Oil



The price of oil has always been manipulated to the nth degree...The price of oil at the well-head in the Middle East is about $5-7 a barrel, at the very most...So why do we pay so much for it?...Some cost is added in transportation and refining, but the big money has always gone to the Rothschilds, Rockefellers and other elites who control the price WE pay here in the West...Of course, the Saudis /OPEC make money, too...That's part of the deal...But what banks handle their money?...Well, sure, JPMorgan/Chase, CitiGroup, etc...Before we get the oil, the price is jacked up by various mechanisms, by various forms of derivatives, futures options, all banking manouvers...The oil companies use fake 'transportation costs' as another means of increasing prices...Then, at the end of the line, they use tax-loopholes and false bookeeping to avoid taxation on their profits...That's how it works...But, when the price of oil is high, it is not just the Anglo-American (Zionist) parties who profit...The Saudis rake it in, Russia made a killing, Venezuela, even Nigeria (although they are a basket case when it comes to managing their money: it all goes back to Western banks/interests eventually)...But what happened with Russian oil?...First, the Zionist elements tried to seize it outright after th fall of Communism, but Putin stopped this...Good for Russia...But, Russia had an enormous foreign debt to Western/Rothschild banks....Now, Putin paid off this debt...Again, good for Russia, but also, good for the Rothschilds...They made money...Even basket case Nigeria paid back billions in debt to western banks...Venezuela, too, although Chavez was a tougher nut to crack...So, what happens then?...Well, the speculators then drive the price DOWN...What happens?...Russian cash flow is curtailed, they have to devalue the ruble...Venezuelan cash flow shrinks...Nigeria, well, they can't manage money when they have it...So, the Rothschilds, Rockefellers and others make out either way...Natural gas, too...This 'gas crisis' between Ukraine & Russia is about this: Certain elements are using the Ukraine to send a message to Russia, and by the Ukrainians blocking Russian gas to Europe, it sends Europeans into a panic, and makes Russia look like an 'unreliable partner'...It is all planned...The US?...They've cleaned us out already, so they can afford to let the prices drop some...It doesn't take a genius to figure it out...Anyway, here is a very interesting article, wrotten in October 2001, about the real cost of oil...I believe it is still basically accurate today, as far as costs of 'oil at the well head'...I invite your discussion................Frank Dialogue






SAUDI ARABIA - Costs to Produce Oil


The cost of producing oil in Saudi Arabia has been the lowest in the world. In the 1950s, the net well-head cost of production was less than 7 US cents/barrel. In early 1990, the net well-head cost of production from 14 operating fields, with the Ghawar axis of fields taken as one unit, was estimated to average between 50 and 63 cents/barrel. This was calculated on the basis of output then ranging from 5.38m b/d, which was Saudi Arabia's OPEC quota for the first half of 1990, to 7.2m b/d. At present, the average of wellhead costs is a little over $1/barrel (95 cents/barrel in 1997), and experts predict higher costs in the coming years in view of declining reservoir pressure in some of the Ghawar fields. The wellhead cost in the Najd fields is relatively high, in view of technical problems encountered there in the past six years.

The estimates until early 1990 were used as a base in calculating the minimum per-unit capital cost of additional capacity for Saudi Aramco's expansion programme. It was then indicated that, at additional capacity above 7.2m b/d, production costs would be considerably higher.

Total costs up to the loading of the crude oils for export, including Saudi Aramco's administrative costs, piping and terminalling, are now said to average about $2/b (as in 1997), compared to almost $2.50/b in 1993. Costs were reduced as a result of reorganisation and cost-cutting measures since Saudi Aramco's absorption of Samarec in the past eight years. Until 1987, total costs used to be over $2.50/b, due to high wages for US staff and various social programmes.

It might be possible to cut total unit costs to less than $1.80/b, the level estimated in the case of Iraq in early 1990. But the final outcome of further cost-cutting measures could be "lower quality personnel and inefficiency across the board", as one Saudi Aramco official puts it.

These costs exclude field maintenance and other items, such as mothballing and de-mothballing costs in the fields, and the maintenance of gas-oil separation plants (GOSPs), pipelines, storage tanks, terminals, etc. The maintenance element is important, as Saudi Aramco adopts the approach of the US oil majors which is thorough and expensive.

There have been varied estimates of Saudi Aramco's field maintenance costs, with one study group having claimed this exceeds $1.5 bn per annum and Aramco experts saying this figure is exaggerated.

In early 1990, after Saudi Aramco's first programme was announced, it was estimated that the cost of expanding the capacity of its developed oil fields in the north-east would be about $15 bn. This meant the cost for an additional 3.5m b/d capacity, over the 7.2m b/d mentioned above, would be $500m for every 117,000 b/d unit including infrastructures. But there were much higher estimates of Saudi Aramco's programme costs subsequently, with the figure of $25 bn mentioned.

Independent experts forecast in early 1990 that net well-head costs at the Najd fields may come to less than 50 cents/b, if their reservoir pressure was high as experts had indicated. (Net well-head production costs estimated for additional capacity among OPEC's Middle East members then were ranging from 23 cents/b in Iraq to $2.80/b in Algeria). But now the net well-head cost at the Najd fields is said to exceed $1.50/b.

The Najd reservoirs have proved to have lower pressure than first thought. Since 1994, production has been affected by the encroachment of sand into the wells. Underground pumps installed at the fields have clogged up with sand, with the blockage occurring roughly every three months. To prevent production from falling below 200,000 b/d, Saudi Aramco has been hooking up several new fields discovered since 1994.

It was first estimated that development of the Najd fields would cost less than $500m for each 200,000 b/d production unit. Actual costs until the Najd fields were developed to a capacity of 200,000 b/d, reached by end-1994, came to about $600m. But this was way below estimates made in 1990 by US upstream experts.

Assuming an ultimate production capacity of 2m b/d in the Najd area would be possible later on in this decade, the total cost could be $6.5-7 bn of current US dollars. This is still lower than the cost of developing new capacity in Saudi Arabia's north-eastern fields.

According to Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi, the cost of finding new oil reserves in the kingdom is less than 10 US cents/barrel, i.e., by far the lowest cost in the world. This compares to an average of finding costs of about $4/b in other parts of the world.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Input Solutions
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning

8/19/2010 04:59:11 pm

We can't judge a person by what he says but by what he does.

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8/30/2010 01:20:03 pm

Law is order , and good law is good order.

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FrankDialogue
9/11/2010 05:01:26 pm

OK, Jordan; let's talk law & order...One of the commandments given to Moses at Sinai was 'Thou Shalt Not Kill'...Note: Not 'Thou Shalt Not Murder': this is assumed, but ;'Don't kill, because you do not understand the spinoffs from any kind of killing'.

Now, why should we destroy a whole society, as in Iraq, and kill MILLIONS of Iraqi citizens?...So the Rothschilds can get oil contracts at premium rates?...This is why we are there, why we have destroyed law & order there...There is NO justification for this, on Earth and in Heaven.

Peace to you.

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