DailyDirt: Who Doesn't Like Cheap Oil?

For a pretty good stretch, the price of a barrel of oil was about $90-$100, but now the price is around $35 or so. That's a good bargain for some consumers, but on the other hand, thousands of oil workers aren't working and plenty of companies that bet on oil prices staying high are going out of business. The simplified explanation is that the current oil supply exceeds the demand for it -- and it takes some time/politics for oil production to adapt. Oil prices might start to go back up significantly in 2017, but in the meantime, there are about 68 oil projects around the world worth about $380 billion that are on hold for a while.

• The price of oil has dropped dramatically over the last year or so, and for certain low-grade crude oil, the price can be as low as negative $0.50 per barrel. Take away this toxic waste that could also be turned into fuel, please.... [url]
• The Kashagan oil field has sucked in about $50 billion (and counting) from companies trying to tap into this enormous reservoir of oil (estimates say 16 billion barrels). However, some folks refer to it as "cash all gone" because after a couple decades of work, there have been a few major setbacks and engineering challenges -- and there's a chance that the oil might start pumping regularly in 2017. [url]
• The US spent about half a billion dollars in Afghanistan to develop oil, gas and minerals industries, but there's not much to show for it. Drilling and mining ain't easy, but it's even harder when armed militias are actively trying to destroy everything. Still, a hydrocarbon industry worth many billions (even with low oil prices) could potentially exist -- but there are just a few enormous problems to overcome first. [url]

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