I received this email today and thought I would post it on a few message boards for comments. I asked ‘Jack’ if that would be OK and he said to “Please Do.” So here it is and he would be interested in your comments/opinions which I’ll pass along to him.
Jack says:
Yesterday I filled my truck for $1.89 per gallon. Last September I was paying $3.06 per gallon. In January of 2005 I was paying $1.58 per gallon. As of today light sweet crude futures, (NYMX), were showing $51.99 per barrel for February of 2007 and $59.59 per barrel for January of 2009, two years in the future. All in all, oil prices have decreased 15% in this year. And all in all, futures have fallen since repairs were affected for the damages of Katrina and Rita.
Wow! What’s wrong with this picture? I think I had read last year this time that Boone Pickens and many other knowledgeable oil men/analysts were predicting $70.00 per barrel by this time. I know that I read and heard on CNN, ABC, CBS and NBC that the oil companies were really going to rape us now. I am almost sure that I heard that big oil was going to take advantage of every little blip, (gun shot) in the Middle East, every rain storm in the Gulf, to raise crude and natural gas prices and stick it to us. I am also fairly certain that I heard that Bush/Cheney had pulled prices down through their buddies in the industry for the election and that they would go straight back up after the election, win loose or draw. Hummmm! Something is wrong here. None of this can be right.
Let’s look at the facts. Bush and his father were oil men. Right? We can forget that “W” lost his butt in the business. He still has crude stains under his finger nails. Cheney was CEO of Halliburton and is still taking obscene profits from big oil and helping his buddies in the industry. Right? We can forget that per my contacts inside Halliburton management and industry analysts, Dick Cheney was the worst CEO in the history of Halliburton. Further, he has no present association with it, by law cannot have and Halliburton people could not wait to see him gone. I’m sure that this is all disinformation.
But something is still amiss. Oil prices simply cannot be going down. Not even a little bit. It is impossible. Too many people, in the know, have said the Bush/Cheney, Republican, war monger, ultra right, crooked oil men were going to bring this hydrocarbon dependent world to it’s knees! The fact that energy, crude oil in particular, is a world commodity and most likely cannot be controlled by any one country, or any one small group of people, cannot be playing any part in the drop in crude oil prices.
It is unlikely that lower taxes and tax credits for reinvestment to the oil companies for the last six years has generated a refinery upgrade boom, a gas field exploration and building boom, a quiet hurricane season, (which Bush/Cheney did not cause any more than they caused Katrina & Rita), has had any bearing on energy prices falling with the resulting production and increased refining capacities. That would be just ridiculous.
No, the price of energy and gasoline is going to go back up and very soon. I just figured out how and why. Hey, it was so simple that I kept over looking it. It has been on the news and in the papers all week. I guess I just didn’t turn to the right page and over looked it. It’s great! Well, it’s great for the majority of the Bush/Cheney haters. Well, it will be great news for the present administration haters if they can keep the blame for next spike in high energy prices focused on the President and his administration. It goes like this; In the first 100 hours of the new Democratic Congress, Pelosi, Dean, Kennedy, et al. have already introduced legislation to roll back tax credits and delayed tax payments by the oil companies. In addition they are introducing further legislation to increase taxes and tariffs on energy products. That will do it! Guaranteed increases in gasoline, fuel oil and natural gas prices! It will shut down the refinery upgrade projects. It will kill the gas exploration boom. It will make the Alberta oil sands projects unprofitable. It will stop oil company drilling in the deep water fields. It is so simple even Al Gore can understand it! The only thing that is required to make sure the present administration gets the blame, is for NY Times and the main stream press to keep lying through their teeth to the American people who cannot possibly understand something as complex as the energy industry. Should be a piece of cake!
Enjoy your $3.50 to $4.00 per gallon gasoline. You can bet you’re a _ _, the last people that gave a crap about the cost of energy and knew how to keep it down are just about finished with their terms in office!
An oil industry worker,
Jack