I'm a new player, but I take my calculations very seriously, and my personal opinion is:

Looking at elements such as tax, competitive wages and the current battles going on, I am baffled by how low the oil prices are.

Considering that at the time of writing, the world is seeing 13 battles across the globe, it got me thinking on market trends.

What does the battles have to do with the price of oil?

To my fellow newbies who's still lost, here's a brief explanation of my current understanding.

The normal citizens of the world do not use Oil, as it is a construction piece used by countries for maintaining upgrades of a region.

Upgrades provide buffs to a region, such as defense or attacks, which ultimately affects the sway of a battle.

Each region can have up to 5 levels of Military or Bunker upgrades:

Level 1:

Bunker: Costs 1 Oil/h and provides 5% def buff.

Military: Costs 1 Oil/h and provides 5% att buff.

Level 2:

Bunker: Costs 2 Oil/h and provides 10% def buff.

Military: Costs 2 Oil/h and provides 10% att buff.

Level 3:

Bunker: Costs 5 Oil/h and provides 15% def buff.

Military: Costs 5 Oil/h and provides 15% att buff.

Level 4:

Bunker: Costs 10 Oil/h and provides 20% def buff.

Military: Costs 10 Oil/h and provides 20% att buff.

Level 5:

Bunker: Costs 25 Oil/h and provides 25% def buff.

Military: Costs 15 Oil/h and provides 25% att buff.

So why is the price of oil low?

Looking at the minimum wage of 0.058/production, we can determine that if we create oil, it will cost 1 petroleum + 1 production.

At the time of writing Petroleum is selling for 0.053/u (under minimum wage limit), where after processing, oil comes up to about 0.116/u.
This means that if you were to have 1 worker process 1 Petroleum, you would make a profit of 0.01/u at minimum wage.

Now, I don't know about you, but I don't want to work for 0.058/production, and I would not want my employees to work like that either! But on a profit margin as small as that, it just doesn't seem worth it.

How do we increase the pricing then?

War, Intelligence and Taxes.

The benefits of oil lies heavily in the usage of Bunkers and Military, meaning that countries which often wage war needs to use these items often.

Activating these benefits can take up to 8 hours after construction, meaning that gathering intel on potential battles and regions of interest is critical.

However, the usage of these resources costs quite a bit, which countries gather from taxing employees and citizens working at local businesses and trade.

In order to increase these prices, the above 3 criteria needs to be met globally. However, that is not necessarily the case, as it is established in every country.

Some arguments are:

• Maintaining regions are expensive, it is not worth it.

• Volatile regions take time to activate benefits, and these regions might not have the time before or during battles.

The final question

Did these countries stockpile oil before battles at a cheap price, or are they simply not making use of the buffs?

I spent quite a bit thinking and researching on this, although I am new around, the market and political interest is what keeps me going.

You can help out by throwing a tip my way, or my providing clarity and advice down below!

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