The price of oil relative to the cost of producing oil. Nice graphic to help with graphing!

This is a follow up to yesterdays posting on the Break-Even point for oil drillers in different geographic areas of the US.

The point of that post was to use a firms costs curves (AVC + AFC =ATC) to show how low the price would have to go in order for firms to exit the industry.

Today in Business Insider they had this bar graph that helps clarify the point.  I inserted a horizontal RED bar to show the current price drillers are receiving for each barrel of oil produced.

Together they give you an indication of how drillers, at the current price, are faring in terms of profitability.

I think teachers and students alike can use info to plot on a graph of the firm that is a "Price Taker" in the marketplace.  Small drillers are relatively numerous and they must take the given market price (for the most part) for each barrel of oil the bring up.