Oil firms impose 'big' price hikes as "Lent 2012" starts

**Retz** · February 22nd, 2012 05:13 PM

piso ang dagdag centimos ang baba.

**niky** · February 22nd, 2012 05:17 PM

The protesters should just shut up and stop complaining.

As if the government has enough money to subsidize all that fuel. Even oil producing nations can no longer subsidize fuel. Look at the trouble Nigeria is in because transport unions won't let them drop subsidies.

Oil companies no longer have intrinsic control over the market. They can't adjust supply to meet demand, and they can't dictate prices. Prices are dictated by market forces. If they charge too much, demand collapses. If they charge too little, the high demand and competition for the supply will push the price right back up thanks to speculation. That's why they're producing more than they really want to (naturally, they'll want to conserve their own supplies for future use. Eventually, this is what will happen.)

Scariest graph you'll see today:

This is a track of oil production versus oil price over the past decades. Notice how inelastic production is, even when price peaks at an insanely high level, they can't produce more. Even when prices crash back down below $60 per barrel, they dare not stop production. That means there's very little left that's in the hands of the oil companies. No matter what they do, they can't pump enough oil to meet demand, which just keeps growing, whereas global supply doesn't.

This is it, boyos. Peak oil. Not fifty years in the future, not twenty years in the future... now. Fuel prices are not going to go down significantly from here on in, not unless global demand slumps dramatically... which would require a nuclear war between India and China that kills off all their oil-hungry citizens. Then maybe the US and Europe will do us a favor and all die off of old age...

**vinj** · February 22nd, 2012 05:30 PM

Originally Posted by uls

vinj:

haha

di kasi affected si shadow sa ganyan

fuel price increase? kiliti lang yan... di pa nga kiliti eh... di niya nararamdaman yan

Ultimo pag nakasabay niya sa gas station ang pagtaas ng gasolina, maghihintay pa siya ng 6:01 or 12:01 para higher price na ikakarga sa kanya... ok lang.

P100/L here we come!!! Be afraid, be very afraid.

*niky, of course we'll never see the protesters understand all that.

**niky** · February 22nd, 2012 05:43 PM

Originally Posted by vinj

*niky, of course we'll never see the protesters understand all that.

Yeah, it's for the benefit of all the people here complaining about those "****ing greedy oil companies" and showing how futile such ranting is.

I don't see anyone clamoring to boycott the big three anymore...

...Sige na... let's boycott gasoline and diesel. Let's try to dent that consistent 86 mega-barrel production by removing the Philippines from the equation, when even $40 per barrel oil wasn't enough to do it...

**ghosthunter** · February 22nd, 2012 05:47 PM

**shadow** · February 22nd, 2012 06:23 PM

Originally Posted by uls

vinj:

haha

di kasi affected si shadow sa ganyan

fuel price increase? kiliti lang yan... di pa nga kiliti eh... di niya nararamdaman yan

Seriously, sumasabay Lang tayo sa over reaction sa TV eh, not really amount Kung titingnan mo...we use our cars naman for a purpose I mean gagamitin dahil Meron pupuntahan and not just mindlessly use it just for the heck of it...

At least mawawala na drag racing sa macapagal...Wala ng pan gas mga Honda fanbois, racer wannabe

**uls** · February 22nd, 2012 10:12 PM

add to niky's post

when there's oil being extracted from a new oil field somewhere, less oil is being extracted from an old oil field somewhere else. that's why global oil production has basically flatlined

that's why they're extracting oil from tar sands, oil shale. that's why they're drilling in deep water. coz there's rampant depletion

**lowslowbenz** · February 22nd, 2012 10:31 PM

Use the cars alternately. In our case, mahirap na hindi mag kotse. Security is one reason. Nowadays, mahirap magtiwala sa public transport.

**Bin Diesel** · February 22nd, 2012 11:15 PM

di pa gaano mafifeel yan nung nag 60+ nga per liter dami pa rin sasakyan sa daan e.

**niky** · February 22nd, 2012 11:43 PM

Yeah. The crunch will only become apparent likely around 100 Php per liter. Only then will most people adapt, but by then it'll be a bit late to sell your suddenly unwanted gasoline vehicle. As it is, so many people are now using motorcycles... more and more will do so in the years to come. If a jeepney costs twenty bucks just for a kilometer or two, a motorbike which can go 40 kilometers on just 100 bucks will start to look like a huge bargain. Hell.. considering minimum fare on a Jeepney is 8 bucks and a motorcycle can go 40 kilometers on just 50 bucks now, motorbikes are already a big bargain.

Some people might even downgrade to bicycles.

Originally Posted by lowslowbenz

Use the cars alternately. In our case, mahirap na hindi mag kotse. Security is one reason. Nowadays, mahirap magtiwala sa public transport.

Not really. Not unless you're very well known and very wealthy. I sometimes take the bus if it's too much trouble to bring the car.

Yeah, there are robberies every few weeks, and snatchings every day. But then again, there are carnappings every week, anyway. Which is scarier? Losing your wallet or losing your car? Take not, in a bus robbery, there are so many targets that nobody gets shot (waste of bullets). In a carnapping, they will sometimes shoot you even before you have a chance to surrender.

Originally Posted by uls

add to niky's post

when there's oil being extracted from a new oil field somewhere, less oil is being extracted from an old oil field somewhere else. that's why global oil production has basically flatlined

that's why they're extracting oil from tar sands, oil shale. that's why they're drilling in deep water. coz there's rampant depletion

Even worse... extraction from tar sands and oil shale won't provide that much in terms of volume, and yet the cost of extraction is much more than for regular petroleum.

Conspiracy theorists bang on about the collusion of government and oil companies. It's given. Big business is always in bed with the government. But that's not the whole picture. We pay the devil because there's nothing cheaper to produce than petroleum-based oil.

It's all in the EROI (energy return on investment), baby. If you can't get much more energy out of a process than you put in... then it's not worth doing. And refining oil shale and tar sand is a level of desperation nearly on par to refining ethanol from food crops (which only works because of huge tax subsidies, but is, in the end, energy negative).

In short, we're plucked. Our goose is cooked. Our ass is grass.

In other words. Stop moaning and start saving your money. Hard times are ahead. Only way to escape high oil prices is to completely stop using it. Which means... mag-bisikleta nalang tayo lahat!