Oil is a commodity like Wheat, Corn, etc. Futures market is not to blame. People enter into Futures contracts to hedge their risk. A buyer and a seller agree on a price and quantity for some time period into the future...3 months, 6 months, 1 year, etc. These are legally binding contracts. When the Global pandemic took hold Futures contract holders still had to honor their agreements. Storage problems were an issue and that is why the spot market went negative because no one wanted to buy those futures contracts. We are coming up on 1 year since pandemic started so a lot of the pre-COVID Futures contracts are finishing up. With storage costs, etc. adding up I'm sure that is flowing through increasing oil spot prices.
Current administration's policies will result in higher oil prices. Policies may not have caused bulk of increase but will certainly keep them higher as demand normalizes. We shall see...
I am aware of how it works. Hence the assholes speculating about pricing.
Just tried to make it simple.
As for the current administration having some effect on sustaining some of the higher prices.
By not allowing new drilling on protected land and waters.
I can live with that. But I must be alone because who needs clean water and why would we want to protect land that is habitat to whatever endangered whatever living there.
Why should the Arctic wildlife refuge need oil and gas exploration? Or why the Tongass forest should remain a protected forest?
I'm not exactly an environmentalist by any means but we have learned a thing or two over the years.
Maybe start doing something about the roughly 3million abandoned oil and gas wells in the US of which about 2/3 aren't even capped before f'ing up more places.
You know the equivalent cleaning up after yourself. So the protected land will be treated differently?
The pipeline well I can't say much as they don't want one running across our country to get it to our own refineries.
The pipeline wouldn't keep the price of fuel down by that much in the US anyways.
First our oil is expensive to get out of the ground. The price of oil now finally is around break even. Then the oil would cost more to refine because it isn't exactly the cleanest.
Yes savings in transport but then how much is offset by inspections and maintenance much of which is in the middle of nowhere pretty much.
None of this changes the fact that a great many think Trump deserves the credit for the low gas prices. Then in turn blame Biden for it going up.
I was simply trying to point out that there is way more going on than just political policies of the US Gov't.