I was never very good at science. But isn’t there a law of physics that says that if you drop oil prices and the sky at the same time, they descend at an identical rate of speed? Well, maybe I'm wrong.
What I do know is that falling oil prices are a calamity to many people and to them it's no laughing matter. So, what if the current crisis also nrings opportunity, not just disaster? If you are a barge company hauling domestic coal, the future is not very bright. However, if you are a barge company moving domestic crude oil, the future looks very bright, indeed. Even as things stand now, there is plenty of oil on the market, and as one expert told me, “It’s got to move somewhere.” And, the price of oil will eventually go up again. Ten years ago the scenario was reversed
In WorkBoat’s April issue, Kevin Horn, in his “Inland Insider” column, writes about “creative destruction.” “The expression refers to innovations that allow new production processes and products to replace old processes and products,” Horn writes. “The new processes and products create wealth and value along with economic growth through investment. However, the old methods and products reflect a loss of wealth and value and economic decline through disinvestment.”
Horn offers several examples such as the difference between today when the U.S. is considering exporting liquid natural gas when just a few years ago, there was a rush to construct facilities for LNG imports. “What a difference fracking technology has made with domestic gas prices and markets in less than a decade,” he says in his column.
You can read the rest of Kevin’s column "Lower oil prices and creative destruction" in the April issue. It’s an interesting perspective, and one that may convince you that the rate in which the sky is falling may have slowed.
