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Drill, Baby, Drill!

Deuce

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People seem to be under the impression that America can drill more to improve the oil situation. That drilling offshore will help us with gas prices and the economy.

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According to the US Energy Information Administration, oil production from drilling offshore in the outer continental shelf wouldn't begin until around the year 2017. Once begun, it wouldn't reach peak production until about 2030 when it would produce only 200,000 barrels of oil per day (in yellow above). This would supply a meager 1.2% of total US annual oil consumption (just 0.6% of total US energy consumption). And, the offshore oil would be sold back to the US at the international rate, which today is $106 a barrel. So, the oil produced by offshore drilling would not only be a "drop in the bucket", it would be expensive, which translates to "no relief at the pump".

Like I've often said, the public doesn't really understand the sheer volume we're talking about.
 
A better graph would be in the context of world demand. What amuses me is that those who clamor to be Conservative hammer those on their alleged lack of understanding of supply and demand but somehow think that immaterial amounts of new oil will suddenly cause large prices changes.

Can a mom and pop grocery store force a Walmart Super Center to change its prices? No, yet some people think so when it comes to oil. want oil prices to drop? Reduce demand.

You can tell who has their head on straight when their apply their economics consistently.
 
I am continually perplexed as to why people aren't in favor of green energy supplements and research into new fuel sources. Are we so hell bent on profit that we cannot see the simple reality of the situation?

Energy demand is increasing exponentially and I don't think people realize what that means. Oil companies celebrate discovering wells that can yield 500,000 barrels, but that is nothing. That would supply the U.S. for maybe 40 days. Are we prepared to tear up every piece of land and ocean floor looking for every last drop to supply our demands? Unless we can be smart and place more funding into alternative research - and not just that, but have government policy enacted to SUPPORT the implementation of new technology - then we are on an unsustainable path.

Offshore drilling is not going to solve the problem, and every oil disaster that happens is creating huge costs that aren't being factored into fossil fuel infrastructure.

We really need to get past blind profit seeking and start making smart choices for the future. I want my children and my children's children to grow up in a world that doesn't feel apocalyptically bound by perpetual smoke stacks and environmental collapse.
 
I still don't get why people want to drill more. I mean we are going to run out of oil eventually, probably in my lifetime. Yeah we can get by on oil for atleast 40-50 more years, but past that were putting ourself in a corner. We need to be using this time to develop other sources of energy, that are cleaner, and renewable while we can without having a major energy crisis due to the lack of oil.
 
I still don't get why people want to drill more. I mean we are going to run out of oil eventually, probably in my lifetime. Yeah we can get by on oil for atleast 40-50 more years, but past that were putting ourself in a corner. We need to be using this time to develop other sources of energy, that are cleaner, and renewable while we can without having a major energy crisis due to the lack of oil.

You'd think that would be friggin' obvious to most people. And what's so bad about creating new jobs for Americans that can export goods to other countries? Seriously, I feel that some people here actually hate America. They don't want us to stop financing Iran. They don't want us to increase American jobs and they don't want us to reduce our trade deficit.

So many self proclaimed Conservatives are anything but. A Real Conservative would be for getting us out of the oil exchange market that funds Russia and Iran. A Real Conservative would be more increasing US jobs and exports. A Real Conservative would be for conserving the environment. What we see on this forum is a bunch of fakes who don't give a **** about America.
 
You'd think that would be friggin' obvious to most people. And what's so bad about creating new jobs for Americans that can export goods to other countries? Seriously, I feel that some people here actually hate America. They don't want us to stop financing Iran. They don't want us to increase American jobs and they don't want us to reduce our trade deficit.

So many self proclaimed Conservatives are anything but. A Real Conservative would be for getting us out of the oil exchange market that funds Russia and Iran. A Real Conservative would be more increasing US jobs and exports. A Real Conservative would be for conserving the environment. What we see on this forum is a bunch of fakes who don't give a **** about America.
What could you possibly know about being a real conservative?
 
What could you possibly know about being a real conservative?

Seems to me like the entire argument would be subjective by nature.
 
I love that graph. I giggle every time I read a post that claims that offshore drilling will make the US non-dependent on foreign oil.

Many here are unaware that it's nothing more than a pittance, and the risks are most certainly not worth the measly reward.
 
The US has
more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth. Here are the official estimates:

* 8 times as much oil as Saudi Arabia
* 18 times as much oil as Iraq
* 21 times as much oil as Kuwait
* 22 times as much oil as Iran
* 500 times as much oil as Yemen
- and it's all right here in the Western United States.
Peak Oil Lie - US Has Utterly Giant Oil Reserves
 

This guy's opinion piece is void of any homework. The Bakken oil shale field was discovered in 1953, so why has it been mostly untouched? Use some common sense. It's not like one can poke a straw in the ground and have the oil gushing like that have for years in Saudi Arabia. If that were the case, Americans would be building man-made islands and gold structures, too. I love how he blames environmentalists for this. *shakes head*

This is the reality, all explaining for you with credible sources.

"What about the Bakken Oil Shale? I heard it's absolutely huge."

The Bakken oil shale field was discovered in 1953. In spring of 2008, a series of breathless reports regarding the Bakken shale began circulating the internet. Even if the reports are true, the 4.3 billion barrels supposedly contained within it will push the global peak back by only 2.15 billion barrels. That amounts to about one month's worth of at current levels of global demand.

The reality is the Bakken "oil find" is not even actual oil, it is shale rock buried 9,000 feet underground that has a tiny amount of oil in it that might someday be extracted with extraordinary cost. An article in the Toronto Star explains:
Assuming all 4.3 billion barrels could be retrieved, it would represent nine months of oil consumption in the United States. Now, let's consider the nature of the Bakken oil. It doesn't sit in big underground pools where you can just pop in a metal straw and suck it out. This oil is trapped in layers of shale – a sedimentary rock – up to 3,000 metres deep. It will cost dearly to go after Bakken oil, just as Chevron will have to pay a bundle if it hopes to extract the 3 to 15 billion barrels it has discovered in the Gulf of Mexico, kilometres under the water at its "Jack" wells. The technology exists to get it – at least some of it. We can also have a manned mission to Mars if we truly wanted to pay for it. Source

If everything breaks just right, the Bakken oil shale might produce a maximimum of a few hundred thousand barrels per day albeit at great cost. Oil industry analyst Dave Cohen explains further:
If other parts of the Middle Bakken are as productive as the drilled parts of Elm Coulee, and constant large investment in drilling activity in the western Williston Basin continues, we might see peak production somewhere in excess of 100,000 barrels per day. This is an educated guess, but this estimate is not off by an order of magnitude, i.e. we are talking about peak production rates in the very low hundreds of thousands, not millions, of barrels of oil per day. Source

An extensive independent analysis posted at the peer-reviewed oil industry site The Oil Drum came to similar conclusions regarding the potential of the Bakken Shale:
The Bakken shale has produced about 111 million barrels of oil during the last 50+ years in Montana and North Dakota. Total Bakken production is still rising, and producing at the rate of 75,000 BPD in October 2007. Because of the highly variable nature of shale reservoirs, the characteristics of the historical Bakken production, and the fact that per-well rates seem to have peaked, it seems unlikely that total Bakken production will exceed 2x to 3x current rate of 75,000 BPD. Source

This will, of course, make some money for the companies producing the oil but given the fact global supply will be dropping by 2.5 million barrels per day (or more) per year once the decline really gets under way, a couple hundred thousand barrels per day won't make much difference to the overall market.

To put 200,000 barrels a day in perspective, consider the fact the world now uses 1,000 barrels per second. Source What this means is that even in the most opitmistic scenario the Bakken oil shale might provide the world with about 200 seconds - or just over 3 minutes - of additional oil per day. That commentators such as Jerorme Corsi have hailed it as a "bonanza" and "proof that oil supplies are nowhere near peaking" (Source) should tell you more about their motives than anything else.

Peak Oil, Matt Savinar, Life After the Oil Crash
 
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This whole argument is pointless, because oil will run out. We need to start looking for a more permanent source of energy now, before we have an energy crisis because of the lack of oil, and other fossil fuels.
 
This whole argument is pointless, because oil will run out. We need to start looking for a more permanent source of energy now, before we have an energy crisis because of the lack of oil, and other fossil fuels.

People are already doing this but it is pointless to try to force it when oil is cheap and reliable for the time being.

Everyone needs to chill on this alternative energy stuff, it doesn't get researched by magic, it takes time.
 
Until there are green alternatives that are affordable and work we should use what we have as the new technology is developed. It will take years maybe decades to switch. So DRILL BABY DRILL
 
Shale oil

Yeah, I love hearing about this one. Oil companies have already tapped anything and everything that they can that is profitable. There's no reason not to drill it. To extract shale oil you have to drill thousands of feet down and heat the rock to like 600 degrees. You're basically trying to grind oil out of rock. The biggest issue is that it just takes so damned much effort, and the volume you get out is weak. There just doesn't exist the capability to expand drilling operations to keep up with global demand.

Nuclear, nuclear, nuclear. It's mathematics. Energy density is a million times that of oil.
 
Yeah, I love hearing about this one. Oil companies have already tapped anything and everything that they can that is profitable. There's no reason not to drill it. To extract shale oil you have to drill thousands of feet down and heat the rock to like 600 degrees. You're basically trying to grind oil out of rock. The biggest issue is that it just takes so damned much effort, and the volume you get out is weak. There just doesn't exist the capability to expand drilling operations to keep up with global demand.

Nuclear, nuclear, nuclear. It's mathematics. Energy density is a million times that of oil.

Do you know the difference between light sweet crude, shale and sour oil?

Because Southern clearly thinks that all oil is the same.

The mere costs of cracking heavy sour oil alone makes LSC epically more profitable.

The funny thing about this forum is, if you consider yourself more to the right, the less you understand about science, math, engineering, economics and business.
 
This whole argument is pointless, because oil will run out. We need to start looking for a more permanent source of energy now, before we have an energy crisis because of the lack of oil, and other fossil fuels.

The sun will run out too so by your logic we need to stop using it and look for another energy source.
 
It's quite obvious that debating this topic is not your priority or intention. You have yet to counter why the Bakken shale oil is garbage.

You piece is opinion. Its a fact that as technology increases and crude prices rise deposits thought to be too expensive to produce are suddenly a bargain. "Peak Oil" is not as simple as your guy says it is.

The simple fact is that Mid-east oil is cheaper to produce right now, but there is less of it that we have here. One of the main costs associated with producing oil here is the political risk. A company can set up a well and production only to have some politician pull the plug or OPEC increase production, lowering prices. Or a new deposit can be discovered, lowing the commodity cost.

The situation with nuclear power is similar. A company can spend literally billions of dollars to build a plant only to have some judge do and end-run and nix the whole deal.
 
People seem to be under the impression that America can drill more to improve the oil situation. That drilling offshore will help us with gas prices and the economy.

Re7hb.jpg


Architecture 2030 E-news


Like I've often said, the public doesn't really understand the sheer volume we're talking about.

Sadly - this is true.

the only way that drilling *our own oil* would actually benefit us directly and significantly is if we dissolved the current system - and only use our oil for us.
 
There's also the fact that as new energy use technology rises the demand for oil will decline. For decades the internal combustion engine had an efficiency ratio of about 30%. Direct injection, variable valve timing and computer controls have increased that substantially in the newest designs flooding the market. Google "2011 Ford Super Duty" for an example. Add in hybrid technology. In the near future expect to see more use of ceramics in engines, increasing combustion temperatures to dramatically increase efficiency. Also electric motive power by batteries (now) and inductive power transfer (much later).
 
People seem to be under the impression that America can drill more to improve the oil situation. That drilling offshore will help us with gas prices and the economy.

Yes, well... the failed-Governor of Alaska saw to that bit of misinformation getting out into the dim-witted far-rightie mindset.
 
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