Oil

[j.sabourn]

Today people are far better educated than what they were 50 years ago, a lot have inquisitive minds and can think for themselves and make their own conclusions. Especially when it comes to the costing of world wide consumable products. Yet it is rare if ever you see a layed out progress report on oil prices , at most it. Just gets put down to market prices of Singapore or elsewhere. Consider the cost of producing petroleum from offshore sources alone. When I worked in the North Sea the average cost of an oil rig was 100,000 pounds a day for hire only, and this was after the costing of seismic surveying of the area. The costing of the structural materials followed on successful hitting the jackpot. Production of petroleum then went through the lengthy process of getting ashore and processing. All costing massive amounts of men materials and Money.
Consider Mid East oil a pipe is drilled into the desert and voila .... oil. At pennies compared to thousands of pounds elsewhere.
Yet the price of oil for your car from wherever it was found is the same at the petrol pump.
The control of that price when you try to find out who has control of , is jockeyed around from the various governments to various oil cartels.
However there is one outstanding fact that cannot be hidden and that is the West is reliant on mid eastern oil as regarding prices not going through the roof.
An alternative to oil will be very beneficial to the man in the street, not so beneficial to the big oil majors.
Personally I think the French working man is beginning to see the subterfuge built up around the prices of diesel oil and doesn’t take kindly to be taken as a fool. JS

[Louis the fly]

The costs to UK motorists and other users is not the price of the actual petrol or diesel but the tax the government levies on it.

[j.sabourn]

I think that’s a very broad outline of a view to take Louis . There is a bit more to it than that. Starting from when it comes out of the well be it desert or bottom of the sea bed. Depending on the type of oil be it heavy or light, the heavy nearly all your lighter oils are refined from, so would imagine is more expensive. Different parts of the world produce different grades. So the refinery’s play a big part in the finished cost per litre as regards the running of your auto cycle. Or if a smoker filling up your zippo. Cheers JS...

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi John.
As long as they keep the freeze on Venezuelan oil the price will stay high. I remember when taxi companies used to import their own from Singapore, that didn't last long.
Cheers Des

[j.sabourn]

That 3 months I spent on the kiwi coast running from the refinery in Whangerie and calling at all the ports as far as Bluff. The parcels of petrol were for all the different garages be they BP or Shell or put a tiger in your tank. Was all exactly the same petrol. So unless they dropped a magic pill into the garage filling tanks, that jingle , things go better with Shell , was false information. The same as the different prices that the motorist payed. Cheers JS

[Captain Kong]

Share prices in the Oil Companies had fallen,
Exxonmobil ten weeks ago was $88 a share , now $68 a share, so a thousand shares _ a $20,000 loss.

BOO HOO.!!

[j.sabourn]

Brian I suppose in theory share prices shouldn’t effect those who don’t hold them . But seems the ordinary man who doesn’t bother in the share market is the one who suffers to pay back those losses to the poor shareholders via higher prices and higher taxes. What a funny world we live in. The old saying you had to speculate to accumulate, the key word being speculate or in easier terms gamble. As a gambler you should be responsible for your own losses, however certain people and large mainly government groups have the old good old people to bankroll them. Without choice I may add. JS

[Captain Kong]

It is not too bad John
it makes it easier to buy shares, Buy Low and sell high.
also in December the dividends were just as good , so by reinvesting dividends you get more shares at the lower price and a bigger dividend next quarter to reinvest

[Tony Taylor]

That 3 months I spent on the kiwi coast running from the refinery in Whangerie and calling at all the ports as far as Bluff. The parcels of petrol were for all the different garages be they BP or Shell or put a tiger in your tank. Was all exactly the same petrol. So unless they dropped a magic pill into the garage filling tanks, that jingle , things go better with Shell , was false information. The same as the different prices that the motorist payed. Cheers JS

Shortest passage ever? full cargo of mogas (Shell H class) FAOP Esso Fawley, EOP Shell Hamble about 20 mins or so later! Apparently the pipeline under the river was shutdown.

[Ken Norton]

I see today that Shell have announced the sale of their assetts in New Zealand for £456 million, including their interest in the Great South Basin venture. Part of a divestment programme world wide of some £23 billion