Shale oil is God's gift to America. Don't squander it!

At last a chance for America to become competative again trading more expensive labor against very cheap fuel. And what's happening? That's right America is exporting it so the cheap labour of East Asia can have cheap fuel as well.
There was a time when America was not so free trade orientated, where there were Tariffs to protect vital industies and a ban on the export of vital materials.
Before us is the classic example of North Sea Gas.The British had a wonerful chance to revitalize their industries and have warm homes for generations. Instead they blew it all in less than 30 years. Destroying their industries and converting themseves into a petro-currency Arab type ecomomy. And the gas ran out, now they shiver with no foreseeable future.

 

Gas an oil extraction is a business...............

 

Much of our oil production happens at a rate higher than we can consume it. We would have to cut production in order to maintain only US quantities and that's not economical for the businesses. We also have a huge trade imbalance with much of the world. At least this helps bring that down a bit. Since we keep finding massive deposits it would seem we should be ok until new technologies are developed.

 

And national survival is national survival

 

I'm afraid you have been taken in by the Oil companies..
What isn't consummed can stay in the ground till needed.
This is exactly what happened to our origional stock of oil. Blown in a few decades.

 

You simply don't know anything about the oil business.. We haven't nationalized them in this country.

 

Taken in by the oil companies? What financial gain would any business manager find by leaving oil in to the ground "until needed"? Should they work less for fewer profits today in anticipation of some future need for the oil and potential profit?

I'd suggest perhaps some reading about the massive size of found oil within our borders, plus the immense amount of natural gas as well. Selling oil to the global market contributes to the supply side of the market, thereby keeping prices stable as our production increases and world consumption increases.

So what do we gain by leaving it in the ground? Future supply when everyone else runs out? And at the expense of business, employment and profit today? At least pumping lots of oil keeps bodies earning paychecks. Sending them home to save the oil for later would drive up prices and increase unemployment. Neither is a good choice in our economic times today and we have no right to just arbitrarily tell oil companies to produce only what we will use since that industry is not nationalized.

 

If we drive down the PPB the Canadian and US oil companies will go out of business. Remember the 1980s in Texas?

 

The U.S. also has the world's cheapest and most abundant natural gas supply. Increased exports of natural gas are already on the horizon, with four export terminals approved and expected to begin operating by 2015. But federal law prohibits the export of U.S. crude to most countries—only nations that have free trade pacts with the United States can be sent oil exports—even though the U.S. has become a net exporter of refined petroleum products and is looking to export even more.


on path for energy independence?
A WSJ headline says the U.S. is "overtaking Russia" as the largest oil and gas producer. Dan Pickering of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. says the U.S. is importing about 8 million barrels today, and Carl Larry of Oil Outlooks and Opinions, talks about the benefit refiners are seeing right now."Obviously, we already had the debate about exporting natural gas, and the export of oil is, except in very minor exceptions, basically prohibited by laws that were passed in 1975 and 1979. But the economic logic of exporting some qualities of oil from some locations and importing oil to meet the needs of refineries is compelling, but it will be a hot debate," said Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of IHS. "It runs against 40 years of policy. Everybody forgets the U.S. was the largest exporter of oil once upon a time."


Doesn't sound to me like we are exporting much oil right now, though there is a push to do so. I think one of the main purposes of the Keystone Pipeline is to make exports of refined oil easier.

But exporting refined products mean that most of the jobs stay here- and that is a good thing.

 

This is false! The problem is that the tax return was required to pay for the high unemployment created through cretinous right wing economic policies (i.e. Thatcherism). Thus, rather than being invested, it went to keeping the Conservatives afloat.

The lesson? Don't vote for right wingers!

 

Yes, but we had an Oil Depletion Allowance, which made it profitable for the oil companies to hold in reserve some oil. Greed and envy killed that muy pronto.

 

Not exactly true. Under the Oil Depletion Allowance, energy was basically dirt cheap. I opened a Phillips 66 station in '69 at 24.9 cents for regular leaded. A quart of their premium oil sold for $.89.

I would suggest with the demand for Petroleum ever getting higher, especially as India and China use more and more, the demand to always be searching for new deposits will not abate.

The one drawback I see to oil sands and gas sands is the amount of water and energy required to frack the oil.

However, everyone needs to do their part, as well. Florida doen't want drilling off their beaches- let 'em buy horses. Martha Vineyard- same. California, no drilling- tough dookey, no joy juice.

 

Remember??? It was one of the primary reasons for the Iraq invasion. The Texas oil men just didn't like the way Saddam the Dictator was dumping oil on the market. The Texans couldn't get it out of their sand boxes cheaply enough to compete.

 

Papa Bush begged the Saudis and OPEC to raise the ppb... Texans were going broke.

 

I've contended for a long time that we didn't invade Iraq because we wanted Iraq's oil (Bush Jr. didn't really lie to us about that). We invaded Iraq to keep Iraqi oil OFF the market. That and because Saddam was mean to his people.

 

Do you have any idea of what you are on about. That is unmitigated Horse (*)(*)(*)(*). Plain and simple. The days of Texans really running any of the major oil companies are long gone. Gulf Oil, Texas Company, Magnolia Petroleum Company, Humble Oil and Refining Company, Sun Oil Company, merged, grew, expanded, and became world organizations many moons ago. Gulf and Texaco had refineries at Port Arthur. Magnolia Petroleum ( Magpetco ) was in Beaumont. It became Mobil Oil and is now Part of Exxon-Mobil. Humble had the largest refinery in the world at Baytown- now Exxon-Mobil, Shell has a huge plant in Texas. British Petroleum, never really a part of the oil business in Texas in the old days, got it's start, from what I understand in the sand dunes of Iran. Most of those companies have changed hands, management, and even their names, but Texas Oil Men drove Bush to Iraq? Bull (*)(*)(*)(*). Let the software bleep it.

These are world class corporations that have some operations in Texas, and you want to blame the Texas Oil Men for the FUBAR in Iraq. Give me a break.

Let's not discuss the Neo-Cons that wanted us to take on the Middle East to placate Israel.

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Please furnish links.

 

Iraq's oil production was down before the war..

Think back to when Clinton was in office.. Saddam begged the US/UN to lift sanctions so Halliburton could come in and repair and update Iraq's oil infrastructure before those wells were ruined forever.

 

http://www.csulb.edu/~dhall/Oil and National Security.pdf

Towards the bottom of page three.

 

Bush Sees Oil Glut Undermining U.s.


April 07, 1986|By Timothy J. McNulty, Chicago Tribune.



DHAHRAN, SAUDI ARABIA — Vice President George Bush and Saudi King Fahd said Sunday the world needs stable oil prices but, during a midnight session in the king`s chromed and carpeted palace, there was no agreement on how to achieve them or at what price.

Bush earlier called cheap oil ``a two-edged sword for America.`` Despite White House insistence on free-market pricing, Bush said the U.S. is worried about the collapse of oil prices and considers its effect on the domestic oil market a threat to national security.

continued.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...350_1_oil-prices-oil-situation-oil-production

 

There was a time just before GWI when Saddam was literally dumping oil into the Gulf. I don't know what it's capacity is, or at what percentage of capacity they are operating at, but production has been increasing every year for the last 8 years or so.

 

I followed Iraqi production pretty closely.. and I stopped counting acts of sabotage at 600..

In 2009 it finally exceeded the prewar 2002 production..

Iraq was pretty much crippled by two wars and a decade of sanctions.

 

Just like any other investment, you leave it in the ground until the price goes up to where you want it. You don't cut the corn in May. At the same time, you're causing the price to go up by leaving it in the ground. I believe something like that happened in the northeast regarding heating oil some years ago. An artificially created shortage and skyrocketing prices. People up there were pissed.

 

I don't know whether you're arguing with me or against me here, but doesn't that mesh with the wishes of the Texas oil gents?

 

I posted a link to my claim. Papa Bush asked them to raise the ppb because he felt it was a matter of National Security to have robust domestic oil production.

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Here.....................

 

I'm not disputing your claim at all. There are two ways to skin this cat if you're a Texan (or an Oklahoman). You can get the price raised through OPEC as Bush tried to do, or you can eliminate one of the big producers as the other Bush tried to do. Either way the price goes up and domestic producers are happy.