by Econ101 » Sun 19 May 2013, 12:53:35
I run 3 vehicles: 1994 F150 4-wheel drive bought new paid for. 2005 mercury Marque pd for bought with 20,000 miles. 2006 F150 4-wheel drive pd for, Last yr total cost for all 3 was $8,921.
Oil is the cheapest fuel in the world. A lot gets piled on:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')Saudi Arabian crude is the cheapest in the world to extract
because of its location near the surface of the desert and the
size of the fields, which allow economies of scale.
The operating cost (stripping out capital expenditure) of
extracting a barrel in Saudi Arabia has been estimated to be
around $1-$2, and the total cost (including capital expenditure)
$4-$6 a barrel.
Extraction of Iraqi oil is in theory also very cheap,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/07/ ... 7420090728After 3 yrs of pumping all wells have absorbed drilling costs. My guess is extraction costs in ND avg under $10.
This huge margin on developed fields is why the oil business has the money to continue exploration and pay good wages. Thousands and thousands of families have been blessed by finding their way into the industry. Mine included.
High gas prices are not evidence of any oil shortages, more like limited refinery capacity, a result of peak oil politics. There are also a lot of other infrastructure bottlenecks. Our domestic infrastructure shrunk like our production. These problems are now being eliminated one-by-one despite the best efforts to stop,or slow development, ie. Keystone pipeline
Carlins comment on capitalism keeping folks on the edge of poverty is a mistaken observation, much like thinking high gas prices are evidence of peak oil. What he was observing and commenting on we're the socialist programs gaining traction during his peak comedy years. He just wasn't educated enough to make that distinction.