Oil Shortage

[Racerbvd]

OIL SHORTAGE


A lot of folks can't understand

How we came to have

An oil shortage here in our country. ~~~

Well, there's a very simple answer.

~~~

Nobody bothered to check the oil.

~~~

We just didn't know we were getting low.

~~~

The reason for that is purely geographical.

~~~

Our OIL is located in:

~~~
ALASKA

~~~

California

~~~

Coastal Florida

~~~

Coastal Louisiana

~~~

Kansas

~~~

Oklahoma

~~~

Pennsylvania

And

Texas

~~~

~~~

Our

DIPSTICKS

Are located in

Washington , DC

Any Questions?

[gprsh924]

Do you get a lot of chain mail Byron?

[DanielDudley]

Very witty Wilde.

[speeder]

Don't quit your gay job.

[M.D. Holloway]

at least you have women, cars, booze and song...

[TyFenn]

at least he took the "UPS ripped me off" thing down...hahaha.

Just kidding.

The 'poem' does have the stench of chain mail...in my opinion.

Moving on. I thought this was going to be about the oil sands, OPEC or something...next.

[Seric]

Hah.

Why use up all our oil, doesn't make any sense. When the world has sucked dry, we can name our price. Prefect.

[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by TyFenn

at least he took the "UPS ripped me off" thing down...hahaha.

Just kidding.

The 'poem' does have the stench of chain mail...in my opinion.

Moving on. I thought this was going to be about the oil sands, OPEC or something...next.

A cute female friend sent it, and living in FL, where niether party is willing to open up the drilling, whiile China will be drilling 90 miles off the FL coast in Cuban waters, does make you think. We do have oil here in the good ole USA, and we should be drilling for it!!!

BTW, remember, my Great Uncle worked for Standard Oil for alomst 50 years (and bought the stock double matching from the time they started, the max amount allowed)

[island911]

Originally Posted by Seric

Hah.

Why use up all our oil, doesn't make any sense. When the world has sucked dry, we can name our price. Prefect.

But in the future we will all be driving flying cars that run on shade-grown fair-trade sunshine and polar-bear kisses. ...so now, why are we not using what we have? Is it part of the "support you local ME spoiled terrorist brat?

[dd74]

Question: if we halted all import of oil, what would that do to the global market? What would it do to our own market?

[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by dd74

Question: if we halted all import of oil, what would that do to the global market? What would it do to our own market?

Great question, I never thought of that, but you are correct.

1st, thing that we would need to do build more refineries,

2nd, open up the fields in the US, and start drilling, this includes Penn.

3rd, place a high tariff on oil from the US, to discourage exporting it to China.

With our SUVs and the amount of driving we Americans do, there is no reason that we can't drill, refine & sell our own oil at much less than we are importing.

4th, bring back price wars!!!

[dd74]

I agree with all four propositions, Byron. But you know 1 and 2 will never be realized. It's been ingrained in our American psyche that we can't safely drill for oil without disturbing the habitat. So what do we do? Gasoline-burning cars aren't going away. They're being bought in droves.

[Moneyguy1]

The oil shortage can be stated far more succinctly:


Poor Planning.

[Chocaholic]

What oil shortage?

[Jim Sims]

"2nd, open up the fields in the US, and start drilling, this includes Penn.'


Obviously geology and petroleum resevoir engineering don't make up a significant part of your "world knowlege". "Google up" the Tethys Sea and super giant oil fields. There are no more east Texas giant oil fields in the US - the output of that field was more or less squandered by mankind fighting WWII. Alaska, Santa Barbara, etc. would hardly make a dent in US oil needs. The comment about Pennsylvania is laughable.

[island911]

Originally Posted by Jim Sims

... Alaska, Santa Barbara, etc. would hardly make a dent in US oil needs. .

hmmm ...there are enough people who think otherwise, so much so that they will gladly invest in drilling if allowed.

I just can't buy the argument that "the amount isn't large enough."

The bottom line is, if it is found here, it is that many more dollars NOT going to the ME.

As a side note: people up here (PNW) quite willingly pay more for BioDiesel (than petro-d) simply because it's a local product. (as their bumper-stickers read: "BioDiesel - no war required" )

[RWebb]

There is about a 6 month supply of oil in Alaska's Nat'l Widlife Refuge (ANWAR).

Jim is quite right about US oil supplies. I have no idea why "you just can't buy the argument" - this is not a policy question, it is a factual issue. We have lots and lots of coal, but not much oil, and especially not much oil left (since we've been sucking it out of the ground for a century).

What we - and the Canadians - do have is tar sands. If we could extract oil from that (Alberta down to Colo.) then we'd have a lot of oil. Currently it is very expensive and requires a huge amount of water (very scarce in Colo.). There is a new process involveing CO2 extraction that is being worked on... You can also extract oil from coal - still very spendy.

AND once you've done that you still have the same pollution issues we have now - if not more.

The obvious answer is to use a fuel made from an easily harvested plant. Right now, we are suing corn, but that has some problems also (tho it does reduce imports from the Middle-East). The next step is use switch-grass. That requires some genetic engineering but looks quite feasible. Then you have nice supply of ethanol and bio-diesel. Add some mass transit, regional trains, solar power and you are in a 21st century energy world. At which point you can save quite a bit on hospitalization for pollution related health effects, for global warming economic impacts, and for having to fight wars in the Middle-East over & over again. The ME then becomes about as important to us as Bosnia or Rwanda or Kenya -- we can weigh in if we want, but it is not a national security imperative.

But right now, the numbers for usage are just way too huge for the above to make any impact, nor would using up all our liquid oil in the ground help much.

[Jim Sims]

"hmmm ...there are enough people who think otherwise, so much so that they will gladly invest in drilling if allowed."

Given the worship of money above all else in this society, if allowed, people will also invest in whore houses, crack houses, etc. The willingness to invest is not sufficient reason to permit something.

If entirely used and extractable at the rate of consumption (not technically feasible and detrimental to the ultimate yield of the reservoirs if we try) currently available US oil reserves (~22 billion barrels) theoretically could provide the nation's needs (provided the demand doesn't increase - yeah, right) for another 14 or 15 years. The ANWR oil reserves (median extractable oil estimate of ~ 10 billion barrels), again if entirely used and extracted at the rate of consumption, will add perhaps another 6 or 7 years (I keep seeing that six months number and I can't come to the same conclusion when I run the numbers). Remember that we can't get the oil out that fast - prudent stewardship of the reservoir would require more like 25 to 30 years. This means if we were cut off from foreign oil we'd have to instantly use 75% less oil and any and all efforts wouldn't increase available oil enough to offset the decline of domestic fields.

Conclusion: all domestic reserves (every last bit) and production rates will not offset in any meaningful manner the ongoing decline of US oil fields. To maintain our present behavior we will have to import increasing amounts of oil.

Some numbers (compiled July 2007) to put oil consumption and production into perspective:
US daily oil consumption: ~ 21 million barrels per day
US domestic production: ~ 5 million barrels per day
Daily production of Texas: ~ 1 million barrels per day
Daily production of Pennsylvania: ~ 11 thousand barrels per day

For the non-oil patch types, a barrrel of oil is defined to be 42 US gallons.

There is a disaster coming and if we had any long range wisdom in this country we'd gradually raise the price of petroleum derived fuels to 4 or 5 times current levels. This would help ramp us into the needed changes with less pain and suffering. The one hour plus commutes in the ton and half vehicles carrying one person will end - we can do it the easy way or hard way but they will end. Given the proclivities and ignorance demonstrated by the electorate in recent decades I have no faith an easy transformation will occur; I expect instead the disaster.

[Mule]

Originally Posted by RWebb

There is about a 6 month supply of oil in Alaska's Nat'l Widlife Refuge (ANWAR).

Jim is quite right about US oil supplies. I have no idea why "you just can't buy the argument" - this is not a policy question, it is a factual issue. We have lots and lots of coal, but not much oil, and especially not much oil left (since we've been sucking it out of the ground for a century).

But right now, the numbers for usage are just way too huge for the above to make any impact, nor would using up all our liquid oil in the ground help much.

Explain how this justifies not drilling off the coasts of CA & FL? CA hasn't allowed a new refinery in forever. It's time for a little common sense.

[RWebb]

"(I keep seeing that six months number and I can't come to the same conclusion when I run the numbers)."

- My understanding is that the 6 months is based on _proven_ reserves. If they do more detailed exploration, that would likely go up.

I agree with everything you said - this country never seems to act on any sort of long range vision.