. >> joining us now, dan dicker, author of "oil's endless bid." he is a trader with 25 years trading experience. >> call me dan, chris, as you always do on your own show. >> dan, can we start with a really basic question. every time i report on this and look at corporate profits, it's more profitable than just about anything else. >> $130 begin last year alone. >> why is it so profitable? why is extracting oil from the ground and selling on the market so profitable? my econ 101 instincts tells me it's not a competitive market and if it were, the profits would go down. >> no. it's cheap to get. the old picture of the oil spewing out with everybody dancing around, this is $2 a barrel to get out of the ground. $2 a barrel. the most. oil to get out of the ground is deep water, ultra deep water like the horizon incident in bp, way down, that's $35 a barrel to get out. you can realize why somebody in 2005 would be able to sane front of a senate committee, a ceo of a major company would be able to say once oil prices go above $45, we're good, we don't nee

joining us now is dan dicker, he is a cnbc contributor.s the author of the book "oil's endless bid." he's an energy analyst with more than 25 years oil trading experience. mr. dicker, thank you for being here. >> thanks for having me, rachel. >> is there any substantiative reason why biofuels, alternative energy, algae, why these things would be more hilarious as a democratic idea in 2012 than as a republican idea in 2008? >> no, absolutely not. the peak oil guys, i think, have gotten the timing of this incredibly wrong, but their basic thesis is right. this is a limited resource. at some point, we have to develop something other than fossil fuels, at some point. sooner would be better than later, but at some point we have to do that. and when we talk about our biomass, biofuels, or we talk about geothermal or talk about solar, these are not things that are ready for prime-time yet. everyone will admit to that. the algae fuel runs at the equivalent of ability $8.50 to $9 a gallon right now. but the point is that private companies will not

. >> grasso, got something for dan dicker? >> yeah. f you take out iran and i'm going to say what happens if we see positive headlines coming out of iran? i know that no one has forecasted for that. you would agree there's probably $15 taken out of the price of oil if that happens. would you not? >> at least. i think, look, these are the kind of moves you get like the end of hostilities in libya last year. you see a drop of at least $15. there is a lot of speculative and geopolitical risk in the market. >> have a good weekend, dan. talk to you soon. >> i will lift a guinness to you. >> and i to you. patty is look at the chicago bridge and tunnel -- [ laughter ] >> somebody wants to get home. >> oh, that's good. >> i love that. >> and nat gas. >> they don't do bridges or tunnels. chicago bridge and iron, the people who bring you the engineering and construction behind things like liquid natural gas growing over 16%. it's fairly inexpensive. this is one you can buy in today even though it's run some. there is a lot more projects online wi

let's bring in cnbc contributor dan dicker. dan, you know, 107 is where we're looking at wti today. all of that talk about the spr, all the talk about the saudis. at the end of the day iran is driving what's happening in the oil market now. >> absolutely, scott. >> the economy continues to drive it. >> that is absolutely true. look, we've got a report today. it came out of reuters that we have total exports dropping 300,000 barrels compared to february. this is for march. we're down to 1.8 million barrels a day as opposed to 2.1. now, that is just what's coming out that we can count. that's the transparent piece. the untransparent piece is that which goes to asia. at's easy to count. what is clear is the totale has said they're closing the news down on iran. it's also been confirmed by royal dutch shell. they're also dropping their amounts. so in the words of a famous beer commercial here we go. these are the supply shocks beginning to filth near the market and the traders are obviously spooked by this first one. >> what happens from here? haven't the saudis said they'll increase pr

while dan dicker, cnn contributor, says it is playing a role more than ever. endless bid." dan, good to see you. thanks so much for joining us. walt, how big after speculation -- >> you're watching dalt walt. >> dan. >> sorry. >> a tiny role. >> if you want to look for speculators, good to federal reserve and their policy of weakening the u.s. dollar to give the illusion of wealth ignite economy and spur exports. you still consume energy and when the dollar is weakened, energy is automatically more expensive. >> so you i have speculators have a tiny role in what is going on. >> maria, it's clear there's a lot of money following oil trade the last decade and it's gotten worse and worse. we have a layer of money coming through indexes that put a floor on oil prices. so you see it in the price. it really comes down every year to a higher low. every year you see it $32 in 2009 when the financial crisis hit. and we saw $68 in 2010. he is we saw $82 in 2011. this puts the baseline at a higher and higher bryc price. the funds that bertha was just talking about and so

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today's announcement and perhaps a very interesting energy play that you might want to consider is dan dickerpresident of merck block and a cnbc contributor. good to see you again. >> thanks, sue. thanks for having me. >> you maintain that although the president may be able to short-term effect gas prices, long-term even what he called for today won't dramatically effect prices. >> actually, i think it's the other way around, sue. you know, as much as i'd like to say -- no president can really effect short-term gas prices. most of the country actually thinks he can. so this is a politically charged issue. and the republicans are obviously pouncing on it. and the president is obviously afraid of it too. i mean, that's why he stands in front of -- in a place like cushing and talks about an energy policy and tries to quell some of the problems that they're having with his total energy policy here. >> you think nat gas may be the more savvy play for the individual investor. >> absolutely. what i hope the president will do and i'm certain president romney would probably do but i'm hoping president

let's bring in dan dicker, a "fast money" contributor. danny boy, what are you doing here?the saudis have made some pretty stunning moves. first of all, quietly, they've increased their daily output to 10 million barrels a day, more than they've pumped in the last 30 years. in the last week, they've contracted 11 vlccs. those are supertankers. in order to fill with 22 million barrels of oil. they're going to send that to the gulf coast of the united states. i don't know what they're going to do there because we're a net exporter of gasoline. they've been storing oil very quietly in rotterdam and elsewhere in europe, trying to plan for a supply problem. and finally, they're going into some very old oil fields and trying to revitalize them, some of which, again, they haven't touched in 30 years. and all of this points to a deluge of crude that they're going to put on this marketplace in order to try and bring prices down. unfortunately, i kind of see it the opposite way. and to me, what it is, it's the saudis trying to plan for something that they feel is inevitable, and that

bring in dan dicker, president of merck block and a "fast money" contributor. >> how are you? >> i'm good, thanks. i don't know, man, watching nat gas getting kind of ridiculous. >> rick santelli did something great standing on the floor of the exchange. maybe it's time for me to do something like that. nat gas is at a 45-1 differential. when the historical to crude is more like 6-10. we've got a nat gas bill that's sitting in congress. this is the third iteration of this nat gas bill. i understand that it's unpalatable in washington. people should start calling their congressmen to get this thing attached to the highway funding bill today and get this sucker passed. i'm sorry? >> for trading perspective, let's make some money here, right? what are the implications? i mean what's the trade to do in an environment of ridiculously low nat gas prices? are we looking at smaller companies potentially going to be taken out? who are some names to look at? >> this is an inevitable, inevitable move to nat gas in this country. whether you have washington on board or you don't have washi