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Oil...

I'm just asking questions. People (not saying you guys) often act like high gas prices stopped them from enjoying life and that low prices, mean they can do as the please. I find it funny because from what I observed, life carried on pretty much as normal for the majority of folks when prices were high.
 
You can look at AAA numbers to verify as they track it. When gas prices are down, people are on the road more. If your on the road, your spending money.

I know this...We have a budget, and the extra that we would have spent on gas has been moved to other "stuff". Not savings. But it does help us stay on the saving plan.

If you are lower income the relief at the pumps will be spent elsewhere being check to check.

It will bounce back but the oil industry will never be a steady one. Too many uncontrollable entities have control of it.
 
I just got back from Florida, drove 2700 miles, used 102 gallons of gas, average price about $1.65 a gallon. Cheap gas influenced the decision to drive instead of flying.

While I'll admit my lower heating and gas and diesel fuel bills are nice I realize that if this stays this way there's big trouble coming. Obumer's economic recovery has been week, commodities have been one of the few bright spots. Farm products, energy and metals have all been good (Chinese demand was a big part of that) They are all down now with not much hope in the near future for recovery.

Went to a machine shop auction 2 weeks ago. They did work for the pipe mill in Ytown. Pipe mill is down, lots laid off, so he machine shop closed, more laid off. That pipe mill had just spent about 1billion on expansion 4-5 years ago. Not sure if that debt is getting paid. So it's easy to see how this can go very deep into a local economy.
 
part of this issue is our government leadership. with Ohio having so much easy access to natural gas, there is no reason for every home in ohio doesn't have a tap for natural gas. now is when you invest in those projects to help bring the cost up. Ohio should be a leader in getting transmission lines into the ground now.
 
The deeper trouble here in my mind is US oil doesn't have the money to buy US oil. Meaning in the past when a US oil company went under, another US oil company bought it. That's not the case this time around. So who will buy up these failing companies? China. Saudi. Russia. etc. If this down turn lasts as long as they are predicting, all of the US wealth acquired and created during the boom, will be going overseas. It's going to weaken our economy in more ways than one.
 
bowhunter1023 said:
I'm just asking questions. People (not saying you guys) often act like high gas prices stopped them from enjoying life and that low prices, mean they can do as the please. I find it funny because from what I observed, life carried on pretty much as normal for the majority of folks when prices were high.
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Subtle changes.

Personal changes- We travel less. We drive our most fuel efficient vehicle. Food costs are up because it cost more to harvest and transport. We grew a bigger garden. We didn't eat out as much. Impulse purchases were down because we were not out as much. There are a fuel differences.

Business changes- These are bigger fluctuations in dollars. When it is time to give a raise, we stretch it as far as possible. A 50 cent raise might only become a 25 cent raise. We limited overtime. As in ZERO. If you are going to be over, you better get it authorized before going over your hours. These changes affect my business but also the pockets of my employees. On a bigger picture, we put off purchases of newer (less fuel efficient) vehicles. I have yet to buy a Tier 2/3/4 diesel. They have less power and consume more fuel. Some of the budgets we can live without (or with less) were cut. Advertising was the first to get reduced substantially.

These are a few examples. Keep in mind, EACH of these adjustments on our part benefit another industry. Lots more gardens put in by people I know. More people raising chickens. Local feed/seed shops seem to have done quite well in the last 5yrs. I turned off our natural gas and burn firewood exclusively. We updated our wood boiler. Wood stove industries have done well. On the business side, it seems like local mom and pop shops have done better. People are keeping vehicles longer thus increasing repair shop revenue and auto part stores.

Every shift in the economy affects another. I still say we are all tied in this together. I am still on your side though Jesse. Long term I see this as a negative. We need the jobs. We need the money spent in local communities. You are just now seeing it. My relatives in SE Kentucky have been reeling for longer because the coal industry took it in the coal bucket before the gas/oil industry did. This energy crap from obama has stifled many industries. The money it has created (wind/solar) has been a joke. Our business managed to pick up a 25 acre solar farm to maintain the lawn. That was a plus. As I have learned a little about the solar industry, I don't see it being the answer. Good for some, but as a whole I don't see it ever replacing fossil fuels. The only way it survives is the tax credits it sells to larger corporations. That isn't a sustainable business plan. The tax credits may not be there forever. What is a tax credit anyway? Simple. Govt tax break. Solar industries receive more than they could ever use. Why? They don't make enough profit to use all the tax credits. In turn, they sell them to industries who need the tax credits. It is a govt racket. It is a high end game of tax chess. What it does NOT do is create jobs and long term consumption of products such as gas lines, boring rigs, supplies for the exploration and transportation of fossil fuels. It does not create spending in local communities at the gas stations, carry outs, hotels, restaurants, etc. The oil/gas industry does spend this money. It creates a boom cycle for these areas. We need to turn this bus around. It is going the wrong direction.
 
bowhunter1023 said:
The deeper trouble here in my mind is US oil doesn't have the money to buy US oil. Meaning in the past when a US oil company went under, another US oil company bought it. That's not the case this time around. So who will buy up these failing companies? China. Saudi. Russia. etc. If this down turn lasts as long as they are predicting, all of the US wealth acquired and created during the boom, will be going overseas. It's going to weaken our economy in more ways than one.
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If I had to bet it would be China. They are already trying to purchase the Chicago stock exchange.
 
Beentown said:
The thing is that their entire economy is fake, not real. It has been slowly leaked but no one wants to deal with that, like everything else.
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I would say China is like the poor farmer. They have no money because it's all tied up but could quickly be liquidated if the need arose. How much you think I nuke would fetch on the black market to some radical group in the middle east? Lol. Plus, the fact the US owes a debt to them as does a few other places. All they have to do is call in to collect it all at once.
 
They ALL "owe" us. We would just never call them on it.

If it gets that far one of you fuggars are going to shoot me for extra ammo/supplies.
 
RedCloud said:
I would say China is like the poor farmer. They have no money because it's all tied up but could quickly be liquidated if the need arose. How much you think I nuke would fetch on the black market to some radical group in the middle east? Lol. Plus, the fact the US owes a debt to them as does a few other places. All they have to do is call in to collect it all at once.
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File chapter 11 and move from that point....
 
I've seen several adaptations of that post going around lately. Not all of us in the patch were on the rig. Took guys like me on the tip of the spear to create a place for that rig. From the rock hounds, to the landmen, to the construction groups, to the pipeliners, to the rig hands and service companies, times are rough and getting worse. Tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people are going to be out of work in 2016 because of the down turn. I'm fortunate to have a degree that's general enough to open doors, and experience that fits the degree. However I feel sorry for the thousands of mid to late 20's men that went from HS to the patch and now have nothing. Other than jacked up trucks and side by sides of course. There's a ton of people out there with no "real" experience that will be very difficult to parlay in to a decent job.
 
bowhunter1023 said:
I've seen several adaptations of that post going around lately. Not all of us in the patch were on the rig. Took guys like me on the tip of the spear to create a place for that rig. From the rock hounds, to the landmen, to the construction groups, to the pipeliners, to the rig hands and service companies, times are rough and getting worse. Tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people are going to be out of work in 2016 because of the down turn. I'm fortunate to have a degree that's general enough to open doors, and experience that fits the degree. However I feel sorry for the thousands of mid to late 20's men that went from HS to the patch and now have nothing. Other than jacked up trucks and side by sides of course. There's a ton of people out there with no "real" experience that will be very difficult to parlay in to a decent job.
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A land man is like the best man at a bachelor party,, we buy it so someone else can lay it.. LOL
 
I feel bad for those that have been laid off or lost their jobs completely... I do. It sucks. Flat out, no two ways about it, fuggin sucks. But this is the way the world works sometimes. Certain industries go through an ebb and flow... Sometimes business is booming, other times not so much. The mineral resources field isn't the only career path that's ever taken a shitty turn in the US. Right now fuel prices are low and that can spark other businesses to flourish. I know that I'm more likely to dump extra money into the economy now that I'm saving a couple hundo a month in fuel costs. It's just the way it goes. To say that we'd ALL be better off by going back to $3 a gallon gas doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Better for the oil/gas folks... Sure. Better for everyone... Boy I don't know about that. What did you all do 10-12 years ago, before fuel prices skyrocketed?
 
I had just managed to bail from one floundering ship (housing market dependent retail) on to the ship that sinking now...

$2.75 gas means what, $50-100 more a month for someone who fills up 2-4 times a month. To me, that's certainly a "better for everyone" scenario as that price at pump means rigs are still turning to the right and thousands are still employed.
 
bowhunter1023 said:
I had just managed to bail from one floundering ship (housing market dependent retail) on to the ship that sinking now...

$2.75 gas means what, $50-100 more a month for someone who fills up 2-4 times a month. To me, that's certainly a "better for everyone" scenario as that price at pump means rigs are still turning to the right and thousands are still employed.
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How can you say that man? Me personally, yea I can handle an additional $100 a month in expenses no problem... But what about everyone else? There are a lot of people out there living paycheck to paycheck. Millions of people incurring an extra $100 per month in expenses, to put thousands of people back to work... How do you know that is the better for everyone scenario? While there are thousands without a job now, there are potentially millions breathing a sigh of relief as their total monthly expenses have been reduced. Sure, most may just buy extra booze or cigs with that money, but that's another issue altogether.
 
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