Lower Fuel Prices Not Such Good News For The Snp ?!

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30507970

It looks as if petrol may drop below £1 a litre early next year. While this is
good news for us all, where would it have left the Scots, if there had been a
Yes vote recently ? Their whole case for independence was based on being able to rely on high oil prices for their oil. Is the financial and business case now in tatters ?

[Gromit]

Eddie,
Yes, the saudi government can live with low poil prices for years whereas the US fracking companies cannot sustain losses for long.

I doubt Russia is the intended victim of the Saudis low oil price policy. Just a consequence of it.

[ichkeria]

"
"EDDIE51

^^ It's a bit more complicated than that
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102271857#.
Saudi is increasing production mainly to harm Russia as a punishment for support for Syria and their supply of weapons to Iran. "

That article is largely rubbish, and in fact claims the situation os a lot simpler than it actually is. Saudi Arabia raising oil production would not have the effect it used to have. I suspect the author is obsessed with the Russian economic situation and is looking for a scapegoat or a conspiracy theory

[ToraToraTora]

I don't see how it can drop much I mean the duty is 58p = 20% VAT on that so the tax is 69.6p. and then there is vat on the rest at 20% So that leaves 24p for extraction/delivery/retail etc.

[Gromit]

A round up on the BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29643612

[EDDIE51]

Russia can not survive on oil prices under $100 barrel , as it says in my link punishment of Russia is the main reason Saudi will not cut production.
They want to bankrupt shale/fracking production as well but harming Russia is the prime reason. Saudi reserves are so huge they will still have oil when the rest of the world is 'dry'.

[ichkeria]

"If the US fracked oil cosst $80 a barrel to extract, and they are going to sell it for less than $60 a barrel if they were to export it, then I doubt they will be doing much exporting. Unless they want to go bankrupt very quickly. "

I'm talking about the ban on the US exporting crude oil

[ichkeria]

...self imposed I should add

[ichkeria]

"Russia can not survive on oil prices under $100 barrel , as it says in my link punishment of Russia is the main reason Saudi will not cut production.
They want to bankrupt shale/fracking production as well but harming Russia is the prime reason. Saudi reserves are so huge they will still have oil when the rest of the world is 'dry'. "

That is wide of the mark. Some people are looking at the effect and working back to the spurious cause. Why would they care about "harming Russia". Why would they care about Russia at all in fact?

[EDDIE51]

Russia supports Saudi's prime enemy Iran and supplies arms to Syria , if oil price are below $100 a barrel Russia will have to cut it's losses and stop arming Iran and Syria . Russia has very little cash reserves , it has already spent around 20% of what it did have to prop up the Rouble.

[berniecuddles]

why debate? why argue?why moan? fill up your car happily for once merry xmas all

[Gromit]

The US ban on oil exports was always flouted, but since the became the worlds largest producer this year, exports have risen sharply.

http://www.eia.gov/petroleum/weekly/archive/2014/141022/includes/analysis_print.cfm

[EDDIE51]

Yes lets not worry why just enjoy it while it lasts, unleaded £1.14 a litre today at Tesco.

[ichkeria]

"Russia supports Saudi's prime enemy Iran and supplies arms to Syria , if oil price are below $100 a barrel Russia will have to cut it's losses and stop arming Iran and Syria . Russia has very little cash reserves , it has already spent around 20% of what it did have to prop up the Rouble. "

Perhaps, but none of that means that Saudi Arabia is deliberately refusing to cutting oil production to force Russia to do any of that. Has any Saudi official stated that that is the case? Like I say there are a lot of factors involved in the fall of oil prices and Russia is going to be a number one casualty of that.

[ichkeria]

And interestingly Russia has huge foreign exchange reserves but the government is not letting the central bank use them

[Quizmonster]

"Where would it have left the Scots, if there had been a Yes vote recently?"
Exactly where they are now! If the 'Yes' campaign had won, there was no plan for actual independence to kick in for at least another two years...ie Scotland would have been part of the UK until the "divorce settlement" was finalised.
Given the fluctuating nature of oil prices - about which everyone in Scotland was fully aware - the price of crude oil may well have rocketed by then. Who knows?
In addition, the prospect of further oil finds are now likely in the North Atlantic, nothing to do with the North Sea, which was the only area ever mentioned at the time of the referendum. The Atlantic area would, of course, have been unavailable to England/Rump UK, as they have no contiguous shoreline with it.
And, as has been mentioned above re whisky, Scotland was not likely to be solely dependent on oil, anyway. For Pete's sake, if Malta, Denmark and so forth can exist independently, whyever would Scotland have been unable to do so?