NYS:
drill, baby, drill!. The Paterson administration has finally given a green light to proposed drilling
in the Marcellus Shale, considered by many to be the nation's largest natural-gas reservoir. Covering several
states and extending more than 600 miles, the basin may contain as much as six decades' worth of US natural-gas
needs.
Power To Spare.
As Palin jousts with Biden on energy independence, the government reports that we lead the world in energy
reserves. From oil to gas to coal, we are sitting on prosperity. So why are we importing anything?
America's Natural
Gas Revolution. The biggest energy innovation of the decade is natural gas?more specifically
what is called "unconventional" natural gas. Some call it a revolution. Yet the natural gas revolution
has unfolded with no great fanfare, no grand opening ceremony, no ribbon cutting. It just crept up.
It's a Gas. [Scroll down]
To sum up very briefly, the risk-taking private sector — driven by the potential of huge future
profits (anti-capitalists take note!) — has developed the technology to recover natural gas that
was previously thought to be unreachable. This technology has only come of age in the last two years,
but already the amount of natural gas we're producing is on its way to transforming the U.S. into the leading
gas-producing nation in the world.
Alaska Can Meet
U.S. Energy Needs. The United States is now facing a decision on how to meet its future energy
needs. In the coming months, the U.S. Department of the Interior will weigh whether to allow oil and
gas exploration on Alaska's Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) to be expanded. Such exploration could set
the country on a clear and sustainable energy path for decades to come.
Freedom From Foreign Oil.
In the last few years natural gas has been found in abundance in the United States. In fact, we have
2,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, mostly in Appalachia, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and
Texas — more than twice the amount of Saudi oil, enough to last us 100 years. Recent
innovations make it cleaner to burn and cheaper to use. It is the only fuel that can replace diesel in
semis and other heavy-duty vehicles. Battery power will not work on these behemoths, nor will ethanol.
New
North Dakota Oil Find Could Be a Gusher. Dozens of very productive new wells near North Dakota's
Bakken oil field have state officials believing another massive new oil find may be at hand. A newly
discovered oil field in the Three Forks-Sanish formation is producing high yields, and some analysts believe it
may surpass production in the huge Bakken oil field just above it. The Bakken oil is sandwiched between
shale above and below, while the Three Forks-Sanish oil sits in porous rock and sand directly beneath the
Bakken shale.
Oxy oil discovery could
spark new interest in California's energy potential. The Westwood company revealed in July that
it had found the equivalent of 150 million to 250 million barrels of oil and natural gas in an
undisclosed part of Kern County using techniques that the oil company's executives would rather not talk
about. It was California's biggest find in 35 years. Some experts say it could herald a
period of new exploration in California and the U.S.
Oxy Petroleum's oil and gas
discovery may be California's largest in 35 years. Occidental Petroleum Corp. said it had
discovered oil and natural gas in a Kern County field that might represent the biggest find in California in
more than 35 years. The nation's fourth-biggest oil company said Wednesday [7/22/2009] that it had
found the equivalent of 150 million to 250 million barrels of oil, adding that two-thirds of the new
source was believed to be natural gas.
Peak Government, Not Oil. Science
magazine reports that the U.S. Geological Survey says the Chukchi Sea off Alaska holds more than anyone thought —
1.6 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered gas, or 30% of the world's supply, and 83 billion barrels of undiscovered
oil, 4% of the global conventional resources. The Green River Formation, an oil-rich region in Colorado, Utah and
Wyoming, has been called the "Persia of the West." This formation has the largest known oil shale deposits in the
world, holding from 1.5 trillion to 1.8 trillion barrels of crude.
Cap-and-Trade Bill: Villainy on a Grand Scale.
It is no accident that his Secretary of the Interior unilaterally cancelled 77 oil and gas leases or that, on
March 25, the House of Representatives passed the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 that adds
two million more acres of wilderness to the 107 million acres already "protected" by the federal
government. It is estimated that 300 million barrels of oil and 8.8 trillion cubic feet of
natural gas lie beneath these "protected" acres. The government owns 607 million acres of land in a
nation founded on the belief in the sanctity and power of private property, the keystone of capitalism.
The Bias Against Oil and Gas. Contrary to popular wisdom, the
United States still has huge oil and natural-gas resources. The outer continental shelf (OCS), including parts that
have been off limits to drilling since the early 1980s, may contain much natural gas and 86 billion barrels of oil,
about four times today's "proven" U.S. reserves. The U.S. Geological Survey recently estimated that the Bakken
Formation in North Dakota and Montana may hold 3.65 billion barrels, about 22 times a 1995 estimate. And
then there's upwards of 2 trillion barrels of oil shale, concentrated in Colorado. If 800 billion barrels
were recoverable, that's triple Saudi Arabia's proven reserves.
Environmental Policy Constrains
U.S. Oil Supply. Consider the volumes of U.S. oil resources. The most conservative measure
is "proven reserves." To be proven, it must be reasonably certain that the crude oil can be produced using
current technology at current prices, current commercial terms, and with government consent. The U.S.
Energy Information Agency (EIA) estimates the U.S. has 21.8 billion barrels of oil (bbo) in "proven
reserves." At today's consumption rates, proven reserves would last 50 years. Yet the amount
of proven reserves might jump to more than 50 billion barrels if the government "consented" to
development of areas now off-limits. And "recoverable reserves" — known oil resources
capable of recovery, but with more cost and technical difficulty than proven reserves — hold
several thousand times more.
Drill,
Drill, Drill. Onshore and offshore drilling restrictions for oil and natural gas have to be
removed. Deregulate the energy sector. Open the door to nuclear power. Drill the shale regions
for natural gas. Exploration has dried up in the new Obama environment, which is so very anti-fossil-fuel
and anti-nuke. If we are going to power our way to economic growth, fossil fuels and nuclear energy have
to play key roles. Alternative-fuel technologies may grow up, but that's gonna take several decades.
Right now they're about 2 percent of our power. That's all.
Seeing Chukchi. Back
in July [2008], ... it was thought that Chukchi's waters northwest of Alaska's landmass held 30 billion cubic feet
of natural gas. Today, Science magazine reports that the U.S. Geological Survey now finds it holds more than anyone
thought — 1.6 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered gas, or 30% of the world's supply and 83 billion
barrels of undiscovered oil, 4% of the global conventional resources. That's enough U.S. energy to achieve
self-sufficiency and never worry about it as a national security question again. The only thing left to
do is drill.
Discovered: 200
trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Good news for America undermines the green energy agenda.
The Wall Street Journal reports a huge new discovery of natural gas — a fossil fuel so clean even
liberals can stand it. ... Good news, right? It's good for consumers, it's good for the country and the economy,
and it's good for the world's resources. ... But it's bad for the Fear Industry ... it's bad for our media
airheads, who have to think of whole new scare headlines ... it's bad for the Green Doom Brigade.
Start Drilling.
It may surprise Americans to discover that the United States is the third-largest oil producer, behind Saudi Arabia
and Russia. We could be producing more, but Congress has put large areas of potential supply off-limits.
These include the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and parts of Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico. By government
estimates, these areas may contain 25 billion to 30 billion barrels of oil (against about 30 billion
barrels of proven U.S. reserves today) and 80 trillion cubic feet or more of natural gas (compared with
about 200 tcf of proven reserves).
A crude October
surprise? In 2006, the Interior Department estimated about 85.9 billion barrels of
"undiscovered technically recoverable" oil sit offshore on the Outer Continental Shelf within U.S.
territory. In 2007, the Energy Department's "Task Force on Strategic Unconventional Fuels" reported
that: "America's oil shale resource exceeds 2 trillion barrels, including about 1.5 trillion
barrels of oil equivalent in high quality shales concentrated in the Green River Formation in Colorado, Utah
and Wyoming. ..."
Only
Action Can Put America Back in Drive. First, we must increase production and open up access to explore for
American-made energy. For too long our own precious resources have been off limits, and competing nations are gaining
from our neglect. Right now, China, Venezuela, and others are working with Cuba to extract oil near our waters.
Yet American companies are not able to extract our own resources to provide for American consumers. This is
outrageous. How can we honestly demand OPEC nations pump more oil when we will not even utilize our own resources?
Dakota Oil Fields of
Saudi-Sized Reserves Make Farmers Drillers. Unlike the tar from Canada's oil sands, Bakken crude
needs little refining. Swirl some of it in a Mason jar and it leaves a thin, honey-colored film along
the sides. It's light — almost like gasoline — and sweet, meaning it's low in
sulfur. Best of all, the Bakken could be huge. The U.S. Geological Survey's Leigh Price, a Denver
geochemist who died of a heart attack in 2000, estimated that the Bakken might hold a whopping 413 billion
barrels. If so, it would dwarf Saudi Arabia's Ghawar, the world's biggest field, which has produced about
55 billion barrels.
U.S. Policies Put Most U.S.
Oil Off-Limits to Drilling. Huge basins of untapped oil can be found on federal lands throughout the United
States, according to a new report from the federal government. But much of it cannot — and may never
be — recovered, because it lies under national parks and national monuments, or it is subject to environmental
laws and restrictions that make drilling prohibitive. … If you add in the 85.9 billion barrels of oil that lie
offshore, as determined by the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, there are 117 billion barrels
of oil on lands owned or managed by the U.S. government.
Who was in the White House when those "national monument" land grabs took place? Al Gore, the United Nations, and the Cult of Gaia (1999):
[Scroll down] Under President Clinton and Vice President Gore, who is recognized as the driving force behind
the administration's environmental agenda, the American people have witnessed rather extraordinary actions designed
to stop economic development. … [President Clinton] designated 1.7 million acres of land in southwest Utah
as a national monument, placing it off limits to development. This area reportedly contains billions of barrels
of oil, minerals and tens of billions of tons of low sulfur clean-burning coal. It could have produced thousands
of jobs and billions of dollars in revenue for the state and federal governments.
Montana
Governor is Sitting on an Oil Mine. Here's some very good news about oil that the manipulators
on Wall Street don't want you to know: there could be as much as 40 billion barrels of crude lying
untouched in eastern Montana.
North Dakota town sitting on oil
jackpot. In this tiny reservation town about two hours from the Canadian border, a Southern
twang is sometimes heard over the din at the local diner and there's talk of Texas tea beneath the streets.
Roughnecks from Texas and Oklahoma have travelled here on hopes that they now share with the town's 1,000 or
so inhabitants — that there is oil in Parshall.
Drivers Say
U.S. Should Drill for Oil on Federal Lands. A recent Department of Interior report, requested by
Congress, estimates there are 139 billion barrels of undiscovered oil in the United States, onshore and
off-shore combined — more than the known oil reserves of Iran, Iraq or Russia. But most of
that oil cannot be tapped because of environmental regulations.
Who Will Pay For Promises Of
Politicians? Congress, doing the bidding of environmental extremists, created our energy supply
problem. Oil and gas exploration in a tiny portion of the coastal plain of Alaska's Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge would, according to a 2002 U.S. Geological Survey's estimate, increase our proven domestic oil
reserves by approximately 50%. The Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and eastern Gulf of Mexico offshore areas
have enormous reserves of oil and natural gas. These energy sources of oil have also been placed off-limits
by Congress. Because of onerous regulations, it has been 30-plus years since a new refinery has been
built. Similar regulations also explain why the U.S. nuclear energy production is a fraction of
what it might be.
Is oil's price run-up a problem?
Maybe. Is oil in short supply? No. In fact, the world's ability to produce more oil
than it needs is better now than it was after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, which spotlighted how tight
global oil production had become. Then why are prices going up?
Environmental
Alarmists Have It Backwards. President Bush chides us for our "addiction to oil." But
under current conditions, using oil makes perfect sense. Someday, if we let the free market operate,
someone will find an energy source that works better than oil. Then richer future generations won't need
oil. So why deprive ourselves and make ourselves poorer with needless regulation now? Anyway,
it's not as if we're running out of oil.
State of the Union 2007: A
Counterproductive Energy Policy. Recent Department of the Interior studies, conducted pursuant
to the 2005 energy bill, confirm that the United States has substantial oil and natural gas deposits.
These studies also show that much of these onshore and offshore resources are off-limits due to legal and
regulatory constraints. In fact, America remains the only nation on earth that has restricted access
to a substantial portion of its domestic energy potential. Removing the federal impediments on domestic
exploration and drilling will allow for greater domestic supplies and potentially lower prices in the years
ahead.
Energy Answers Await At Our
Doorstep. As gasoline prices continue to soar, few Americans realize that a key element for
strengthening our energy security is right next door. Nearly 50% of our energy imports come from our
neighbors in the Western Hemisphere. Canada is our single-largest energy supplier, providing 17% of
U.S. oil imports.
Abundant Domestic Supplies are
Off-Limits. The Bureau of Land Management recently published [a report which] concludes that
onshore federal lands are "estimated to contain 187 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 21 billion
barrels of oil, which represents 76 percent of onshore Federal oil and gas resources." That
187 trillion cubic feet of natural gas is enough to supply all of America's households for 39 years, and
21 billion barrels of oil represents over 30 years' worth of current imports from Saudi Arabia.
Abundant energy supplies
off-limits. Good news: The more we look for oil and natural gas in the United States, the
more we find. That might even be great news — if so much of the energy wasn't out of
reach. According to a new Interior Department report, there are substantial onshore energy deposits on
federal lands. A companion study of offshore energy reserves released earlier this year reached the
same conclusion. But both reports found much of this energy is either explicitly off-limits or
hampered by regulatory constraints that effectively make it so.
A Big Dose of Energy Reality.
Representative Richard Pombo, chairman of the House Committee on Resources, will tell anyone who will listen
that "for the foreseeable future, America has no shortage of oil or other traditional energy resources.
Washington, D.C., has a shortage of the political will required to let American workers go get it." For
example, "The United States has enough non-park federal resources to supply natural gas to 100 million
homes for 157 years. But, despite that massive supply, we cannot deliver even one year of
affordable natural gas to Americans right now."
Late Word from the Oil Patch: When
people tell me that America is too dependent on foreign oil imports, I keep telling them we have lots of oil,
but thanks to the environmentalists, our own government has made it either too costly to get at it or access
has been restricted because the bulk of our undeveloped energy resources is found on federal lands or federally
controlled areas offshore. This is what happens when the federal government owns nearly half the landmass
of the nation.
Don't
ignore America's oil reserves. Driving through Sistersville, W.Va., a little town alongside the
Ohio River, you would never know that 110 years ago it was the center of an oil boom. But in the
first decade of the 20th century, if you were in the oil business, it was the place to be.
Pipeline, Not Pipe
Dream: Credit Palin. It must be sweet vindication for Alaska's governor. Against
critics who said her 1,712-mile natural gas pipeline project would never get off the ground, who should the
project bag but the "big gorilla" of American energy — Exxon Mobil. In a major surprise,
Exxon announced Thursday [6/11/2009] that it had forged a partnership with TransCanada, the Canadian pipeline
company that holds the state license for Palin's $126 billion Alaska Gasoline Inducement Act project.
Alaska is floating on oil
Our elected leaders are the problem. Drill
in ANWR! A 1998 United States Geological Survey (USGS) study indicates that there are a minimum
of 4.3 billion and possibly (though unlikely) as many as 11.8 billion barrels of oil in the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). But ANWR, for all the press it has received, is only the tip of the oil
iceberg. John K. Carlisle, of the National Center for Public Policy Research, claims that the US
likely has more than 110 billion barrels total of recoverable oil (which is five times the estimated
current supply). But we are not drilling for this oil. Why?
Drill, Dems, Drill.
That an Alaskan senator-elect wants to drill in ANWR is not a surprise. That he's a Democrat is. Were
high oil prices what helped push Detroit over the edge?
GOP staking out
offshore drilling as major issue. Sarah Palin's selection as John McCain's running mate has served to
underscore the significance Republicans are putting on opening new areas to energy exploration. As governor of
Alaska, Palin championed opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling — something even McCain
has opposed.
Alaska's Real Bridge. A recent
study by Cambridge Energy Research Associates found that alternative energy will at best supply 16% of global electric and
transport needs — by 2030. In reality, drilling ANWR is critical, as [Alaska's] two senators urge. "We almost
passed it in 2001," Stevens said. "Some said that if we had acted then, we would have had (the oil) to market right
now." Yes, getting oil into production would take time. But [Sen. Lisa] Murkowski thinks the very act of passing
the bill would damp price speculation.
Feds grim on gas
line. Prospects for an Alaska natural gas pipeline "are more remote than a year ago," and the
holdup is political indecision in Alaska, says a new report from federal energy regulators. … The seven-page
report says the federal government stands ready to move the megaproject forward, but the "main obstacle" is
the state's "failure to resolve" tax or other issues that major oil companies have said must be settled
before they can commit to building the multibillion-dollar pipeline project.
Trans Alaska pipeline could do job for 30 more
years. When engineers first turned the spigot on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System in 1977, they thought it
would run for about 30 years. Accountants were a bit more generous, saying it would be 34 years before the
800-mile, $8 billion asset could be written off the books. But with its 31st anniversary approaching in June, the
pipeline, known as TAPS, is primed for another 30 years.
Alaska governor
wants to tap oil resources. Speaking to a group of Hillsdale College supporters, the governor said,
"Alaska has so many resources to tap into, so that this state can be a contributor, not a recipient of the federal
government." The governor announced that another $30 billion to $40 billion pipeline for natural
gas has just been made possible through the efforts of an independent company for moving natural gas to the lower
48 states and is about to begin construction.
To Drill, or Not to
Drill. Republican presidential candidate John McCain says that he's taking another look at the
possibility of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, and as part of that assessment
McCain says that he plans to talk to the nation's most prominent advocate of drilling in ANWR, Alaska governor
Sarah Palin.
Zapped
crude oil flows faster through pipes. Zapping thick crude oil with a magnetic or electric field
could make it flow more smoothly through pipes. The technique, which reduces the viscosity of the liquid,
could make transporting crude through cold underwater pipes easier and cheaper, researchers claim.
Why might Alaskans favor Arctic drilling? A
$2,000 check. This year's Permanent Fund dividend check — what Alaskans receive each
year from the state's oil-revenue investment fund — is likely to be more than $2,000, the first
time since the state began making the payments in 1982 that the dividend has topped two grand. The
biggest previous dividend was $1963.86 in 2000. Last year's was $1,654. The dividend spins off
the Alaska Permanent Fund, the state's $37 billion oil wealth savings account.
Open ANWR. Many votes against
drilling [in Alaska] come from California, Northeastern and Midwestern legislators who have made a career of
railing against high energy prices, "obscene" oil company profits, unemployment and balance of trade
deficits — while simultaneously doing everything possible to constrict supplies, increase demand
and drive up prices. For instance, air quality rules — coupled with a virtual prohibition
on building new nuclear plants — mean that most new electrical generating plants are
gas-fired. So demand for natural gas continues to climb, while domestic supplies continue
to decrease.
Oil Prices
and the Media: Don't Believe the Hype. With regard to folks blocking drilling for oil in
ANWR due to environmental concerns, U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) offered the following analogy: If ANWR
was the size of a basketball court, the proposed area for drilling would be the size of a dollar bill. He
also said that if President Clinton had not vetoed ANWR drilling in 1995, the U.S. domestic oil supply be
20 percent higher today.
ANWR and Our Nation's
Energy Future. Many of the same people that are now complaining about our dependence on
foreign oil consistently oppose opening Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to production. This
is not some radical idea. The 1980 law that doubled the size of ANWR to 19 million acres explicitly
called for Congress to develop a process through which exploration and production could be conducted on
the 2000 acre Coastal Plain. Yet, across the past 24 years, anti-development forces in Congress
have ignored America's energy needs and, through the use of filibusters, prevented oil and gas
development. This inaction is irresponsible.
Alaska senators make another push for oil
drilling in ANWR. Hoping to capitalize on consumer concern about gasoline prices, Alaska's two
Republican senators introduced legislation Thursday that would allow oil drilling in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge if the price of oil hits $125 a barrel. With oil hovering near $110 a barrel and
gasoline expected to reach $4 a gallon, Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Ted Stevens said that they hoped the
continuing price spiral would spark consumer clamor and overcome opposition to opening the wildlife refuge
to drilling.
The Editor says...
Why wait for $125 a barrel? This issue should have come up when oil hit $40 a barrel.
Green
movement also behind gas hike. What if we had our own Iraq-sized supply that we haven't even
touched yet? We do. According to the U.S. Geological Survey and American Petroleum Institute, we
have at least 112 billion barrels of undrilled oil — "enough to produce gasoline for
60 million cars and fuel oil for 25 million homes for 60 years." By comparison, Iraq has
115 billion barrels and Venezuela 80 billion. At least 16 billion barrels of our oil is
in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Drilling would only touch 8 percent of 17 million
acres — but environmentalists say it's off-limits.
And not only oil... Study: Tap
natural gas from Alaska's frozen areas. Today's technology could extract enough untapped natural
gas, frozen in Alaska's North Slope, to heat millions of homes for years, federal officials announced
Wednesday [11/12/2008]. An estimated 85.4 trillion cubic feet of "undiscovered, technically
recoverable gas" is frozen in the state's North Slope region, according to a U.S. Geological Survey study
released by the Interior Department. The deposits could heat more than 100 million homes for a
decade, the study says.
Thawing Fuel For Palin's
Pipeline. A new study by the U.S. Geological Survey shows that 85.4 trillion cubic feet of
frozen natural gas crystals lie buried beneath Alaska's icy North Slope, a region where the crude production
peaked in 1988 and had to be replaced by imported oil. The frozen gas, known as gas hydrate, is a new
Made-In-U.S.A. energy source that's nearly three times the 30 trillion cubic feet of estimated U.S.
reserves from conventional gas sources; it had not even been counted in current estimates of domestic
energy reserves.
The world is not running out of oil
Deep oil: a
giant discovery. BP has announced a "giant" oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico, drilled to
a total depth of 35,055 feet. Drilling began at a depth of 4,132 feet below the surface of the
water. No further details of the magnitude of the discovery are being released. But this is
further evidence that deep oil and gas deposits may dwarf the resources discovered at shallower depths.
BP's oil find is big, but miles
out and down. A major new oil discovery by BP in the Gulf of Mexico underscores the potential
of a highly touted deep-water area where other oil companies also scored big in recent years, but the task of
producing the crude has just begun.
BP Finds
'Giant' Oil Source Deep Under Gulf of Mexico. BP said Wednesday [9/2/2009] that it made a
"giant" oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico, and analysts said that the find deep below the sea floor
raised hopes that further exploration in the region could help sustain U.S. offshore oil production.
The discovery, known as Tiber, was made 250 miles southeast of Houston and was "in the same league" as
other big fields BP has discovered in the Gulf of Mexico, BP spokesman Daren Beaudo said.
Canada's Oil Bonanza.
Canada has the oil the American economy desperately needs — and then some. So why do we
treat this and other energy allies like pariahs?
The
Problem's Not Peak Oil, It's Politics. Some "peak oil" cassandras warn that global energy
production will soon fall into permanent decline. But a more immediate danger to world oil supplies
may be the tempestuous politics of many producing countries.
The World
Has Plenty of Oil. The world is not running out of oil anytime soon. A gradual transitioning
on the global scale away from a fossil-based energy system may in fact happen during the 21st century. The
root causes, however, will most likely have less to do with lack of supplies and far more with superior
alternatives. The overused observation that "the Stone Age did not end due to a lack of stones" may in
fact find its match.
Environmentalists Still Can't Get
It Right. In 1885, the U.S. Geological Survey announced that there was "little or no chance" of
oil being discovered in California, and a few years later they said the same about Kansas and Texas. In
1939, the U.S. Department of the Interior said American oil supplies would last only another 13 years.
In 1949, the secretary of the interior said the end of U.S. oil supplies was in sight. Having learned
nothing from its earlier erroneous claims, in 1974 the U.S. Geological Survey advised us that the U.S. had
only a 10-year supply of natural gas.
Peak Oil: An Idea Whose
Time Is Up. Some analysts believe that investors who have swallowed the peak oil theory are
pricing oil higher because they fear the world is running out of crude and permanent shortages are nigh.
They shouldn't believe it.
Have
we underestimated total oil reserves? Black gold might not be as scarce as we thought. This
week oil prices escalated to a record $139 per barrel, but that may partly be because the amount of available
oil in known reserves has been significantly underestimated. So says Richard Pike, a former oil-industry
adviser and chief executive of the UK Royal Society of Chemistry, who blames flawed statistical calculations.
World has enough oil
supplies for 'many decades': Nuaimi. Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi said on Sunday [6/22/2008]
the world has enough crude to last for "many decades" and that his country will invest massively to be able to
produce 15 million barrels a day. "The world has enough petroleum reserves, both conventional and
non-conventional, to meet oil demand for many, many decades to come," Nuaimi told a summit in Jeddah of top
consumers and producers.
Kuwait oil lifespan 115 years.
The lifespan of Kuwait's oil fields could prolong to 115 years if state-of-the-art technologies are tapped,
according to a new book released by Kuwait Oil Company (KOC). Kuwait's confirmed oil reserves are
101.5 billion barrels, the book said, citing British Petroleum (BP) figures in 2005. Now that
Kuwait's daily oil output is 2.415 million barrels according to February 2007 statistics, the lifespan
of oil fields is 42,029 days or 115 years, the book said.
Why So High? According to [the American
Petroleum Institute], "The U.S. government estimates that deepwater regions of the Gulf of Mexico may
contain 71 billion barrels of oil." API estimates that there are 10.5 billion barrels off the
shores of California and the Pacific Northwest, 3.8 billion barrels off the Atlantic coastline, and
18 billion barrels onshore and 26.6 billion barrels off the Alaska coast and in the Alaska
National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). This adds up to 138.1 billion barrels of oil, enough to power
over 60 million automobiles for 60 years according to government estimates. (These same
reservoirs could supply 656 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, sufficient to heat 60 million
homes for the next 160 years.)
Peak Oil Is a Waste of Energy.
Remember "peak oil"? It's the theory that geological scarcity will at some point make it impossible for
global petroleum production to avoid falling, heralding the end of the oil age and, potentially, economic
catastrophe. Well, just when we thought that the collapse in oil prices since last summer had put
an end to such talk, ...
How much oil lies beneath the Earth's
crust? The only thing we know for sure is that history is littered with estimates so far off the
mark — usually below the mark — that they border on the comical. In the 1920s, for
instance, the Anglo-Persian Oil Co. (now BP) refused to take a stake in Saudi Arabia, thinking that the country
didn't hold a single drop of oil. In 1919, the U.S. Geological Survey predicted that the United States
would run out of oil in nine years. Yet by the time nine years had passed, huge discoveries, topped by
the Black Giant field in Texas, had created a massive oil glut that almost destroyed the industry.
World oil supplies are set to run out
faster than expected, warn scientists. Scientists have criticised a major review of the world's
remaining oil reserves, warning that the end of oil is coming sooner than governments and oil companies are
prepared to admit. BP's Statistical Review of World Energy, published yesterday, appears to show that
the world still has enough "proven" reserves to provide 40 years of consumption at current rates.
The assessment, based on officially reported figures, has once again pushed back the estimate of when the
world will run dry.
Running out of
oil? "Proven" oil reserves, oil that's economically and technologically recoverable, are
estimated to be more than 1.1 trillion barrels. That's enough oil, at current usage rates, to fuel
the world's economy for 38 years, according to Leonardo Maugeri, vice president for the Italian energy
company ENI. … There are an additional 2 trillion barrels of "recoverable" reserves.
Mr. Maugeri says these oil reserves will probably meet the "proven" standard in a few years as
technological improvement and increased sub-soil knowledge come online.
We Are Not Running
Out of Oil. Every time oil prices rise for an extended period, the news media issue
dire warnings that a crisis is upon us — it's not! Many factors are contributing
to the currently high gas prices: limited refining capacity, political restrictions on development
of new domestic sources of oil, reduced supply from several oil exporting countries due to political
conflicts, limited supplies due to the actions of the oil cartel, OPEC, and finally, increased demand
for oil in China. Dwindling supplies of oil is not a factor in the current price at the pump.
Geologist: Earth has lots and
lots of oil. A University of Washington economic geologist says there is lots of crude oil left
for human use. Eric Cheney said Friday in a news release that changing economics, technological advances
and efforts such as recycling and substitution make the world's mineral resources virtually infinite.
The Peak Oil Myth: The U.S.
had 321 refineries in 1981; the U.S. has 149 oil refineries today. Many plants operate 24 hours a
day (with no down-time for maintenance) to supply the growing demand for fuel, and to comply
with EPA regulations that require refineries to formulate different types of gasoline in
different regions of the country at different times of the year.
Plenty of oil left in
the global tank. [Scroll down] The most important reason for rejecting the "peak oil is here"
argument, however, is that current production reflects investment decisions taken years ago, when prices were
much lower. It was only just over three years ago that oil rose above $40 a barrel. A few years
earlier it was $10-$11. Higher prices will bring more output on stream.
Oil is Not a fossil fuel. [In the
1940s] Stalin's team of scientists and engineers found that oil is not a 'fossil fuel' but is a natural
product of planet earth — the high-temperature, high-pressure continuous reaction between calcium
carbonate and iron oxide — two of the most abundant compounds making up the earth's crust. This
continuous reaction occurs at a depth of approximately 100 km at a pressure of approximately 50,000
atmospheres (5 GPa) and a temperature of approximately 1500°C, and will continue more or less until
the 'death' of planet earth in millions of years' time.
IEA Sees No Twilight for Saudi Oil.
Mark Twain's old line about the reports of his death being greatly exaggerated might apply to the Saudis.
If this year's oil production results and the 2008 predictions are to be believed, then the Saudis are going
to continue to dominate the global oil business.
Aramco Chief Debunks Peak Oil.
"We have grossly underestimated mankind's ability to find new reserves of petroleum, as well as our capacity
to raise recovery rates and tap fields once thought inaccessible or impossible to produce." So said
Abdallah S. Jum'ah, Saudi Aramco's president and CEO, during his address at the 11th Congress of the
World's Energy Council in Rome last November. With the mass media focused on soaring oil prices and
publishing a rash of peak oil stories, Jum'ah's latest contribution to the peak oil debate has gone
largely unreported.
Oil Prices: Cause and
Effect. The price of crude didn't rise from $12 in early 1999 to nearly $60 because
the world suddenly ran out of oil. On the contrary, the world supply of petroleum has risen
10 percent since then, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), from 65.8 million
barrels a day in 1999 to 72.5 million in 2004.
Natural Gas Needs No Dinosaurs to
Form. Credible scientists have now demonstrated that methane, the main ingredient of
natural gas, can form inorganically, as a result of natural processes that involve no biological
material whatsoever — no dead dinosaurs, no rotting ancient forests, not even any little
plankton trapped in the soil.
Endless
oil. Do dead dinosaurs fuel our cars? The assumption that they do, along with other dead
matter thought to have formed what are known as fossil fuels, has been an article of faith for centuries. ... Sooner
or later, we will run out of liquefied dinosaurs and be forced to turn to either nuclear or renewable fuels,
virtually everyone believes. Except in Russia and Ukraine. What is to us a matter of scientific
certainty is by no means accepted there. Many Russians and Ukrainians — no slouches in the
hard sciences — have since the 1950s held that oil does not come exclusively, or even partly, from
dinosaurs but is formed below the Earth's 25-mile deep crust.
Obama and the Alternative Energy Fiasco:
[Scroll down] All of these things are happening at a time when natural gas is abundant and cheap. ... Many
cars could run on natural gas, much like many buses do already. ... New technologies continually revive old oil
and gas fields and make new ones economically viable. So it's little more than socialist Malthusianism to
argue that the world is running out of cheap energy.
Peak Government, Not Oil. The
chief economist of the International Energy Agency says the world is running out of oil. We've been told that
for the last 150 years. The only thing we're running out of is the will to drill.
Peak Oil: A Theory Running
Out Of Gas. One year ago, Congress responded to the chorus of Americans calling for more
American energy by lifting the ban on offshore drilling. For the first time in a quarter-century, it
became legal to drill for more oil and natural gas reserves offshore. This anniversary allows us to look
back on how far we have come since 2008. The sad reality is we have barely moved.
