It is not that simple. The cost of producing a barrel of oil is around $4 in Saudi Arabia, $20 in Venezuela, $12 in Russia, $36 in the United States and about $49 in Brazil. So if oil goes down to $45 per barrel, the Saudis will be left with $41 per barrel in profit, while the Venezuelans will get only $25 per bl. So the Venezuelans can't afford the same luxuries, which the Saudis are indulging in.
Yep - fair point - I can't find too much fault there.
Not that this detracts away from my point regarding the socio-political priorities and aspirations of the respective governments in question.
Here is Rystad Energy’s list of production costs for the 20 largest oil-producing countries:
Kuwait – $8.50 a barrel
Saudi Arabia – $9.90
Iraq – $10.70
United Arab Emirates – $12.30
Iran – $12.60
Russia – $17.20
Algeria – $20.40
Venezuela – $23.50
Libya – $23.80
Kazakhstan – $27.80
Mexico – $29.10
China – $29.90
Nigeria – $31.60
Colombia – $35.30
Angola – $35.40
Norway – $36.10
United States – $36.20
Canada – $41.00
Brazil – $48.80
United Kingdom – $52.50
Interesting to note the cost of extraction of Iraqi oil - and we all know who owns the Iraq oil. With the possible exception of spendulus that is
![Roll Eyes](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/rolleyes.gif)
Draw from this list the conclusions that you see fit about the reasons the US's oligarchs have shelled out $trillions of taxpayers hard earned in military spending in the Persian Gulf/Middle East over the last 40 years.
I'll not go into the 4.5 thousand US lives lost in the Iraq conflict (none were ExxonMobil Execs afaik) - or the half million Iraqi deaths.
It has to be said, however, that the balance of power has shifted in the energy security wars - it has shifted well and truly away from the Seven Sisters towards the BRICS loose coalition - and they seem to be able to do it without spending almost 1/5 of their publics tax revenue on the military for some reason.