That's right, global oil prices fluctuate just like any other commodity, regardless of where it comes from. If oil is cheaper to produce in one country than another then the producer just makes more money, instead of the buyer getting it cheaper.
And although all the financial press (and regular press) quote headline oil prices, the actual barrel price in the market varies slightly depending on the quality and properties of the crude being produces. For instance the big one in the UK is Brent crude. This is quite a light crude and is easy to process, so Shell get a good price. On the other hand another large producing field is Schiehallion (she-hal-ion), which is a heavy, waxy crude, so takes more processing and you get less light oils from it. The light oils are the most valuable. BP get less per barrel of this than they would for Brent crude. So depending on the properties of the US crude being extracted, it could be less desirable than that from other countries. Also a lot of the middle east oil is extremely cheap to extract, so technically it *could* be cheaper to buy, if it wasn't for the global oil markets setting the price rather than buyers and sellers. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ben Ruset Sent: 23 May 2007 01:33 To: The Hardware List Subject: Re: [H] Evil or.... The problem (as I understand it) is that oil gets set a price of $X no matter where it comes from. I think this price is set by the people who buy and sell oil as a commodity. The only impact they feel is that the limo is a little more expensive to run from month to month. j maccraw wrote: > I stand corrected, but we're still taking about North > American oil not > OPEC/Arab/etc... which should not be as expensive as > some other > countries sources which was my point.
