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A comment on Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract ending. Parent comment

Re:Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract e... by unexpected on Monday April 20, 2020 @10:54AM (#22924320)
Qatar makes 95% of their revenue on LNG. These are long-term contracts at fixed prices. Kuwait and Qatar also have the fewest amount of actual citizens that it would need to "pay off".

Ex: During the Arab Spring, Kuwait handed out $500k checks to all Kuwaiti males above 18 years old. He also told the citizenry that he would forgive all car loans - population went and bought ferraris, range rovers, etc. and got the loans all forgiven by the government.

I worry more about the Arab countries that have high populations and cannot afford to pay everyone off - Saudi is on that list.

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Re:Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract e... by burger_moon on Monday April 20, 2020 @11:41AM (#22924875)
I never heard of this before and tried to look it up without success.

I did find this Reuters article which mentions "In 2011, to mark three major anniversaries, ruler Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah granted 1,000 dinars to each Kuwaiti and free food rations for 13 months."

1000 dinars ~$3200

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kuwait-parliament-debt/ku...

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Re:Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract e... by mrow84 on Monday April 20, 2020 @11:50AM (#22924971)
> During the Arab Spring, Kuwait handed out $500k checks to all Kuwaiti males above 18 years old.

Do you have a reference for this? I had a look, but it's one of those things that is a bit difficult to search for.

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Re:Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract e... by unexpected on Monday April 20, 2020 @01:49PM (#22926381)
I wish I could find a news source for this, but english newspapers suck in their coverage. I was actually in Kuwait as this happened, so I know it's 100% true. I spent that day being driven around at 130 mph in some guys's new porsche 911 turbo s. Energy industry is wild.
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