Marginal Cost of Oil Production
It does sound dull and a bit dry(no pun) but while all the furore continues about what it really means for the oil price falling to barrel production below $USD20 or lower, it is worth understanding what the marginal cost of oil production is ie what it costs per country to produce and transport an extra barrel of oil. At the top of the chart is Russia where it costs more than $120 to extract a barrel of oil in the Arctic oilfields. At the other end of the spectrum is Saudi Arabia where the corresponding price is $5. Up there is Canada $105 and the USA where shale oil costs $85. Venezuela is $20 and Qatar $15. In other words the Middle East remains the very cheapest producer of oil and Russia the most expensive.
And at $20 per barrel, this represents at best real pain and at worst oil production beyond the short term being economically non-viable in many countries.
A bulging (electronic) postbag over the weekend following our comment on Friday regarding the 10,000th edition making The Spectator the longest continuous magazine since it’s inauguration in 1828. As some of you have correctly pointed out for which our great thanks, newspapers to rival that record are as follows, with their respective founding dates: Berrow’s Worcester Journal 1690; Stamford Mercury 1712; Gloucester Gazette 1722; Yorkshire Post 1754.
Happy Birthday to Sheena Easton!
Born Sheena Orr in Scotland on this day in 1959, Sheena Easton has had a long and successful career mainly in the USA. Best known for her cover version of Dolly Parton’s Morning Train ( 9-5), Sheena Easton enjoyed consistent plaudits for her career during which she tackled the state of marriage with the same level of dedication having entered into it no less than four times. Divorced for the last time in 2003, Sheena Easton has managed to hang on to most of her loot and is conservatively worth USD 15 Million today.
Most of your will remember that she sang the title song of the 12th James Bond film, For Your Eyes Only in 1981. Here is a reminder:
For your eyes only, can see me through the night
For your eyes only, I never need to hide
You can see so much in me, so much in me that’s new
I never felt until I looked at you
Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder
Click Here to Subscribe to the SGM-FX Newsletter
Related Insights
Daily Brief – A short lived short squeeze?
Charles Porter
Tue 9 Dec 2025
A short lived short squeeze? Sterling is undoubtedly benefitting from a short squeeze. Traders on net had increased positions that benefit from Sterling’s demise leading into the budget. Depending upon the participant’s persuasion, that could have meant gaining an outright short exposure to the currency or, in a more mild form, trimming any or all […]
Daily Brief – A week out
Charles Porter
Tue 2 Dec 2025
A week out Markets are now in their final few trading days ahead of a Fed blackout that will precede the Reserve’s decision next Wednesday. The US government shutdown, despite now feeling like a distant memory, continues to weigh on the Dollar and market pricing in general. In particular, as we approach the decision next […]
Daily Brief – The Hassett Trade
Charles Porter
Thu 4 Dec 2025
The Hassett Trade Not another one, I hear you say. So far this year we’ve seen bandied around the TACO trade, the Trump put, FOMO trade, the MEGA trade, surely there isn’t another to surface before year end?! Wrong. The so-called Hassett trade is that which is currently pushing the Dollar lower but coming to […]
