What does oil at $200 mean?
May 16th, 2008 by RYKOil touched an unthinkable $128 today, now double of $65 it was a year back. At this rate it is expected to cross $200 soon and then $300 in not much time.
Since everything runs on oil, from farm machinery to goods transport, factories, most electric plants, cars, ships, etc, it is likely that the cost of everything including basics such as food, house electricity and commuting is likely to zoom, most probably increase by as much 2 times over the next 1 year.
Thus if your basics form around 30% of your household costs, these will become 60% of your costs. This means savings and luxuries such as new cars, travel, new clothes, wine, parties, detox adventures, etc will considerably shrink. Which means end of the good life and onto a very basic life.
Do you think this is what is about to happen? Or do you think that maybe we’ll set-up Nuclear power plants superfast and keep the cost of energy sane ?
So you do this kind of post as well. There’s hope yet then.
Most of us post fun, serious, questioning, informing in rotation. Why not join in?
Psst Gareth: He sounds rather sarcastic..
Nur Sarah Lam’s last blog post..Iron Man - The New Superhero in Town
Lol Nur Sarah Lam.
Pssst, what should we call you? Thats rather a long name.
Sarah..Only Sarah is fine..
You see, that is part of my name only, my full name is NUR SARAH LAM POH YEE..
You see, I am a chinese so naturally my name is LAM POH YEE and then I have converted to being a Muslim thus my name has an additional NUR SARAH in front so you can either call me:
1. Nur
2. Nur Sarah
3. Nur Sarah Lam
4. Nur Sarah Lam Poh Yee
5. Lam Poh Yee
6. Lam
7. Poh Yee
8. Sarah
9. Sarah Lam
So which is your favourite and don’t ask me why my name is so complicated, hard to explain and rather not explain at all..
Nur Sarah Lam’s last blog post..Iron Man - The New Superhero in Town
yes, GoSmellTheFlowers is the best thing that happened since elastic underwear
Top response. Well done sir.
And Tofu.
Oil at $200 a barrel - more relxaed greed in the Arab states and laziness as the rest of the world try and cope.
Only 5 years ago the prospect of oil at $60 per barrel would send politicians scurrying for cover. At that time environmentalists urging for pollution controls and carbon mitigation to prevent further climate change were dismissed as being too expensive. We have now lived through oil at these high prices without economic and social crises and there will be more yet to come.
Alternatives include: renewables, nuclear, non-conventional oils and coal. Unfortunately, none of these are free from climatological and ecological impacts. Dams are by far the most established renewable energy resource. Their ecological impacts are unquestionable. Wind is an option but generating power from the flow of energy in the atmosphere, wind turbines change the climate too. The nuclear option scares us because fuel processing and radioactive wastes that will be with us for thousands of years. Renewable alternatives such as bio-diesel and ethanol are being ramped up rapidly, but at most can contribute 20 per cent of our liquid fuel needs before 2020 and the cost in terms of land lost for food production will be tremendous.
Without doubt the times they are a changing and we are all scared to death even though we know change is needed and desired.
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It is indeed scary that the price has gone up so fast I mean real fast..faster than I can yell for ‘Help!’
Nur Sarah Lam’s last blog post..Iron Man - The New Superhero in Town
At present the cost of fuel is purely based on greed by the oil companies because of the economic growth of china and India and their Petrol demands…
I already live that simple life and need to budget for a few months before I can go out of town here to the major centres..
My shopping bill increased drastically yesterday when I went to the Supermarket only to see that most things which I buy normally had yet again increased in price by up to $1.20 per item… eg: lasagna sheets just the generic brand 4 months ago they cost $ 1.87 per box… then 6 weeks ago they increased to $2.20 per box then yet again yesterday $2.96 per box and this sort of price rise is on everything.. my groceries jumped by $58 per week yet my pay did not…. and I didnt buy anything extra
It is not just the cost of petrol in your car which is effected by this either… think of all the products in daily life which are Petroleum Based products… hmmm lets see how about plastics, Nylon and Synthetic materials… then you have toothpaste, vaseline/petroleum Jelly etc… some medications… and thats just a short list…
Nuclear power is not an option in my mind, the prospects it raises for the future is far scarier than the cost of fuel, and presents its own set of issues which can not be covered in a comment but the cost of Nuclear Power is far more than the cost of Petrol and your electricity to date….
Short term it will hit the poor in Asia and Africa. Longer term it will hit the new economies and very long term it will hit the established economies right? Well, slow down maybe not. The poorer countries are already experienceing mass exodus to the richer ones. What effect will mass migration have? Will we be faced with the futuristic film view of a fascist state with massive walls around the ‘rich’ areas and the like? Who knows.
What I prefer to think is the leading nations and industrialists will be pushed, by market forces, into renewables and alternative forms. The economics will demand it. Massive demand + little supply = opportunity.
Already, in the industry I work in, we are producing real alternatvies to plastics and looking to replace traditional ‘normal’ production practices. We are reducing our steel usage, chemical usage and energy usage - sharholders demand it and the consumers demand it. For the current state of play it is a bad deal that oil is so expensive, for the long term view of sustainability of the planet its probably a good thing. Short term pain, long term gain.
Either that or we have massive oil wars.
I live in Asia (Malaysia) and I am feeling the pressure to ask my hubby to stop driving but it is insane..no faster way to get to work than driving..
Nur Sarah Lam’s last blog post..Iron Man - The New Superhero in Town
Nicely put Gareth…
With the hope of renewable energy comes great optimism… but some will and are fighting to be ahead the pact in order to control what is left.. ie your oil wars ….
it will be interesting to see what the world is like when we are retired and its our Grand kids who are in charge…
A very different place I think..
Its pretty much certain that driving will be a luxury soon enough over here.
And by the sounds of it, pretty much everything else.
Airline prices haven’t gone up, yet, perhaps it’s time to get a one way ticket somwhere…..
Dumbest comment i heard was someone on radio saying - to the effect of - surveyors report property prices dropping but estate agents don’t see sellers dropping the prices accordingly - plain fact is that most of us can’t afford a negative equity situation so what do they expect?????
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It’s not really that big of a deal. Just quit going for joy rides, walk a lot more, and get rid of your damn luxuries. As easy as that.
Hi Simply - the problem is lots of us stopped doing that a while ago - we’re now talking about affording basic petrol costs for work and back.
Yes you can get your shopping delivered (for how much longer is an interesting point with the fuel prices).
Its weird but around here, within a 2 mile radius you can pay from £1.08 a litre to £1.17 a litre and these are all stations on main roads etc.
I very rarely fill right up now - rather round up to the nearest tenner and call it a day.
Perhaps the next step is for more people to work from home - the companies could provide broadband and PC and there’s always ‘video chat’ to watch your colleague and confer with etc so it wouldn’t be a lot different. They’re on about congestion charging in Derby soon - as its a main through route that’s gonna hurt. A lot of industry is actually within the town so you have to drive through one part or another of it to get there so that’s going to add to everyday bills - they’re talking about a £2.50 charge ‘each way’ i believe at the moment.
It’s Ouch time.
Purple13’s last blog post..More than a Photo Gift company - who says so? you!
“get rid of your damn luxuries. As easy as that.” says Simple Zack. How naive can you get?
Do you really believe that the price of oil has gone thru the roof because of India & China? It has doubled in a year and surely the oil consumption in these countries hasn’t doubled.
To me it appears to be a dollar based strategy. The higher the price of oil, the more dollars countries need to hedge, shoring up the greenback. In good ol’ US, oil is free because oil is bought in dollars which is a fiat currency, so the fed simply prints more dollars to tide over the rising oil price, keep availability money ratio and thus living standards steady. But it puts Euro on the backfoot, which is what they wanted all long. BTW, Dubya is in Saudi right now after having just about toured the ME a few months back: what are they stitching up?
Don’t you worry about it Ryk me old china, an enterprising young man like you can use the price of oil to justify a price increase for your flowers.
Oh no, we’re not letting any more of those nuclear power plants get built over here. The ones we’ve got now are all about two or three decades old and just between you and me, they’re starting to fall apart! Imagine how scary that is, living in the kill zone of one of the oldest nuclear power plants in the country that could literally have a meltdown the freakin cement is falling apart around the reactor.
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Can someone explain to me who sets the oil prices? Is it Opec or the traders that push them up?
I’m clueless when it comes to this type of thing.