Free Republic

By region, EIA said imports from members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries increased by 504,000 barrels per day, making up the bulk of the new oil entering the U.S. economy. Declines from Mexico were offset by more imports from Canada, making the net gain from non-OPEC countries less than 24,000 bpd.

“We know OPEC has toyed with our market for many years but what I see coming now is a threat, without a doubt, to our national security,” Stark said. “The Middle East wants control of the U.S. market. When they came out and decided to flood the market with oil and drive U.S. producers out of business, their whole point was to take back their lost market share — our production. They are telling us is they are not going to let us produce our own natural resources. Guess what? They have done a pretty good job.” The Sept. 27 Carlsbad meeting was a first battle cry that Dan Fine, a co-founder of the initiative and oil economist with the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy, said won’t be taken up by the nation for two years — when the rest of the country wakes up and finds it is too late to stop OPEC from controlling America’s energy industry. “We are pioneers,” Fine said. “My point is, we are sitting here today 18 months to two years ahead of everyone. Sometime in early 2018, the country will discover what we are having a discussion about here today.”

Another policy tool to defend New Mexico and Texas oil and gas against a OPEC price war for market share to slow or shut it down is the reduction of its exports to the United States. Mr. Drangmeister misleads himself: import quotas do not “stop” or ban imports -- they offer a measure of control in the interest of a “healthy” American petroleum industry and national security.

We ask : why are we buying Saudi Arabian light oil which is the same grade of oil we produce while thousands are out of work and drilling rigs are idle here?

“The American oil industry, which has in the last 10 years created the technology of oil self-sufficiency, will survive without the smaller independent company pioneers in shale and their future risk-taking in finding oil,” the PIRI said in a release. “Integrated companies (with production and refining combined) will survive and dominate in a second downturn with a smaller market share in America alongside potential 60-percent oil imports from foreign producers outside North America.”

The PIRI will present Dr. Daniel Fine and its strategic “White Paper” as the keynote at the rally, along with oil and gas operators from the Delaware Basin (New Mexico Permian) and San Juan Basin.

The oil and gas industry “bust” will be presented by Tom Taylor, economic development, Four Corners, and Tom Dugan of Dugan Productions. Tom Cambridge will speak on the Panhandle of West Texas and John Yates Jr. of Yates Petroleum Corp. on the Permian/Delaware.

More information on the PIRI can be found at www.panimportreduction.org.

He said the sales tax cut from 7 percent to 6 percent phased in over 2017 and 2018 will cost about $1.3 billion, while the gas tax hike is estimated to bring in roughly the same amount. The result will be a net neutral tax on residents, he said. Legislative estimates, however, suggest the state could lose up to nearly $2 billion a year.

The state Senate is expected take up the issue Thursday. But Democratic State Senate President Steve Sweeny said he was in the dark about it, and other senators — including some Republicans — are speaking out against the plan.

In the Permian we are filling our tanks with Saudi gas while whole towns and families are being destroyed. This is why the grassroots are important here! How can DC do anything though they keep promising us millions of new jobs . You want to stop this destruction RIGHT NOW of American oil and jobs? Oil import restrictions are your best bet!

Hear more from him by clicking here.

Dr. Fine said the hope is to get the next president to stop the flow. "It is a grassroots effort and has nothing to do with the oil and gas industry in the United States. Much of the support is coming from communities, individuals, field workers, service companies, and more. As these communities suffer a bust, they are activated to join such an initiative," he said.

The target is to reach out to the next president in February or March of 2017 to request an Eisenhower Proclamation. Dr. Fine explained, "This is what it was, and it is in the executive office that a proclamation can be issued. To follow the Eisenhower example and request that of the new president. It sets up almost what Eisenhower did with his council. A ten or twelve percent limitation on import of foreign oil. Mexico and Canada are exempt."

See more about the plan to limit imports by clicking here.

he grassroots effort stems from a belief by many in the oilfield that Middle Eastern producers are flooding the market in an effort to regain market share lost to U.S. operators in recent years. According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, domestic production is forecasted to hit 8 million barrels a day in 2017, down 1.5 million from 2015 numbers.

Now, as OPEC members have again refused to freeze production, domestic producers are searching for strategies to regain market share.

“This is very appropriate, as yesterday, OPEC and Russia and various countries met and decided they weren’t going to freeze oil and in fact, OPEC said they will increase production again,” Cambridge said on April 18. “This will drive the price down to $26 (a barrel) again. This is not a good thing for our country.”

Dr. Daniel Fine, an expert in energy futures and economics, has been tasked by the producer group to present the campaign details to lawmakers. Fine, who is an energy advisor to New Mexico Gov. Susanna Martinez, is the Associate Director of the Center for Energy Policy at New Mexico Tech. During a legislative hearing last fall in New Mexico, Dr. Fine testified that areas of increased production in the U.S., including the Permian Basin, are now “the target of an oil price war between OPEC and Non-OPEC oil supply.”

“What happened at OPEC gives us today the only going strategy to deal with the oversupply (of oil),” Fine said. “We have drawn the line in the sand and said ‘you have gone too far; we will not buy your oil.’”

Under the plan unveiled by the Panhandle Producers and Royalty Owners Association and other supporters, import quotas could be imposed within the next administration's first 90 days in office. Canadian and Mexican oil would be exempt.

Quotas on heavy crude oil would be phased in and imports would eventually be limited to around 10 percent of total demand.

Supporters say they're drawing a line in the sand after more than a dozen oil-rich nations failed to agree during a recent meeting in Saudi Arabia to freeze production. They blame Middle East producers for flooding the market and fueling the price war as a means to stifle domestic production.

Oil fell in the past two years from above $100 a barrel to touch 12-year lows under $30 a barrel earlier this year, and U.S. production has dropped by as much as 700,000 barrels a day and the number of rigs in the field has sunk to historic lows.

By 2017, crude oil production is forecast to average around 8 million barrels per day, nearly 1.5 million less than in 2015, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency.

Oilfield equipment along one of the two-lane highways that link West Texas and southeastern New Mexico sits idle in company yards, and local governments and schools are feeling the pinch as severance taxes and royalties dwindle.

"Service companies, restaurants, real estate, the people building motels and hotels — there are a lot of impacts," said Yates told The Associated Press.

Oil producers in the Panhandle recently announced the Panhandle Import Reduction Initiative. Their hope is to limit the amount of oil that can be imported from other countries.

We wish them success in getting sympathetic ears to hear their initiative and gathering like-minded people to help further it.

They are right that a limitation should be set on the amount of oil imports from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Representatives of OPEC’s 18 nations recently met in Doha, Qatar. Among their topics of discussion was whether to freeze oil production levels.

The nations didn’t reach an agreement on the subject.

“OPEC and Russia and various countries met and decided they weren’t going to freeze oil and, in fact, OPEC said they will increase production again. This will drive the price down to $26 (a barrel) again,” said oil producer Tom Cambridge.