If these numbers are even 1/2 correct...

[Patriot]

I haven't verified this info, (it was found in 'webworld') but if it's even 1/2 accurate (and if the economic rules of supply and demand are valid), anybody that uses petroleum products (gas, oil, grease, synthetic fabrics, plastics, many medicines, etc.) otta be really pissed off.....


The United States has plenty of oil within US borders. We don't have to rely on foreign oil anymore! It is just a matter of drilling and getting the oil out. The oil is there! Remember the song...."America, America God shed his grace on thee"? It is true! God provided this country with more than enough oil for generations to come.

Did you know...

* There is a massive 200 billion barrel oil field located in North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana. And it even gets better! Because of new horizontal drilling technology, it is estimated that this huge field may even produce up to 500 billion barrels of oil! The Saudi's are estimated to have only 260 billion barrels of oil, clearly putting America in the cat bird seat!

* But the good news does not stop there! Alaska is just waiting to drill for oil. In fact the governor of Alaska is suing the government for failing to drill for oil. Alaskan oil fields are massive. At Gull Island, Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, there is enough oil and natural gas to keep America going for the next 200 years! Yes, for the next 200 years!

* There is even better news! The US Outer Continental Shelf has 112 billion barrels of oil, not to mention a whopping 656 TRILLION cubic feet of natural gas! WHY are people struggling to pay winter heating bills when we have natural resources like this?

* Oil shale is abundant in the US. In fact, half of all the earth's oil shale deposits are located within 150 miles of Grand Junction, Colorado! Shell Oil is working on new technology which will make oil shale extraction financially feasible. They plan to open a shale oil plant in 2010. It will provide a piece of the puzzle toward energy independence for the United States.

* Then of course, just about everyone knows that the United States is the Saudi Arabia of coal. With 275 billon tons of coal! We have more coal than just about any other place in the world. Enough coal for American needs for the next 250 years! Once again, new technology is underway to make coal burning safe for our environment.

So there we have it! It is time for the US to get serious about energy independence and drill for oil. The environmentalists should move to China and India where pollution is really is out of control. With the new technology used in the oil fields of today, the impact on the environment is there but it is controlled. With environmental controls oil fields can be environmentally safe.

When it comes to the environment we need to understand that as long as there are billions of people living on this planet, there will to be a negative impact on the environment. That is just the way it is unless billions of people die, and even then environmentalists would complain about rotting corpses creating a problem for the environment. There is simply no way around problems with the environment when you have billons of people to contend with. The human race needs to protect this planet, yet we have to live too. Living without energy is not an option. Until we have plentiful, green energy we will have to rely on the oil based solutions of old. It will take time to convert to green energy and that quest is just as important as drilling for oil is now. We can't let the ball drop in either arena.

Obviously we should have been exploring our oil supplies 10 years ago. Now it will take at least 2 years before oil and then gas will come back down to a livable price for most Americans. 80% of all Americans claim climbing gas prices are affecting their lives in a very negative way.

[Diane Amberg]

One of the other concerns that is being worked on is the problem with water pollution from waste water and the extraction processes. One of the huge natural gas fields in nearby PA, is struggling with that right now. The steam fracturing process that releases the trapped gas creates a lot of polluted water that they have to do something with. They are working on it as fast as they can but they can't afford to permanently ruin deep aquifers in the meantime.

[frawin]

I think the easiest and best response to this is at:http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/bakken.asp

[srkruzich]

I think the easiest and best response to this is at:http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/bakken.asp

Frank, Over the past few years, I've learned to take snopes and truthout, and truthorfiction sites with a grain of salt.  They all have been found to manipulate the data for their own end means.   Quite frankly I have to agree having worked in Paradise Colorado that the shale oil is as large as they claim it to be.  And it was shut down back in the 80's due to the fact the tech wasn't there to produce it and the eco groups have been a massive pain in the ass of this country in getting at that reserve. 
They cite costs going to be too much to retrieve it. But they refuse to entertain the truth that if they build a reactor there it would produce the heat and power necessary to extract that oil.  Cost of a reactor?  shoot less than 10% of a years profit, and they could hook the reactor on the grid and sell off the electric produced too. it is nothing but a win/win proposition.

What needs to be done IMO is to develop a means to use the water necessary to extract that oil, and clean the water. I know a friend of mine who runs barges up and down the mississippi and he does reclamation of oil spills and gasoline spills. They do it and the output of the water that is collected is clean enough to drink once it is separated.  So we know it can be done.

[frawin]

Steve, I have worked for 15 years with an operator that is now drilling in Bakken field. He has leased a lot of acreage and they have done lots of research. In addition there has been lots of research by the government and other Geological groups. Basically all of that research agrees with what Snopes says. I just used Snopes because it had a condensed version of what the facts are. Steve if one  did research on the world oil reserves you would see how totally ridiculous the e-mail that has been going around is. The e-mail posted has been going around for severral weeks, and has been totally discounted by industry experts. I started not to even respond to this subject but felt that it was needed.

[srkruzich]

Steve, I have worked for 15 years with an operator that is now drilling in Bakken field. He has leased a lot of acreage and they have done lots of research. In addition there has been lots of research by the government and other Geological groups. Basically all of that research agrees with what Snopes says. I just used Snopes because it had a condensed version of what the facts are. Steve if one  did research on the world oil reserves you would see how totally ridiculous the e-mail that has been going around is. The e-mail posted has been going around for severral weeks, and has been totally discounted by industry experts. I started not to even respond to this subject but felt that it was needed.

Well frank i don't know about the bakken field, i just know what was projected back in the 80's at paradise colorado.  They spent a lot of money going in there an building the town up and then it was all shut down overnight.  I remember the excitement about the reserves there. it was way up there like the email said.  Just couldn't unlock the oil from the shale as effectively as they wanted.  Now days, they should be able to do it.  Even from what i have been reading today they can go out and reopen the wells that had run out decades ago and ulock the oil they couldn't get back then.   Every bit helps.  What really burns me up is that the eco groups have effectively stopped the reclamation of natural gas through oil drilling regulation. There trillions of cubic feet of Nat gas out there, which will keep us toasty warm for hundreds of years, and even fuel our vehicles. 

[frawin]

Steve, there is no shortage of Natural Gas, and there is way to much Natural Gas ready Available in shallow fields and fields that are cheaper to drill than to get into trying to build the infrastructure to produce shale gas in the rockies. We currently have an oversupply of Natural Gas available, the price is way to cheap and gas drilling is way down. On a gas/Oil basis natural Gas should be 3 times what it is, with $100.00 oil why would anyone want to drill their Gas Prospects ?

[frawin]

Steve, I have spent the last  50+ years working in the oil industry, from drilling rigs, pulling units, tanker chartering, oil and gas marketing, operating oil and gas wells, I am pro oil, but there is one thing the industry needs to think about, we can live longer without oil and gas than we can without water. There is no doubt that we have contaminated an awful lot of underground water reservoirs, this is catching up with us faster due to increased population/water usage and increased secondary oil and gas production projects. We are not leaving a very bright future for our future generations. America, continues to be the most energy wasteful nation on earth, we need to make big changes and we need to do it now. Unfortunately we have more people worried about their big gas guzzler having a full tank of cheaper gas, than they are their Grandchildren having water to drink. I have been trying to stay out of the political section, I should never have responded to this thread, I waited as long as I could but I couldn't stand letting it go any longer.

[srkruzich]

Steve, there is no shortage of Natural Gas, and there is way to much Natural Gas ready Available in shallow fields and fields that are cheaper to drill than to get into trying to build the infrastructure to produce shale gas in the rockies. We currently have an oversupply of Natural Gas available, the price is way to cheap and gas drilling is way down. On a gas/Oil basis natural Gas should be 3 times what it is, with $100.00 oil why would anyone want to drill their Gas Prospects ?

i'll put it this way, if i had access to natural gas here, i would install the equipment on my vehicle and install a fill station and utilize it!   
they might get 100 -200 bbl for oil, but how long? When people quit buying it due to cost, they aren't going to make squat at that point.  Volume sales has always produced more income in anything produced than tightly regulated inventories sold at a high price.  You would think they would learn. 

right now, i have two trucks that i could get running well with a few bucks, and i can outfit them with something called a gassifier that would allow me to burn hedge or any wood to fuel  my truck.  I would get a mile a pound of wood.   I have put it off and kept putting it off and its quickly becoming a option i am considering just doing.  Plenty of wood around to drive anywhere i want to go.    Neat thing about it is that i can retain the ability to use gas along with utilizing the methane production from the wood, and if i were to include a brown gas generator on the vehicle, i would increase the power and mileage on both forms.

[Anmar]

Like has already been said.  We do have a lot of oil, and natural gas available.  Actually getting it out of the ground is a different story.  Its extremely expensive to extract oil from shale.  The best way to go forward is to find alternative forms of energy. 

God shed his grace on thee,  yes he did, we've got the sun, the wind, water, geothermal, maybe even nuclear.  Oil has always been a losing proposition for us.