to Russian oil supplies.

But what's in our news today? Kim Kardashian.

Like I said, we win!

Peak Oil!

And, yes, the headline is sarcastic. Here's a clip from the LA Times this morning regarding the finding that the United States now has larger oil reserves than Saudi Arabia. The ol' USofA has 264 billion (with a B) barrels of proven reserves while Saudi Arabia has 52 billion fewer barrels.

So first, I'd like to thank everyone involved in the fracking revolution. Second, the next time someone talks about Peak Oil, the least they get from me is a snear.

Now, if we can only get nuclear energy going again ...