What next for Oil prices?

[FatLazyContractor]

While I personally don't care about the loss of an autocrat, I am quite interested in how this could affect the oil prices.

BBC News - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz dies

[eek]

While I personally don't care about the loss of an autocrat, I am quite interested in how this could affect the oil prices.

BBC News - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz dies

Utterly irrelevant. There is a surplus of oil around the world. The worrying bit is that I don't know if its totally due to excess supply or lack of demand. If the former lower prices may fix that, if the latter there are bigger things to be concerned about..

[tomtomagain]

Don't think it's going to effect prices much. Maybe a short-term blip.

The fundamentals driving a lower price are still in place. And the pressure is still down.

• Slow down in China and generally weak economy.
• Significant new resources brought on stream. Especially US shale.
• Migration of the worlds transport fleets to electric/hybrid power.
• Improving energy efficiency in the West.

Oil is a commodity and historically has given a high price by implying that we've reached "Peak Oil" and that therefore it's going to run out some time soon.

Fracking has opened up massive new reserves and therefore it is now clear that we've not reached "Peak Oil" and we've not reached "Peak-Oil-Extraction Technology".

But we may have reached "Peak Demand".

[Zero Liability]

The only issue with fracking, as a capital intensive industry, could be the withdrawal of QE, as a lot of credit has flown into it, if the Fed really does go through with it; as a good deal of 'growth' and job creation is related to the oil boom, I can't see the Fed doing it if things get bad.

[NotAllThere]

I understood it to be that OPEC feel threatened by the US's attempts to be self-sufficient. By over-supplying the oil price goes down, and fracking isn't economic.

[AtW]

fracking isn't economic.

It will be more economic once those involved in fracking would decide whether they prefer lower than before income vs zero income. I know what I'd choose, at least in short term.