Better Fill up today

[frawin]

Crude is trading higher this morning, below is a good article regarding some of what impacts crude pricing around the World, and that the American Oil Companies have absolutely no control over the World Price of Oil.

Oil rises on shrinking gas supply
Crude gains more than $1 as investors digest U.S. inventory report showing drop in gasoline stockpiles.
     

Special Reportfull coverage

SINGAPORE (AP) -- Oil prices rose Thursday in Asia above $116 a barrel as investors mulled a fall in U.S. gasoline inventories and a possible output tightening by OPEC at its next meeting in September.

U.S. crude for October delivery was up $1.20 at $116.76 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midafternoon in Singapore. The contract rose $1.01 overnight to settle at $115.56 a barrel.

The September contract expired Wednesday after rising 45 cents to $114.98 a barrel.

The price gains came despite a huge rise in U.S. crude inventories. But not all U.S. fuel supplies were abundant.

Gasoline inventories shrank by a larger-than-expected 6.2 million barrels to below-average levels in the week ended Aug. 15, the U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said Wednesday. Meanwhile, distillate inventories - which include heating oil and diesel fuel - rose by less than expected, the EIA said.

That was enough to offset a hefty 9.4 million barrel rise in U.S. crude stocks last week when the average analyst forecast had been for a 1.7 million barrel increase, according to energy information provider Platts.

"That report had something for everyone," said David Moore, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney. "On the one hand, the crude inventory buildup was quite strong, but the gasoline draw was also very prominent."

Investors are also trying to anticipate the outcome of the next Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting in early September, as supply concerns could rise further if members of the cartel decide to lower their output in response to slower demand. Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said he might propose an output cut at the next OPEC meeting.

"The market is looking to the OPEC meeting," Moore said. "Before that meeting, we're going to get quite a few statements from OPEC officials expressing opinions. In the end, I don't expect a production cut, but they may push for greater adherence to output quotas."

Oil prices have rebounded after falling about $35, or nearly a quarter, from their all-time trading record $147.27 on July 11. Many investors expect that high gasoline prices and slowing economic growth in the U.S., Europe and Japan will undermine global energy demand.

Prices were supported Thursday by a slightly weaker dollar compared to the euro. The 15-nation euro traded was up to $1.4775, while the dollar fell to ¥109.62. A falling greenback encourages investors to seek commodities such as oil as a hedge against inflation and a weaker dollar.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures rose 3.01 cents to $3.1936 a gallon, while gasoline prices gained 1.84 cents to $2.9287 a gallon. Natural gas futures increased 1.8 cents to $8.095 per 1,000 cubic feet.

First Published: August 21, 2008: 4:14 AM EDT

[Teresa]

I don't take credit for this.. but I DID get it from a very good friend who is a "digger".


Snopes lists the e-mail below as - Undetermined....

I checked further and found the following report by the USGS, the U.S. Geological Survey.

First read the report below, then click on the following link to get the USGS report. www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911

That will help separate the wheat from the chaff............... At first I wasn't sure about this, but Google just sent me a copy of the government report. I knew we had something out West, but nothing like this. Now I'm wondering why Obama and some others are yelling to get Bush to deplete the reserve by 1/3rd or more. George Mason.


Bakken Formation oil find in Dakotas

1. Ever heard of the Bakken Formation? GOOGLE it. It will blow your mind.

The U.S. Geological Service issued a report in April ('08) that only scientists and oilmen/women knew was coming, but man was it big. It was a revised report (hadn't been updated since '95) on how much oil was in this area of the western 2/3 of North Dakota; western South Dakota; and extreme eastern Montana ... check THIS out:

The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska's Prudhoe Bay, and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at
503 billion barrels. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable... at $107 a barrel, we're looking at a resource base worth more than $5.3 trillion.

'When I first briefed legislators on this, you could practically see their jaws hit the floor. They had no idea.' says Terry Johnson, the Montana Legislature's financial analyst.

'This sizable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years,' reports The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. It's a formation known as the Williston Basin , but is more commonly referred to as the 'Bakken.' And it stretches from Northern Montana, through North Dakota and into Canada . For years, U.S. oil exploration has been considered a dead end. Even the 'Big Oil' companies gave up searching for major oil wells decades ago. However, a recent technological breakthrough has opened up the Bakken's massive reserves... and we now have access of up to 500 billion barrels. And because this is light, sweet oil, those billions of barrels will cost Americans just $16 PER BARREL!

That's enough crude to fully fuel the American economy for 41 years straight.

2. [And if THAT didn't throw you on the floor, then this next one should - because it's from TWO YEARS AGO, people!]

U.S. Oil Discovery- Largest Reserve in the World! Stansberry Report Online - 4/20/2006 Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world is more than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction.

[() What the!??]

They reported this stunning news: We have more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth. Here are the official estimates:

-8-times as much oil as Saudi Arabia
-18-times as much oil as Iraq
-21-times as much oil as Kuwait
-22-times as much oil as Iran
-500-times as much oil as Yemen - and it's all right here in the

Western United States.

HOW can this BE!? HOW can we NOT BE extracting this!? Because the democrats and leftwing republicans have blocked all efforts to help America become independent of foreign oil. James Bartis, lead researcher with the study says we've got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East -more than 2 TRILLION barrels. Untapped. That's more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil in the world today, reports The Denver Post

-Don't think 'OPEC' will drop its price - even with this find? Think again! It's all about the competitive marketplace, - it has to.
----
[Got your attention / ire up yet? Hope so! Now, while you're thinking about it ... and hopefully P.O'd, do this:

3. Take 10 minutes and compose an e-mail; fax or good old-fashioned letter to all your friends and associates. Alert them to the fact that democrats and "liberal" republicans have been and will continue to obstruct all plans to make America independent of foreign oil. The only solution is to vote all democrats and Marxist oriented republicans out of office.

If you don't take a little time to do this, then you should stifle yourself the next time you want to complain about gas prices .. because by doing NOTHING, you've forfeited your right to complain.

[Tobina+1]

I actually heard about this just this week, when visiting w/ someone from CO.  I don't know how true this is, but "trapped beneath the Rock Mountains" isn't exactly true... he said, "it's on the West side of the mountains, the ugliest part of the US".  The problem is that people are picturing all these oil wells in the beautiful mountain scenery, and that where the bulk lies is NOT in the mountains, but to the west.

[W. Gray]

I think what is being referred to is the Roan Plateau.

It is in "scrub country" but is still at 9,000 feet.

[DanCookson]

I had heard about this in April and did quite a bit of research on the Bakken Formation and the Williston Basin.  Both areas are under current drilling.  Actually messaged Frank on this one because I wanted to buy stock in a couple of the companies that are doing extensive drilling.  Ended up picking up stock on two of the companies and it has done very well.

Problem is the oil is two miles deep, and also must be horizontally drilled.  A report on one of the companies I bought into estimated that each well drilled was running an average of 5 million dollars and they had drilled about 70 of them!!!  Takes money to make money.  Production has been good though, as in 22 months they have gotten over 5 million barrels off of the 72 wells.

Keep on pumping and drilling, my parachute car isn't built yet 

[frawin]

October Crude Oil, (Front Month) closed at $121.18 up $5.62, the back months were up in the $6.00+ range. Sept-08 Natural Gas settled at $8.252, up $0.175 on the day, the back months were up as well. Analysts were crediting, weathe threat and the biggest reason given was due to tensions between US and Russia over the US Signing the Missle-Shield agreement with Poland. Concerns are that Russia, the worlds second largest oil producer might cut back on exports to punish the US. The higher crude prices pulled Natural Gas up as well. There were lots of long cintracts traded in crude oil today and we could see more run-up in the coming days.

[Teresa]

Keep on pumping and drilling, my parachute car isn't built yet 

Yeah... and I want you to put me in a nice upscale nursing home... so let 'em drill.. 

[srkruzich]

I actually heard about this just this week, when visiting w/ someone from CO.  I don't know how true this is, but "trapped beneath the Rock Mountains" isn't exactly true... he said, "it's on the West side of the mountains, the ugliest part of the US".  The problem is that people are picturing all these oil wells in the beautiful mountain scenery, and that where the bulk lies is NOT in the mountains, but to the west.

I can't remember the name of the unocal site. i think parachute colorado. its shale oil. They mine shale out and crush it and heat it much like coal to extract the oil.
They don't drill for oil there, they just mine the shale and crush it.  I used to work there back years ago til they shutdown due to eco groups raising heck.


BTW its Rock and more rock and more rocky rocks there.  Hardly the vision of beauty that the ecofruits try to portray it to be.

[frawin]

The US is so addicted to Petroleum Source Energy and there are so many factors that affect the Crude Supply and price and yet both houses of Congress do nothing and the Democratic Presidential Candidate is advocating windfall profits tax on the oil companies. Our enemies and other outside suppliers provide us with 70% of our energy supplies and that number continues to grow. If we are really serious about being less dependent on others then we need to make big changes and we need to start now. If we start now it will be 10 years+or- before we can get the infrastructure in place and increase our production appreciably. In the meantime we are going to face some really serious energy shortages. Today's Bloomberg news note is an example of the outside sources that impact our energy supply.

Crude Oil Futures May Rise as Dollar Weakens, Survey Shows

By Mark Shenk

Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil may rise next week because of a weakening dollar, tension between the U.S. and Russia and falling gasoline stockpiles.

Sixteen of 29 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News, or 55 percent, said prices will increase through Aug. 29. Seven of the respondents, or 24 percent, said oil will be little changed and six said there would be a drop in prices. Last week 63 percent expected prices to increase.

Energy and metals futures climbed yesterday as the U.S. currency fell the most against the euro in 11 weeks. A falling dollar prompts investors to by hard assets as an inflation hedge. Russia reacted angrily after Poland agreed to host a U.S. anti- missile base two weeks after Russia invaded Georgia.

``The dollar is correcting, and there are tensions in various parts of the world,'' said Kyle Cooper, an analyst at IAF Advisors in Houston. ``We fell more than $30 from last month's record so it's normal for prices to bounce back.''

U.S. gasoline supplies declined 6.2 million barrels to 196.6 million barrels last week, a U.S. Energy Department report on Aug. 20 showed. Inventories have dropped 9.4 percent in the past four weeks as refineries cut operating rates.

Crude oil for October delivery fell $7.24, or 6.4 percent, to $121.18 a barrel so far this week on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures have dropped 18 percent since touching $147.27 a barrel on July 11, the highest since trading began in 1983.

The oil survey has correctly predicted the direction of futures 49 percent of the time since its start in April 2004.



     Bloomberg's survey of oil analysts and traders, conducted
each Thursday, asks for an assessment of whether crude oil
futures are likely to rise, fall or remain neutral in the coming
week. The results were:

                    RISE      NEUTRAL    FALL
                     16          7        6

[Diane Amberg]

I actually went out and filled my car's gas tank today at $3.42 .9. I guess it could be worse. We went on a provision trek today... worked our way up one side of the road and back down the other. I'm being very smug at how sale conscious and mileage efficient we were. Keep up the great posts I read every one.