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A comment on Crude Falls Below $30 a Barrel for the First Time in 12 Years. Parent comment

Re:Crude Falls Below $30 a Barrel for the First Time in 12 Y... by stonemetal on Wednesday January 13, 2016 @08:29AM (#10894086)
Yes, a barrel of oil brought up by fracking costs around $62 (Canadian oil sands cost $74) per barrel(according to NPR below). Though that is total cost, marginal cost of pumping after you drill and frack the well is around $35.

Oil demand tends to be fairly inelastic. Almost all of oil pricing is supply driven. OPEC decides on a target price and produces to meet that price. The current price has happened because Saudi usually stops producing to keep prices stable and high, and for now they just haven't slowed down at all. Either they need money badly enough that they will take any profit at all or they are using oil prices as a weapon.

http://www.npr.org/2014/11/04/361204786/falling-oil-prices-m...

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Re:Crude Falls Below $30 a Barrel for the First Time in 12 Y... by protomyth on Wednesday January 13, 2016 @08:44AM (#10894164)
Fracking in ND is much lower than $62 depending on the site. $36 was the cited figure in a lot of articles and post (see my previous comments).
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Re:Crude Falls Below $30 a Barrel for the First Time in 12 Y... by andys627 on Wednesday January 13, 2016 @08:34AM (#10894109)
I don't understand the "they need the money argument". They were producing 9 million barrels per day and that achieved a price of $100 per barrel... now they are producing 10.5 million barrels per day and price is <$30 per barrel.
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Re:Crude Falls Below $30 a Barrel for the First Time in 12 Y... by simonz05 on Wednesday January 13, 2016 @08:44AM (#10894157)
If the future outlook for oil prices are lower than what they sell at today — it makes sense to produce as much as you can today.
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Re:Crude Falls Below $30 a Barrel for the First Time in 12 Y... by celticninja on Wednesday January 13, 2016 @08:43AM (#10894154)
other nations have increased supply whilst demand has fallen at the same time, therefore to sell the extra oil being produced prices have to fall.
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