Oil hit $51.24 a barrel today.

[MarkC]

I agree with Al, and wonder where Keith gets his numbers from.ANWR oil would would only account for a little over two years worth of oil imports.
We get almost as much oil from Canada or Mexico as from Saudi Arabia.

 

[keith]

quote:

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Originally posted by MarkC:
I agree with Al, and wonder where Keith gets his numbers from.

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US Government Department of Interior, which gets its number from assessments of independent, industry and government geological surveys.

VERY BIG powerpoint file

Graph extracted from BIG powerpoint and saved as small jpg:

Graph

Obviously ANWR is not THE solution to our energy needs. It is a terrific short term supplement though, and not anywhere near "insignificant". Just try getting your elected representatives to cut an "insignificant" few percent off their taxation and spending, and run for cover

We are going to have to build LOTS of nuke-u-lar power plants (unless we find something even better).

 

[keith]

Anyone know the internals of home heating oil pricing? The spot market price is about $1.90 per gallon now, and will surely go higher in the winter months.

I just signed a fixed price contract at $1.55 per gallon prepaid, valid for 12 months (with a 'force majeur' exclusion - e.g. war). Do the distributors carry insurance of some kind to reduce their risk? Strikes me as odd that it is possible to lock in a price that is lower than the current price, which is expected to go higher.

 

[MarkC]

But is a little short-term oil relief worth risking the f-ing-up of one of the last wilderness areas we have? I don't think so.

 

[keith]

quote:

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Originally posted by MarkC:
But is a little short-term oil relief worth risking the f-ing-up of one of the last wilderness areas we have? I don't think so.

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Maybe, maybe not, but I thought you were asking for the source of the oil production figures and not looking for an environmental impact study? Plenty of those are out there too. I can understand the "put the ugly stuff somewhere else" position though, especially if we can put it in Brazil or Mexico or Saudi Arabia or Iraq

That isn't going to reduce dependence on foreign oil though, and oil conservation alone will not change the balance. (conserve more, prices drop, domestic oil is too expensive to produce, and the loop goes back to step 1). Production costs in Saudi Arabia are about $1 per barrel. If we zig, they go zag. We don't control this game, but we can make it more to our liking.

[ October 08, 2004, 10:19 AM: Message edited by: keith ]

 

[labman]

quote:

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Originally posted by Al:

quote:

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Originally posted by rjundi:

Originally posted by GROUCHO MARX:
[qb] We have no one to blame except ourselves. US has a large influence on the price of oil due to our demand.

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5% of the worlds people consuming 30% of the worlds oil can not continue. We are a debtor nation in trade, in government spending, and in personal debt. Hang on to your ankles.

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Incredible how many short sighted idiots can't understand this.

 

[wulimaster]

Today light crude for November delivery surged 64 cents to a new settlement high of $53.31 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a rise of more than $3 per barrel from a week ago.

Natural gas futures are up 40% for the year. Fuel oil is up in the 70% range. (note: This is from memory from something I read a few days ago so it might be in error.)

The pundants in the media have all kinds of reasons for the recent rise in the price of crude. Only one of which I believe to be the truth. Supply/demand issues worldwide are the most likely culprit hidden among the many reasons given.

So far there is little talk about the rise of natural gas prices and its reason for going up. I find the one reason given to be pretty lame and a mask for the real reason. The reason given is that "it tends to track oil prices". Hidden among the data is demand/supply problems in the US which I believe to be the result of North American "Peak Gas". There are currently over 30 planned LNG importation terminals planned in the US and Mexico with approval for only 1 so far. I expect approval will come after about a year of record profits over the next year will enable them to be paid for. There is still the little problem with not having the LNG tankers to ship the gas with. I wonder how long it takes to build one?

In response to the postings about Saudi and Canadian imports. Canada imports every barrel of oil that it exports to the US so in reality we get no oil from Canadian reserves.
Saudi oil is sour (high sulfur content) and as such is of no real value to our refineries which for the most part require light sweet crude. Most of the imported light sweet crude comes from Iraq, Iran, some of the smaller ME countries and from new deep water wells off Africa.

[ October 08, 2004, 06:17 PM: Message edited by: wulimaster ]

 

[brianl703]

quote:

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Originally posted by Mark in NY:
heating oil tank

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So why does the northeast use so much heating oil, anyway? Natural gas not so popular there?