Trump renews fight with OPEC over 'too high' oil prices

[DonViejo]

Source: Politico




By LOUIS NELSON 06/13/2018 08:31 AM EDT

President Donald Trump complained Wednesday that “oil prices are too high,” placing blame for the spike on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the cartel that collectively controls a massive share of the world’s oil reserves.

“Oil prices are too high, OPEC is at it again. Not good!” the president wrote on Twitter.

Oil prices have risen roughly 60 percent over the last year, according to a Reuters report, thanks in part to a move by OPEC and other oil producers, including Russia, to reduce output. But the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday that it believes oil prices are unlikely to rise as sharply as they have in recent months, CNBC reported.

It is at least the second time this year that Trump has lashed out at OPEC over spiking oil prices. In April, the president threatened the group of oil producers that its efforts to push prices higher would “not be accepted,” although he did not specify what steps, if any, his administration might take.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/13/trump-opec-oil-prices-643534

[BumRushDaShow]

1. "he did not specify what steps, if any, his administration might take."

More fracking!!1111!!!!!

Oklahoma will soon become a gigantic hole!

[Aristus]

6. Oklahoma's already a giant hole.

Don't know what the loss would be...

[BumRushDaShow]

7. Well... The NWS Storm Prediction Center is there in Norman

so I wouldn't want that to go away (they forecast severe weather like t-storms & tornadoes). It's bad enough the state is in the center of tornado alley and now to become artificial-earthquake-due-to-fracking alley.

But outside of the big cities, being so blood red is just ridiculous.

[Aristus]

8. Well, even OKC and Tulsa are just basically Nazi Germany without the half-timbered houses.

I have cousins who live there, and nothing would tempt me to travel there to visit them. They can come to me...

[kimbutgar]

10. Funny aside, I agree with you about visiting Oklahoma

I have an autistic adult son who is obsessed with supermarkets. He saw this supermarket on You tube that has the cash checkout registers with the “beeps” he likes. He likes to ask me if I would take him to Oklahoma. I always give him the same answer. We know nobody there, there is nothing to see there and why would I go to an ass backwards red state that has earthquakes caused by fracking? At least once a week I get that request from him about Oklahoma!

[BumRushDaShow]

11. I try to avoid going anywhere below the Mason-Dixon line

but I am trying not to tar and feather those states filled with crazies because there are still (outnumbered and often-suppressed) Democrats in all of them.

[Aristus]

12. Well,

if they can't turn even a single county in Oklahoma blue, they need to step up their game.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. Just like what happened (and continues to happen) in California

I think the same (in reverse) happened in OK. Birds of the feather flocked together and everyone else left (I expect OK Dems went to TX).

I remember when a number of folks from Simi Valley left CA for AZ (which made that state nuts) and ID. It's taken about 20 years to work through that in AZ.

[machoneman]

2. Well, tell your boss Putin to lower Russia's oil prices, you clown! n/m

n/m

[bucolic_frolic]

3. It's about his slim reelection chances

His tweets telegraph his intent: look at low oil prices, look at low taxes from shrinking the federal government, look at jobs.

Funny though, when we plan ahead how karma, irony, hubris, reality, and angry voters get in the way

[GeorgeGist]

4. The United States is the top oil-producing country in the world,

with an average of 14.86 million b/d, which accounts for 15.3% of the world's production. This is down from 15.12 million b/d in 2015, but it was enough to land the United States in the No. 1 spot, which it has held for the past four years running. The United States overtook Russia in 2012 for the No. 2 spot, and it surpassed former leader Saudi Arabia in 2013 to become the world's top oil producer. Much of the increased U.S. production is attributable to fracking in the shale formations in Texas and North Dakota. The United States has been a net exporter – i.e., exports exceeded imports – of oil since early 201

Read more: The World's Top Oil Producers of 2017 | Investopedia https://www.investopedia.com/investing/worlds-top-oil-producers/#ixzz5IJRiccFh
Follow us: Investopedia on Facebook

[MosheFeingold]

13. Correct

Nationally, oil is not nearly the drain on the economy it once was. It's additive, overall.

Now, does that make filling your tank less painful? Not particularly, no.

But as much as my adopted home of New Mexico loves to complain about "white platers" (what they, and I guess me now) call Texans -- white license plate -- the oilfield people are the lifeblood of the small town in which I live. But for them, the entire town would close.

[lark]

5. Sound and fury signifying nothing.

That's what this is, just pure noise for the base. There's no way he will tell his BFF's Putin and the Saudis to reduce their profits, he was handed huge profits from a sale of Rosneft so he wants the highest possible prices and this is just more shuck and jive, like his claims about reducing the cost of medical care and improving wages.

[truthisfreedom]

9. His advisors would never have allowed him to offend OPEC

Unless they could accurately forecast that the prices are on their way down or leveling off, so he can take fake credit.

[BumRushDaShow]

14. The prices always go up before Memorial Day

the excuse always being "Well it's the change to the 'summer blend'" and of course gouging before holidays.