I agree the record bonuses and profits are BS. I'm not saying the avg consumer wants $4 a gallon. A lot of you are missing the point that we were producing at $100 a barrel and now we are shut down. When demand goes back up the supply won't be there then it will be $8 a gallon. That's what the article is saying basically.

YES! And, then a big ol' NO on the subsidies.

ICU what do you do offshore?

Supply boat captain.

That's the exact reason that namely Saudi is screwing with prices, this is where having a President (Gov. in general) with a minimal of care for business, they could help with this by understanding that if the price spikes rapidly that it could cause another, maybe small, recession. There are allot of things that can be done domestically to ensure that this doesn't happen.

lots of things here domestically that can be done yes but MORE government interference is not the answer IMO...it is a big reason we are where we are now!

I get what ICU is posting but have a bit of a hard time believing that a 4-8 month swing in prices really are going to effect 5-10 year oil production plans.

Most of these very large oil companies are global, in a global market. The small players may take hits but I don't think anyone thinks it will stay low for long.

Either way, not a thing I can do about it.

CNN pointed out that the slowdown/drop in prices is killing the hottest real estate market Houston has ever seen:
http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/23/inve...using-houston/

You might want to switch to "Shrimpin boat captain" just before the next hurricane.........oh yeah, name your boat Jenny! :D

As this is my 2nd Boom. 1st being in the 80's Texas bust seeing people live out of their cars and the Houston market get smashed...

It is about the refinery capacity. There is only so much room.

http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MOCLEUS2&f=M

Same goes for Natural Gas all these great brain trust (That are real book smart not very street smart) seem to forget that there are not many facilities in the world designed for import. The ones that are, have a 10yr "train" of product scheduled. So where are we going to export to???

The market is leveling out. The Young speculators are getting crushed. One of the Biggest 6oil traders went bust http://www.slideshare.net/SimonJacques1/ow-bunker-the-worlds-largest-marine-fuel-trader-went-into-bankruptcy

People in their early 40's to 20's jumped on the band wagon. Now they are feeling to push back. The Oil companies grew and could not get rid of a lot of their dead weight employees. Oil crash is always a good way to get rid of people.

I was told yrs ago (35+) You know when the oil is gonna come down when Exxon moves masses back to Houston... Sharpstown area in the 50's-60's, Kingwood 80's -90's, The Woodlands 2010- present...

It will slow down but it will keep going... The Rig companies learned the last time in the 80's trying to get the skilled people like I.C.U. and others to fill the market is very hard. I went to work for Global Marine in 98'. Hell I was one of the youngest guys at the time on the rig. My Sup, Tool Pusher, and Driller were in their 60's. I left to start my own service company and got bought out yrs ago. These workers will just gravitate to the Trucking industry as that is where the need is going to be for skilled people.

It's just nature of the Beast.

Good luck I.C.U. Hang in there...