How Politicians Unknowingly Hurt The Oil Industry

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Political actions often impose costs on the oil industry and consumers that are not obvious.

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e"war profiteering," taking aim at businesses' record profits as households grapple with soaring inflation. One of the dumbest political soundbites was President Obama saying, about a bridge, “You didn’t build that.” His basic argument was sound: government not business provides public goods like infrastructure.

Politicians—like most of the population—generally have no sense of economics, let alone business, and frequently take steps that are economically irrational because they don’t perceive the costs being inflicted on companies. Most egregiously, setting regulations and then canceling them means that companies are forced to make investments to satisfy them, and then write them off as losses.

But also, if governments take steps that interfere with project developments, the delays add to costs but again, in a manner that isn’t very transparent. A company that buys a lease in the Gulf of Mexico and then finds drilling or development delayed because of a government interdiction is bearing a significant cost—the interest payments on the money spent for an idle project. And if production is postponed, the net present value of the investment drops, sometimes significantly.

In the figure below, I compare the discounted present value of an income stream from a stereotypical shale oil well . In the first case, the well is drilled and brought on line in a couple of years and then production and revenue start and decline abruptly, as is typical for such wells.

 

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ZERO AFRICA'S DEPENDENCE TO THE WEST

Knowingly. Fixed it.

Oh we all knew and are thankful for it lol

Unknowingly lol

good.

They should figure out how they're doing it so they can start hurting the oil industry knowingly.

The Greatest theft of wealth from the American middle class and Poor. The Biden Family and his friends in the FBI lined their pockets with lies.

Unknowingly. Please

These next 2 yrs can't go fast enough these people are crooks bigger than ever

Unknowingly? Biden did it on purpose.

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