Gasoline prices, Oil by the barrel and employment

Forget $20 - Oil Prices At $8 Per Barrel In Canada . The price for a barrel of bitumen, the tar-like oil sands that comes from Alberta, fell to just over $8 per barrel this week. Bitumen traded at $8.35 per barrel on Tuesday.

oilprice.com...

An estimated $380 billion worth of oil and gas projects have been cancelled since 2014 Standard Chartered, says oil could fall to $10 per barrel.

originally posted by: TheBandit795
Meanwhile the airline industry is profiting.

As is the food (supermarket) industry. I remember their reasoning for skyrocketing food prices over the last few years was the cost of gas/shipping. But, now that those prices are way down, food keeps going up.

I call BS.

don't know if north dakota is big in oil production or not, think it is, but I've been seeing a bunch of non-related layoffs occurring in my area so I thought I do a google search and get a view of it outside my area...
I don't usually do a search for just the work layoff so I don't know if there is more than usual or not. but of all the ones I saw, I found this one to be rather amusing for some reason...

it's an editorial letter but still...

I find it both tragic and ironic that, considering the recent changes in North Dakota’s economy, Job Service recently announced it will be laying-off sixty employees because of budget shortfalls. As unemployment claims soar through our state and our working families are forced to tighten their belts, our state leaders have decided to coldly hamstring the one agency meant to help working people overcome the hardships due to layoffs and job searches.

www.grandforksherald.com...

I'll let yas know if I find a story about the IRS cutting the bulk of it's workforce in order to avoid giving us our taxmoney back!!

Everyone talks about oil over supply. Is that because of over drilling? Or is is because of lack of demand for oil? Global shipping is at record lows, whether maritime, trains, or trucking. If there is less demand for oil, due to the lack of shipping and transportation, of course the prices will fall. This is not good for the global economy.

a reply to: TheChrome

I think a better way to put it would be it's the sign of a global economy slowing down very quickly!
but, I guess to be fair it could be a result of a type of economic warfare between US allies and russia and her allies.
but my bet is on the first.

originally posted by: TheChrome
Everyone talks about oil over supply. Is that because of over drilling? Or is is because of lack of demand for oil? Global shipping is at record lows, whether maritime, trains, or trucking. If there is less demand for oil, due to the lack of shipping and transportation, of course the prices will fall. This is not good for the global economy.

From what I've heard, US production of unconventional was ramped up by borrowing drastically on the expectation of sufficient growth in demand at a time were prices were high, and oil producing countries not allowing prices to fall too drastically. But the reduced demand combined with oil producing countries not cutting production to stabilize prices has resulted in drastic fall in prices.

Some say had demand actually kept up with expected growth, production wouldn't have been able to keep up and would have curtailed it anyway. Production has only been able to keep up due to low demand. But conventional oil production is falling in most of the world, it is believed the major producers of conventional oil are at or near max production capacity, and the unconventional wells drop production rapidly(by like 95% in a couple of years), with peak unconventional in the near future for the US followed by a sharp fall in production.

As unconventional is more expensive and not viable at these low prices, I would say it is likely the producers of unconventional will face hard times ahead especially if they borrowed heavily to do so.

It is going to be interesting to see what happens. Low prices for years to come? Or violent price swings as production continues to fall(in part driven by price volatility) and might not be able to keep even with lowered demand.... causing a global economic meltdown.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

I can confirm the decline here in ND. in the last year there has been a major drop off in drilling. A year ago you couldn't find anywhere to live, even camper spots were at least 700 a month with waiting lists as long as my arm. Now, there are open spots everywhere and I have seen at least a 30% decline in traffic over the last six months.

My husband has gone from working all the hours he can possibly handle to forty to forty five hours a week. His job is uncertain and other jobs are dropping considerably. People are leaving in droves. Just quitting their jobs and selling what they have accumulated up here over the last five or so years.


The banks are foreclosing on a massive amount of homes that were originally sold for hugely inflated prices to begin with. Businesses are closing at an astonishing rate and people are waking up to the fact that the 20 year oil boom they had been promised is actually ending now.

I'm staying where I am. I love the country and the people as well as the school. Others aren't so lucky and are looking for a way, any way back home.

Low oil cost at the pump is great for consumers, but it's hurting those in the O&G industry. Many O&G companies are laying off thousands of people. Schlumberger cut total of 34,000 jobs by early 2016.

Here's a brief article I came up on briefly explaining what's going on in Oil & Gas

Our gas is just under $5 a gallon..we get shafted as usual regardless of the price of oil, tremendous job losses in Alberta.

a reply to: vonclod

Still under $1.75 here in New Jersey despite the recent increases.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

It seems our price doesn't change too much regardless of oil cost, we have given up our refineries, and lots of taxes added localy ..our dollar as well doesn't help.