Talk Over Whiskey, Fight Over Water

View from the booth:

The conclusion from this information: Shell was waiting for the price of oil to get stably high enough above a certain point to make the extraction of oil shale possible. Do not delude yourselves: the price of a gallon of gas is going to get very, very, very expensive and will not come down unless the government nationalizes the oil business or takes some other measures to stop the imbalance in supply and demand to control the lives of ordinary Americans so suddenly and with such ferocity. If Shell (and the rest) thought that it could make money on the extraction of oil from rock before, and they did, having tried it in 1973, but getting burned financially when the bottom fell out of the oil market (oh that it would again!). They well know that the price of oil is going to stay where it is, so they go right after it, wherever it is cheapest or they stand to make the most money. They are not altruists.

Randy Shiner