Anyone wonder why the lowering of oil prices?

reddwarf2002

[Strictly not motoring but it has a impact on this section]

Recently oil prices seemed to be on a downwards trend so it got me thinking. I did a little digging and came across something that could be a game changer for the energy market:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Low-Energy-Nuclear-Reactio-by-Christopher-Calder-Andrea-Rossi_Energy-Policy_Industrial-Heat-Llc_Lenr-141013-530.html

Is this why oil has taken a nose dive? It looks like it will be getting towards being commercially available very soon in which case the middle east will be having nightmares. Petrol prices could come down to 30p a litre in the future...

[Deleted User]

Surely oil prices should go up up up to conserve what is left of it.

OddballJamie

The duty on a litre of petrol in the UK is 58p, then VAT on top.

30p a litre just isn't possible.

BeenThroughItAll

Looking at the quality of the 'news' on that website, I wouldn't believe a word they say about anything.

reddwarf2002

Deleted_User wrote: »

Surely oil prices should go up up up to conserve what is left of it.

If you are no longer heavily dependent on oil then it won't go up. I believe all the main oil producing countries such as the middle east will be panicking if such technology is introduced as their commodity will take a nose dive. Apparently the LENR technology only requires very small amount of oil; it uses Nickel and Lithium to create a nuclear reaction to create the energy.

bsms1147

Cold fusion ain't gonna happen.

Bollotom

Long ago (Not in a galaxy far away) a bloke designed a carburettor that was fed from the fuel tank and another tank of water. The idea being that a reduced amount of fuel would be allowed into the combustion chamber and an atomised squirt of water would be fired in at the same time. The idea being that the amount of petrol used would reduce thus costs would be reduced significantly. However, I believe someone got the rights and it was then quietly dropped. Now if anyone invents something that will harm the massive profits of the oil companies, and the revenue to the treasury, it will either be got rid of or a way of taxation found to stiff the motorist. Quietly the price of LPG is creeping up, electic cars, even with chargers around every corner need a good amount of time to recharge and you couldn't go from London to Edinburgh in one hop. We've had amphibian cars, submarine cars and flying cars. Petrol, diesel, gas, electric, solar powered cars. I even knew a farmer once who had an old banger towed by his horse so innovation isn't new. AS LONG AS HM TREASURY GET THEIR POUND OF FLESH. :cool:

DominicH

The LENR thing linked to in the OP has been around for a while. The guy behind it, Andrea Rossi, is a convicted fraudster with a track record in bogus energy-producing inventions.
So, no, I don't think oil prices fall because of anything he gets up to. More likely, changes in oil policy around the world. There's more competition from the US especially now, more drilling, fracking etc.

bod1467

I thought this thread was going to be about the Rocketing Feather ... when oil prices rise, fuel prices rise quickly; when oil prices fall, fuel prices slowly float back.

cootuk

Geo-politics?

The Russian budget was set with oil at $100/barrel.
This is hurting them more than any sanctions the US might want to impose.

Dropping to $80/barrel will make the US oil shale business a bit touch and go, so again good for Saudi etc

Nilrem

Oil pricing has taken a drop because America is producing more of it's own oil via fracking and other methods, and OPEC have (unusually) not decided to reduce production to keep the prices high.


As has been said the guy behind the "reactor" is a convicted fraudster and has so far refused to let it be tested in any shape or form by anyone independent, all the tests so far have had the fairly major flaw that, from memory, he has been the one taking key measurements of what has gone into it, and the output, which makes it very easy to "fix" the figures, as he can put say X amount of power in, and claim that it's really 25% of X, then if the output is even just 50% of X it's "outputting more than is going in!".
Realistically if it was a breakthrough he'd be a billionair within a few years*, as oil and gas (let alone normal nuclear energy) is expensive to get into a usable and safe form, so the big energy companies would be falling over themselves to get hold of the technology as they could potentially increase their profit margins massively, even if they dropped the retail price of energy hugely.


*And I think he's been making these claims for about 5 years at least (in which time if it was real he'd probably be on his way to getting richer than Bill Gates).