Too bad US when frackers can't compete
There will indeed come a moment when fracking will not be competitive and those producers will cap their wells until the price rebounds. That is life in a capitalist market. Of course, we could decide that keeping the downward pressure on oil's price in is America's best interest and subsidize our frackers. In any event I am not accepting the message that we must keep oil prices artificially high as has been the case for most of the last 42 years.
Why would anyone spend millions of dollars drilling a ******* hole in the ground just to "cap" it?
Wells aren't simply "capped". They are either plugged (another very expensive project), or they are re-permitted to what is called "Temporarily Abandon" or "Future Use" (idle) status.
There are over 700,000 "marginal" wells in the U.S. Marginal is defined as making 10 or less barrels of oil per day. They are most often older wells and make 90 barrels of salt water for every one barrel of oil produced. For this reason, they are very expensive to operate and maintain. Most of these marginal wells are owned and operated by small companies, often family owned proprietorships.
"Subsidize frackers"?
That'll be the day. No one gives a flying ****.
Crude prices will soon reach the point where foreign countries are dumping their product on our market at below cost (if they aren't already). This is against trade laws. It's happened with steel and other goods. In those cases the U.S. government did step in and provide trade protections. Not so with oil or natural gas.
Clinton sat idly by and allowed $10 oil into this country and the result was devastating. Thousands of companies went down the shitter and tens of thousands lost their jobs. Domestic production plummeted and imports rose.
Obama will do exactly the same. Because he, like everyone else, does not give a ****.
