Posted on 02/26/2012 6:37:45 AM PST by tobyhill
The United States should do more to encourage Saudi Arabia to boost its oil production to make up for lost Iranian oil, Senator Charles Schumer said on Sunday, urging renewed diplomacy as a way to ease the run-up in oil prices.
Tensions surrounding Iran's nuclear program have pushed oil prices to nine-month highs, and U.S. gasoline prices have surged, becoming a top political issue in the run-up to the 2012 presidential elections.
A public promise from Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, to pump oil at its full capacity would calm oil markets as well as gasoline prices, Schumer, the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, said in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In the letter, which was obtained by Reuters, Schumer asked Clinton to urge the Saudi government to increase production to full capacity of 12.5 million barrels per day - an increase of 2.5 million barrels.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
On a lighter note, the co$t of bratwurst has tripled in Nuremburg, Germany due to the fact the sausage skins are from Iran and there is a shortage of them....
Libtards (speaking for America's "interests") = Charlie Brown.
Besides, if demand is down, yet prices continue to rise, how does the fool think a little more will help?
Well, then I guess I don’t understand the industry very well either. We’ve been wanting more production in our own country for WAY longer than 5 years, but the Libtards always say what you say. If we’d started twenty years ago, would we still not have enough supply to meet demand? 30 years ago?
If we keep using the same libtard argument that “five years of increased production won’t fix anything, therefore we shouldn’t start,” then we are damned determined to ONLY import energy. We remain damned determined to live by the whims of foreign regimes that don’t necessarily like us. We remain damned determined to put the future of America in the hands of our enemies. Is that a plan?
Alternatively, if we go ball-to-the-wall to develop any and all oil, NG, and other energy sources with an intent to be 100% self-sufficient, do you think that would be a better plan?
Every time the US “encourages” something from an unfriendly country, it ends up costing the taxpayers billions and makes the situation worse, not better.
You simply are ignorant of what is really going on in our Domestic Oil industry. The reason we have to Frack, is due to the fact that the producing formations are so poor and yield so little.
Another aspect of fracking is, it only gives a temporary boost to production, but that gain, falls off rather quickly. The initial depletion to the overall target formation, reduces overall production yields through out the entire field as well.
Where every you see the term “Fracking” being used, it simply means that without it, that formation did not have the ability to make production possible or profitable. And even that aspect is very limited.
As far as total volume of oil on this continent, most of it is not producible and recovery rates are very low. You have been misled into thinking that the total overall estimates of hydrocarbon volumes under the continent are 100% producible, when they are not even 20% producible.
Come on Sarah Palin , run , become president, drill baby drill and banish Obama to ANWAR.
Chuckie has probably done as much as any person in America to get us where we are.
Pray for America
A Rebuke to Our Rudderless President
powerline.com ^ | 2/25/12 | John Hinderaker
Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2012 2:01:43 PM by CitizenM
President Obama has proclaimed himself helpless in the face of gasoline prices, which have doubled on his watch. He is just fated, apparently, to be a lousy president. Now that it is a little late to try to blame his predecessor, he is out of ammo. Today Senator Jeff Sessions tried to buck Obama up with a letter containing suggestions as to how the executive branch might take arms against a sea of rising gas prices, unemployment and poverty:
The Honorable Barack Obama
President
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
I am writing today to urge your Administration to take overdue but necessary action to confront soaring gasoline prices. In the last three years, gas prices have doubled, draining the disposable income of millions of hardworking Americans. In 2011, the typical U.S. household already spent $4,155 on gasoline, almost 10 percent of their income. Yet some analysts now predict prices may rise this year to more than $5.00 per gallon.
In a speech this Thursday, you stated that “there are no quick fixes to this problem. You know we can’t just drill our way to lower gas prices.” While we should explore a variety of energy resources—most especially those which do not put taxpayer dollars at risk—I respectfully disagree that we cannot utilize our remarkably vast untapped energy reserves to provide Americans with much-needed relief. I reject the defeatist view that says the nation that won two world wars, pioneered space travel, and overcame the Soviet Empire is now helpless in the face of high prices at the pump. We are not at the mercy of dictators, cartels, and events beyond our control.
Simply by removing the bureaucratic barriers imposed by your own administration we can begin to make progress. But we can go much further than that. Powerful action to harness America’s untapped oil and gas resources would place downward pressure on prices and speculation in the short-run and, by surging global supply, would serve to keep prices low in the future. Crucially, it would also provide millions of Americans with good-paying private-sector jobs; produce substantial royalties for local, state, and federal governments; reduce our enormous trade imbalance; and put an end to our huge wealth transfer from America to competitors oversees.
I therefore recommend the following proposals for immediate implementation:
1. Restore the bipartisan 2010–2015 offshore lease plan to ensure that the 31 lease sales called for in that plan are completed expeditiously. Your Administration only directed one lease sale in 2011 and has announced just one lease sale for 2012, far short of the number of sales that would have occurred over this period under the original 2010–2015 plan that your Administration discarded.
2. Take all necessary steps to accelerate the leasing and permitting process for domestic shale oil production. The United States has recoverable shale oil reserves estimated at 800 billion to 1.2 trillion barrels, meaning our nation has potentially three to four times more recoverable oil than any other country in the world except Canada.
3. Maximize energy production from federal lands. As I and 21 other Senators noted in a January 25, 2012 letter to you, actual oil production on federal lands is now just 714 million barrels per year, a 16 percent decline from what was projected just five years ago. This decline must be reversed.
4. End the de facto moratorium on permitting for offshore oil and gas production.
5. Direct the EPA, the Department of Energy, and other federal agencies to grant all necessary waivers and approvals to oil and gas refineries to facilitate maximum production at minimum cost. Refinery expenses comprise 11 percent of the price for gasoline that Americans pay at the pump, but your Administration has imposed numerous regulations that have driven refining costs up, not down.
6. Abandon your proposal to increase taxes and fees levied on U.S. energy production by more than $40 billion. These additional costs would be passed along to consumers, taking money out of their pockets and discouraging needed domestic production.
7. Approve the Keystone XL pipeline and grant necessary waivers, licenses, and permits, where possible, to ensure expedited completion of this important North American energy project. The pipeline would carry 700,000 barrels a day to U.S. refineries, which is nearly half what the U.S. currently imports from the entire Middle East.
America has the potential to fundamentally shift the balance of power in global energy production—to produce more energy, more efficiently and more cheaply, than your Administration has recognized. Such bold steps will broadcast an unmistakable signal to the world that not only places downward pressure on prices in the near-term but helps deliver a future of abundant, affordable energy. Moreover, unlike costly short-term stimulus, achieving energy independence would provide long-term relief to both struggling families and our indebted treasury.
I look forward to working with you on this important matter.
Very truly yours,
Jeff Sessions
U.S. Senator
Just the announcing of the oil Pipeline approval, more oil drilling in the U.S., and fracking technology approval in the U.S.A would lower prices today. You sound like the liberal media. How does it feel to be a mindless slave of the mainstream liberal media?
Come on Sarah Palin , run , become president, drill baby drill and banish Obama to ANWAR.
The extremely high cost to drill isolated and vastly dispersed wells, and the ability to transport it, added to the extremely low recovery rates, will not allow that to happen.
The Germans made oil/or gasoline from coal in the 1930’s . And you say we have no means to boost gasoline production.that’s ridiculous. The U.S. has unlimited amounts of oil, coal, natural gas, shale oil,oil,offshore oil, oil,nuclear under shale etc. : All of those have been stopped by democrats, Obama and the mainstream media.
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2012/02/24/we_need_a_pond_scum_czar
And accusing me of being a “mindless slave of the liberal media” because you are mainly an uneducated expert on all things you know even less about, merely shows how grossly ignorant you are.
You are talking to a Drilling Engineer and Consultant for the industry for over 35 years, I happen to be one of those individuals who not only helped develop Fracking technology. I helped pioneer North Dakota, Alaska (Prudhoe Bay) and I am now deeply involved in the Marcellus Shale district in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
So go ahead, try and insult me some more on a subject I have helped create. And believe me, you know almost nothing about, other than what you get from editorial comment.
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2012/02/24/we_need_a_pond_scum_czar
Oops! Regret I failed to state the Saudi’s may be reticent to increase production in an effort to get Uncle Sam/NATO to act on Syria in a meaningful (military) way. Sorry-Post 21 makes not much sense without this statement...
Just the announcing of the oil Pipeline approval, more oil drilling in the U.S., and fracking technology approval in the U.S.A would lower prices today. You sound like the liberal media.
They would lower the price of oil today based on future events like the pipeline construction.
You might consider a course in Reading Comprehension. Not only do you get things that you read, terribly wrong, you go out of your way to insult those who you do not agree with.
Where on Earth, did I say even one word to you about not having the means to boost gasoline production? And the Germans did not make “oil” out of coal. They created a process to extract methane distillates and synthetic lubricants from it, but the process is highly expensive and not very profitable when Crude Oil is so plentiful.
Looks to me, like you need to refresh your knowledge about the Oil industry from “experts” like Rush Limbaugh. Those of us who actually make a living doing this, as well as have made a lifelong career out of it, certainly don't know what they are talking about. /S
Wow, hurt the “expert’s” feelings.LOL. Guess we shouldn’t criticize Obama’s team of “expert” advisor’s ,nor the media’s nor the global warming scientists since they know so much bs and are running the country into the ground. Take your “expert” liberal media spin and email it to a global warming expert. LOL. You say the same thing the liberal media say “believe us and our experts and don’t believe your own mind”. . Your “arguments” are the same as the liberal media’s are.
Let your liberal media ideas stand on their own merits don’t try to destroy me as the media destroys Palin. Attacking the messenger when you should know and most here on this forum agree with me that we should and could drill for more oil,pipeline, coal , etc. and announce these so they lower the price TODAY.
Alternatively, if we go ball-to-the-wall to develop any and all oil, NG, and other energy sources with an intent to be 100% self-sufficient, do you think that would be a better plan?
Are you saying that if we announce a full-throttle approach to producing any and all energy, oil, gas coal, etc. that it's too expensive and therefore America won't do this? I respect your experience in the field, but I cannot accept the premise that we won't do it.
Then why did oil immediately plunge in ‘08 when all that happened was that we said we were going to drill domestically? And prices were NOT “so low” earlier this year. I live in Missouri/Kansas, and prices for regular were $1.49, and still falling, when der reader was elected. And we can’t even prospect for oil on most of America, because it’s not privately owned.....I submit to you, that prices for oil are going to drop drastically before November, because zero knows that will kill him for sure...his fellow democrats are already wining about it.
But isn’t it better to produce as much domestically as possible? I’m actually shocked the Saudi’s announced a production cut...I thought they would do a momentary flood of the market, and push the per barrel price lower than US production costs - just to show us they could, and make people think twice about investing in domestic production. But since they have gone the other route, shouldn’t our Federal government approve leases, and encourage domestic production? At very least, even if it doesn’t push down price, won’t the coffers of our bankrupt government at least get royalty for each barrel extracted on federal land? And at very least, expanded domestic drilling equals jobs. And then there’s this possibility: the Saudis aren’t flooding the market....because they can’t. We may be overstating the extent of very easy to recover oil, in Saudi. And, I suspect that they are actually behind the rest of the world in their ability to recover deeper oil. Who knows. But, I’m with the group here. If it costs the Saudis 30 dollars, and the US 80 dollars, and the price is at 105 dollars....why call for an increase in Saudi production, but not US production....US production certainly wouldn’t hurt. And, btw, if our reserves are overstated and mis-understood, so be it. That means an increase in domestic production would have an unwarranted effect on an un-informed futures market, which would not be all bad.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.