Russia and Ukraine flashpoint

[Bofferbrauer2]

shavenferret said:

The russian oil market has collapsed, as prices are in the low 50's per barrel over there. I see articles saying that the oil companies aren't making a profit when spot prices are lower than $60 or so per barrel. But i'm sure that Ukraine can help Russia figure out which refineries should be shut down.

Here's an article for reference.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/russian-urals-oil-prices-fell-lowest-level-since-2023-brent-price-collapsed-2025-04-07/

After some digging and a helpful TLDR video linked below, $64 is what is needed for shale oil companies to make a profit. For Russia, this is much lower however, at around $20, si they're still making a lot of profit from the oil... but just enough to finance the war. Now that Saudi-Arabia has opened the floodgates, new oil fields in South America have started pumping and the risks of a recession are growing bigger and bigger, the oil price will most certainly drop even lower, making it harder and harder for the Kremlin to finance the war.

It's also devastating for Trump, as instead of "Drill, baby drill!" there will be foreclosures as the oil price is now too low for shale oil production (even after the recovery yesterday it still only got up to $62 and is already back down to $60 when 10 days ago it sat at almost $72.50), making the US now MORE energy dependent than before.