The Oil Drum | Further to your comments on Gazprom

21 comments on Further to your comments on Gazprom

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

| Show without comments | PDF version

Valuethinker on October 23, 2006 - 5:57am

The belief seems to be that the nations of OPEC need the money that oil provides as badly as we need the oil.

Which is true. Look at the demographics of virtually any major oil producer.

The only exceptions would be the Gulf States (ex Saudi Arabia) and they are struggling to build a 'post oil' infrastructure eg Dubai, Abu Dhabi as their native supplies deplete. True even of Kuwait.

Iran, (Iraq), KSA, Nigeria, Venezuela all have high birth rates, high percentages of the population under 21, massive unemployment. They have no choice but to pump oil.
Russia runs the central government on oil revenues, so does Alberta and Norway.

This is also true for most of the minor oil producers.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

mjacobspaj on October 23, 2006 - 5:57pm

Funny, I seem to remember a whole bunch of cattle and canola in Alberta from the last time I was there. The last I heard the oil companies are paying almost nothing in taxes. I think the royalty on tar sands oil is 1% until they've paid for the cost of building the extraction plants.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

Nagorak on October 29, 2006 - 5:53am

It's true that they cannot stop selling oil, but I disagree with the market's disregard for the OPEC production cuts. It doesn't take a genius to realize that it's better to sell less oil for a higher price than more oil for a lower price. In other words, their need for money is not a good argument that they cannot cut back on production, since if it's done right the end result should be the same revenue for less oil.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

21 comments on Further to your comments on Gazprom

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

| Show without comments | PDF version

Search The Oil Drum with Google

Support The Oil Drum

Click the button to learn about supporting The Oil Drum with a secure donation.

Peak Oil Primers

Beware email scams!

Beware email scams claiming to be from this site. We do not have any job openings. If anyone contacts you about a job at The Oil Drum, do not reply to them, and definitely do not give them any personal information or send them money. Read more here.

“Any coward can fight a battle when he's sure of winning, but give me the man who has pluck to fight when he's sure of losing. That's my way, sir; and there are many victories worse than a defeat.”

—George Eliot