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| Part 4 in a 5 part seriesPart 4 - Oil - and some big surprisesI'm sure you have seen the following chart in some form or other on the evening news or in your local paper or news:Well.................it's wrong - and I am going to tell you why:Some of you won't be old enough to remember these, but many others of you will.........These finds are not included in those reserves, since they were never allowed to drill further test wells to discover the limits if those oil fields.?They do have an estimation, based on seismic and geological ..The U.S. Department of Interior (DOI), in its April, 1987 report on the oil and gas potential of the Coastal Plain, estimated that there are billions of barrels of oil to be discovered in the area.DOI estimates that "in-place resources" range from 4.8 billion to 29.4 billion barrels of oil.Recoverable oil estimates ranges from 600 million barrels at the low end to 9.2 billion barrels at the high end.They also reported identifying 26 separate oil and gas prospects in the Coastal Plain that could each contain "super giant" fields (500 million barrels or more).The U.S. Department of Interior (DOI), in its April, 1987 report on the oil and gas potential of the Coastal Plain, estimated that there are billions of barrels of oil to be discovered in the area.DOI estimates that "in-place resources" range from 4.8 billion to 29.4 billion barrels of oil.Recoverable oil estimates ranges from 600 million barrels at the low end to 9.2 billion barrels at the high end.They also reported identifying 26 separate oil and gas prospects in the Coastal Plain that could each contain "super giant" fields (500 million barrels or more).?Another estimate by USGS : California Coast: estimated 11.61 Million barrels of Probable oil reserves.Now keep in mind.............Oil companies are often able to recover triple what the government estimates.Let's move on to Alaska.?There are finds on the North Slope - currently under production, but declining, with no new drilling allowed.?This field is included in the reserve totals above.remaining North Slope reserves, estimated between 5 billion and 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent.BUT - Anwar is not.?Estimates of how much might be recoverable,?have ranged from 3 billion barrels (by the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment in 1989), to 3.6 billion barrels (by the Department of Interior in 1991), to 4-12 billion barrels (by the USGS in 1998).This means, in round numbers (and assuming oil would be found there in one of the indicated quantities), that ANWR could provide between 6 months and 2 years' current US oil supply, or 1 to 4 years' current imports, or 4 to 16 years' current imports from the Persian Gulf.U.S. Geological Survey - 1980.In 1980, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated the Coastal Plain could contain up to 17 billion barrels of oil and 34 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.We're not through with Alaska yet................................There are three more Oil fields, as yet undrilled.?One of these is ChukchiEstimated Reserves 15 Billion Barrels and 76 TRILLION cuft in Natural Gas.??PSSSSST............are you adding this up yet?Drilling was stopped by courts here in 1991 due to Polar Bear Habitat.Now add ; Teshekpuk Lake National Wildlife Refuge(No map for this one, but is due East of Chukchi.)Estimated reserves: 15.6 Billion Barrels of Oil and 83.2 Trillion CuFt of Natural Gas.Now add : Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge another 15 Billion Barrels, no estimate on Natural Gas.Do you see where I'm going yet??Have you added it up?(Puts us ahead of Iraq on the list if you are paying attention!)and here is a real shocker.............all the above Alaska fields were originally designated as Naval Oil Reserves in 1923.The NPR-A was created by President Warren G. Harding in 1923 as "Naval Petroleum Reserve Number 4" during a time when the United States was converting its navy to run on oil rather than coal.In 1976 the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act renamed the reserve the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska and transferred it from the Navy to the Department of the Interior.The 1980 Interior Department Appropriations Act directed the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) within the Department of Interior to conduct oil and gas leasing.Nevertheless, the area was left essentially as a wilderness until the late 1990sNow Add: BeaufortAlaska's Beaufort and Bering Sea.233 billion barrels of oil equivalent in crude and natural gas have been discovered and 166 billion barrels of oil equivalent are thought to remain undiscovered.Did that knock your socks off?It just?put us ahead of Saudi Arabia.....................................Drilling stopped by courts because of the Right Whale.........Now Add: New discoveries in the Gulf of MexicoBeneath some 20,000 feet of earth and 7,000 feet of water, 175 miles off the U.S. coast in the Gulf of Mexico, lies an enormous field of oil and gas -- enough to potentially double U.S. oil reserves. |
| put us ahead of Saudi Arabia.....................................Drilling stopped by courts because of the Right Whale.........Now Add: New discoveries in the Gulf of MexicoBeneath some 20,000 feet of earth and 7,000 feet of water, 175 miles off the U.S. coast in the Gulf of Mexico, lies an enormous field of oil and gas -- enough to potentially double U.S. oil reserves.The lucky SOBs who found it are oil giant Chevron and partners Devon Energy Corp. and Statoil ASA, via the modestly named Jack No. 2 test well.Petro-experts predict that the field found by Jack No. 2 will ultimately produce anywhere from 6 billion to 30 billion barrels, the high end of which could match or exceed previous record holder Prudhoe Bay in Alaska.Along with 2 TRILLION cu ft of Natural Gas.Did you add that?I'm at over 537 Billion Barrels of Crude.......We haven't got to Florida yet.................It is expected to match Gulf of Mexico figures, since Cuba is drilling into a 90 Billion barrel field - but unknown - no test wells allowed in U.S. continental waters.And last but not least, Add:America is sitting on top of a super massive 200 billion barrel Oil Field that could potentially make America Energy Independent and until now has largely gone unnoticed.Thanks to new technology the Bakken Formation in North Dakota could boost America's Oil reserves by an incredible 10 times, giving western economies the trump card against OPEC's short squeeze on oil supply and making Iranian and Venezuelan threats of disrupted supply irrelevant.In the next 30 days the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) will release a new report giving an accurate resource assessment of the Bakken Oil Formation that covers North Dakota and portions of South Dakota and Montana.With new horizontal drilling technology it is believed that from 175 to 500 billion barrels of recoverable oil are held in this 200,000 square mile reserve that was initially discovered in 1951.The USGS did an initial study back in 1999 that estimated 400 billion recoverable barrels were present but with prices bottoming out at $10 a barrel back then the report was dismissed because of the higher cost of horizontal drilling techniques that would be needed, estimated at $20-$40 a barrel.North Dakota: Leigh Price, a USGS scientist, authored a study before his death in 2000 estimating that the entire formation, which extends into Saskatchewan and Manitoba, may hold up to 500 billion barrels of recoverable oil, an amount that dwarf's the 16 billion barrels in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).So how did your math end up?How big are our reserves really?Do we relly need ethanol?Do we really need OPEC?my figures ended up with 1127 Billion barrels of crude reserves - what did you get?All of Opec is only 902.......................................But we have the problem: Clinton extends moratorium on offshore oil drillinghttp://www.cnn.com/TECH/science/9806/12/offshore.drilling.pm/index.htmlJune 12, 1998Web posted at: 7:31 p.m.EDT (2331 GMT)MONTEREY, California (CNN) -- President Clinton signed an order Friday extending a ban on most offshore oil drilling for 10 years and permanently protecting national marine sanctuaries from oil and gas drilling.Oil and gas leasing and drilling are prohibited on most of the outer continental shelf,By the 1980s, the issue began appearing on ballots.California voters in 26 coastal communities passed initiatives that provided no zoning to accommodate onshore facilities for companies pursuing offshore oil development.The state later passed a permanent ban on oil drilling in California waters, with the exception of areas off Santa Barbara and Orange County, covered by pre-existing leases.The moratorium Clinton is extending was established by his predecessor, President Bush, and expires in 2002.The presidential moratorium is separate from a year-to-year moratorium imposed annually by the Congress since 1981.And re-signed by that OIL MAN in the White House - George W. Bush.Also:Protection weighed for bird in West's energy areasSaturday, April 26, 2008By SCOTT SONNER, Associated Press WriterRENO, Nev. The fate of basic industries across the Intermountain West _ grazing, mining, energy _ soon could be at least partially tied to that of a bird about the size of a chicken.The federal government is under a judge's order to reconsider an earlier decision against listing the sage grouse as endangered, and wildlife biologists are scouring the species' customary mating grounds to see how many are left.The species was seen as recently as 2004 over an area as large as California and Texas combined, but its habitat used to be close to twice that and research has shown that many types of human activity continue to harm it.States and even some companies have made efforts to protect the sage grouse on their own, hoping to avoid a federal listing that could stretch across 11 states.The prospect of listing the species has drawn comparisons to the northern spotted owl, whose listing as a threatened species in 1990 drew the ire of logging interests in the Northwest.But the grouse occupies several times as much land as the owl."It will affect everything we do and know (as) a Western state, everything from livestock grazing to mining to development of sage brush habitat, wind energy," said Ken Mayer, director of the Nevada wildlife department."I don't think we have ever been in this position before.Ranchers and the oil and gas industry dodged stiff regulations in January 2005 when the government decided the bird didn't need to be listed as an endangered species.But in December, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill in Boise overturned that decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, partly because it was tainted by political pressure from Assistant Interior Secretary Julie MacDonald.She resigned last May amid questions about alleged interference in dozens of other endangered species decisions."Her tactics included everything from editing scientific conclusions to intimidating staffers," Winmill wrote.The agency has until December to issue a new decision.It has given wildlife agencies in 11 states until June 24 to update information on local populations, the threat the sage grouse faces and the steps being taken to conserve them.The grouse _ mottled brown, black and white _ is found on sagebrush plains and high desert from Colorado to California and north into southern Canada.Their courtship rituals, where males puff up bright yellow air sacks under their neck and fan out the pointy feathers in their tails, are imitated in dances of several American Indian tribes.The birds return each spring to breeding and nesting locations called leks _ generally high desert with sagebrush, grass and wildflowers that provide both food and cover from predators.Wildfires, development and industry have steadily cut into that habitat."The last 17 years, more than 16 million acres have burned in the Great Basin," Assistant Interior Secretary Stephen Allred recently told the National Association of Conservation Districts.Allred said 75 sage grouse leks were destroyed last summer in Idaho near the Nevada line by just one set of fires.The sage grouse now occupy about half of their original, year-round habitat.The Fish and Wildlife Service estimated in 2005 there were 100,000 to 500,000 greater sage grouse.The birds' reproductive and survival rates are also down in states hit hard by drought and invasive plants such as cheat grass, which elbow out sage brush and native grasses after fires.West Nile virus also is taking a toll.In Nevada, for example, the numbers of chicks per hen hit a historic low of 0.58 last fall compared to a more typical figure of 1.8 to 2.0, said Shawn Espinosa, a wildlife biologist with the Nevada Department of Wildlife.Biologists are quick to remind that grouse populations operate in cycles, but Espinosa said "the highs and lows are getting lower and lower and the overall trend of sage grouse population is going down.Environmentalists who have been pushing for federal protection for more than a decade are convinced its population is on a path toward extinction.An "honest assessment" of the bird's numbers and the threats it faces will show that it must be listed, said Katie Fite, director of biodiversity for the Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project, which sued the Fish and Wildlife Service over its 2005 decision."Unfortunately, in several Western states, efforts seem to be under way to be creative with grouse counting and mask how much numbers are down," she said."Populations do sort of cycle, but part of the last upward trend was a result of agencies taking great pains to find and count grouse.Pat Deibert, a Fish and Wildlife Service biologist based in Wyoming and the federal coordinator of the new review, said lek counts are up in her state and others report the same in parts of Oregon and Colorado thanks to recent rainy springs and the absence of significant wildfires.But she said those areas may be the exception.Since last fall, Wyoming has undertaken nearly two dozen projects to help grouse, including restoring habitat, purchasing easements on ranch lands, improving livestock grazing practices and researching ways to reduce the effects of oil and gas drilling."A number of individual companies have done conservation actions as well.Often they move well locations voluntarily to get out of a lek," said Cheryl Sorenson, vice president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming in Casper."We did not want to even consider having this animal listed," she said.(This one affects the Bakken North Dakota Fields)4/22/08U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, announced Monday new legislation she is sponsoring to restrict oil drilling off Florida's coastlines.The congresswoman, whose district includes part of Manatee County, introduced a bill that would make existing restrictions to offshore drilling permanent.Currently, oil and natural gas drilling is banned within 125 miles of Florida's coastline.That restriction was enacted in 2006 as a moratorium under the Gulf of Mexico Energy and Security Act and expires in 2022.Castor said with the Florida Coastal Protection Act she wants to put a permanent ban on drilling within 125 miles of Florida's coastline."When I think of the beautiful beaches in Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key I think that it would be devastating to have an oil spill," Castor said.A bill was introduced in the House (I can't find it yet) at the same time as the above to totally ban drilling in the Bering Sea............Finally:Politicians keep promising a plentiful supply of alternative energy, but that remains far in the future, and much of it will be more expensive than $4-per-gallon gasoline.Ponder this: How could you afford any fuel that needs government subsidies to compete with $120-a-barrel oil?Those will never be affordable for consumers.We don't have a shortage of oil and gas reserves; they've just been placed off limits.They include parts of Alaska, other public lands, the Gulf of Mexico and offshore areas. |
| They include parts of Alaska, other public lands, the Gulf of Mexico and offshore areas.The American Petroleum Institute, or API, reports that opening up these areas would provide enough oil to power 60 million cars for 60 years, plus enough natural gas to heat 60 million homes for 160 years.But 85 percent of coastal waters have been declared off limits, along with similar restrictions on 75 percent of the onshore prospects.That's why 60 percent of our oil is now imported.And these restrictions caused America to lose more than 1 million jobs in oil and gas during the past 25 years.How many "green collar" jobs have we gained to replace them?Similar federal policies have blocked construction of oil refineries and nuclear power plants for more than 30 years, again increasing our dependence on foreign supplies of energy.The stifling of domestic oil and gas production and the suppression of new refineries and nuclear power plants have choked off the supplies of domestic energy, forcing us to rely on foreign oil.In the international market, we must bid against the growing energy appetites of China and India, and we're held hostage by the oil cartels of OPEC.The world market is unstable and expensive, and we shouldn't be at its mercy.With gasoline so expensive, oil executives were called before Congress to discuss record-high profits.The hope was to justify taxing them for another $18 billion, on top of the $90 billion they already pay.Politicians then would give that $18 billion to subsidize other types of energy that are too expensive to operate profitably.Yet the profit margin for oil and gas is about 7 cents for each dollar invested, according to Business Week.That's about the same margin as Avon Cosmetics, Amazon.com and Bed Bath & Beyond.And toothpaste maker Colgate-Palmolive.Apple, with high-tech gurus, was twice as profitable.So were Coke and Pepsi.And Microsoft and Google made four times the average oil company's rate of return.But is anybody angry about the high cost of toothpaste, iPods or soft drinks?Why don't more profitable companies get raked over the coals by Congress?Because Congress doesn't need them as scapegoats.Lawmakers have messed up America's energy supply so badly that they need someone and something else to blame.They're creating a diversion trying to brainwash the public into how to think and who to accuse.Another reason for high gas prices: federal and state regulations that require dozens of "boutique fuels," dictating different blends of gas for different regions.As a result, we no longer have an efficient national market that enables a surplus in one area to be shifted to another part of the country.Boutique fuels require expensive refinery shutdowns to change output from one formula to another, lowering production and risking overproduction for one area and underproduction for someplace else.Consumers pay the price.A big part of boutique fuels is the ethanol mandate, now set by Congress at $18 billion a year, which shifted the corn supply from food to fuel.The mandate set off a domino effect as the government pays farmers to grow corn rather than other grains, and to sell it for fuel instead of food.And because corn is the major feed for livestock, the prices of meat, eggs, milk and so on climb along with prices for grain, flour, baked goods, etc.Nobody wants to be blamed for food riots and world hunger, but the public is realizing those are the outrageous results of ethanol subsidies.Now, if we want to get serious about lower gasoline prices (and food prices), here's a simple five-point checklist:?????1.Understand the causes, especially the role of?????????government?????2.Open up reserve areas????? |
| Open up reserve areas?????3.Build refineries and nuclear power plants?????4.End expensive and wasteful mandates, especially ???ethanol?????5.Let the free market develop alternatives for the futurehttp://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=62393(they said it better than I could!)Thought I would just throw this one out there...........California won't let us drill because of the "possibilty" of oil spills or leaks..............I guess they forgot they can't boss Mother Nature around.?I found this little gem at NOAA..............Know what it is??It's naturally occurring oil seepage into the ocean..................."Nothing has been a more reliable indicator for an upcoming recession as the price of Oil.Every major bear market, every major economic decline has been preceded by a large spike in oil prices.The 73-74 recession, recession of beginning 80's and the recession of 2000.Oil prices jumped 80% between 1999 and 2000.Oil prices have been the most important indicator of major economic disasters.Whenever Oil prices rise about 80% from year ago levels, a fair chance does exist that a recession/bear market will follow."-Stephen Leeb"Very little is written about what will happen when all the dollars, built up as foreign central bank and private holdings, get spent.Indeed, we believe that not only will the dollars get spent, but this spending will have massive inflationary implications for America."-Richard BensonIn closing, I didn't get into the pricing etc of oil and gas and oil company profits (I'll throw this little gem at you though........)In 2007, ExxonMobil posted an impressive profit of $40 billion dollars, and the Democrats have let everyone they can know about it.But they don't mention how much they paid in taxes.They never talk about the "$105 billion in taxes in 2007more than two-and-a-half times as much as it made in profit."and:When you adjust for inflation, oil companies have collected $643 billion in profits since 1977.The government has more than doubled that, collecting $1.34 trillion.All these facts can be researched thru Google - using known Government websites (USGS, Dept. Interior, DOE etc) and Oil company sites..........................................Finally - the main reason Oil prices are so high (besides us not being able to drill, build a refinery etc)China and India.Behold, some headlines:???* China And India: A Rage For Oil http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_36/b3949086_mz015.htm???* Warning on Impact of China and India Oil Demand http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/business/07cnd-energy.html???* China and India driving oil demand (Video) http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&fg=rss&vid=0e8378f2-6798-491f-9fe2-642471b5cf88&from=34???* India, China oil demand 'frightening': Aramco http://www.financialexpress.com/old/latest_full_story.php?content_id=87094???* China, India to drive demand for oil through 2030 - MarketWatch?http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=13&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.marketwatch.com%2FNews%2FStory%2FBcMZ1RHHzlM6QVdXqBL3mzw%3Fsiteid%3Dgoogle%26dist%3DTNMostMailed&ei=Kv_yR7nKLILQigG2kNj0BQ&usg=AFQjCNEaVc23LwaTdlBiQDd8y8K-0_0GSA&sig2=w9-AZt5UQtv03TUo_HbbUwChina and India have increased their demand so much, that "they have created a worrisome climate among the world's energy producers."So when you see that talking head on TV or your politicians in Washington saying there is nothing they or we can do and there isn't enough to mitigate our imports..............THEY ARE LYINGDoesn't our National Security and strength of our dollar and economy demand we drill??????????????If I could find this out..........they sure as Hell could!Signing off................Hope you enjoyed it and are now as thoroughly pissed as I am!Remember - Oil is generally recovered at the rate of 3 times government estimates.........(even more pissed????)NukeP.S. The U.S uses 7.5 Billion Barrels a year.? |
| Remember - Oil is generally recovered at the rate of 3 times government estimates.........(even more pissed????)NukeP.S. The U.S uses 7.5 Billion Barrels a year.?At our current rate of consumption, with 1127 Billion in reserve, it would take 150 years to use it all.....................................P.S. 2 - If we used our own and didn't import, our trade deficit would be cut by 82% - can you say - "Rock Solid Dollar?" and if we started exporting corn and/or ethanol again - could you say "Trade Surplus". |
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