Gas Prices can go down even futher if Russia expands oil.

Stalin's Arctic mines help expansion

NORILSK, Russia - Wearing fireproof coveralls, Ilya Dmitriyev plods past a smelter that belches smoke and gushes molten metal, the chief product of this gritty patch of Arctic tundra where the air tastes of sulfur and concrete apartment blocks crumble on the shifting permafrost.

This is the home of Norilsk Nickel, a former slave labor camp — once part of the dictator Josef Stalin's infamous Gulag — that is now the gray capital of Russia's glittering new metals empire.

Since President Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, oil and natural gas have fueled Russia's economic rebirth, creating a generation of young Russian billionaires. Now metal is Russia's latest natural resource bonanza.

The rise of the industry has delighted investors but has caused disquiet among foreign security analysts. Some fear Moscow might use its vast mineral wealth as a tool for coercive diplomacy, the way many believe the Kremlin has used oil and gas supplies to punish western-leaning former Soviet nations.

As the output of Chinese and Indian factories surged last year, the price of nickel leapt 64 percent to an average of $24,155 per ton on the London Metal Exchange, more than doubling Norilsk Nickel's profits. While the price has retreated from a high of over $50,000 per ton in May, it currently trades at around $29,000 a ton.

Workers like Dmitriyev have benefited. Wages here rose 40 percent in April, and Norilsk's smelter workers now earn about $1,500 monthly — triple the national average.

But the big winners at Norilsk are the company's two 40-something shareholders, the cautious Vladimir Potanin and the flamboyant bachelor Mikhail Prokhorov.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070812/ap_on_bi_ge/russia_s_metal_giants;_ylt=Am8_bHxwMrBHjGpzfYcAV51u24cA

Russia can expand those pipelines to Canada,China and Europe to help oil prices and OPEC would be in trouble if we dont buy from them buy from Russia instead. See Russia is willing to drill in Arctic evoinmental areas in their country.Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats refuse to allow oil drilling in ANWR. Lets Sell Alaska back to the russians for 500 Billion dollars and then Liberals have no control and then russia can build a pipeline though canada into the USA from alaska. And that would bring oil prices down. The sale from russia would get our debt down some.

 

Steve, this notion of selling Alaska back to the Russians is idiocy at its finest. First off the Americans didnt really buy anything, but pay the Russians to back off and remove thier interests from the region.
Secondly, there already is massive amounts of oil drilling in the arctic of Alaska. There are plans to build a natural gas pipeline from AK through Canada and down into the lower 48. That will actually be the largest construction project in the history of man. It will likely be under construction in the next 10 years and will provide much cheaper energy.
The Russians have a nasty history here, and the written thought we should sell any state, much less the most wealthy in natural resources if a joke. Lets sell Michigan back to the Canadians, Texas through California back to the Mexicans or even better, the whole damn Lousiana purchase back to France. Then Florida back to Spain. The US should feel lucky that the independance move didnt have a tighter grasphere. Otherwise oil would already be $150bl and they would have lost all control of the north Pacific militarily during the cold war.