A World Affloat on an Ocean of Oil

usadaily.com ^ | 06/15/2008 | Alan Caruba

[kellynla]

"The next time you hear a politician say we need to be “energy independent”, ask him or her why Americans cannot have access to the oil reserves known to exist in California, in Alaska, and in many of our other States or off the coastlines of Florida and elsewhere.

Ask them why the fate of the condors and little known species is more important than the family budget of Americans forced to make choices between more food and more gasoline.

Ask them why they continue to claim that global warming is a threat when the entire Earth is now in a decade-old cooling cycle.

Ask them why they insist on blaming investor-owned oil companies whose own reserves are barely four percent of the all the oil that exists worldwide? Ask them how they expect these oil companies to compete in the global marketplace when they threaten to seize their profits."

[kellynla]

[kellynla]

ping

[Fiddlstix]

Ping

[avacado]

I work in the seismic industry. Whatever reservoir estimates the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) gives, multiply it by 4-5. The USGS estimates are generally based on old surveys or surveys that are processed with less than the most advanced seismic imaging that is found in the private sector.

According the USGS’s outdated survey using old seismic acquisition and imaging technology the ANWR is said to hold 10-16 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil. Multiply that by 4-5 and that is what you can recover from that area.

[EagleUSA]

Just pure runaway insane liberalism at work -—

[oldbrowser]

Ask them how they expect these oil companies to compete in the global marketplace when they threaten to seize their profits." Or ask them why the government gets 75% of the oil company profits

[MNJohnnie]

Speculators are a symptom of the problem, not the problem. Fix the inelasity of supply in the current Oil market and you will the speculation problem.

[seowulf]

If you wanted to bring the United States to ruin, you could not have designed and implemented a more perfect scheme.

That, of course, is why the scheme was designed and implemented.

Marxist revolutions don't happen when the peasants a warm, happy, well-fed, and comfortable.

[silver charm]

I ask them when in the history of free enterprise has making a product more expensive to produce, ever made it less expensive.

Here in Oregon (my temporary home) people actually believe all that greenie moonbat crap. And they think that the sun shines out of Obama’s butt.

Insane. Can't wait to get home.

[SandRat]

With the accompanying chart who will be paying the "Windfall Profits Tax" the the Dums are crying for?

The "Evil Corporate Capitalist Fat Cat Oil Companies?"

Only 6.5% total are the "Evil Corporate Capitalist Fat Cat Oil Companies."

The rest would be paid by you and I. See how the DummieCRAPS lie.

[Ann Archy]

AMEN!!! AMEN!!!! AMEN!!!!!!!

[Ann Archy]

AMEN!!! AMEN!!!! AMEN!!!!!!!

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

Considering how much untapped oil is known to exist, not just in the United States, but worldwide, one would think that its current price was some kind of anomaly and it is. It is more the result of speculation than anything else.

I'm almost afraid to read beyond this opening fallacy.

[353FMG]

To our commie environmentalists and their enablers it is not a matter of how much and where the oil is located, as long as the US doesn’t drill for it.

These environmentalists have absolutely no interest in the preservation of the environment but only in the destruction of this nation. (And to think that many of these treasonous “environmentalists” occupy seats in Congress is an outrage.)

[JasonC]

It isn't a fallacy.

Grand strategy by hostile powers foreign and domestic, also, to be sure. But there is no fundamental reason for this price level for oil. We could drop it by half tomorrow if we were halfway sane about anything.

[zeestephen]

Alan Caruba writes: “Considering how much untapped oil is known to exist, not just in the United States, but worldwide, one would think that its current price was some kind of anomaly and it is. It is more the result of speculation than anything else.”

This “speculation” blame game is nonsense.

The price of oil has been going up for SIX YEARS.

Only in the short term - weeks at most - can speculation drive prices.

In the long term, price is dictated by the harsh reality of supply and demand.

The people who buy and sell oil contracts are full time professionals.

The result of EVERY trade they make is “zero sum.”

When one trader wins $1000, the trader on the other side of the contract loses $1000.

According to the “speculation” theory, journalists know why prices are going up, politicians know why prices are going up, news anchors know why prices are going up, and the man in the street knows why prices are going up.

But, thousands of professional oil traders - the guys who have been losing their own money by the billions for six years - they have NO CLUE why the price is going up!

So what's next?

Now that oil is at record prices will speculators force the price down?

Short sellers can make exactly the same amount of money on the way down that long buyers made on the way up.

Of course not.

The price of oil will come down when, and only when, there is more supply than demand.

[theBuckwheat]

More importantly, we are AWASH in convertible hydrocarbons, from agriculture waste, like the Butterball turkey carcasses being converted into diesel in Carthage, Missouri right now, to sewage sludge, to wood scraps and now algae that excretes ethanol, not to mention coal and oil shales. The only issue is the cost of the finished product. At $4/gallon, it appears that many alternate technologies are way above break even. The notable fact will be: watch what the left, the news media and their sympathetic politicians cheer. Notice that when stunning breakthroughs are made, they hardly cheer, and what cheering there is has a very short half-life. For example: A process was recently announced where algae, swimming in seawater is used to produce ethanol. One would think this is a world-class announcement, one that environmentalists would cheer loudly because it is right in line with what they have been demanding for years. Right? Judge for yourself. A search of news.google.com for "algae ethanol seawater" returns SEVEN hits: "http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=algae+ethanol+seawater&ie=UTF-8 see best story at: http://venturebeat.com/2008/06/13/the-algae-claims-just-keep-getting-better/

In truth the Left is merely using the environment to reduce the power and prosperity of the US, which they loath, because they are self-loathing.

[American in Israel]

Speculation cannot drive the oil prices up longer than a month. At the end of the month, all the contracts come due, you either sell your speculation contract for a profit, or buy the oil.

If you buy a contract in a speculation inflated position, when push comes to shove, nobody will buy your position back from you. Who wants to buy a contract to purchase oil at $130 when it is available for delivery at $125 at the end of the month.

The “speculators are driving the prices up” buzz words are better translated as the politicians want control of the free market.

IF people fall for this in America, socialist control of the markets will do what it always does, make the people who control the markets rich and destroy the economy.

For the politicians pushing for this, as long as they get rich and secure, if a million starve it is a good trade.

The reason Oil is going up is the dollar is falling and the Chinese are willing to pay what it takes to get the oil.

To say the price of oil is raising the price of everything is also a political lie. An example: A shipment of grain will go up because it costs more to deliver it, but a diamond ring will not, because it does not in relation to its price. The price of oil going up only raises the price of an object in direct relationship to its mass and size.

Gas prices doubling do not double the price of a diamond ring, because it takes very little gas to make it or move it. The price of grain will go up in a ratio of the cost of shipping, and the cost of manufacture. Yes it too will be higher, as oil is used to plant and manufacture. But the price of wheat, and diamond rings is going up nearly the same ratio.

Oil prices are a great indicator of the value of the dollar, than anything else. It is a commodity that is delivered at a constant rate, and is used at basically constant rate that is very very slowly increasing day by day.

We are in a bidding war with China and the rest of the world for oil. The price of oil is set in dollars.

But the value of our dollar is set on REAL ESTATE here in America. Everyone invested in real estate, and the market is having a setback. SPECULATION IN REAL ESTATE drove the value of the dollar UP, not speculation in a simple commodity drove the dollar down.

Real estate is not a commodity, it is a product. It is manufactured not dug out of the ground like copper, gold and oil.

Americans over invested in a market, and went into debt to do it. Investment by debt is a real unstable position and it is backfiring on many people who went into massive debt and bought at the peak of the market.

To make money you have to buy low and sell high, not go into debt to buy high and sell low. Not only do you loose money on the investment, but now you have to service the debt too.

Ouch.

But the big ouch is if we let the politicians and the talking heads brain wash the sheeple into calling for government regulation of the markets.

Even the Communists are smart enough to move away from that disaster, our leaders are stupid enough to move toward it.

As a people, Americans tend to have a very short term viewpoint. And our leaders don't care for the country's future, but their pockets today.

Evey time you hear someone repeat the speculators mantra, shoot them down for your futures sake.

Free Markets is all America has left now that property rights are gone.

That is because the dollar is falling, not because of shipping costs. Far more of the cost of wheat is farmer labor and packaging than shipping.

Our

[theBuckwheat]

More importantly, we are AWASH in convertible hydrocarbons, from agriculture waste, like the Butterball turkey carcasses being converted into diesel in Carthage, Missouri right now, to sewage sludge, to wood scraps and now algae that excretes ethanol, not to mention coal and oil shales.

The only issue is the cost of the finished product. At $4/gallon, it appears that many alternate technologies are way above break even.

The notable fact will be: watch what the left, the news media and their sympathetic politicians cheer. Notice that when stunning breakthroughs are made, they hardly cheer, and what cheering there is has a very short half-life.

For example: A process was recently announced where algae, swimming in seawater is used to produce ethanol. One would think this is a world-class announcement, one that environmentalists would cheer loudly because it is right in line with what they have been demanding for years.

Right? Judge for yourself. A search of news.google.com for “algae ethanol seawater” returns SEVEN hits:

“http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=algae+ethanol+seawater&ie=UTF-8

see best story at:
http://venturebeat.com/2008/06/13/the-algae-claims-just-keep-getting-better/