Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Distraction - The rising cost of crude oil is wonderful

Right now, this very moment, light sweet crude has a spot price of...$43.33 per barrel. That's down from a recent high of over $54.00 per barrel, and it is only a temporary dip. Due to the downward pressure on the dollar against many other currencies, but more importantly commodities, oil will become more expensive. It will be a long, steady climb upwards, punctuated with significant spikes and smaller corrective dips. And it will never traverse $40.00 again. That's my prediction. Let's see how good I am at seeing into the future, eh?

Frankly, I want oil to get expensive. Really expensive. I want it to go to $50, $75, $150, $200 per barrel. I want insurgents to blow up those pipelines, and I want lines around the block at gas stations. Why? One simple reason: I want the market to replace oil as a means of energy storage and power generation, and the only way that is going to happen is to make it too damned expensive to burn.

I want it to go the way of slavery, nazism, and the Clinton presidency. I want it to ooze into history as yet another example of false economy, which it most certainly is. It has served its purpose. It served America well for all of the last 100 years or so. Let the damn stuff retire already. We've hit peak production during this decade. It is now becomming more scarce and more expensive to extract. And there are no new petrochemical molecules being built.

Excellent.

It's time to let a new idea, a new business (or range of businesses), arise from the ashes of burning oil.
I hope the decentralization of power generation and consumption exceeds the stunning dash we see in computing. Fire up the Krell reactors even, and think good thoughts.

I want the cultures and nations currently being fed by it to dwindle, starve, and die off like the flesh-eating, egg-ejecting-while squatting dinosaurs they are. I wait breathlessly for the inevitable rise of the fuel cell, ever more efficient batteries and solar generators, and the economic viability of riding my horse to the 7-11 to get groceries.

Hell, internal combustion works with LPG, vegetable oil, and even vodka, so it's not like we'll do without motocycles or cars. They'll just burn different stuff. Or not burn stuff at all.

Screw oil.

End Transmission.

3 Comments:

Blogger Dick Freely said...

Mike:
1) China is buying up all the oil that Canada (and Russia) will sell it, including a good percentage of the Eugene Island finds. Tanker capacity is now at 100%,and single hull tankers are going to be forcibly scrapped, decreasing shipping capacity by at least 13% for the next few years.

2) Part of the the recent slide was due to statements about opening the strategic petroleum reserve spigotts, part was due to ignoring Saudi statements about cutting production (which they now have, apparently).

3. Due to amazing levels of debt, and amuzingly late but universal recognition by virutally all of the media, all at once, the dollar slid. It may indeed rally in the short term. It cannot, however hover in mid air. There are wires, and they will break, and when they do, oil like all other imported goods, will appreciated significantly. I agree, the Euro is over-valued. I am shorting it myself, right now.

4. Global warming may be a fact - it just has nothing to do with oil. Happens all the time. Always will. Cycles, super-cylces, and grand super-cycles. I am all in favour of modifying the weather. I like it warm. We just don't have the capability.

10:04 PM  
Blogger Dick Freely said...

...and less than 24 hours later, light crude is up about 200 pips, and the Euro is down about 100.

So shut up.

9:33 AM  
Blogger bosh said...

Top rant newbie. Got to you via the fatkid [Mike]. I'll be back.....

11:53 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home