Offshore drilling = lower prices? Maybe, maybe not

[RoadToad]

I'm sure you're all aware of President Bush removing the executive ban on offshor drilling. This issue has been discussed extensively on this board, and I don't claim to have some new revelation on the subject, but when I was reading about it just now on CNN's web site, I came across an interesting paragraph:

This is from http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/14/bush.offshore/index.html

"Candida Scott, an oil industry researcher at Cambridge Research Associates, said oil needs to be priced at $60 a barrel or more to justify deep-shelf drilling. With oil now selling for $145 a barrel, companies are almost assured of profiting from offshore drilling, Scott said."

If what this lady is saying is true, then it seems to me that prices can't go down too far, because if they do, the very offshore drilling that caused the price to go down will become unprofitable. Thoughts?

[DJD]

I know it's going to take years to reap the benefits of drilling for our own oil but I say lets do it. Alternate fuel sources will take that long as well for any impact.
The Dems are at a crossroads with this one huh? If they do the wrong thing here it's gonna back fire. Voters want action not debate since that's been going on for 30 years and look where we are today.

[Moose1am]

,

[Moose1am]

I like the way that T Bone Pickens is talking. He is putting his money behind his talk. We need more guys like him in the USA leading the way for alternative fuels.

Right now we can build Wind Mills. It won't take 15 years to get them into production. They can be up and running in a year or two.

We have used oil for the last 100 years. First we used it for oil lamps as there were no cars before the Henry Ford Model T. Well there was no mass usage of internal combustion engines.

Our rail road could switch to Hydrogen Fuel Cell technology tomorrow.

We already have a natural gas (LNG) fueling station in Evansville, IN where I Live. The local power company converted a lot of their trucks to run on LPG.

We can drill offshore but there is not guarantee that oil will be found there.

Nobody but the oil companies knows for sure what's under the ground until they explore it by drilling.

Bush is doing this for political reasons. Why did he not do this when he first took office. A good leader doesn't wait until thing are in chaos before he acts. He plans ahead. He could have easily dropped his daddy's ban on drilling for oil along the coast of the USA. Yes it was his father Bush Sr that ordered the ban on oil drilling when he was President. And Bush's bother Jeb was totally against drilling off the coast of Florida.

If the oil companies had not screwed up so many times and messed up our pristine coast lines in Alaska there would not be as much opposition to their drilling plans. But they hired a drunk to run the Exxon Valdez and they are still paying for that mistake. And the people who live in Alaska where the Oil still contaminates the shorelines are paying more for that mistake.

There have been other tanker that crashed on rocks and broke apart spilling millions of gallons of crude oil into the sea along coast lines.

People who make a living off the tourist don't want that ruined by some mishap.

We have a golden opportunity right now to develop new alternatives to using oil for energy.

We are going to have to learn to use other forms of energy eventually. Even if we drill and find more oil we will only increase the worlds consumption and eventually run out of oil.

China and India are putting more and more cars on their roads and more they have billions of Chinese who have yet started driving automobiles

I hears a good joke last night about how people react to change.

First they say it's too expensive

Second they say it won't work

Third they say "Why didn't we do that sooner?

I know it's going to take years to reap the benefits of drilling for our own oil but I say lets do it. Alternate fuel sources will take that long as well for any impact.
The Dems are at a crossroads with this one huh? If they do the wrong thing here it's gonna back fire. Voters want action not debate since that's been going on for 30 years and look where we are today.

[DJD]

I agree that this is a political move but I also feel that this is needed. We should also be changing to alternative fuel sources as we speak and researching as we speak. I would like to see us not get pigeon holed into a few fuels like we are now.
Lets get nuclear, natural gas, oil, coal, hrdrogen, wind, solar and whatever else is out there a try. (I know some of these are used now)The best will rise to the top.
Holding back on options to ease the pain for the American people will be a major mistake for the Dems. Even if it takes 10 years to reap the benefits there will still be benefits and it's a plan. The U.S. might even be exporting oil at that time instead of importing so much if we have perfected an alternative fuel source by that time.
I don't remember but have we had any spills in the gulf? Even with the Hurricanes? Serious question.

[mhall]

I know it's going to take years to reap the benefits of drilling for our own oil but I say lets do it. Alternate fuel sources will take that long as well for any impact.
The Dems are at a crossroads with this one huh? If they do the wrong thing here it's gonna back fire. Voters want action not debate since that's been going on for 30 years and look where we are today.

Don is right. NOW 79% of Americans polled wants drilling to start today or sooner. The Liberal Dems better get off their high horse or come election day they better be packing their bags and go back to being blood sucking lawyers.

[apb]

..The Liberal Dems better get off their high horse or come election day they better be packing their bags and go back to being blood sucking lawyers.

A few other things that you might want to consider. First, oil companies already have leases to many millions of acres of land that they are NOT drilling right now. WHY? How is the off-shore oil any better? Second, you do realize that we EXPORT a good deal of oil and refined gas that we drill in the US. Again, why? If the supply and demand was so great here, shouldn't that oil/gas be sold here? Sorry, but I just don't buy the republican "drill, drill, and drill some more" energy policy. If we really want to do something, we should be getting serious about alternative fuel sources now. Just finding additional ways to keep us on the oil teet is not helping us one bit.

Andrew

[mhall]

A few other things that you might want to consider. First, oil companies already have leases to many millions of acres of land that they are NOT drilling right now. WHY? How is the off-shore oil any better? Second, you do realize that we EXPORT a good deal of oil and refined gas that we drill in the US. Again, why? If the supply and demand was so great here, shouldn't that oil/gas be sold here? Sorry, but I just don't buy the republican "drill, drill, and drill some more" energy policy. If we really want to do something, we should be getting serious about alternative fuel sources now. Just finding additional ways to keep us on the oil teet is not helping us one bit.

Andrew

Andrew my ole buddy ole pal, fishing friend ect. ect., I too agree that alternative fuels are the real answer, however sitting on our hands doing absolutely nothing sure as heck ain't working either. I've always thought a little bit of something beats a whole lot of nothing. So what you are saying is basically do nothing until some Eienstein figures out a way for us to go 500 miles ona space age battery or something. We need something NOW to shake up the greedy oil tycoons and these line their pocket speculators, Just my very humble opinion. Oh yea I'll still fish with ya even though you are liberal, lol.

[apb]

... Oh yea I'll still fish with ya even though you are liberal, lol.

I seem to remember you agreeing with a lot of what I said while fishing (non-fishing stuff), does that make you a liberal too?? lol :-) btw, want to give them Hybrids another shot this weekend? Third times a charm and all!

DJD, I'll dig up the link and get back with you on that one. Thanks for the other info.

Andrew

[mhall]

I seem to remember you agreeing with a lot of what I said while fishing (non-fishing stuff), does that make you a liberal too?? lol :-) btw, want to give them Hybrids another shot this weekend? Third times a charm and all!

DJD, I'll dig up the link and get back with you on that one. Thanks for the other info.

Andrew

You know I do still agree with you on alot of stuff and all I'm saying is if we at least try to do something now maybe it will help curtail these crazy prices at the pump. I guess it would be like in a blow up raft in the middle of the ocean with a small hole in it. You know that holding your finger over it or placing chewing gum over it is only prolonging the inevitible which is sinking, but you would still do it..... RIGHT??? I personally feel a huge problem right now is these mass commidity speculators that are screaming FIRE every time you turn around. BTW you don't think those same speculators are in anyway linked to big Oil do you, lamol. As far as fishing goes I'll call you or e-mail you I don't think I can go this Saturday, besides we caught the only two hybrids left in Guist Creek anyway, lol.

[apb]

Ok, lunch time, I have a few minutes to respond.

DJD "... only to be stopped by Florida politics ..."

Wasn't Jeb Bush a part of that? I know Bush I banned off-shore drilling. Man, W is going to take a beating at the next family get together! lol!


"...I don't remember hearing how he was going to cut spending. Anyone else hear what he plans on doing to cut spending?? Maybe I dozed off and didn't hear how...."

May be he is borrowing the Bush plan, spend now, let your kids and grandkids pay for it later ;-) The cutting spending part I've heard Obama talk about before. Figures if we get out of Iraq we'll save those billions and use them for other things. I'm not convinced that he can get us out of Iraq as quick as he wants. However, with the Iragis suggesting a timetable for US withdrawl, who knows. I would like to see us out of Iraq, but we also have to make sure the job there is actually done first.

As for the US exporting oil/gas:

"A record 1.6 million barrels a day in U.S. refined petroleum products were exported during the first four months of this year, up 33 percent from 1.2 million barrels a day over the same period in 2007. Shipments this February topped 1.8 million barrels a day for the first time during any month, according to final numbers from the Energy Department."

Full story at:

http://www.forbes.com/reuters/feeds/reuters/2008/07/03/2008-07-03T184028Z_01_N02435397_RTRIDST_0_USA-OIL-EXPORTS-ANALYSIS.html

One of the things that they point out is that in reality, it may be more economical to export gulf oil to South America and import foriegn oil to the NE US.

In any case, I don't see destroying the US environment just to supply others with oil/gas. That does not benifit the US as a whole. While there is all this talk of more drilling, there is no guarentee that the US will see any of that oil. The only way that we could guarentee that oil would be reaching US customers would be through some type of socialist laws. I'm pretty sure neither of us wants that!

Bobby Hendrick "... and I blame 90% of our mess on these that we keep electing year after year. In order for this mess to be righted we need to clean up DC starting from the bottom up. Both Parties. "

RoadToad "... Can we please stop blaming "liberal Dems" or "neocons" for our problems, and start working together on solutions?"

Agree 100%. If the bums are not doing what we elected them to do, fire them!!! Also agree that if we can put a man on the moon, we can come up with a viable alternive energy source(s). Probably have them already, just need a way to implement/distribute it to the country. This is something that we all need to work on, together. In my opinion, this is another problem that we face today. The partisonship in the country is growing. There is no need for that. We are all Americans, and, for the most part, all have very similar opinions on the important things (life, liberty, persute of happiness). Partisonship is a political tool used to show that the other party ***** worse than our party, so keep voting for us. Nah, they all ****, fire them.


MHAll "Andrew my ole buddy ole pal, fishing friend ect. ect., I too agree that alternative fuels are the real answer, however sitting on our hands doing absolutely nothing sure as heck ain't working either. I've always thought a little bit of something beats a whole lot of nothing. So what you are saying is basically do nothing until some Eienstein figures out a way for us to go 500 miles ona space age battery or something. We need something NOW to shake up the greedy oil tycoons and these line their pocket speculators, Just my very humble opinion. Oh yea I'll still fish with ya even though you are liberal, lol."

Here is the problem, at least how I see it. We talk about off-shore drilling, drilling in ANWARE, etc. However, NONE of that will reach us for at least 5-10 years. Thats if we do not export it elsewhere. Rather than shooting for 5-10 years to keep us dependant on oil, why not shoot for that 5-10 years for those alternative fuel sources to be in use? This is certainly not sitting on our hands, its shooting for the long-term solution. The continued drilling just keeps us dependant on the oil rather than search for other solutions rather than for keeping us in the mess we are in. Its only a matter of time before all of the oil is gone. Rather than wait until the last minute to do something, lets get serious about doing something now. I know its not all about supply and demand. After all, the demand is dropping. Oh, and don't worry, I'll still be happy to chase those two hybrids with you anytime :-)

Andrew

[DJD]

A few other things that you might want to consider. First, oil companies already have leases to many millions of acres of land that they are NOT drilling right now. WHY? How is the off-shore oil any better? Second, you do realize that we EXPORT a good deal of oil and refined gas that we drill in the US. Again, why? If the supply and demand was so great here, shouldn't that oil/gas be sold here? Sorry, but I just don't buy the republican "drill, drill, and drill some more" energy policy. If we really want to do something, we should be getting serious about alternative fuel sources now. Just finding additional ways to keep us on the oil teet is not helping us one bit.

Andrew

Just watched Glenn Beck on Headline News and he explained and gave examples of why the land that has been leased is not producing. He said that once they even find oil (which they are having a hard time doing) they have to deal with the special interest groups and local governments to gain access to the oil or natural gas. Gave an example of drilling for natural gas off of Florida that took years and millions of dollars to find only to be stopped by Florida politics and then years later they denied Chevron the ability to get the gas and removed Chevrons lease.
Exporting oil? That's pretty counter productive. Where did you find that info?
Apparently the "OCS" has oil (not sure how they know) while the leased land is barren at best. I'm not sure how true all this is but it's a start in trying to understand what's going on. Who knows???