Welcome to ASFN Fan Forums! We're glad to have you here. Please feel free to browse the forum. We'd like to invite you to join our community; doing so will enable you to view additional forums and post with our other members.
Registered Members don't see these ads. Register now it's free!
Our Own Oil Cartel
By Terence P. Jeffrey
CNSNews.com Editor in Chief
June 04, 2008
Contemplate this the next time you spend $60 or more filling up your tinny little car with gasoline made from imported oil: The U.S. government knows where it can get its hands on more untapped petroleum than exists in the proven reserves of Iran or Iraq, which have 136 billion barrels and 115 billion barrels, respectively.
This unexploited stock of crude is greater than what the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports is in the proven reserves of Russia (60 billion barrels), Libya (41.5 billion barrels) and Nigeria (36.2 billion barrels) combined.
It is more than Hugo Chavez's Venezuela has (80 billion barrels). It is more than is now known to sit beneath the waters and sands of Kuwait (101.5 billion barrels) or the United Arab Emirates (97.6 billion barrels).
So, where is all this oil? And why aren't they pumping it?
What cartel is holding it off the market, to drive up prices at American gas stations and American supermarkets? What insidious power is stifling the free market for this vital commodity and thus threatening the vitality of our economy?
It is us, of course. We are the culprits. We are responsible for artificially increasing oil prices. It is our oil that sits untapped beneath our deserts, our forests, our swamps and our oceans. It is our politicians -- the ones we freely elected, and re-elected, and re-elected -- who are not allowing our oil to be drilled by us and sold to us.
In 2005, Congress passed the Energy Policy Act, requiring the Department of Interior to inventory the oil resources that could be found both onshore and offshore in U.S. territory. In February 2006, Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) published the report on offshore oil resources on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). It determined there were 85.9 billion barrels of "undiscovered technically recoverable" oil sitting off our beaches.
Just this offshore portion of our undiscovered oil is more than all the proven oil in Venezuela, and more than all the proven oil in Russia, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain combined.
What does the government mean when it says this oil is "undiscovered technically recoverable" oil? It means we can go get it with off-the-shelf technology, but the government makes no judgment about the profitability of doing so. This oil, the government says, is "in undiscovered accumulations analogous to those in existing fields producible with current recovery technology and efficiency, but without any consideration of economic viability."
Last month, with almost no attention from the liberal media, the Bureau of Land Management released the report estimating the other part of America's undiscovered oil riches, the onshore resources. This added another 53 billion barrels to the national petroleum pot.
"The nation's undiscovered oil resources total about 139 Bbbls (billion barrels)," says the report. "Of that total, the MMS estimates that 86 Bbbls are offshore under the OCS, comprising 62 percent of the nation's resources. State waters and nonfederal onshore resources are the second largest potential source of production (21 percent), followed by Federal onshore oil resources (17 percent)."
Yet, as long as Congress and the president retain the federal moratoria that forbid most offshore drilling, the 85.9 billion barrels of crude offshore won't be tapped.
The May BLM report explains why most onshore oil won't be tapped, either. Of the 279 million acres of federal land "with potential for oil or natural gas resources," 60 percent is off limits to leases as a matter of federal statute or administrative policy. Another 23 percent is open to leases with "restrictions." These include such things as "lands that can be leased but ground-disturbing oil and natural gas exploration and development activities are prohibited" and "lands that can be leased, but stipulations ... limit the time of the year when oil and gas exploration and drilling can take place to less than 3 months."
A final 17 percent of federal land is open to oil drilling on more or less the same environmental terms as private land.
"All oil and gas leases on Federal lands, including those issued with only the standard lease terms, are subject to full compliance with all environmental laws and regulations," says the report. "These laws include, but are not limited to, the National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act and National Historic Preservation Act. While compliance with these laws may delay, modify or prohibit oil and gas activities, these laws represent the values and bounds Congress believes appropriate to manage Federal lands."
You elected Congress. It paid you back with $4.00-per-gallon gas.
(Terry Jeffrey is the editor in chief of CNSNews.com.)
Registered Members don't see these ads. Register now it's free!
Sometimes I wonder if we're actually pursuing a long term strategy with the drilling of our oil resources - let's go thru a bit of hurt now, keep our reserves intact, then use them when we need them.
Then I remember that we're run by politicians, and that thought goes away.
Little known fact: If any governor would think 50 years forward instead of 20 years back, Arizona could become the energy center of the U.S. There are many billions of barrels of oil to be had in the Paradox Basin, the Black Mesa Basin, and the Bisbee Basin. The state has untold natural resources such as natural gas, solar power, and a state-funded conference identified many miles of land that could generate enough power from wind to light up California and Nevada indefinitely.
Everyone's hyper-focused on solar power right now. ASU's Photovoltaic Testing Library is going to become a world-leader as they assist APS in their new solar power plant. It's frustrating thinking about all that untapped oil.
Sometimes I wonder if we're actually pursuing a long term strategy with the drilling of our oil resources - let's go thru a bit of hurt now, keep our reserves intact, then use them when we need them.
Then I remember that we're run by politicians, and that thought goes away.
Yes, it would require forethought and planning. Definetely not politicians fine points.
I don't get the concept of "our oil". If more oil is allowed to come to market then the price might go down, but who would do the drilling and bring that oil to market. The same 5 multi national corporate oil thieves who are happy as hogs in poop with the current situation. Who will refine that " new oil " ? The same carpetbaggers who currently decide which refineries will operate and which won't. Nah. I don't think so. The consumers give them absolutely no reason to roll back the prices. Everyone one of the elements in the oil to fuel chain are quite content. The simplistic model that most people subscribe to is not reality. You can bet your ass that if those domestic sources were brought to market, they would go right to the highest bidder and that would still be the markets with stronger economies than the U S. It would not cause a glut. Just think Enron when you think about oil prices and manipulation. Its rigged and we are sucking hind teat as consumers. The tail is wagging the dog. Ask Spitzer.
Try to understand that when oil crashed through $35/ barrel, the usable supply of oil increased ten fold because the ROI was covered. The public hasn't told them to go to jail, so they continue to bleed us while we allow it. We bitch we cry and moan, but we still consume. The laws of supply and demand are bogus.
__________________
In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." --Voltaire
I don't get the concept of "our oil". If more oil is allowed to come to market then the price might go down, but who would do the drilling and bring that oil to market. The same 5 multi national corporate oil thieves who are happy as hogs in poop with the current situation. Who will refine that " new oil " ? The same carpetbaggers who currently decide which refineries will operate and which won't. Nah. I don't think so. The consumers give them absolutely no reason to roll back the prices. Everyone one of the elements in the oil to fuel chain are quite content. The simplistic model that most people subscribe to is not reality. You can bet your ass that if those domestic sources were brought to market, they would go right to the highest bidder and that would still be the markets with stronger economies than the U S. It would not cause a glut. Just think Enron when you think about oil prices and manipulation. Its rigged and we are sucking hind teat as consumers. The tail is wagging the dog. Ask Spitzer.
Try to understand that when oil crashed through $35/ barrel, the usable supply of oil increased ten fold because the ROI was covered. The public hasn't told them to go to jail, so they continue to bleed us while we allow it. We bitch we cry and moan, but we still consume. The laws of supply and demand are bogus.
The laws of supply & demand are not bogus... It's just that now it's all played out on a global scale like never before. You even mention in your post above that should we tap "our" oil, we would sell it to the highest bidder - the bidder who demands it the most, which my not be the U.S.
As has been said time and time again, the solution here is not to jsut drill more - though we need to. But we also need to continue to push aggressively to develop and mass produce alternative forms of energy...
GADD has it right...
Oil supply is only a small part of the gas price. A lot of the price increase, a lot like the "energy crisis" in California a while back, is artifically created by speculators.
And it is not just CONGRESS that holds up drilling. Many states don't want off-shore drilling. Many cities don't want off-shore drilling.
And there are many, many areas that should NEVER be drilled - there are things far more valuable than oil in the world. Some of us appreciate it. Generations to come will thank us for our foresight in not ruining EVERY corner of the world, as the anti-human greedy developers would do if left unchecked.
Oil supply is only a small part of the gas price. A lot of the price increase, a lot like the "energy crisis" in California a while back, is artifically created by speculators.
And it is not just CONGRESS that holds up drilling. Many states don't want off-shore drilling. Many cities don't want off-shore drilling.
And there are many, many areas that should NEVER be drilled - there are things far more valuable than oil in the world. Some of us appreciate it. Generations to come will thank us for our foresight in not ruining EVERY corner of the world, as the anti-human greedy developers would do if left unchecked.
I've got a better Idea: Get off freaking oil PERIOD... The idea is not to postpone the invetible end of this finite resource; its to very agressively (apollo project) get ahead of the curve and implement a non carbon fuel economy. It can be done easily without out all fo the artificial barriers from Govt, Lobbyist, etc.
These crooks running our oil industy will continue to base their prices on the world market no matter how much is drilled in the US. They will continue to manipulate refining capacity and the speculators will continue to "Enron" our society to line their greedy filthy pockets.
I am sure they have stolen enough oil out of Iraq to offset the "supply" concerns for the next 10 years...
I've got a better Idea: Get off freaking oil PERIOD... The idea is not to postpone the invetible end of this finite resource; its to very agressively (apollo project) get ahead of the curve and implement a non carbon fuel economy. It can be done easily without out all fo the artificial barriers from Govt, Lobbyist, etc.
That's the long term goal, and I agree with you - it needs to be on the scope of the Apollo / Manhattan project to work. A deadline should be given, within the next decade or two (2020 would be a good one - 12 years).
The problem that I see is that so much of our current infrastructure / products is based on oil. The pipe that carries our water and sewer, for example, is typically PVC, which is a derivative of oil (steel and concrete pipe - not so much). Plastic bags, parts to computers, staplers (the casing), cell phones - all of that is oil based.
We have to work to find suitable alternatives to the stuff without destroying the base source to so many products overnight - that's why it will take time to completely get off of oil. It's not just about making electric cars / trucks / trains / airplanes - your very car is made out of oil derived products!
That's the long term goal, and I agree with you - it needs to be on the scope of the Apollo / Manhattan project to work. A deadline should be given, within the next decade or two (2020 would be a good one - 12 years).
The problem that I see is that so much of our current infrastructure / products is based on oil. The pipe that carries our water and sewer, for example, is typically PVC, which is a derivative of oil (steel and concrete pipe - not so much). Plastic bags, parts to computers, staplers (the casing), cell phones - all of that is oil based.
We have to work to find suitable alternatives to the stuff without destroying the base source to so many products overnight - that's why it will take time to completely get off of oil. It's not just about making electric cars / trucks / trains / airplanes - your very car is made out of oil derived products!
The problem that I see is that so much of our current infrastructure / products is based on oil. The pipe that carries our water and sewer, for example, is typically PVC, which is a derivative of oil (steel and concrete pipe - not so much). Plastic bags, parts to computers, staplers (the casing), cell phones - all of that is oil based.
We have to work to find suitable alternatives to the stuff without destroying the base source to so many products overnight - that's why it will take time to completely get off of oil. It's not just about making electric cars / trucks / trains / airplanes - your very car is made out of oil derived products!
I guess I should be a little more specific...Take all of our autos, planes, and engegy needs out of the oil category and we would have little to worry about. Other oil needs like Pipings etc. account for a very small % of the remaing oil consumption.
Linear Mode
