I don't follow your logic. If and when prices recover, why wouldn't we be able to resume producing? I think low energy prices hurt the Russians and Saudis more than us, both short term and long term.
(Calling Daniel Yergin. Please pick up the white courtesy phone.)
Originally Posted by lustylad
Low energy prices do hurt government revenues and GDP in Russia and Saudi Arabia much more than they hurt us. If you ignore the effect on energy security and if prices stay low I'm not even sure this would have a net negative effect on our economy. This is where YOU need to pick up the white phone and call Yergin. He's not going to take my call, but there's no way he's going to fuck around with Steve Mnuchin.
Low prices however do hurt our oil and gas industry worse than theirs. Saudi Arabia is one of the world's lowest cost producers. Their industry can go through this unscathed. The Russians are low cost producers too. In percentage terms, the Russian government taxes its producers at much higher rates when the price of oil is high. From a link I'll place below, “Under the current tax regime, it is the Russian state that shoulders most of the risks associated with low oil prices, Marinchenko said. With crude at $50 Russian producers pay more than 40% of their revenues in taxes, his calculations show. If the price falls to $25 the share of taxes declines to just around 20%, and in the $15-$20 scenario, the fiscal burden nearly disappears, Marinchenko said."
Russian companies supposedly can break even around $20 a barrel. It's the Russian government that takes the biggest hit from low prices, in the form of lower government revenues.
Nevergaveitathought gives a excellent summary of the effect on the U.S. industry. I'd place the break even point for independents, with no return on capital, at about $45 per barrel in 2019, but that's quibbling. Based on past booms and busts, if this lasts long enough you'll see rigs salvaged for steel, wells plugged, and the labor force will leave the oil field and do something else. The financial effect on the producers and the service companies will be severe. The producers have way too much debt and at $35 per barrel the majority will go under.
A lot of U.S. production is now from shales and the like. You can drill these wells and get them on stream in months instead of the years that it takes to develop an offshore oil field or an enhanced recovery project. Shale wells come on at high rates and decline like a bat out of hell. The rate at the end of the first year of production is typically less than 50% of the rate at the start. This has its pluses and minuses. A minus is that it means in a relatively short period of time U.S. production will decline precipitously and we'll become a net importer of oil again, because we won't be drilling more wells with low oil prices. A plus is that when you ramp back up the industry when prices come up you can increase production quickly. But that's only if you've got the equipment, the manpower and the capital to do the job. And those are going to disappear if prices stay low long enough.
So should we do something about this? Tariffs on oil? Enforce limits on U.S. production? My gut tells me no, but that's above my pay grade. Another good question for Yergin.
Russian oil article:
https://fortune.com/2020/03/12/saudi...oil-price-war/