Drilling for Oil in the Bakken formation

[Cruisingdad]

Originally Posted by Cruisingdad

Report: One trader held 11 pct of Nymex contracts: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Noo.... it cannot be true... whodathunk? By the way, I predict that oil will be at $66/barrell by November 5th.

- CD

Oh, Man... look at this prediction!!! Man am I smart, or what!?? On a serious note, who would have thought when this thread started that it would be $66/barrell?? Gas is selling under $2/gallon here - and just keeps dropping.

- CD

[TxLnghrn]

Great Call CD,
But I don't think it will be for long.
I'm locking in my home electricity rates for as long as my provider will allow, and I'm thinking of purchasing a tanker truck of fuel.

[lynn1120]

Originally Posted by Cruisingdad

Oh, Man... look at this prediction!!! Man am I smart, or what!?? On a serious note, who would have thought when this thread started that it would be $66/barrell?? Gas is selling under $2/gallon here - and just keeps dropping.

- CD

Does this mean you are in the running for a new name/monniker

what is the price going to be next March 5?

come on..Give it another go...Got some institutions and hedge funds here that are looking for a new playmate....

[Cruisingdad]

Moved your post here:

Originally Posted by sailaway21

You no doubt missed my post calling for an increase in the gas tax. You'll be not surprised that I still favor domestic drilling and so am in favor of opening ANWR and the nearby offshore drilling areas for lease. Aside from the revenues generated to a broke Treasury, the oil companies would then be in position to drill when it becomes economically feasible. Which is something they are uniquely positioned to know.

Mr. Chavez has his own problems, remarkably similar to those internal problems of Iran, that will not be materially aided by his new found relationship with Russia who has her own issues of no little weight. We all might have different attitudes were Israel to be our neighbor or, more importantly, were we living where Israel resides.

I look forward to your on-going revelations on the nature and use of Loran in the thread devoted to it. If you figure out what it is and does, let me know forthwith. And if your father is throwing anything else away, please let us know. We're specifically in the market for items sailing related.

And who is going to pay for your domestic drilling? You?? The American Tax payer? The oil companies when their profits have imploded? Right.

A recruiter friend of mine that works oil and gas said over 3/4 of the projects for domestic drilling have been canned. ALmost ALL of them are put on hold. You can favor it all you want but unless you are willing to pick up the tab for the difference in cost of importing versus drilling here, it flat is not going to happen. We will import from overseas until we are right back in the same situation we were in a year ago. How do we fix that - legislation. How else?

So if you are going to push forward with drilling wells that are not profitable for the sake of getting ready should the next gas hike to come, then please explain to me again why you would not push that same legislation (or tax benefits) towards pursuiing an energy plan that is sustainable and will get us off of oil long term!???

This is the time to act. Now. Build wind, solar, nuclear. Build it while energy is cheap and you are NOT in a crunch. Position yourself now while oil and gas prices are not restricting our growth and future. Hey... if you want to creat more jobs on the infrastructure, do it here. AND GET AWAY FROM DRILLING HERE. THere is no oil and no immediate benefit anyways.

What say you, Sway???

- CD

[erps]

And who is going to pay for your domestic drilling? You?? The American Tax payer? The oil companies when their profits have imploded? Right.

Same folks who are going to pay for solar, wind and nuclear I reckon and if it's much more than fossil fuels, it's still going to be a hard sell?

I think modifying our lives around smaller homes, cars and moving closer to work is probably the most economical way to get through the next ten years or so. We should have learned that in the 70's during the oil embargo. Back then, I would have never imagined people driving SUV's back and forth to soccer games.

[sailaway21]

Instead of trumpeting his usual boilerplate, CD might consider the plight of the ethanol industry which is currently finding itself on hard times. In spite of massive government subsidies, this alternative energy business is about to undergo severe retrenchment. T E85 market is where the brunt will be felt. Yet our intrepid correspondent advocates yet more government subsidy of what does not work.

The difference between the oil companies and what CD proposes is that the oil companies assume the economic risk in their efforts. CD's alternative energy proposals would have us all as taxpayers assume that risk. He mistakenly assigns a role to government that is rightly capitalism's.

[Cruisingdad]

I have not researched the whole ethanol bit to be very well versed to comment, but on the whole, it seems a bit short sided too. Still, I am suprised that you do not support it more than you do. Like your proposals, it is simply a method to help relieve some of the foreign oil dependence - with no possibility to ever remove it. We simply cannot grow that much corn!

The gist of your threads here has been to let the markets do what they are going to do. Am I wrong? Let capitalism and the markets dictate what is or is not done. As such, your notion of supporting drilling here when it is not profitable now makes no sense. Why lose money on every drop of oil. Why? Is it because sometime in the future oil will not be so cheap and it will become profitable again? As such, can that same argument not be made for renewable sources of energy?

Also of note is what I said earlier: that the arabs would NEVER allow us to get to a point where we could remove ourselves from their dependence. Oil is America's Crack. We are addicted. THey will artificially drop the price of their oil until we lose profitability in seeking other solutions. They understand our system and your version of capitalism better than anyone. Their entire surviuval depends on our shortsitedness.

As it takes years and years to get solar/wind up and running (and almost as many years to get oil up and running in drilling new sites), someone is going to have to look ahead and make a long term investment that does not make any sense right now. That deoes NOT have to be government owned (but hey... basically everything else is now!!). It could be government influenced though through tax breaks and research incentives. But NOW is the time to do it, not when oil is sitting around $140/barrell again. Then it is too late.

- CD

PS There was an interesting comment made on Tech Ticker (if you know what that is). They said, "Capitalism has been saved by communism." Certainly that did no sit well with you, but the reality of that statement is eye-opening.

[camaraderie]

CD....the notion is not to support drilling now...but to support ALLOWING drilling when it makes economic sense in places where it is not allowed now.
Those who need to profit from their investments in oil leases (i.e. payments to the government) and equipment are in the best position to know where to drill NOW and where to wait to drill until the price goes up again.
And YES the same argument can be made for wind and solar. Let the companies interested in making a profit decide just when and where to place their panels and mills and when it makes economic sense for them to do so. Let the feds lease land for that purpose to them as well. The point is...don't spend taxpayer $$ subsdizing what would otherwise be an economic decision that no company would make.
The Arabs you speak of ain't too happy right now as every barrel of THEIR limited supply is being sold at 25% of what they got for it a few months ago. But THEY too must sell it at the market price as their economies won't let them leave it in the ground till the price goes up. Ask Hugo about that too.

[Cruisingdad]

Originally Posted by camaraderie

CD....the notion is not to support drilling now...but to support ALLOWING drilling when it makes economic sense in places where it is not allowed now.
Those who need to profit from their investments in oil leases (i.e. payments to the government) and equipment are in the best position to know where to drill NOW and where to wait to drill until the price goes up again.
And YES the same argument can be made for wind and solar. Let the companies interested in making a profit decide just when and where to place their panels and mills and when it makes economic sense for them to do so. Let the feds lease land for that purpose to them as well. The point is...don't spend taxpayer $$ subsdizing what would otherwise be an economic decision that no company would make.
The Arabs you speak of ain't too happy right now as every barrel of THEIR limited supply is being sold at 25% of what they got for it a few months ago. But THEY too must sell it at the market price as their economies won't let them leave it in the ground till the price goes up. Ask Hugo about that too.

An interesting perspective.

First of all, it would be worthwhile to research how long it takes to go from "Hey, I want to drop an oil well here," to a drop of gas at the gas station. It can stretch close to a decade. It is also worth noting that there is not enough oil in the US to supply our country for any lengthy period of time (less than around 3 years supply if we drain everything overnight). Also, it could take upwards to 30 years to pull that oil out. As such, at best, AT BEST, the most you can hope for is to reduce our dependency by a small percentage. Certainly you would agree with that as even the oil companies and USGS agree. Those links have been posted repeatedly in this thread.

So, we are going to invest that amount of money and time into a venture that is very short lived, cannot support us or ever get us off foreign oil, and is even unprofitable at this time. It would make one wonder if we are not simply drilling here for the sake of drilling here?? Certainly there is no economic benefit at this point. Should our economy not improve considerably (which appears very unlikely), it seems that it will be some time before oil goes up much. Tick, tock, the clock keeps running as does our foreign dependence.

I also remember some pages back where I was challenged to find a way to get us 25% off of foreign oil. I took the challenge. My price tag ended up being very close to $1 trillion dollars. The general sentiment was that was way too high a price to pay for the government. Perhaps we should tell the investment banks that? Looking back now, it seems a drop in the bucket compared to where we are today in bailouts. There seemed to be some concern about government ownership of commercial institutions. Oops. I guess we missed out on that one too.

We are in a very precarious time for our country - possibly the most precarious in 70 or more years. Maybe it is time for all of us to stand back and re-evaluate our stances on government ownership, energy independence, economic longevity, national secruity, and the true cost of $1 trillion.

- CD

[PBzeer]

Some simple logic. We need crude oil and will continue to need it for the foreseeable future. We are currently importing crude oil and paying other countries for it. We are also the owner of proven crude oil reserves. The infrastucture and labor necessary to bring those reserves to market will generate millions of dollars in sales and wages (if not billions), and that's even if all we do is stick it in the Strategic Oil Reserve. And we will be reducing the amount we pay out for foreign crude supplies.

Jobs, revenue, and a reduced trade deficit. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

Your argument that it isn't a long term solution is like saying 0% of everything is better than 20% of something.