What is it gonna take for oil prices to go down???

Are we going to have to get a new face in the white house before things start to change(oil/gas prices going down, bringing our troops home, etc.)?





How long is it going to be before some changes are made????What is it gonna take for oil prices to go down???
cut the demand.





Its back down to $131.91 a barrelWhat is it gonna take for oil prices to go down???
It will likely require a total collapse of the economy to bring oil prices down at all. Either that or the sudden discovery and deployment of an alternate energy source.


I doubt if growing bio-fuels will be an answer.


I just don't believe there is enough land available to grow enough plants to supply the fuel needs.


As for the idea that we can just drill more oil wells, that is utter hogwash.


All of the major oilfields in North America are already depleted and the few remaining resources are much more expensive to reach.


This is not really a dollars problem but a fundamental resource problem.


When the energy cost of recovering a barrel of oil is a barrel of oil then you end up unable to extract oil no matter how much oil there actually is. This matters because as oil becomes harder to find and harder to extract we are rapidly reaching that point.





This is also a case where the supply and demand idea of economics breaks down and the law of diminishing returns takes over instead.


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We had the same kind of oil price hikes in the mid 1970s and it was the economic collapse that it brought on which forced oil prices back down. At that point it was blamed on OPEC charging more. Whatever, back then there were enough reserves to pump ourselves out of an oil crunch, oil reserves that no longer exist.
To lower oil prices you'd have to





1) Lessen demand. Maybe we should import fewer ';Made in China'; goods and outsource fewer jobs to India.





2) Start drilling locally. This is a longer term endeavor, but we should do everything to cut our dependance on OPEC or Arab oil.





3) Encourage small companies to set up drilling. Let's build some competition for Exxon, and Chevron.





4) Eliminate ALL subsidies to big oil (and to big argriculture as well).





5) Pump lots of money into alternate fuel development.





6) Encourage people to drive less, buy smaller cars, build bike paths, bring public transit everywhere, and start building cheap railway systems. Let's bring the train back.





7) Subsidize heating. Heating in cold areas is essential for life, like food or water.





8) Start heavily taxing all imports to middle eastern countries, including technology, food and water.
Stop buying oil and petroleum products; the problem will go away...





Mushie is right in that to say that ';Oil prices will go down when the demand goes down'; but very wrong in saying it's now the turn of China and India etc. The ';tripling'; is from a very low base - why shouldn't people in China live like Americans? The important figure is the amount of oil each person consumes - sure, China has 4 times as many people as the US but each American uses 15 times as much oil as a Chinese! The latest per capita consumption figures are:


Canada: 69.33 bbl/day per 1,000


US: 68.88


Australia: 44.06


UK: 28.90


Mexico: 19.50


China: 4.96


India: 2.18





The problem and the solution still lie very firmly with the Western consumer no matter how hard it is to swallow - we need to cut back; prices may not go down but they may stop rising so fast and the cost to each of us will go down a lot as we stop buying...
Oil prices will go down when the demand goes down. That will require India and China to make efforts to abate their gluttonous use.





We Americans were excessive users, but have been learning and practicing less demand. Now, it's up to other countries, and mainly China and India, who's usage has trippled in the past recent times.





That's the reason Bush was so unsuccessful in trying to negotiate with OPEC members. They know they have a huge market with China and India, so why lower the cost per barrell. They have the U.S. by ther nads. We need to consider drilling for our own oil. If Bush or the White House had any influence on gas prices then he would not have had to attempt negotiations. He could just snap his finger and made the change in price.





Supply and demand...simple as that.
The price per barrel is largely irrelevant to the UK motorist/transport worker. It's really the pump price that matters.





Since diesel is now averaging 拢5.75 / UK gallon (that's 拢4.86 or US$9.63 / US gallon) I really don't think US citizens have a lot to complain about - yet.





However - if you want the price to come down you have to start making a permanent move away from dependency on oil and its products. Only then will the suppliers learn that they can't depend on what, until recent times, has been a largely captive customer-base.
It wont happen , but the threat of congress passing a law to nationalize the oil companies would bring an immediate change in the price of oil and gas. To all the people that believe it is supply and demand , they are just repeating what comes out of the mouth of big oil and it's supporters. Due to the slowdown in the U.S.and the world economy the demand for oil is lower then it has been in the past two years- What does that do to the theory of supply and demand that they want us to believe? It is actually the oil companies that are deliberately controlling the supply of oil on the market creating the high prices and using this to justify the price gouging that is going on. If our system of Government wasn't so corrupt and congress was not bought and paid for by the big oil lobby and the special interests groups that are making money off this situation they could prevent the price gouging from taking place.
Its only down a few dollars because Brazil just reported finding new off shore oil . Give it a few days and it will be back to 135 plus. I honestly dont believe in the supply and demand theory everyone keeps butt f**king left and right. Like some have said above, its just a reasonable excuse to keep price gouging. I know by congress and the house holding these meetings with the oil execs. its just a dog and pony show, so i dont expect more than just more talk and talk. Cause congress has shown the ability to just have talks and no action, cause if memory serves me right, they had a pow wow last month and the results of that meeting clearly reflect the price of oil now. I use to like the president during his first term, cause he showed affirmative action towards our enemy, but after he screwed himself with Iraq, he is just riding out his time now banking what he can. A pathetic 600 stimilus payment check isnt going to get the economy spun and we all know that. Oil companies know exactly what they are doing, so why stop?
The oil price went down (a little) today.





U.S. crude dipped 95 cents to $132.22 a barrel by 11:50 a.m. EDT (1550 GMT) after jumping earlier in the session to a record $135.09. London Brent crude eased 69 cents to $132.01 a barrel after touching a peak of $135.14.





(Hmm - Don't agree with the math, but go on...)





';Some people had set a target of $135 as part of their investment strategy and once that price was achieved have started taking some profits,'; said Phil Flynn, analyst at Alaron Trading in Chicago.





Dealers also noted selling across commodities markets as the dollar recovered after U.S. data showed jobless claims fell.
What goes up always come down. It could even reach $200 a barrel before this happens. What is for sure is that it will never come down to its old price. Its only when demand drops will this happen. So the message to us all is USE LESS GAS. It makes sense as when there is a surplus of oil will the prices start to drop.
well we could kill everyone in the countries that have oil therefore stealing it. as for a peaceful way, i dont rely think its gonna happen. the cost of living gets more expensive every year :(
its tough,gas prices around where i live are at 4 dollars.maybe the people in the u.s. needs to go on strike against the government about paying anymore taxes until overpriced oil is settled.
A bigger earthquake kills everyone in China.