Posted on 03/15/2012 4:39:00 PM PDT by RicocheT
President Obama says he wants to end subsidies for what he calls "the fuel of the past," but lucky for him oil and gas will be the fuels of the future too. His budget-deficit blowout would be so much worse without Big Oil, because the truth is that this industry is subsidizing the government.
Much, much worse, actually. The federal Energy Information Administration reports that the industry paid some $35.7 billion in corporate income taxes in 2009, the latest year for which data are available. That alone is about 10% of non-defense discretionary spending—and it would cover a lot of ...
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
You give subsidies and tax breaks to encourage certain activities, and then you blame the companies that do what you asked them to.
Private oil controls maybe 5% of the oil in the world. Really Big Oil is the government, who collectively control 95%. What we usually call “big oil”, which is to say private oil, mostly works as contractors producing oil for the “really big” government oil companies around the world.
Even most new oil in the US is on government land, or offshore, and all of that is government oil. Thats why the government can so easily shut off drilling for new oil.
If Obama reduces incentives to drill here, private oil operators will just focus their energies elsewhere. They can drill here, or they can drill OPEC oil and put south asians to work, and pay royalties and taxes into OPEC treasuries. That seems to be O’s preference.
Like the Drug Cartels of Mexico, the oil companies are beneficiaries of an artificial market.
Remove the regs that limit production, refining, movement and use of oil and the artificially high profits come down along with the price.
Most oil being pumped and drilled now? Or oil that's not being pumped and drilled now?
I read that the average profit to the oil companies from a gallon of gas is 2 cents.
Depending on the State, taxes are 25 to 65 cents per gallon.
And rats have the gall to accuse oil companies of windfall profits. They take a cut that only the Mafia can appreciate.
If by "new" you mean oil being currently developed in the US, no. The government controlled acreage out there has been pretty much closed off, but exploration and production continue on private land where the government has not been able to stop activity, despite a long list of attempts.
The Bakken/Three Forks development in North Dakota is (by far) mostly on private land, and the State moved into the number three spot for monthly production by state.
It is the Federal Government which is often standing in the way--no argument there, but where the Federal Government has not been able to come up with an excuse to stop production, or state governments refuse to call for moratoria, we are drilling ahead.
Good point. Oil that we normally would have been drilling if we were still allowed to drill it... coastlines, BLM lands, and the like.
Bakken is the one great and wonderful exception.
You are right, my generalization has been flipped on its head by Obama and Bakken. Thank God for North Dakota.
Some of my family is involved in Bakken so I am well aware of it.
http://news.investors.com/article/604304/201203141341/it-is-all-about-texas-ceo-says.htm?ven=yahoocp,yahoo
...Might change your mind on some things...or make your re-think.
FRegards,
Let's just look at XOM ( ExxonMobil ) they have a profit margin of 9.5% or so...they did 433.5 Billion in rev's, they netted 41 Billion.
XOM employ's over 83k full time employee's...and who knows how many people have jobs because of them....
Microsoft had a profit margin of 33%...who is pointing this out!!!??? And believe me, I've no problem with a 33% profit margin....but the oil companies get whacked all the time....and it's crazy!!
FWIW-
Thanks for the link. I saw the article earlier but hadn’t read it yet...
It sounds like another Bakken. Combine that with shale oil and shale gas, we’re facing a oil renaissance.
And the lucky thing is that its mostly on private land.
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