Well, Look What's Driving Up Oil Prices

And if the Obama adminstration decided to do a 180 on drilling federal land and offshore, speculators would then cause prices to go down. Would the progressives be mad at speculators again because they want prices to be high enough to get people to buy hybrids or not drive at all?

So do you believe we only have 2% of the world's oil reserves?

We only have a few percent of the worlds natural gas reserves too, but have it coming out our ears right now with nowhere to store it. LOL

Top 5 Oil-Producing Countries In 2011

3. The United States
Many may not realize that the United States is such a large oil producer. The United States produces about 9.6 million barrels per day. This represents 11% of the world oil supply. However, the United States does not have overly large proven oil reserves. Most known reserves are already being tapped for current production needs. The United States only has about 19.1 billion barrels of proven reserves, representing only about 1 to 2% of the world's proven oil reserves. (Before jumping into this hot sector, learn how these companies make their money. See Oil And Gas Industry Primer.)

http://www.investopedia.com/financial-e ... -2011.aspx

Why, yes... The U.S. only has about 19.1 billion barrels of PROVEN reserves, representing only about 1-2% of the world's PROVEN oil reserves. The low-hanging-fruit has been pretty much tapped. The rest of what they know about costs so much to get out of the ground that it's going to be more expensive product. The oil companies have thousands of square miles of leases they're not even attempting to use.

But you can always go to "The Energy Institute"...(think: "The Tobacco Institute")...to hear what you want to hear.

LadyJazzer wrote:

Top 5 Oil-Producing Countries In 2011

3. The United States
Many may not realize that the United States is such a large oil producer. The United States produces about 9.6 million barrels per day. This represents 11% of the world oil supply. However, the United States does not have overly large proven oil reserves. Most known reserves are already being tapped for current production needs. The United States only has about 19.1 billion barrels of proven reserves, representing only about 1 to 2% of the world's proven oil reserves. (Before jumping into this hot sector, learn how these companies make their money. See Oil And Gas Industry Primer.)

http://www.investopedia.com/financial-e ... -2011.aspx

Why, yes... The U.S. only has about 19.1 billion barrels of PROVEN reserves, representing only about 1-2% of the world's PROVEN oil reserves. The low-hanging-fruit has been pretty much tapped. The rest of what they know about costs so much to get out of the ground that it's going to be more expensive product. The oil companies have thousands of square miles of leases they're not even attempting to use.

But you can always go to "The Energy Institute"...(think: "The Tobacco Institute")...to hear what you want to hear.

Current production and available proven reserves is not the total available. The current administration won't let the oil companies tap the total availalbe. Simple as that.

The average price of a gallon of gas in November 2008 was $2.07.
By Nov 26, 2008 Gasoline prices had declined for the 70th straight day, falling below the $1.87 per gallon mark. No one complained about speculators then.

The un-happy public is getting more upset- and I think by election day they will find someone to take it out on!
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/unhappy-public-not-sure-blame-080053150.html
http://m.static.newsvine.com/servista/imagesizer?file=robtornoeA30D2DA4-487E-2CA2-6994-9F993535CCCB.jpg&width=600

Yes, maybe they'll discover that the Etch-a-Sketch candidate can't pull $2.50/gal-gas out of his a**.

IN 36 years, drilling more has not made the price at the pump any less:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/ ... TE=DEFAULT

So drilling more now is not the panacea for high gas prices..... it is a fantasy conjured up by the oil companies to FURTHER increase there profits... and used by the right to manipulate the ill-informed... nothing more.


Drill baby drill.....

LadyJazzer wrote: Why, yes... The U.S. only has about 19.1 billion barrels of PROVEN reserves, representing only about 1-2% of the world's PROVEN oil reserves. The low-hanging-fruit has been pretty much tapped. The rest of what they know about costs so much to get out of the ground that it's going to be more expensive product. The oil companies have thousands of square miles of leases they're not even attempting to use.

But you can always go to "The Energy Institute"...(think: "The Tobacco Institute")...to hear what you want to hear.

Funny thing - about the end of WWII we had "only" 20 billion barrels of PROVEN reserves as well. In the roughly 70 years between then and now we have pulled over 170 billion barrels worth of "low hanging fruit" out of the ground that contained, and continues to contain, "only" 20 billion barrels of PROVEN reserves. One wonders how many more hundreds of billions of barrels there are to recover domestically given this reality.

Oil is a commodity, just like peanuts are. Right now peanuts are expensive because the last harvest was well below expected, meaning there are less peanuts in reserve to produce peanut oil, peanut butter or to roast for sale at the ballparks this summer. That is what determines the future price of oil. Expected demand versus ability to supply that demand. When you increase the known reserves, the ability to supply future demand is assured and the price remains stable or decreases. When you prohibit the ability to expand the known reserves, the price of the commodity will increase.

And tell us LJ, why is it that the oil companies are not attempting to develop those existing leases? Might it be they are hoping for a change in the regulatory environment in which they must operate before they begin? Might the existing administration's thousands of new regulations on their industry be such a prohibition to developing those leases that it just isn't worth the risk of capital based on the expected return? This is why Obama's policies are responsible for the current increase in the cost of oil. We have been hearing from the left for going on 20 years now that it takes a decade to develop a play. That increase in production we are seeing now? Who was it that was president 10 years ago again? Where might ANWR be if the Democrats hadn't stopped exploration of it during the Clinton and Bush administrations?

You did know, by the way, that the oil in ANWR and the oil on the outer continental shelf isn't included in Obama's 2% proven reserve figure, right? When exploration is prohibited, there can be no proving what the plays hold and therefore the estimated yields can't be added to the PROVEN reserve figure. I should also note that in 1998 it was estimated that there was over 10 billion barrels of oil that would be recoverable at a well head price of around $45 a barrel - which would be about $60 a barrel adjusted for inflation in 2012. If we had started even a decade ago, which we would have absent the opposition of the Democrats, we'd have access to roughly 700,000 barrels of oil a day or more right now - which would mean that there would be much less fear associated with the closing of the strait by Iran - which would mean that the future price of a barrel of oil would be lower than it currently is. If the outer continental shelf hadn't been closed to appease the Democrats, the figures would be significantly greater than that.

At $80/bbl crude prices, the MMS estimates that 70 billion barrels (11×109 m3) are economically recoverable. As of 2008, a total of about 574 million acres (2,320,000 km2) of the OCS are off-limits to leasing and development. The moratoria and presidential withdrawal cover about 85 percent of OCS area offshore the lower 48 states. The MMS estimates that the resources in OCS areas currently off limits to leasing and development total 17.8 billion barrels (2.83×109 m3)(mean estimate).[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserv ... ted_States