Here's some info that may be of interest to some of you, especially those that now eat "freedom fries".

We CAN buy gasoline that's not from Middle East, and as someone employed by the Canadian oil and gas industry, I'm all for it.

I thought it might be interesting for you to know which major oil companies import the most Middle Eastern oil (for the period 9/1/00 - 8/31/01):

Shell............................205,742,000 barrels
Chevron/Texaco.........144,332,000 barrels
Exxon /Mobil................130,082,000 barrels
Marathon/Speedway...117,740,000 barrels
Amoco.........................62,231,000 barrels

If you do the math at $30/barrel, these imports amount to over $18 BILLION!

Here are some large companies that do not import Middle Eastern oil:

Citgo....................0 barrels
Sunoco............. ..0 barrels
Conoco............. ..0 barrels
Sinclair............... 0 barrels
BP/Phillips.......... 0 barrels
Hess...................0 barrels

All of this information is available from the Department of Energy and each is required to state where they get their oil and how much they are importing. They report on a monthly basis.

Waxy

 

Waxy, any info on lifting costs per BBL associated with domestic production?

Edited to add, yeah, we do need it!

 

95% precent of the oil used in the US comes South America.

 

Sigh.... another urban legend to debunk:

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/nogas.htm

 

that was a good read, thanks Ken.

 

http://urbanlegends.about.com/librar...s=imported+oil

 

Golly, so if we can't choose what countries we buy our fuel from, why can't we choose to use more alternative fuels? I would think that if we stopped using as much gasoline IN GENERAL, we could boycott those countries MUCH more effectively.
Want to boycott Iraqi oil AND save yourself tons of money? Sell your car and buy a bike and a bus pass. It's really that simple if you want to do your part. Don't buy petroleum at all.
Personally, I don't care where my gas comes from. It's all the same to me...
BDV

 

Let's see, the biggest bicycling countries are China and Cuba, if I drive a bike like them my country will improve and we will have more democracy?


Q) Why does a male dog lick himself?
A) Because he can.

Q) Why does the US use a lot more oil that other countries?
A) Because they can.

I'm going to top off the truck and go for a ride :-)

 

I'm all about the ethanol. I doubt it will ever replace gas though 100%. Ever try and grow corn in the middle east?

 

100% ? 10% is about max, it acts up after that, and gets poor gas mileage.

Ever try to grow crude oil?

 

I can say from personal experince that the average car motor can run on ethanol 100%, it's just a different type of carburation/injection system.

Ethanol is a huge industry in South Dakota, a couple of years ago the corn producers of this state funded a study done by a local tech school.

What they did was take 2 identical cars (i believe they were corsica 6 cyl) and 1 was converted to run 100% ethanol. Then they used them as the school's fleet vehicles.

When the regular gas car rolled 100K, and when the ethanol car rolled 200k the motors were tore down and compared. The ethanol car was cleaner by a considerable amount.

I know that this sounds like a bunch of hogwash, so i'm going to try find some documentation on this and try to post it.

 

Dang it Ken, I was hoping to catch some people in blatant, UNFOUNDED patriotism and you went and ruined it for me.

I got this email a while ago, and the thread on Freedom Fries and alanscott's thread on dihydrogen monoxide reminded me of it. I changed the wording a little and thought I'd do a little "fishing". I guess the walleyes were on to my bait.

On a more serious note, the simple answer is YES. We are (the world) pretty much dependent on middle eastern oil. The simple fact is the US and Canadian oil industries are incapable of replacing the production that is currently imported. If oil prices are to remain at a level that won't cripple our economies, we need middle eastern oil.

Waxy

 

I buy ethanol whenever i can. Its 10 percent here. Im helping out the farmers, and not helping the oil producing nations quite as much. And besides, its cheaper.

Tony Warren
Nebraska

 

Waxy: Shame on you. You should know better than to try and fool some of the people here @ FTE..

This is one of the few places where you can't BS anyone. You will be found out!

So remember: You can fool some of the people all of the time, and you can fool all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool FTE!

 

The only reason ethanol has any usage is the subsidies.

It is not competitive. End of story.

There is known limit to the world's oil supply and many scientist are challenging it is even a 'fossil fuel.' It may in fact be renewable!

The inter-dependency of nations engaging in trade has prevented more wars than anything you can point out.

We do need more nuclear energy, but only to loosen our dependency on one form of energy, not to eliminate the dependency all together.

Just my opinion of course...