YOU Smart owners are to blame!!

[cosmart]

Originally Posted by vwW12

That's the point of the quoted article: people who oppose U.S. drilling for U.S. oil with U.S. jobs cling on to only to the most pessimistic assumptions... because that's what suits their narrative. In fact, use of a mere 2,000 acres of the ANWR will yield about as much oil as we import daily from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

But OK, let's be darkly pessimistic. ANWR will only give you 1 million barrels/day, which is only half of what we import daily from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. That not good enough for ya?

The facts are that the government today prohibits exploration, let alone extraction, in most of our seas, in our oil shales in Colorado and Utah, and in much of Alaska. I leave you a chart presented by U.S. Senator Larry Craig on the floor of the Senate:

What will the 1 million barrels a day cost? If we can only recover the oil at, say, $500 a barrel, will there be any demand for it? That would be gasoline at over $15 a gallon.

ANWR is like the Bakken. There were people pulling numbers out of their butts saying there were 400 Billion barrels of oil in the Williston Basin. When the USGS, after years of study, said there are less than 4 billion recoverable, people refused to believe it. They apparently think WISHING that oil would pour out of the rocks will make it come true. It doesn't work that way.

It doesn't work that way with oil shale, either. People think there will be some magic process that will transform 'oily' rock into beautiful crude oil, without the intervening steps that use water at a ratio of 5:1, that need to heat the rock to 700F for three years, that won't need new power plants and reservoirs to get to the end product. Do you realize that the US has performed multiple experiments where they used nuclear bombs buried thousands of feet underground to try to release gas and oil out of the rock in western Colorado? No, it didn't work.

Take a look at the oil producing histories of Texas, Cantarell, North Sea. People really, really wish they still produced like they used to, but they don't. And all the technology in the world, and all the wishing doesn't change that. The oil is gone.

The bottom line is that oil exports from countries that can export have leveled off, and will soon begin a long gradual decline. At the same time, the world's population is continually rising. Something has to give. We can swiss cheese the earth in order to continue burning this precious gift wastefully, or we can bite the bullet and develop a different way to live now. Either way, we have to change, because one day we run out of oil.

[jwight]

There's no way of knowing if there's oil in appreciable quantities until you explore the lease. And you can't explore the lease until you get it.

Yep, and that begs the question of why they have leases they aren't drilling on. Initial exploration is done by seismic methods, not drilling. They have the leases and can certainly do the seismic work necessary to determine if there is reason to drill. So, unless you're saying every undrilled lease has been studied and is not even worth drilling exploratory wells, still gotta ask - why all the undrilled leases. BTW, wouldn't a company that makes 10s of billions in profits have some petroleum geologists on staff who could do preliminary evaluations on various leases and see if spending money on them would be worth the risk? Or are these companies so rich now that buying worthless leases is just part of their business model?

[randyzimmer]

This looks fishy...


why cut off the map at the green part?

[jveetee]

I read the original post as a bit of sarcasm. Not serious criticism. Anyone who still believes that the auto companies and the oil companies are in cahoots has a screw loose. Stop by Detroit sometime and see how oil greed and record profits have decimated the US auto industry and the thousands of families who worked for them. And it is very naive to blame the US car companies for not producing small cars – the American consumer is ENTIRELY to blame. US car companies have offered high-quality, economical, durable, comfortable small cars since the fifties and the US consumer has refused to buy them in sufficient numbers to make them profitable. American Motors made a commitment to building great, comfortable economy cars and went broke because the public wanted Cadillacs, Buicks, Impalas and Galaxies.

[DFWehman]

Sorry, but as a LONG time member of the "Big Oil" mentioned above, I am both pleased by the knowlege and ignorance in this thread. Yes, we made a profit, sadly, that is what companies are supposed to do. Who are these damned shareholders. Well, in many cases the are YOU! Many pension funds and other securities buy into successful companies, so you may likely be a part owner, so, do you want us to make a profit? And. if you don't own any stock indirectly, call Charles Schwab and buy some, then quit whining! Are prices high, sure, do I whine about it? No, I bought a smart. Our return on capital is middle of the pack, and in case you are wondering, no, we do not get pay or benefits keyed to the price at the pump, we work hard and get paid fairly, just like you.