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Ghost towns from oil rushes

Discussions about the economic and financial ramifications of PEAK OIL

Ghost towns from oil rushes

Unread postby EdwinSm » Mon 25 Jul 2016, 01:02:49

Over the last 150 years, oil booms and busts have given rise – and laid waste – to hundreds of towns across the world.


http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160715-the-ghost-towns-left-by-oil-booms-and-busts

The link is to a photo journalism piece on various oil towns that have gone bust. Some are old, some are from recent busts. They are from all around the world (although mostly from USA).

To paraphrase one regular poster "Its a Glut! of housing (in the wrong place)." Interestingly some of this glut of housing was never inhabited - so someone lost money on building for a future that never came expecting ever increasing trends of oil extraction [You know those graphs with future oil extraction always rising like IEA etc produces.]
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Re: Ghost towns from oil rushes

Unread postby onlooker » Mon 25 Jul 2016, 10:22:48

They're are also ghost towns from other kinds of over exuberance. Over reality speculation, contamination, economic problems etc. Just a sign of the times that mankind embarked on materialism as a worthwhile path. Not looking so worthwhile anymore.
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Re: Ghost towns from oil rushes

Unread postby ROCKMAN » Mon 25 Jul 2016, 11:39:17

Looker - The best "right time - right place" story I heard about the Eagle Ford play. Before the boom a guy had 20 acres with several metal storage buildings. Put it on the market for $250,000 and didn't have one person even look at it. And the shale boom. Service companies were suddenly desperately needed local supple depots. The guy leased (not sold) the property for $1.1 MILLION per year with a 5 year no cut contract.

He couid give the property away today for a tax credit and would still be way ahead. Told it before: very old oil patch saying about booms - Roll into town with the first wagonload of whores arrive and roll out when the first wagonload of production equipment shows up. As true today as it was 100 years ago. Just like Petrtohawk did when they sold their EFS acreage for $12 BILLION. The buyer (a public company) watched their stock price IMMEDIATELY slide down. And continued to do so long before the oil price collapsed. Forget the $12 billion they paid: thru today their stock price has lost $100 million.

So: pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered.
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Re: Ghost towns from oil rushes

Unread postby onlooker » Mon 25 Jul 2016, 12:11:27

I imagine Rock that much about the Oil business revolves around timing. Have to feel bad about the situation with the Tar Sands in Alberta. With the fires and the whole downturn in the fortunes related to the Oil price, it does not look like that any sort of rebound is in the cards. Funny, must have been that way with the Gold rush in this country. First ones in made their money, later maybe not so much. Move unto some other prospective area. Not too much left behind.
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Re: Ghost towns from oil rushes

Unread postby ROCKMAN » Mon 25 Jul 2016, 14:16:33

Yes...timing. Especially when it comes to the lag time. The rig count has come up a little bit but Big Oil knows how to play the lag time game:


Shell announced plans to cut about 2,200 jobs globally, according to the Associated Press.

These cuts include a 25 percent reduction of workers in deep water operations in the Gulf of Mexico with layoffs of about 190 out of the 770 employees stationed there.

"We are making these changes in order to remain competitive and better position Shell's Gulf of Mexico projects for future growth," said Shell spokeswoman Kimberly Windon. She also said that
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Re: Ghost towns from oil rushes

Unread postby StarvingLion » Mon 25 Jul 2016, 18:00:58

The Tar Sands has bankrupted the entire province no matter what the "price" of oil is. The reason the town burned down is because the province couldn't afford the firefighters. The few fire officials left were telling the brain dead politicians that it would burn down months previous to the calamity.

Of course the official reason from the bought and paid fors is "Climate change".

The resident experts laughable malarkey about timing is nonsense. Does he think oil exploration is like gold prospecting? Seriously?

The tar sands is facing technical problems.
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Re: Ghost towns from oil rushes

Unread postby ROCKMAN » Mon 25 Jul 2016, 18:34:41

"The reason the town burned down is because the province couldn't afford the firefighters." Truly hilarious: the pissed off kitty is suffering some serious delusions believing the province of Alberta actually invested in the oil sands. All it does is receive revenue. The province had estimated a budget of $2.8 billion from fossil fuels. But they actually collected $8.9 billion.
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