What is the price of oil and why has its crashed? SPOILER : mUSCOVY KAPUT

[Litwin]

oil -price 40-60$, what will be with Muscovite empire in 2019 ?

"U.S. oil tumbles 6.7% to a 17-month low in holiday-shortened day "

a bad day for putler and his empire - gas station , will "ruSSia" survive 2019 , with oil low prices somewhere between 40 and 60 ?

https://www.theweek.co.uk/oil-price/95286/what-is-the-price-of-oil-and-which-way-will-it-go

 

[Litwin]

 

[Pedestrian]

The drop is lowering seasonal demand and a slowing economy in the west in particular.

At $60/bbl. they do well while too low to inspire more shale oil in the US in particular.

OPEC has thuse agreed to cut production 1.2 or 1.3 million bbls. starting in Jan.

It is the speculators who determine the price of all commodities including oil of course.

If OPEC cooperates, look for futures to be back to $60 maybe by Feb.

 

[Xelor]

The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep somewhere else another stops. The same is true of the laugh.
-- Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
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(click the images to view the corresponding essays)​

To be honest, I don't assertively care about the impact of oil price fluctuations on Russia; however, I'm pleased that falling prices adversely affect its economy. Conversely, I do care about oil price volatility's effects on the US economy.

• Supply Flexibility in the Shale Patch:Evidence from North Dakota
• Report on the Blue Growth Strategy Towards more sustainable growth and jobs in the blue economy
• $50 Oil Puts Shale To The Test
• Yes, It Is Possible For Oil Prices To Be Too Low

As one can see from the above the matter of oil market equilibria variability portends to produce a pastiche of pernicious precipitates that troglyditically banal anthems akin to "price high, bad; price low, good" insufficiently summarize.

But you must not change one thing, one pebble, one grain of sand, until you know what good and evil will follow on that act. The world is in balance, in Equilibrium. A wizard's power of Changing and Summoning can shake the balance of the world. It is dangerous, that power...It must follow knowledge, and serve need.
-- Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea​