>
> > Gringo, your whole argument boils down to this: There is collusion
> > in the global oil industry. They are fixing prices. Oil companies
> > don't need access to more area because they have all the oil we need
> > within their current leases, but they are purposely sitting on it to
> > prop up prices. Thats a bunch of left-wing conspiracy theory bull****
> > that might fly with your Marxist friends but it ain't gonna fly here
> > unless you come up with some really good cites. So come up with the
> > cites or hit the highway, gringo.
>
> I m a pragmatic Liberal who understands life as it is.
>
> Ask and ye shall receive, Monkey Chump.
>
> First cite:
>
> http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/1997/July97/299at.htm
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AT
> FRIDAY, JULY 18, 1997 (202) 616-2771
> TDD (202) 514-1888
>
> JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ACTS TO STOP COLLUSION AMONG THREE OIL TRADERS
>
> Settlement will Keep Firms from Exchanging Broker
> Commission Information
>
> The complaint alleges that AIG, BP, Cargill and others
> conspired from July 1992 through May 1993 to exchange current and
> prospective brokerage commission information on Brent spread
> contracts and CFDs in order to lower brokerage commissions paid
> to brokers in the U.S. Representatives of the companies carried
> out the conspiracy by telephone and in meetings in Europe and the
> U.S.
Wow, traders discussing broker commissions. That's quite a global
conspiracy you found there. Where's Exxon and Dick Cheney?
> A lesson for you, monkey.
>
> Like all other meat sources, the cow is not consumed the moment she is
> killed. Upon birth, she is husbanded by the rancher till she is grown.
> When there is a place for her in the food pipeline--and the prices are
> right--the lowly cow is ****pped off to a feedlot, there to be fed all
> she will eat to fatten her up and increase her value. After being
> slaughtered, she is hung for weeks in coolers and/or freezers. She may
> not be consumed for a year or more after being harvested.
>
> An oil well is drilled, oil is found. It isn't pumped into a waiting
> Schneider, monkey. Oil in the ground must first be refined. If the
> refinery is already at peak production, the oil must be either left in
> the ground (CAPPED) or stored somewhere till needed. Water in the well
> in your backyard sleeps peacefully until a faucet releases it for usage.
> It doesn't spoil while waiting in the ground or in a storage tank. Oil
> in the ground has been in the ground for, oh, a million years or so; it
> can remain in the ground for another few years, it will not spoil, it
> merely increases in value. Oil in the ground back in the 1930s was worth
> a few pennies per gallon: that very same oil is now worth dollars per
> gallon! You keep spouting your understanding of economics, why do you
> have such a problem comprehending this very basic tenet of economics?
> Perhaps if you stop sniffing your ass, Monkey Clump.
That's all very interesting. Now where's the evidence that oil
companies are storing oil right now rather than selling it? Otherwise
your post isn't really relevant is it?
>
> A diamond also forms over millennia. DeBeers has a virtual monopoly on
> diamond production. It buys them, "refines" them, then stores them
> for...millennia. They sell those diamonds at a carefully considered rate
> in order to keep their profits astronomically high. Likewise with oil
> companies.
> #####
>
> http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1531
I'm sure this organization has no political bias.
> On the supply side of the equation, as a result of mergers, the five
> largest oil companies operating in the United States _now control 61
> percent of the domestic retail gasoline market, 48.5 percent of the
> domestic oil refinery market and 50 percent of domestic oil exploration
> and production. ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, BP and Shell
> also control 15 percent of the world's oil production. These top five
> cor****ations now produce more oil everyday than Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and
> Yemen combined._
You think they can corner the market with only 15% of the worlds
production? What a dope.
>
> "It is no surprise that gasoline prices are skyrocketing," said Wenonah
> Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and
> Environment Program. "This is what you get when you have a handful of
> mega-cor****ations dominating the market, and it is what we predicted
> when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) allowed massive consolidation of
> the oil industry in 1999 and 2000."
>
> These new mega-cor****ations are involved in all facets of the oil and
> gas industry: exploration, production, refining, trans****tation and
> retail sales. This vertical integration has resulted in a handful of
> cor****ations controlling a substantial chunk of the domestic oil and gas
> market, allowing them to artificially inflate prices and take advantage
> of any supply disruptions by gouging consumers.
Didn't congress investigate this and found... wait for it....
NOTHING. Just another liberal pipe dream.
>
> In March 2001, the FTC reached a curious conclusion about high gasoline
> prices in the Midwest. While it claimed that no collusion had taken
> place under current law, it found that "conscious (but independent)
> choices by industry participants" to intentionally withhold supplies
> resulted in artificially high prices. The re****t, however, did not
> publicly name the names of the companies it alleged to have inflated
> prices, since the FTC considered the information proprietary.
> ###
>
> Tacit collusion occurs when cartels are illegal or overt collusion is
> absent. Put another way, two firms agree to play a certain strategy
> without explicitly saying so. This is also known as price leader****p, as
> firms may stay within the law but still tacitly collude by monitoring
> each other's prices and keeping them the same. Usually, this occurs when
> a firm emerges to set the general industry price and other firms follow
> suit. oligopolists usually try not to engage in price cutting, excessive
> advertising or other forms of competition. Thus, there may be unwritten
> rules of collusive behavior such as price leader****p (tacit collusion).
> A price leader will then emerge and sets the general industry price,
> with other firms following suit. For example see the case of British
> Salt Vs Salt Union (Competition Commission re****t which concludes price
> leader****p and a lasting collusive agreement between the two firms).
>
> So, they were definitely doing that since the break-up of Standard Oil.
> To stifle criticism of their price setting schemes, they /tacitly/
> employ speculators. But it matters not to the oil giants why the price
> gets higher, the seller benefits enormously when a large percentage of
> his product was drilled and stored decades ago when his production costs
> were pennies on the dollar.
>
So where is the evidence that they are storing oil? Is this the best
you can come up with?
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