Drill, Baby, Drill!

[Southern Man]

The blogger's commentary about the U.S. having "2 trillion barrels" of oil is incorrect. No credible data even remotely approaches that figure. For example, the USGS revealed, "The USGS estimate of 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil has a mean value of 3.65 billion barrels. Scientists conducted detailed studies in stratigraphy and structural geology and the modeling of petroleum geochemistry. They also combined their findings with historical exploration and production analyses to determine the undiscovered, technically recoverable oil estimates."

The most recent proved oil reserves data showed Saudi Arabia with just under 267 billion barrels of crude oil.

From the USGS web site: "The USGS estimates that there may be 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in the Bakken Formation (with a mean estimate of 3.65 billion barrels). These are estimates of oil that has yet to be found, but if found, could be produced using currently available technology and industry practices. However, there is no way to know how much oil is in the Bakken Formation or any formation until the area is actually drilled and produced. "

So again, assuming that the EIA is correct at 503 billion barells, and that 50% is recoverable, this will serve US needs at its current rate of import for 69 years, or at its current level of use for 33 years. And that's just one oil field.

 

[Scarecrow Akhbar]

The blogger's commentary about the U.S. having "2 trillion barrels" of oil is incorrect. No credible data even remotely approaches that figure. For example, the USGS revealed, "The USGS estimate of 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil has a mean value of 3.65 billion barrels. Scientists conducted detailed studies in stratigraphy and structural geology and the modeling of petroleum geochemistry. They also combined their findings with historical exploration and production analyses to determine the undiscovered, technically recoverable oil estimates."

The most recent proved oil reserves data showed Saudi Arabia with just under 267 billion barrels of crude oil.

Wrong.

The estimate it correct.

Your presumption that the reserve is liquid is wrong.

Study reveals huge U.S. oil-shale field

 

[Scarecrow Akhbar]

What would drilling accomplish, ptif219? Tell me this... if all "wacko environmentalists" decided to give carte blanche the the "drill baby drill" crowd, what would happen if all American oil sources were tapped?

Umm.....drilling is the process by which oil is taken from the ground and turned into a useful commodity. Left in the ground oil is worthless.

So drilling the first step of turning worthless goo into useful work.

Drilling here means the United States would no longer be sending dollars overseas. Which helps the US economy and defunds Obama's terrorist pals.

That's typically considered a worthwhile goal by Americans.

Building refineries is another necessary step in the conversion of useless go into valuable products, and the US doesn't have enough of them, hence recurring price spikes and shortages.

 

[Scarecrow Akhbar]

Maybe so, but a the current rate of consumption, not by a lot. You'll still be heavily dependent on importing oil.

Two trillion barrels is going to last us a long time.

 

[Scarecrow Akhbar]

Can anyone explain why the environmentally sensitive westerners, with their drive to use as much of the whale as they possibly could, turned away from whales as a resource and started making pets out of them?

There's two reasons.

1) Petroleum was a better resource for energy needs, which dropped the bottom out of the whaling industry, and,

2) Whales were getting hard to find.

Edit: Oops. That's a bit surreal. Wrong thread.