No, obviously we have to start drilling or the economy will continue to dive....There are already Magnetic-Electric cars...why in the world aren't they in production???? I have my theories. We can move forward to alternative fuels, any one with a brain can see that. But, for tomorrow and next week, next year and the next decade we to focus on developing fuels while using oil so oil can be phased out. The thread is now hijacked.

 

You are correct. We have supplies. However, the contraction is in the current inventories/reserves. There is still enough, but the surplus is shrinking so future contracts are rising.
Also, no less than 5 recent articles site where Shell, China, and the oil PMs of Saudi, and Abu Dahbi have mentioned larger than expected increases in demand for oil, coal and natural gas.
Link that to the constant price increases from Saudi Aramoco, Nigeria and Venezuela and you get a picture of the only way that prices can go, and go fast.

I really wish someone would tell me exactly how drilling our own oil would be a bad thing??? We are the most environmentally-friendly drillers on the planet. More supply almost always means lower prices (except in monopolies). Our own supply means middle-east concerns don't make as large an impact. American oil companies get the revenues instead of someone else and many Americans are invested in American oil companies.
Lastly, we need oil to move goods. At least for the next 20-30 years until we have fully-developed alternatives.

All I hear is this mantra "We can't drill our way outta this". WHY???? What is wrong with drilling AND using alternatives?????

Edumacate me!

 

Most people that want to drill our way out of this, only want to rely on oil as our fuel, the want to drop alternatives. Basically they have created a false dilemna meaning it's one way or the other. We really can't do one way or the other. I agree with you if we diversify that is the best thing for us to do.

Biggest stickler is that everything is traded on the global scale however. We might drill for more oil, but we might not actually see that oil at a pumps(that goes for just about any commodity traded). There are three ways for things to go down: increase supply, decrease demand, and/or have alternatives come into play.

Now increasing supply(rather we see that or not at the pumps) is what drilling is all about. However, lets say we did increase supply, you still have burgeoning economies that are quickly gaining on how much we use and going to surprass it, so even increasing supplies will quickly be offset by the increase in demand, so drilling by itself is not going to be the best solution that alot of people are under the misconception that it is. Now increasing supplies and using alternatives(as you have said and what I've been trying to get people to see for the longest time) would more then likely be the best way to see relief, might take awhile(longer then most would want) but it more then likely it would happen.

So yes, increasing supply(drilling) and using alternatives would work, but convincing most people to do both is hard to swallow and they believe that it should be all or nothing either way(which is a false dilemna). However, just drilling by itself will not produce the desired results that most think that it will.

Oh and by the way if you look at the board of directors at most oil companies rather domestic or foreign, are made up in such a way now that they do not care about one country or the other, so don't think because the company is based in America(or somewhere else) that the board of directors at that company has any allegiance to a particular country.

 

Only a knuckle head would not continue to develope alt. fuels while drilling to increase capacity...and besides, who says we have to share or sell the oil we pump within our boundries with the globe? Fill our tanks first, then sell on the market, just like oil producing nations do to us now. I can't see why this is so impossible for reasonable minded people to see.

 

In order for us not to trade our oil, we would have to put export blocks on it(like Russia) as we are apart of a Free Trade Union(actually we are apart of a couple). Doing that, would have ramifications that you can't predict. They might be insignificant or they might be disastrous as this is a global product that we are talking about.

If you look at most of the people that say drill more, they put on the back burner alternative fuels(because they want immediate results and alternatives aren't at the stage yet) and plus look at the implications for alternative fuels if just drilling was successful in lowering prices. That would mean that alternative fuels are no longer competitive and what do we have, back into just using oil and then comes along the next "energy crisis" and we are right back where we started(I would say that has a 50/50 shot of happening).

This is a very big pickle that we have gotten ourselves into and it's going to take time to get out of it if we are to do it right to avoid this down the road.

 

Way off topic, but interesting nonetheless.

The speculators are whats driving the price up. Speculators are having problems making money elsewhere so they jump on the commodities which they know people need to live. The speculators and oil investers are buying oil futures and many big buyers never ever take delivery of the oil."Paper Crude" I don't see a point in drilling more and more wells on U.S. soil IF that oil is not being consumed in the U.S. They pump it out of U.S. soil or waters and trek it to the county that pays more for it. If I was Canada (which has enough oil to sustain canadians for over 100+ years) I would keep the oil for themselves, instead of selling it all. IMO the stock market is the biggest CLUSTERF&$K ever invented. Take a simple thing and complicate it.

We need to go nuclear with our electric first off. Produce loads cheap electric. Get rid of oil heat for homes and switch to electric. People in the cities or wherever can plug their electric cars in to commute. (The Tesla roadster is getting 250miles per charge and goes 0-60 in 3.8 seconds, fun commuter) The problem is our "buddies" in D.C. have been holding up the Nuclear energy for many years.

 

Ill tell you why we whould drill hear,

Starting pay for a worm on a drilling rig in texas with over time incleded 75000 dollars
If i went to collage and became a petroleum enginear starting pay is 90 to a 100k a year

We can keep the money in the US or we can keep sending it to Canada, the country we buy the most oil from.

the only people that are happy that gas pricese are so high are the LIB's the people that think we consume to much and should be brough down a notch.

 

If we drill it here it should for the most part stay here, in my book.

 

Unfortunately it won't. I say this for a couple of reasons:

A. America is probably the biggest spearhead of Free Trade(which I do believe in) and thus putting limits on exports(like Russia is now) would contradict that.

B. Lets say America does put a hold on oil exports, what is that going to do on the international scene from countrys that would also like relief. That one is hard to predict, but what happens if you predict one thing and the total opposite happens and it's worse? I don't think I would like to contemplate that.

 

I see we are on the same page Tex. I can understand people not wanting to solely drill to fix the problem. However, I think there is a strong, but small element that is invested in HIGH oil prices for the world. Just heard of another environmental group (sorry, didn't catch the name this time around) that wants a study on solar panels in the desert. The same group demanded a study on windmills a few years back and sued to stop their construction. So, I wonder if any alternative source will work; electric car, hydrogen, solar. These guys are invested in us returning to the stone age.

I just realized we hijacked this thread. Sorry OP. Gonna bow out of this one for now.

 

facts
The world oil market daily produces 82 million barrels
The US produces 5 million bbl/d Crude Oil Production

The United States daily consumes over 20 million barrels daily = 7.6 billion barrels per year (1 barrel of crude oil = 42 gallons)
In 2007 Americans consumed over 142 billion gallons of gasoline = apron 389 million gallons daily (1 barrel of crude oil produces 19 to 20 gallons of gasoline) Grandfather Economic Energy Report - by MWHodges

Worldwide oil rig count in April 2008 was 3,073 over ½ of these are U.S. rigs
US drilling rig count in May 2008 was 1,863

Heres a quick conservation tip that I believe will have an immediate impact on oil consumption. STOP BUYING BOTTLED WATER!.
Bottled water consumes roughly 17 million barrels of oil every year just to make the plastic bottles; this is not including transportation, or the operating/energy costs of the factories. Plus it takes 3 gallons of water to produce 1 gallon of “purified” bottled water. This is a really big waste of both resources. why pay for something that is free. buy a good filter and fill a glass. Barney

 

Coal To Oil !!

 

Imagine would what happen to that resource if we started fueling our vehicles with water or if we used eletricity that is made from hydroelectric power to fuel our vehicles. You complain about that resource expense now, imagine if those above scenerios were to happen.

 

If our vehicles, homes and etc ran on water it would soon be astronomically expensive and evetually have negative effects on the enviroment. Imagine what a long drought.

Crude oil is used for so many products other than fuel its amazing.

 

Ok, We can't do it, Give up, Stop, we can't, our hands are tied, quit, it won't change a thing, forget it, stop- no drilling quit, it wont matter, free trade , think global- quit , stop free trade agreemnets, the seals, caribou, penguins, marshes, grassland.... quit, stop.
Get out of the way ...."Turn those Machines back on" . IF we had this attitude in 1941-1945 we would be the third world country LIBS are tring to make.