Oil Trouble

It is time for our government to meet with other world leaders, both suppliers and consumers, to invoke the Rimini and Uppsala protocol.
Call your congressman today!

The USA is the World's 3rd largest oil producer. Texas alone, if a country would be the World's 5th largest oil producer. The USA has the talent and ability to get a 30% cleaner burn AND defray another 30% oil equivalence to OTHER types of energy efficiencies and SOURCE products for such....almost over night IF? they really wanted to. It's easier not to though. Keep in mind 60 some years ago the same country developed the A Bomb in just barely over a 1 year time frame ( if that's not remarkable energy conversion..then what is?). The track the USA is on will take crude to $250 within 3 years. The more bought with USA currency now....the higher oil gets and the more worthless said currency becomes on a daily basis. There will be an opportunity in 08 to actually index a barrel of oil to 4 bushels of wheat which would be a salvation type deal for the USA currency/oil situation at this time. Furthermore it would also help the whole global USA currency imbalance long term. Doubtfull though that dc and the corp club thereof will see it or be able to figure out how to play it either. Everyone has to get postured so about 5 of em glean the whole deal. Posturing takes time...and that's how the country got into this mess to start with, to much posturing, and so few REAL players.

I could not vote for kerry ,and I cannot vote for hillary or obama ,but as long as the republicans are in the white house I see no end to this.we need a leader who will stand up to the oilcompanies and the speculaters on wall street or this is only the beginning.the republicans have failed us on emmigration and blue collar jobs moving to china.If we dont fix the chinese problems then we wont have to worry about emmigration because no one here including the illegals will have jobs to fuss over!!!!!!!! but I dont think the dems will do any better?

I hope we get another source of fuel soon. The sooner we do that, the sooner the economies of the terrorist supporting oil nations in the middle east fall apart and the sooner we can stop protecting them.

Why are the oil companies selling off their retail gas stations? Why aren't the oil compnaies adding any new refineries? Why do the Saudi's (as well as most of the middle eastern nations) refuse to allow third party verifications of their reported reserves? The Saudi's don't even let any outside agency to verify actual production. The current energy bill out of congress is a joke! They raised overall cafe standards to 35 MPG by 2020. This ignores wholesale the notion that there will be any problem with supply. If we are now at 'Peak Oil', as Matt Simmons deftly argues in "Twilight in the Desert", we have no national contingency for actually surviving this cotastrophe. Oh I forgot., we're going to convert our last remaining export, FOOD, into fuel so we can continue to consume while the rest of the planet starves. Didn't the Japanese do that to the rice crop out of southeast Asia toward the end of WWII? They were condemened by history for doing that as it resulted in the starvation ens of millions. But at least they could argue that they were trying to fight a war.

Why is Chavez so arrogant? Maybe he sees something we don't...

Next time you watch the Movie "'Titantic" notice how loud and boisterous the party was just before they hit the iceberg...

Burkhard is correct in identifying the actions of state oil companies in Venezuela, Russia and Saudi Arabia as paramount in terms of supply. In the coming years, these countries will ask themselves the legitimate question: Why should we suck away the inheritance of our future generations so that Americans can drive SUVs? They can rightly calculate that the current tens of billions of dollars in earnings are sufficient, and they do not need to pump more. So we end up not necessarily in an oil peak, but the oil plateau that is gaining new attention -- a high point of global production not exceeding 100 million barrels a day, and a constriction of the global economy at that point as well. That is why innovation needs to proceed at the fast clip currently under way.

Steve LeVine, author
The Oil and the Glory (Random House)
http://www.oilandglory.com

Mr Bartholet - I am glad you mentioned Peak Oil - but you should have done more homework on the current energy energy situation and invited someone from ASPO like Matt Simmons to offer a reasoned and researched counter to Mr. Burkhard's industry positions. Peak oil is here - now - fuel production is currently being maintained by oil sand and natural gas liquids. We are in much deeper trouble than high prices.

Mr Bartholet - I am glad you mentioned Peak Oil - but you should have done more homework on the current energy energy situation and invited someone from ASPO like Matt Simmons to offer a reasoned and researched counter to Mr. Burkhard's industry positions. Peak oil is here - now - fuel production is currently being maintained by oil sand and natural gas liquids. We are in much deeper trouble than high prices.

Why in a city of 1.3 million as is Dallas, Tx, there are only 3 places to buy E85 and those 3 are grocery stores?

Energy Literacy: Who is CERA? Cambridge Energy Research Associates
Who do they work for? Big Governments and big energy giants like EXXON Conoco philips, ARAMCO.
Why does the concept of Peak Oil not register with CERA? Their clients wouldn't like it.
Where was CERA's last annual conference? Houston, TX...Where else.

When I read comments on sites like this it is no wonder that they get away lying to the American people...We is dumb!

Regarding the high profits that oil producers earn, for example EXXON, claim that they use those profits to drill for more oil, drill deeper or explore ne oil fields. Highly overstated, when you consider how much of their profits they use to pay increased dividends ( capital gone) or repurchase their own stock, a small amount of dollars in proportion to their total net cash flow is used for new exploration. They use more of their earnings to exploit their market rather than increase it.

The price of gasoline at the pump is so manipulated in a concerted hegamony orchestrated by the mega oil producers, distributors and retailers. So much garbage about tensions in the mid-east, the risks posed by Iran are smoke screens to keep people from finding out the ugly truth. Does anyone really believe that Iran will stop producing oil and stop its cash flow in the name of Allah? The ugly truth is that people are greedy regardless of their religious beliefs. I can't wait for that fine day when the use of petroleum will become a minor need to generate energy, when other sources more plentiful will be used. When that day happens, you will see economic growth of unbelievable proportions. Then, Iran, Iraq, Russia, Venezula etc. can just use their petroleum for fodder. Robin Klebenow

The price of gasoline at the pump is so manipulated in a concerted hegamony orchestrated by the mega oil producers, distributors and retailers. So much garbage about tensions in the mid-east, the risks posed by Iran are smoke screens to keep people from finding out the ugly truth. Does anyone really believe that Iran will stop producing oil and stop its cash flow in the name of Allah? The ugly truth is that people are greedy regardless of their religious beliefs. I can't wait for that fine day when the use of petroleum will become a minor need to generate energy, when other sources more plentiful will be used. When that day happens, you will see economic growth of unbelievable proportions. Then, Iran, Iraq, Russia, Venezula etc. can just use their petroleum for fodder. Robin Klebenow

Hey I sent in my Micardis HCT prescription and was sent a generic! There is no generic for this . The license dosen't expire until something like 2012. Who is watching the drug companies who send out the meds????

James Burkhard, in this article, although he doesn't come right out and say it, in the first few questions keeps talking about anxiety about the future supply of oil. So although everbody screams and points the finger at OPEC when it comes to high oil prices, it's really our own fellow Americans and others who are involved in speculation in the futures market, who are actually driving up the price of oil. Basically, we are being screwed by our own fellow Americans. Nothing new there. The insurance industry, pharmeceutical industry, and health care industry fleece Americans every day.

Smooooth. So we're to believe that the bidders in the oil futures market are a bunch of wet-behind-the-ears panic-ridden rookies who freak out at every possible blip on the global oil supply radar? Folks, the oil market is driven by the bidding from large investment firms like Goldman-Sachs, et al. Your average joe can't tolerate the high risk associated with the commodities market. So where does the money actually come from? My question is, would it be possible for someone who could afford the risk to be able to play a game of liars poker on the oil futures market? The supply of oil itself is not that tight. Back in 1980 even with the price of oil so high the price of gasoline never jumped this high. Why? Because american refinery production wasn't so restricted. So why have the american oil companies shut down refineries all over the country instead of up-grading/retro-fitting them? Seems to me reduced refinery capacity was deliberate. I'd say it's time to regulate the industry if it weren't for the fact that Washington has been sold. Corporations and banks own us so regulation will never happen again. Slavering avarice is the rule of the day. Ugh.

The sad fact for many people is that it doesn't matter what the price of a barrel of oil is because they are already at the point of only consuming oil products out of necessity to get to work to earn their paycheck, get to a store to buy groceries for their families, heat their homes, etc. Certainly there is inequity in how this situation impact people. I have cut back as much as I can yet I still see people driving to work in brand new hummers and escalades or buying huge homes that must cost a fortune to heat.

However I find it sort of ironic that this article makes a point of stating that the traditional dynamics of supply and demand are not triggering investments to developed new oil supply sources when we are constantly bombarded with the notion that the reason prices for gasoline and natural gas are so high is because demand is unphased by the higher prices. I don't know if I would say I was unphased. I have stopped all non-essential consumption yet the prices still go up. If this so-called constant demand is keeping the prices high yet this situation is not triggering investment in new oil supply development, where is this all heading? Is everything just in limbo like this because of an anticipated technological breakthrough? Will governments be forced into regulating oil markets to protect their constituents from greedy oil companies?

I've heard stories of how the sugar cane-based ethonol in brazil has kept gas prices down in brazil because it has a nice yield of gasoline per unit of oil compared to the current corn-based ethonol available in the US. Is any of the greener technology like making ethonol from switch grass even close to being commercially viable? We need a break from these constantly high fuel costs.

The sad fact for many people is that it doesn't matter what the price of a barrel of oil is because they are already at the point of only consuming oil products out of necessity to get to work to earn their paycheck, get to a store to buy groceries for their families, heat their homes, etc. Certainly there is inequity in how this situation impact people. I have cut back as much as I can yet I still see people driving to work in brand new hummers and escalades or buying huge homes that must cost a fortune to heat.

However I find it sort of ironic that this article makes a point of stating that the traditional dynamics of supply and demand are not triggering investments to developed new oil supply sources when we are constantly bombarded with the notion that the reason prices for gasoline and natural gas are so high is because demand is unphased by the higher prices. I don't know if I would say I was unphased. I have stopped all non-essential consumption yet the prices still go up. If this so-called constant demand is keeping the prices high yet this situation is not triggering investment in new oil supply development, where is this all heading? Is everything just in limbo like this because of an anticipated technological breakthrough? Will governments be forced into regulating oil markets to protect their constituents from greedy oil companies?

I've heard stories of how the sugar cane-based ethonol in brazil has kept gas prices down in brazil because it has a nice yield of gasoline per unit of oil compared to the current corn-based ethonol available in the US. Is any of the greener technology like making ethonol from switch grass even close to being commercially viable? We need a break from these constantly high fuel costs.