The Story Behind Oil's Plunge--- Read!!!

Stung by plunging oil export revenues and a ruble crisis, Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week it was possible that the U.S. could be conspiring with Saudi Arabia.
"We all see the lowering of the oil price. There's lots of talk about what's causing it. Could it be the agreement between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia to punish Iran and affect the economies of Russia and Venezuela? It could," he said. Read more...


The door now seems firmly closed to any move by OPEC to cooperate with Russia and other leading non-OPEC producers to reduce supply to a world market awash with oil.
"If they want to cut production they are welcome, we are not going to cut, and certainly Saudi Arabia isn't going to cut," al-Naimi said. " [That] position we will hold forever, not [just] 2015."

If OPEC hoped to scare Big Oil, it's not working.

Oil prices have plunged below $70 per barrel following the cartel's decision to keep production steady despite tumbling prices.

But oil heavyweights ExxonMobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) claim they aren't losing sleep over the oil prices drop. In fact, they could survive oil as low as $40 per barrel.
Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson told CNBC on Wednesday his company's massive energy projects are decade-long investment decisions that have been tested to be successful even "at the bottom of the cycle."

"We test across a range all the way down to $40 and up to $120," Tillerson said.
Chevron also believes it could weather the storm down to $40 a barrel, according to Oppenheimer analyst Fadel Gheit, who cited a recent conversation with executives from the energy giant. Chevron did not respond to CNNMoney's request for comment.