Oil is too cheap now for it to be profitable to pull oil out of your backyard. Fuck that. Plundering nature on an individual level is basically the founding myth of America.
Recent reports such as this one from the Financial Times state that mom and pop oil operations out of stripper wells are "not going to be financially viable at this price."
If you're wondering what kind of weight this all has, there are around 400,000 of these wells in the US and they account for around 11% of the country's production.
The price the FT is referring to is the cost of a barrel of oil, then around $60 when the article was published a month ago. Current prices are dropping below $50.
This December quote in the FT from an Arkansas company owner with 100 stripper wells across the state is particularly worrying for our nation's most strapping crude-producers.
It now costs "in the "high $30s" per barrel to lift oil from the ground. The Lion Oil refinery near his wells in El Dorado, Arkansas last week offered $41 per barrel for extra heavy crude and $52.25 for sweet crude. This suggests razor-thin profit margins for local producers.
It truly is a sad time for the homespun producers of America's sweetest sweet crude, just like granma used to make.
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