Gas and oil are practically inexhaustible, prices are political and speculative

One of the most important and permanent news in the national and world news media are the irregular variations in oil prices. When the trend is upward, there is a generalized alarm that the increase is due to the decrease in existing reserves and that oil will be ending very soon. 

What are we going to do?

Suddenly, unexpectedly the price of a barrel that exceeded $ 120 began to fall to scratch the $ 20 and then began to rise again. Now it is at 70 dollars a barrel.

How is it explained?

The predictions of the scarcity of hydrocarbons, which because they are fossil (hypothetically) were limited only to the upper layers of the earth's crust, ran the risk of exhaustion, have been refuted by the stubborn reality.

In the light of many data (which break the eyes) the belief of the fossil origin of oil has been transformed into a dogmatic budget whose veracity is, at least, doubtful.

In reality, the prices of hydrocarbons, particularly the prices of liquid petroleum, are very little related to abundance or scarcity, and instead are the result of political decisions and speculative financial movements.

When it was necessary to increase prices to increase the profits of the oil companies, political measures were taken to make this happen, generally by the (sometimes very artificial) outbreak of wars in the oil countries (eg Irák, Iran, Kuwait). , Libya).

Then the swings of international geopolitics, and due to the renewal of the Cold War, it was convenient to lower prices as an instrument to weaken the enemies of the US on the international scene: Russia and its allies, Iran and to a lesser degree Venezuela.

This decline in prices, also artificial, produced only in part the consequences expected by the great powers (especially the economic groups that control the United States and Western Europe) because it ended up affecting also Saudi Arabia, which although it seems lie is having financial problems .

Because of this, there are conversations of supposedly irreconcilable allies.

As you can see, international politics is less and less a question of ideas, and in the end, economic and political interests are the ones that rule.

From the book Geography and geopolitics of oil and gas natrural !, D.Antón, Piriguazú Ediciones