Frequent commenter “Unlikely Hospitalist” points out this CNN interview:
CNN) — Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal said Sunday that he wants oil prices to drop so that the United States and Europe don’t accelerate efforts to wean themselves off his country’s supply.
In an interview broadcast Sunday on “CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS,” the grandson of the founding king of modern Saudi Arabia said the oil price should be somewhere between $70 and $80 a barrel, rather than the current level of over $100 a barrel.
“We don’t want the West to go and find alternatives, because, clearly, the higher the price of oil goes, the more they have incentives to go and find alternatives,” said Talal, who is listed by Forbes as the 26th richest man in the world.
As UH notes, this might be seen by some as a signal to short oil futures.
$70 is still $45 too high for this product. While at the same time it would probably sell for a while at $300 a barrel. he is right though, but I think his price is a bit too high. We have coming online right now $20/barrel equivalent natural gas conversion from Katar and Texas seems to have process to be able to turn coal into fuel for about the same. At some point also, Americans are going to get over their fear of nuclear power, and a run up in low cost nuclear plants would leave enough spare energy around to convert many natural elements into fuel sources on the cheap.
They don’t have to worry as long as their pal Obama is in office. Their only competition will be the wind from the windbag.
Thanks for the link, Charlie. Finally got a chance to sit down and put thoughts to paper, er blogpost.
http://punditpress.blogspot.com/2011/06/opponents-to-natural-gas-make-very_05.html