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ASH

Beach Fanatic
Feb 4, 2008
2,156
443
Roosevelt, MN
Just posted on CNN: Bush calls for offshore and ANWR drilling. :angry:

Interesting data from the article:
Oil production cost

Here's what the price of a barrel of oil needs to be for different sources of petroleum to be profitably extracted:

- Accessible land: $19
- Shallow water: $20-60
- Deep water: $60
- Shale mining: $30-50
- Oil Sands: $50-60

Current price per barrel: $134

Sources: U.S. Govt. CERA, Rand, EnCana
 

traderx

Beach Fanatic
Mar 25, 2008
2,133
467
Oil would absolutely destroy white sand beaches. Not worth it.

Aw, come on, black and white mixed make gray which is the new white. Where is your sense of fashion? :chill:

Seriously, US companies would have the most stringent safeguards of any other country. China, India, Venezuela and Brazil have or are conducting tests in the Gulf. Mexico is drilling already. The US sits idly by saying we need to decrease our demand. And I agree, we should. But oil is much more than Black Gold or Texas Tea; we have a distribution economy which requires oil to run. We have to buy enough oil from rogue states that it is a national security issue more than how much it will affect the price of gasoline.
 

scooterbug44

SoWal Expert
May 8, 2007
16,732
3,330
Sowal
The US is the world's largest producer and consumer of oil - we currently use 25% of the world's oil and 10% of that is just for our SUVs, pickup trucks, and other light trucks.

We get 41% of our oil from the US and our biggest source of foreign oil is Canada, not some "rogue state".

USA - 41%
Canada - 9%
Saudia Arabia - 8%
Venezuela - 8%
Mexico - 7%
Nigeria - 5%
Iraq - 4%
Norway - 1.7%
Angola - 1.7%
Columbia - 1.7%
Kuwait - 1.3%

The problem is that we only have 5% of the world's oil reserves in North America - the vast majority is under the Middle East, so all we are doing by accelerating the rate at which we pump out our oil reserves is making the day where we ARE truly dependent on the Middle East for oil come that much sooner!

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/colombia/images/map.swf
 
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traderx

Beach Fanatic
Mar 25, 2008
2,133
467
The US is the world's largest producer and consumer of oil - we currently use 25% of the world's oil and 10% of that is just for our SUVs, pickup trucks, and other light trucks.

We get 41% of our oil from the US and our biggest source of foreign oil is Canada, not some "rogue state".

USA - 41%
Canada - 9%
Saudia Arabia - 8%
Venezuela - 8%
Mexico - 7%
Nigeria - 5%
Iraq - 4%
Norway - 1.7%
Angola - 1.7%
Columbia - 1.7%
Kuwait - 1.3%

The problem is that we only have 5% of the world's oil reserves in North America - the vast majority is under the Middle East, so all we are doing by accelerating the rate at which we pump out our oil reserves is making the day where we ARE truly dependent on the Middle East for oil come that much sooner!

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/colombia/images/map.swf


I'm hip. In fact, I published part of the oil source list by country here before.

We buy enough oil from Venezuela that it could easily become a national security issue one day. If Hugo wanted to play havoc with the US, he could withhold oil from the world market. Who would we ask to supplant it? As China and India continue to grow, they could put a squeeze on oil supply.

Below is a table of countries ranked by oil reserves. Does a particular country jump off the list at you? Sooner or later, our williness to not drill domestically and not build more refineries will come home to roost. If we can decrease demand by a huge margin, we will have no problem except that oil is fungible and what we don't buy, China and India most likely will which could keep prices high and perhaps oil in short supply.


Table 3. World Oil Reserves by Country as of
January 1, 2007
(Billion Barrels)
Country Oil Reserves
Saudi Arabia . . . . . . . . . . . 262.3
Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179.2
Iran. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136.3
Iraq. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115.0
Kuwait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101.5
United Arab Emirates. . . . . 97.8
Venezuela . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80.0
Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.0
Libya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.5
Nigeria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36.2
Kazakhstan . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.0
United States . . . . . . . . . . . 21.8
China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.0
Qatar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.2
Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.4
Algeria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.3
Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.8
Angola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.0
Norway. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.8
Azerbaijan . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.0
Rest of World . . . . . . . . . . . 65.5
World Total . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,317.4
?Worldwide Look at Reserves and Production,? Oil & Gas
Journal, Vol. 104, No. 47 (December 18, 2006), pp. 24-25.
 

SHELLY

SoWal Insider
Jun 13, 2005
5,770
802
I'm surprised nobody has brought up oil speculation's contribution to this mess...

That's because the same wonks that claimed the housing bubble wasn't a result of speculation are still in charge--they couldn't find their own arses with both hands and a map.

Although, I do believe that the argument in favor of oil and other commodities is a hell of a lot more viable than the theory of bazillions of "baby boomers" scrambling to buy up $1.5M 700sf condo boxes.

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Rita

margarita brocolia
Dec 1, 2004
5,209
1,634
Dune Allen Beach
Someone was telling me there are a bunch of LA oil wells that they stopped using because of cost. Apparently the magic number for those wells was $80 barrel, so I am guessing that the oil companies will be reopening some.

My Mom gets oil royalties from wells in Illinois that were not pumped for years. It was probably around that price range that the oil companies came back in and started pumping.

To the folks that want to open the off shore area of Florida to drilling, why do you think so many people from Texas and Louisiana vacation here? Their beaches are on the exact same Gulf of Mexico.

Pretty common to hear stories of tar balls around Galveston - People don't wear their flip flops into the house!! It's part of life there. That doesn't mean people don't go to the beach there. And a weekend get-a-way is possible from here where it isn't to Florida.

To the ANWAR debate, they recently did a study that showed it would take 20 years to develop and start producing, and once in production it would only lower gas $.14-$.85 a gallon. To me this is not enough of a savings to warrant destroying the largest and arguably the most beautiful natural preserves in this country. If that minute a savings is worth it to you then we might as well scrape any taxes on gas for road repair and maintenance. Hey we'll save now, of course we won't have roads that are driveable and that will really cut down on gas usage.

I would really like to see the oil companies put their money where their marketing is, in alternative energy sources. Instead we are told that they are researching it (couldn't produce those numbers when questioned by congress) and then turn around and start lobbying to open up more drilling. I think the fox is in the hen house.

Yes! And conservation would be the easiest and quickest way for us to become more energy independent. As a country, we just have to be willing to do that.


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SHELLY

SoWal Insider
Jun 13, 2005
5,770
802
.
"Even one accident related to oil and gas exploration or production could prove catastrophic, not only to the coastal resources that make Florida special, but also to our state's vital tourism and fishing industries ... For Florida, drilling in the Gulf of Mexico presents economic as well as environmental dangers." CHARLIE CRIST, 2006
----------------------------------------
CHARLIE CRIST 2008:

crist.JPG


"Really Billy, the fact that you'll be scraping black oil tar off your feet and swimming among dead fish is a small price to pay so that your Daddy can tool around in his Hummer all day long."


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