The Price of Oil

"Oil", the price doesn't seem to be on anyone's mind lately. The world is still thinking about the recession, the loss of jobs, the creation of jobs, trying to survive financially.
But one goes to Chicago and you have to wonder where the recession is. Chicago is all hustle and bustle, especially over the Christmas season. And in Alberta, same thing - all traffic and it seems to be getting worse and it isn't even into the construction season yet. Yes the Oil and gas industry has slowed down, but it is far from dead yet. The Copenhagen conference was suppose to arrive at an agreement to deal with emission targets for global warming, but all it seem to accomplish was making the cash registers jingle from the government issued American Express, Visa and Mastercards. The whole conference was a joke. The David Suzukis and Al Gores of the world certainly did not suffer at all in getting to and from this conference via jet aircraft -so that brings me to my blog point, where will the price of oil be headed in the next few years.

Well it certainly isn't going to back off from the $70.00 US a barrel that it currently hovers around. The price will be going up, albeit slowly, but I will suggest that it will be up around $125.00 a barrel in the next five years. "Unless," there is a variable that kicks in, like Al Gore and the American public, along with the rest of the world parking the internal combustion engine and taking up riding bicycles. Not a chance !
In order for the world's attitude to change in the area of oil consumption, we will need the equivalent of an environmental Pearl Harbor to radically change all our oil consuming habits.

I observe that the world has the cheapest interest rates in history, so countries like India which has approximately 400 million middle class consumers, bought 2 million plus cars last year, and they all consume gasoline. India only produces 6% of it's own oil, so the rest has to be imported.

China is in the same boat as it is up to 8 million plus barrels of a day of consumption and it continues to grow, and China is out shaking the bushes throughout the world looking for a continuity of oil supply. China has included Alberta and the OilSands at Ft. McMurray in that search equation for a supply of oil.....

Alberta - if it wasn't for the Alberta economy, and the continuous oil and gas activity , (ie: cash flow,) the rest of Canada would be in the economic tank.

And then there are those who philosophize about employing Nuclear Power as a substitute for oil, gas, coal etc., - give me a break folks ! There has not been a Nuclear Power plant built in the U.S. in the last 40 years, and any of those that went down that Nuclear Power road have never come in on time or on budget. They have cost the taxpayer and the power consumer a fortune in bailouts.

So my money continues to be on oil unless one of the bright young minds at one of our educational institutions proves me wrong and comes up with a new and cleaner application of technology tp propel my truck down the road through summer and winter, as well as keeping me warm in the winter, and the lights a glowing at night !

I sure hope one of these bright minds comes through !