America loves to blame the President when gas prices are high but the fact is the U.S. President has very little control over the price we pay at the pump. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to oil expert Daniel Dicker to discuss the politicization of gas prices, how Russia's invasion of Ukraine is rattling global prices and, in a very useful lesson on the complex world of commodities, we learn how oil markets are not that dissimilar from buying hand-woven baskets in a Turkish bazaar.

Narrator 0:01  This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability, I'm Alex Wise.

Dan Dicker  0:24  It would take years for traditional sanctions to have the kind of effect on Vladimir Putin and his machine that this oil ban and the resulting curtailment of energy sales from Russia will have they'll be bankrupt by July.

Narrator 0:57  America loves to blame the President when gas prices are high. But the fact is the US president has very little control over the price we pay at the pump. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to oil expert Daniel Dicker to discuss the politicization of gas prices. How Russia's invasion of Ukraine is rattling global prices. And in a very useful lesson on the complex world of commodities, we learn how oil markets are not that dissimilar from buying hand woven baskets in a Turkish bazaar.

Alex Wise  1:47  I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by Daniel Dicker. Dan is an energy expert, and folks can find his work at DanDicker.com. Dan, welcome back to Sea Change Radio.

Dan Dicker  1:59  Well, thanks, Alex. Always good to talk.

Alex Wise  2:01  It's been too long. And we'd love to get your insights into oil and gas industry happenings. And there haven't been happenings like this in quite some time with Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Why don't we first talk about what's on everybody's mind? Why are gas prices so high?

Dan Dicker  2:25  Even though oil prices have kind of leveled off, it's always hard for people to remember. But oil prices were already at a fairly, significantly high level before stuff started happening in Ukraine. And that was a function of things I've spoken to you in the past about. And that was about, you know, an oil industry that had been decimated by low prices for five straight years. And, you know, the 500 bankruptcy 600 bankruptcies that happened in the industry. And the true shortage of supply that kind of was created during those years, that all of a sudden made itself felt as the entire, you know, global economy was coming out of a pandemic. So what you have is you have a lot of pent up demand for fossil fuels. And you saw that first in a European energy crisis. Well, before anything started in Ukraine that had been driving prices here in the United States and elsewhere, you know, already to $90-95 a barrel.

Alex Wise  3:28  Yes. And there's a lot of misinformation disinformation going on. People don't necessarily know how this all works. So why don't you kind of spell it out? When oil prices went from 80 to $150 a barrel, all of a sudden, gas prices like in my neighborhood in San Francisco went from four to five and a half $6 pretty quickly. And then we see that it's kind of settled back down around the $100 a barrel range. And yet, gas prices still stay the same. So a lot of people say, well, the gas companies are just gouging us. But there's more to it than that, isn't there?

Dan Dicker  4:08  Yeah. And it's it gets very complex, but understand that, you know, the, the timeline of turning oil into gasoline, and then getting it into pumps is not instantaneous. And therefore some of the prices that are being reflected the pumps are reflecting crude oil prices that are two weeks old already. And so you know, when you see oil prices dropped by 15,