Ukraine Thread

[a completely inoffensive name]

Off-shore wells in the Gulf of Mexico ftw?

Actually it is more due to Canada and the American midwest (think Dakotas not Iowa) than anything else. Shale oil is only economically profitable when you reach prices close to what they were before the free fall (around $100 a barrel). The real story going on here is whether or not Obama made a deal with Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries to purposely keep supply of oil high in order to bankrupt Russia. While many OPEC countries are in the same situation as Russia (their budgets depend on $100 a barrel) they also have large amounts of money stored and in return for burning some of their reserves they are attempting to secure their dominance in the market by making sure that shale oil production is halted or rolled back in the US and Canada.

I guess the winner depends on who can stretch their reserves out the longest, Russia or Saudi Arabia?

Also, one last thing PVC, just because Russia has 10 months of reserves, does not mean he has 10 months of time to regroup. The Ruble is continuing to crash and Russian citizens will be almost completely swept away in inflation by the end of January if this same downward trend continues. The currency crash should not be downplayed. If the news I read is accurate, this is the biggest crash since 1998 which ended up in Russia defaulting. Apparently, the west bailed them out back then but now who does Putin have on his side?