Exxon-Mobil...
or Coca-Cola.
Look it as a percentage of return on investment.
Why?
Because though the numbers seem huge, so is the investment.
By the time the well I am working is completed, there will be well over 6 million dollars wrapped up in bringing this one well on line.
Just a land rig, nothing really exhorbitant going on here.
I can't give you a guess at estimated production, or the rate, but it would take the daily output from thousands of these wells to supply the East coast alone.
Those costs are just for drilling and putting the well on line, not for transport or refining the product, or transport again to retail facillities.
There are no guarantees any given well will produce, either, and there are definitely multiwell exploration projects where the last well is drilled first.
As for oil companies, they provide outstanding opportunity for employment, directly and indirectly, for persons of all educational levels, from roustabouts to Heads of Exploration and CEOs. So I'm not buying how they are doing anything at "the expense of the working people". THey are paying quite a few of "the working people" for their labors.
As for the next administration starting regulating again, They (assuming you mean the government) have never stopped regulating in my lifetime, and I'm a great-grandpa. They have only found new ways to regulate, or "justify" regulations and taxes, and frankly, this tax the oil companies and consumers and blame the oil companies gambit is getting tired and thin.
Please educate yourself about the industry, the hours we work (CEOs are few and far between, many of us get our hands dirty), the places we work, and conditions we work under before you assume someone is getting screwed.
We buy gasoline, diesel, and other petroleum products, too.
As for the politicians drilling anywhere, the only place they drill is into our paychecks.
It is sad they do not have the stones to do so without blaming others.
Thanks Joe, well said.