CaptainJJack

Crude Oil: Bull or Bear?

I agree.

This is a business issue, and I have never seen any oil company even suggest that opening new areas for drilling would make a significant difference in our oil dependence.

Of course they advocate for more areas to drill because it is in their self interest to do so.

But, there is a WORLD of difference between saying that more available land will make a significant difference to the oil companies future compared to making a significant difference in the US dependence on foreign oil.

Moreover, when it comes to natural gas, a more enlightened policy allowing more TIME to drill on already leased lands is probably far more important than opening new areas

Boone Pickens has it about right. We SHOULD allow more areas to be drilled, but that will not come close to solving our oil dependence.

Conservation, encouraging the use of natural gas in transportation (although, given that natural gas is such a WONDERFUL source for heating and cooling, I hope this is temporary), and alternative energy where possible are the things that will make a difference.

Opening up new areas for drilling will help, of course, but the effects are PUNY in comparison. The world uses 1 billion barrels over oil roughly every 12 DAYS, the US uses 1 billion barrels every 1.5 to 2 months.

The BEST case for ANWAR, is 15 billion barrels, and no other area is close to ANWAR in terms of availability in the nearer term -- which is why it is at the top of the list for the oil companies.


On Jul 19 08:09 AM redbaron wrote:

> One other thought, It is not the Interior Dept that needs to decide
> to drill here, and now. It is the oil companies. The oil companies
> will drill where they have, 1) the best chances of success, 2) the
> least cost, and 3) the most favorable access to transportation and
> marketing. This is not a political decsion, it is an economic one.

60 Minutes on Oil: Did Anyone Verify Anything?

That should have read "BETTER" rather than "beer", although beer ideas are good, too

60 Minutes on Oil: Did Anyone Verify Anything?

I have a beer idea. The US has 200+ million cars/trucks with an average gas mileage efficiency of around 15 miles/gallon.

If we increase the fleet efficiency by 3 miles/gallon, we get a 20% increase in efficiency.

We save roughly 2 million barrels of oil/day, and over 10 years, the time it would take to get any oil from the OCS or ANWAR, we save 7 billion barrels of oil -- more than half of all the oil in ANWAR.

On Jan 12 11:13 AM robert.b.ferguson wrote:

> All bias asside: If we truly want to stabalize domestic oil prices
> we must drill the OCS and other available domestic reserves. (the
> Chinese are drilling off our coast with help from Cuba.) In this
> manner we will have leverage to increase or decrease our production
> to counter price manipulation by OPEC or Russia. If we don't take
> steps now we will end up like the Eurozone in relation to Russian
> natural gas supplies. Out in the cold.