| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re: Brown warns Scotland about it | |
| Posted by: | Huw Burford-Taylor | |
| Date/Time: | 12/09/14 17:16:00 |
| Well let's just see shall we? Salmond so far has managed to spend wildly inflated oil revenue projections about 3 times over building this little wonderland of his. Back in the real world, the geo-political instability in the Ukraine and middle east which normally would send oil prices skyrocketing to well over US$ 120 per barrel has seen prices drop to their lowest levels for several years with Brent Crude now at US$ 97 per barrel. Why is this? Look to the US (the worlds number 1 user of oil) where fracking is taking off big time and the US is now awash in cheap oil to the extent that it is seriously considering overturning a 40 year old ban on crude oil exports. Add to that the Chinese (the worlds number 2 user of oil) economy slowing the price of oil is now facing significant downward pressure. What will this mean for an independent Scotland relying on oil revenues? The North Sea fields are mature entities, that said reserves are still decent enough, but (and it is a big but) that is dependent on oil prices staying at the record highs they have been over the last 5/6 years. With oil at say US$ 100 per barrel or thereabouts it is still economically viable to exploit these reserves, anything significantly below that and it suddenly becomes a lot more marginal. Fracking has been the proverbial game changer for the US and its oil imports have decreased rapidly, putting huge downward pressure on oil prices. Fracking won't last forever, obviously, but it could well last long enough to unravel Salmonds utopia built on North Sea oil. |