What are we going to do with it all?
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well, with the 50mpg federal mandate coming i would say we are going to use it more slowly?
Um, just what we always do: sell it. So now, instead of being just net exporters of petroleum products, we will be Really Big exporters of petroleum products.
Seems like OPECâs gonna get drilled along with Texas and New Mexico⊠
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OPEC is gradually losing its influence. They are now trying to align themselves with Russia in order to regulate output reaching the market. With the US virtually self-sufficient, it no longer needs to kowtow to OPEC. Venezuela will have permanently lost one of its largest customers, although the US stopped buying from them because of their politicsâŠ
It might be worthwhile for the US to put an export duty on oil and refined products. Doing so would give US more control of our oil prices and OPEC less.
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As a New Mexican, weâre going to squander it on sports teams that canât win, students who donât study, lung transplants for smokers, liver transplants for alcoholics and drug abusers, bribes for movie and TV studios and businesses that leave once theyâve spent the bribe.
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This is very good news.
Perhaps we can now terminate our affiliation with a murderous monarch in Saudi Arabia.
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The Saudis have always had faith in the US defending their interests. This was always related to security of supply of oil. Only during the brief period of the first oil crisis was the US cut off for supporting Israel.
Oil is a very political commodity and now the looming presence of Iran makes many nations rally to the Saudi side. The Iranian agenda spells dominance in the Middle East and exporting terrorism elsewhere ever since the Shaw was deposed. Containing Iran will now be the main agenda in years to come.
Without oil and gas, however, the Middle East would be a curious backwater. .
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No doubt. Without its oil India and South Africa might be supporting the Middle East. I recall when the pipeline to the Suez Canal was being built news reports made the place look like a no mans land where migrating tribes road camels from oasis to oasis peddling dates. I remember an episode of Amos and Andy where Amosâ scheme backfired and he found himself welding pipeline to the âSuzyâ Canal wearing robes.
I found the A&A episode
and at about 24:00 Amos ends the program with a new scheme⊠Surprise!
Obviously I saw A&A in reruns but the writers seemed to use current events to base story lines and Americans working in the Arab world on a pipeline must have been a notable issue in the news then. I wonder when the Mid East took control of world oil.
I guess itâs âthe enemy of your enemy is your friendâ. Gotta be practical from time to time. I do remember way back in 1970, the old Army folks were preparing for trouble in the Middle East, no doubt in their minds.
I suppose there is but itâs all situational ethics. If you had a gang of folks trying to beat your door in and kill you and you had a murderous thug by your side trying to help you, I dunno, tough choice. I did have a guy help me out of a pond when I fell through the ice when no one else would help and who later was convicted of manslaughter. I went to his funeral though, still grateful. So who knows, but gotta choose.
Yes! Winston Churchill himself said in his memoirs referring to WW II alliances. âI would have made an alliance with the devil himselfâ to defeat Hitlerâs Germany. That âdevilâ turned out to be Joseph Stalin, and Russia, at great loss in manpower, helped defeat the Nazies.
After 1945 these allies, of course became natural enemies.
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Boy, all those writers who keep covering Peak Oil have a lot of corrections to make now.
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The US is already the worldâs largest oil producer. A lot comes from fracking, a technology that costs a lot and only makes sense when the price of oil is high. Maybe this is a more conventional find, where the technology is simpler. We donât stay friends with the Saudis because of our need for their oil, we do it because of their economic power because of that oil, and their huge military orders.
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Nope, this is 100% unconventional. Large areas of it are already under production, so itâs not a âdiscoveryâ in that way, but the entire area has been combined in this latest study.
And yes, fracking is expensive. If oil prices were to drop below $50 or so for an extended period, fracking would stop. But then prices would skyrocket, and fracking would resume. $50-$60/bbl or so seems to be a good price that results in stable supplies at reasonable cost.
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Iâve read the same price-points for fracked shale oil. A few years ago when oil dropped below about $65 a barrel, that slowed shale oil production. $50-$60 seems to be the common price point but some drillers improved the efficiency and have it down below $50 a barrel for profitable extraction.
Agree! $60 a barrel makes for a stable market without causing inflation. All the trouble in France is about a public revolt against a carbon tax to raise a gallon of gas to $7!!!.
The French are not big carbon generators; nearly all their electric power is nuclear and their trains electric. The average Frenchman only drives 7000 miles per year in a car that gets nearly twice the miles per gallon as US vehicles. So they have a point!
The increase was only about $0.25. Raising the price from $6.75 to $7 doesnât seem like so much does it? Very regressive tax as it hits middle class car owners far harder than any other group.
The protests are about far more than 25 cents a gallon but thatâs what got things started.
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