The plummeting price of oil from USD 110 to less than USD 50 per barrel as of July 2014 has affected the overall situation in the world and its further development. It has had its impact on everyone and even on Bulgaria – the state was cut off from the South Stream project.

No oil is extracted here, but researches have kicked off for conventional gas and oil deposits have been started in southern Bulgaria. The municipalities of Svilengrad, Madjarovo, Harmanli and Liubimets will be surveyed first. The terrain is part of the so-called oil-gas basin, situated on the territory of three countries – Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. Twenty four gas and 3 oil deposits have been found across the Turkish part alone.

Now, after all this, did we really suffer that much due to South Stream’s ceasing?

Just picture the eventual situation if we really had deposits of this precious earth oil. To be honest – Russia has suffered the most from the drop of oil prices…

This drop is not a political conspiracy, but comes as a result of different objective factors. The USA has restored its economy, the dollar has got stronger and oil price has declined. The energy demand has also gone down, especially by developed countries. The USA has enough reserves of it and it even exports part of it. A decline in demand can also be observed in Europe and Japan. The latter has even renewed its nuclear industry, reducing the import volume. The price collapse in the sector has of course its negative impact on the USA, but because of a series of economic and political reasons the West is still happy about the decline, as this allows keep Putin’s economy under pressure, while they are restoring their own economy. After all, Russia suffers from the low prices of oil much more than any sanctions imposed.

Low petrol prices resulted in huge losses for Russia, but it will barely make it reduce the volume of its oil and gas production. It’s not only because energy production takes an essential part of the country’s life, but also due to the enormous efforts invested, in terms of money and manpower. If it doesn’t preserve the current status quo and doesn’t increase the production, it won’t be able to return its investments. That might lead to a deep economic and political crisis. Besides that, if Russia continues to increase its energy production, it would mean that Vladimir Putin won’t step back and will defend its political will to the very end.

China’s economy is reformed today and its long-term oil needs are declining. The country’s reforms are large scale ones and the economic transformation, along with the plummeting oil prices allow it to maneuver and to develop highly effective energy sources, which will gradually push aside those polluting the environment. India’s infrastructure is still weak, so in the short term it is not very likely the country to change its dependence on coal as a main source of energy.

OPEC member-states wouldn’t even think of any reduction of production volumes. At the same time Saudi Arabia, one of the main future oil producers within the Persian Gulf uses the strong dollar for its own good, along with the weak demand at the expense of low prices and strikes the shale gas and oil production – a major danger for its economy. Thus the price per barrel will remain beneath USD 75 for the shale industry and it won’t be profitable.

The drop of oil prices has its negative side as well. Most people are concerned about the fact that the continuous decline might lead to another, and longer, political, economic and financial crisis, as prices used to be high and stable for a long time. The energy sector has turned into a favorite one for investments over the past 10 years. The extraction of shale gas and oil has become especially popular.

However, if the Soviet Union’s falling apart had a positive impact on the world and its development, the idea on Russia’s destruction can be called at least negligence.