ENERGY MATTERS

[Wendyf]

We filled up our oil tank when the price started dropping....too early!

[Stanley]

I fear you are right P. I can't remember it ever being any different. Have we really been ripped off all our lives?
Hard luck Wendy I feel for you!

[Whyperion]

We filled up our oil tank when the price started dropping....too early!

Get another tank ?!

[Whyperion]

With pump prices dropping what are the chances of domestic gas and electricity prices dropping. Very little appears to be the answer. Up like a rocket down like a feather. What are the excuses. [/i]

Don't hold your breath.

They did drop a bit, and probably down a little more if you want some kind of a fix, or a varible risk one. But I and possibly others fixed at a (tariff as well as supplier locked) two year rate that at the time looked reasonable. Most current fixes have lower unit costs, but higher standing charges so the calculations are not clear to do.

[Wendyf]

We filled up our oil tank when the price started dropping....too early!

Get another tank ?!

I growled at Colin when he mentioned doing that.....

[Tizer]

I see that the oil syndicate we used when we lived in the village is now showing 27.99p a litre + 15% VAT. It has got 5000 members now!

[Stanley]

Is that good Tiz?

[plaques]

Is that socialism acting in a capitalist market or mini capitalists taking on bigger capitalists? The question arises should those at the top of this pecking order be free to exploit those at the bottom?

[Tizer]

In our final years in the village it was about 47p and it had been up in the 70s at times. If you have to rely on oil for heating you need to keep some money aside to allow for the shenanigans of the international `oil majors'.

Plaques, the latter and no.

[Stanley]

Pecking orders and exploitation. It gets complicated doesn't it. Perhaps all are exploited but some less than others. Even the most poverty stricken or socialist societies have underclasses.

[Wendyf]

Life is full of little surprises. This arrived out of the blue this morning.

20200411_205847.jpg

[PanBiker]

Rich beyond your wildest dreams Wendy, don't spend it all at once.

[Stanley]

How nice of Colin to let you use his electricity..... Curiously old-fashioned....

[Whyperion]

I see that the oil syndicate we used when we lived in the village is now showing 27.99p a litre + 15% VAT. It has got 5000 members now!

I had totally forgotten the time I was working in payables and ordering for a food manufacturer. We had oil fired boilers for heating the space and elements of the product process. Shopping around for fuel from the distributors was a always fun, particulary in the inflation and GBP/USA variations times. Anyway I note the Middle East, Russian and American state cartels have agreed to reduce supply - which Trump particulary was happy that a high/er oil price was good for the American Economy. - With respect socialism/capitalism I think the problem is essentially the 'Break-Even' Point of commodity production, high fixed costs and the incentive to find new sources, and the price x volume sold is quite sensitive to price, Cartels and anti-trust rules might lie at the heart of a supposed capitalist USA, yet the manipulation of supply and price could be argued to be essential to continuity of supply in the long run.

[plaques]

What is happening now is an attempt to keep the fossil fuel industry going at the expense of global warming. Not only are we talking oil and gas but coal is still a big industry in the US. As they say the stone age didn't come to an end because they ran out of stone and the same applies to fossil fuel. This is the time to be putting the effort into renewables not trying to keep a dying industry propped up.

[Stanley]

I agree with P, it's a dying industry, let's move on!
Unfortunately it isn't as simple as that, there is an elephant in the room. Oil income funds arms and aggression across the Middle East. Think what the end of oil will do to the balance of power/terror in the region.

[Stanley]

See THIS NPR report on something I don't think anyone ever thought could happen, Oil prices going negative in one key US market. Traders offering customers $37 a barrel to take oil off them.
We live in strange times!

[chinatyke]

Wonder if they'll sell me a shipload with payment up front?

[Stanley]

No China. Funnily enough the price went positive later in the day. Still a big problem though.
Later.... Brent Crude was around $20 yesterday, today it has opened down at $16. Worrying stuff all round.

[plaques]

More worrying for the US. They need a price of around $25 to break even. Now with nowhere to store the stuff you can only leave it in the ground. Shutting down the American oil fields will put millions out of work. No wonder Trump wants to get things going again. The balance is more deaths of ordinary people, mainly the old and infirm, against another term n the White House. Guess which he will go for?

[Stanley]

That's going to be the balance all over the world P.
One thing that struck me was what it will do to Boeing? They already have the problem of all those 737 Max aircraft parked up and eating money. Now the airlines are verging on collapse. We have similar problems here of course, there is hardly a plane in the sky now over the UK. I've just looked, one lone UPS freight flight from Cologne to Dublin passing through. No wonder the air is so clear!

[PanBiker]

Regarding the airlines. It begs the question whether governments should bail out industries that contribute massively to climate change! A case in point in the UK, Virgin Atlantic, (no longer owned by Branson) who are pitching for a massive cash injection to stop it failing. Bit of a dilemma there.

[plaques]

Virgin Atlantic is 51% owned by Branson and 49% by Delta (American). Delta have declared they will not put any more money into Virgin Atlantic. Branson is not a UK tax payer and airline profits are channeled through the Cayman Islands. Why should the UK get involved in trying to support this company there is enough money held by other billionaires to invest in it if they thought it worth the risk. Australia is not interested so why should we pick up the tab? Let it fail.

[PanBiker]

I knew he still had an interest but not that it was still a majority. Despite the environmental impact we should not be propping up multi-billionaires (which Branson is). If he wants it to continue flying he has enough brass to save it himself.

[chinatyke]

There is going to be a glut of second hand aircraft available cheap if multiple airlines collapse. How will Boeing sell their 737 MAX and recover from this crisis?

There is a great article here: click here

An extract from the above article: 'There are 11,009 Boeing passengers jets in service around the world, and as of Tuesday, 6,614 of those are parked and stored, according to Cirium’s database. Adding in the 422 built but undelivered 737 Maxs not included in that tally — those produced since the Max was grounded — means 62% of all Boeing passenger jets in the world are grounded.'