Whether the find is 4, 503, or 2000 billion barrels, you have to multiply by about 10% to find the recoverable barrels. 2 bad comparisons the chain e-mail makes: 1) our entire oil to the Middle East's recoverable oil. 2) We have more proven reserves than all the oil found so far in the world. That's because the US has spent the money to prove reserves. Such reserves have been found elsewhere but not quantified, and when it's cost-effective, will be proven. What is the definition of "oil reserves"? They are oil which is too expensive to mine. They require higher technology, which is available but costs more than oil which is easier to mine. If mined, the company would lose money because they would spend more than they would sell it for. As the world runs out of oil, the price will go up, due to supply and demand. At some point (maybe 50 years from now, who knows) it will be cost-effective to mine oil reserves. Companies will sell it for more than it costs to mine it. It would be stupid to try this before the price of oil gets high enough. This is why only a moron would blame environmentalists or Obama, or say, "On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction." Did he wave a magic wand and order companies to go bankrupt losing money? The point is, let economics decide when to mine the reserves. And get rid of friends who send you chain mail. I just ignore reprints (Denny used to love starting OT threads with them). My cousin doesn't e-mail me anymore because I never responded to his "passing along" e-mails. I think he's mad at me.
It's amazing that you discovered this and the whole government and oil industry have missed it. Congratulations, you saved the world! The technology has existed for many years. I was reading about shale reserves in the Rockies in the 70s or 80s. What makes it economical to mine reserves isn't changing technology. It's the changing price of oil. That also increases the number of "recoverable" barrels when no new barrels have been found. Number found = recoverable + reserves. As the price of oil goes up, barrels are reclassified from reserves to recoverable. Big deal. Stop jumping up and down over a stupid chain e-mail.
Estimates said $103/barrel in the link. Plus, if your keeping your own oil, it lowers the cost of shipping it. Also, I hadn't read either post, so I didn't need it explained to me twice.
Didn't seeing it from more than one angle assist in understanding? Do you deny it helped your comprehension for me to explain it to you in different words?
Either way, we should be creating jobs by pumping up oil and refining it. Also, in so doing, it will have a rippling effect on current oil prices and maybe we can bring back some stability to pricing.
They are no less truthful with us than American oil companies are. So yeah, I don't trust them either.
If the jobs could be sustained by the price of oil, they would already be pumping oil. Nobody is preventing American oil companies from pumping oil. It is simply a business decision they made all on their own. They make more money buying it from foreigners, refining it and jacking up the profit margin to rape Americans. Until/unless government regulation takes over the industry it won't matter where they actually get the oil. They will continue to gouge America.
Profit on a gallon of gasoline is at most $.10 for the oil companies and less than that for the station owners. It costs as much to move the gasoline from the refineries to the stations as it does to refine the oil into gas. That's half the cost of a gallon of gasoline at the pump. Getting the oil out of the ground and shipped to the refineries is another huge chunk of the expense. If the oil companies are paying $100/barrel to the Arabs, it's not so easy to make a profit. The average gasoline tax for all 50 states is $.481 per gallon, with California at the top with $.661 and Alaska at the bottom with $.264. We all know whose jobs depend on oil.
Someone read my signature? You're the second person (PapaG) who's ever given me feedback. I figure I must do it for my own entertainment. You didn't separate the big portion which goes to Wall Street speculators. They cause almost all the price fluctuations.
For most people, options/futures is outright gambling. The government can't outlaw it because there are legit reasons for the futures to exist.
Here you go Be sure to look all the way to the bottom.....Bud PRICE OF GAS AROUND THE WORLD Prices are quoted in US dollars per gallon for regular unleaded as of March 2011 Oslo, Norway $6.82 Hong Kong$6.25 Brussels, Belgium $6.16 London, UK $5.96 Rome, Italy $5.80 CANADA $5.36 Tokyo, Japan $5.25 Sao Paul o , Brazil $4.42 New Delhi, India $3.71 Sidney, Australia $3.42 Johannesburg , South Africa $3.39 Mexico City$2.22 Buenos Aires, Argentina $2.09 ... YOU'RE GONNA LOVE THIS .... Riyadh, Saudi Arabia $0.09 Kuwait $0.08 Caracas, Venezuela $0.12 Gee, if only the U.S. was an oil producing nation..... Hey, wait a minute!!! we are ,what the hell happened!!
What the hell happened? Two things. One: While we produce oil, we don't produce as much as we consume. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Venezuela all export oil. We import it. So we don't have profits from our oil exports to subsidize the price of gas at home. Secondly, our oil companies aren't owned by the government. They are in business to make a profit, not to provide you with cheap gas. Perhaps you'd be happier if we nationalized the oil companies? barfo
We produce half as much oil as we did in 1970. Get back to that level and we wouldn't need to import any. We need a few more refineries, too. And what happens to price when supply goes up?
Yes there are "legit" reasons; you can hedge your risk of exposure to any commodity. If you need to buy $10million of oil 3 years from now a future or option lets you lock in the price today. You eliminate the prospect of losing money if prices go up and you eliminate the chance of extra profit if prices go down. The "gambling" is required in order to have a fluid marketplace where people can enter these trades. If the speculators weren't involved in the market there wouldn't be anybody to stand on the other side of the transaction. The "gamblers" are an essential part of markets.
That seems to be incorrect. We import about 8,000 barrels of crude/day. At the peak in 1970, we produced 9637 barrels/day. Now we produce 5500 barrels/day. [That's just crude, we also import another 4000 barrels/day of refined products.] So if we were somehow able to ramp production up to 1970 levels, we'd still need to import about 1/2 the crude we do now (and all of the refined products we do now). barfo
