OPEC ramps production; prices expected to crash

I'm not sure that it would be true for American shale oil producers. If the price of crude drops below the cost of production for those producers Trump will probably do what he did in 2020 when he pressured Saudi Arabia to cut back production.
From 2020
Special Report: Trump told Saudi: Cut oil supply or lose U.S. military support - sources

 

Am I the only one that can say I honestly rarely even look at gas prices. I sorta know which places generally have the cheapest or I just use costco.

I mean i have to have it so what difference does ot make?

 

so people can be outraged about something

 

I think it is funny all of a sudden the Dem's here are worried about America's oil producers losing work. Of course before Trump was in office they were all for doing away with gas and running everything on solar and wind to power the electric cars and stoves. Even outlawing gas stoves and appliances was on the table. I didn't see a bunch of crying here about the coal workers losing their jobs either.

 

Are they worried or looking at the potential political benefit where the administration gets blamed for external market forces?

 

It doesn’t even require some imaginary motive.

When oil prices go down, some oil projects get below their breakeven extraction cost, and thus gets shut down or paused. This causes regional layoffs. It’s just stating a fact.

 

And just about every product the average person uses should go down in price from the lower cost of moving it around the country. Also people will save money on gas and they can spend that on other products.

 

Yes, now they can afford to spend more on all the products that the federal government has decided needs to be priced higher (and, when the Trump folks decide to bail out the oil industry for "national security," we can pay for that as well with debt that will cost more as demand for US debt has been lowered).

 

And why Trump pressured Saudi Arabia to cut production in 2020.

 

That would be true in normal circumstances. At least on the margins lower transport costs should help offset inflation (or at least hold down costs associated with transportation of goods). But most likely tariff concerns dwarf any modest gain one might normally expect to see from transportation costs (transport companies are very rapid at passing through “fuel surcharges”, not so efficient when it comes to passing through fuel savings).

 

Just to temper expectations, the price of fuel is only 50% comprised of crude oil costs. So even a 50% crude oil price reduction with a 10% transportation cost of average good would at most be a 2.5% decrease, if a retailer passes it through.

 

Yep and when a flea farts in china the price at the pump jumps within minutes.