There is nothing that the President of the United States can do directly about the price of crude oil.
It does not matter if the POTUS is Repub or Demo. The price of crude oil is determined by the oil futures markets about in this country and other countrys that have oil futures markets also.
And OPEC has a lot of control in the determination of the price of a 42 gallon barrel of crude oil.
IF you thought that the Demos could some how lower the price of crude oil by taking control of Congress and the White House, you are living in a fanasty world.
Jimmy Carter is an example of the fact that a Demo POTUS has no control over the selling price of crude oil. It kept going up during his term in office. There was this little thing of Americans taken hostage in Iran among other items that he was dealing with also.
The price of crude went down in the 1990s. But it had nothing to do with who was the POTUS. It had everything to do with OPEC and its members.
The following below is from Open Choke's insider view of Big Oil.
Quote:
The REAL BIG International Oil Business... The Big Picture... Over 70% of the world's reserves are produced by National Oil Companies... Companies with reserves and production that dwarfs those of ExxonMobil or Shell, and with names you have probably never heard of unless you are in the business... Pedevesa, Aramco, PetroBras, CNOOC, Gazprom, Yukos, Pemex.
Some of these companies are owned by countries in OPEC, some by non-member countries. Of course, being "National Oil Companies", ie those owned ostensibly by "the people" and controlled by the "peoples representatives"... ie politicians and despots, profitability and sustainability aren't the rule, apparently because "the people" as shareholders have a different ethci from "the people" as owners of soemthing they cannot sell. Thus, the politicians use the oil companies to provide other types of value to society (read... keeping 'em in power) by using money that would normally be used to maintain or expand production for the immediate need of bribing the electorate, destabilizing their neighbors, or, if they are firmly in power, to jam into Swiss bank accounts for their own use. "Providing Employment" is a big carrot for the command and control types, which, amazingly enough, minimizes the value of labor
In any case, these largely third world nation-owned companies provide the bulk of the worlds hydrocarbon, and dictate raw commodity oil price, and are not averse to manipulating prices for political or economic gain. This isn't some giant secret... they created a Cartel, OPEC, to do just that... manipulate world oil prices. Last I checked, none of the majors were members. They were BUYERS of that oil.
Saudi Arabia, being the supposed swing producer, which means it can single handedly raise the price of oil or send it to the ground merely by turning a valve, is even rumored to have hedged significant parts of its production before it tanked oil prices in the early 1990's to enforce its control and power over world production... and why not? If I can dictate prices by my actions, I will use the futures market to make money in increasing prices and decreasing prices, since I KNOW what my action will be... That, my friend, is a great bet.
Why would Saudi Arabia LOWER the price of oil? In the early1990's, it was because North Sea production was erodingOPEC pricing power. However, the rest of the world has significantly higher finding and lifting costs that Saudi. So Saudi, which can make a profit on $0.25 per barrel oil compared to US or other Western oil which is profitable above maybe $20 per barrel, hedges the bulk of their production for 12 to 18 months through a network of offshore financial companies, and then announces it will produce 2-4 million more barrels per day. The price drops to $10 dollars per barrel, worldwide capital projects for new oil come to a screeching halt, because no one wants to invest in money losing captial projects, Saudi is still making close to the old price, because they hedged their production financially, and the world oil business is brought to heel to the Saudi swing status once again.
Why would Saudi let the price get higher? Well, you can't hedge forever. You want to maximize your cash flow, but you don't want to let it go so high that alternatives are given financial traction.
So when I think "Big Oil", I think of a couple of Middle Eastern countries. Fat, Brown Men. Their crew are the big, inefficient albatross companies that certainly want to maximize their immediate revenues for personal use, but without paying the necessary maintenance.
The other factor in today's crude oil prices is the value of the Euro to the US Dollar. The US Dollar is weak compared to the Euro. In practical terms, this means that when the OPEC boys go to Europe with there US Dollars, it takes more US Dollars to pay for any purchase than it does with a Euro.
And if you think that the OPEC boys have not noticed this, you are wrong and asleep at the wheel. The price has been allowed to go up higher by OPEC to make up for the loss of purchasing power of the US Dollar that they are paid in.
I SUGGEST THAT WITH ALL YOUR GETTING, GET SOME UNDERSTANDING OF HOW THE CRUDE OIL FUTURES MARKET WORKS FIRST!!!
Then you will be able to figure out who is really in charge of the pricing of the world crude oil sales.
Later on, I will post various links to Oil and Gas industry information sources. And that will include newsletters to at least one oil and gas industry magazine that will include reports on the reasons for the rise and fall in the daily oil future market.
