Thread regarding Chevron Corp. layoffs

No reply? Or are you still trying to work out the math?

Do you know how much land is available in Saudi? Excuse the typing. Sorry for the offense. Solar panels won't work because even a day or two of dust destroys the efficiency. Good news is Saudi doesn't care about how many birds they fry so solar farming is easy. Yes they did try to use the land for farming but desalinization just became uneconomical. And, by the way, an army of really smart people is doing this math. Way smarter than me. Saudi is in crisis but no amount of spending will make any difference. The only way to keep peace is to fulfill the social contract. Every government knows this at some level. The Arab Spring dried up where the money stopped it which is the GCC. Love it or hate it, the loss of it will hurt everyone on this planet. Poverty is driving unrest regardless of religion. When the money dries up, problems come no matter where you live.

What is renevable energy? Solar? JUst sit down and do the math, how much area is needed for solar pannels to suply enough energy to NYC.

So, what do you plan? Install solar pannels and do farming in the shadow? Great idea. farmers will be happy. :)

I meant to say population and consumption growth. This is the main reason women can't drive. It is economics. If you're married you know the math. Now add a bunch of zeroes. The country is protecting its unrenewable assets because other options are limited. They could build industries to compete with the Chinese or Indians. The resources are there. The work ethic is not. Some day it will have to be it may be to late. I am trying to explain the urgency but doing a poor job of it. Will be out from underneath a proxy server in two days and maybe I can do better. I still stand by shale oil and Obama making kissey face with Iran was the perfect storm. Now Obama saying COP21 is his legacy - the Trifecta.

Back in the day, the ME strategy was to relax and sell oil to sustain the next two generations. Just sit back, do nothing and life is good. That was not well thought out but there was no urgency. The money flowed, people prospered and population boomed. Based on current population and consumption, the largest ME exporter of oil will become a net importer in about 2025. Just like Indonesia. So cash flow becomes cash ebb. The ME is urgently trying to come up with a new economic model and are funding it with oil. With or without COP21, fossil fuels never had a future. I think there is a barrel cost that someone believes will achieve the strategy to kill shale oil.I don't know what that is but certainly below $50. If it goes too low then political pressure becomes too great so this is a tight rope act. Unfortunately for us, the US government has no real skin in the game. High or low price doesn't matter. Both have their pluses and minuses to the US. The only real risk the US faces here is that Russia is winning the game of Risk. If the US can move quickly to renewable energy, the threat is diminished. Oil and countries dependent on it for GDP are a one trick pony. Dubai has little oil. They are getting rich on real estate but that is the tallest house of cards in the world. You can only flip houses for so long. The ones who lose at this musical chairs are the real winners.

The original Saudi strategy was wrapped up in the ill-fated "Arab Spring". Remember how Obama almost used to wet himself when talking about it? It was just the most wonderful thing! (It's purpose was nothing more than to insure the fall of Shia regimes in certain M.E. countries, which would be replaced by Sunni ones,... ie., The Muslim Brotherhood, in Egypt, which Obama almost ejaculated over. Sorry about that.) The funniest part of all THAT was Obama shooting off his misshapen mouth about how the Arab Spring gave life to "the wishes of the people", and then, the wishes of the people reversed the results of the Arab Spring. At least, in Egypt. The Arab Spring having failed, the Saudis began funding left over Al Quaeda and other dissidents in Syria, for the express purpose of getting rid of Assad (Shia), and also, to clear the way for a natural gas pipeline from Qatar to Europe, running through Saudi Arabia and Syria. Barry became quite excited, about then, over removing Assad, reputedly for having used chemical weapons against his own people (does it occur that the "moderate rebels" might have had more incentive to do this, than did Assad? Just asking.) That's when Baryy drew the laughably effeminate Pink, uhhhh, sorry, RED Line, and was all set to actually FIGHT Assad! Until the Russians sent several warships to Tartus (their port in Syria), and Barry's nuts (small and insignificant though they may be) shriveled up, completely, and the matter just "up and died". Months later, however, and BOOM! Russian military lands in Syria, Iranian troops flow in, too. Barry and the Saudis are kind of "out of the picture" one might say. And, now,... all the Saudis have is their ability to over-supply the crude market. Hmmmm. I don't think Iran and Russia are going to TAKE that too much longer, as both countries depend upon revenues from their energy sectors. One thing for sure,... Russia is all about RUSSIA, and they're in the M.E. because they have long desired greater sway over the region. Once they had taken the measure of Gay Barry's ineptitude and outright cowardice (Ukraine and Crimea), their move into the M.E. was a no-brainer. What the Russians DO, now, and how they do it, remains to be seen, but their economy is hurting and it's based predominantly upon energy revenues. That should give us some hints about what's to come.

What's Saudi's strategy?

@EU4JnD8-1wtk is right 100% right here. Shale is really in the center of all of this. It's not black and white as many things are playing out right now, but all of it is secondary to shale oil.

I second 1wtk. Saudis are doing what they think is in their best interests. Obama is not that clever.

Just another conspiracy theory. Hurting Russia is a result of depressed prices but hurting Iran is a more direct benefit of lower prices which would be a response to Obama lifting sanctions. So to give Obama any credit in this global game of chicken is misguided and assigning more intelligence to Obama than he has yet to demonstrate. This has always been about shale oil and nothing more. Everything else is just collateral damage. Saudi causing damage to Russia is not in their interests and they will not put themselves at risk to help the USA since the USA is giving them the cold shoulder. Russia just needs a couple of stray cruise missles and oil goes to $140 overnight. So Obama encouraging Russia to be in Syria is also going against Saudi. The Saudi strategy is really genius considering Obama left them with so few options. If Cheney had left Sadam alone, life would still be good. I van't even blame Bush because he was just Blowfeld's little white cat.