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
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.
