We're Running Out of Oil! BP Finds A Mere 3 blln Barrels 250 Miles from Houston

Discussion in 'Economics' started by ByLoSellHi, Sep 2, 2009.

  1. You are correct. But think it through. What will be impacted by high prices? Suburbia, vinyl siding, asphalt roofing, farming/food... etc... It could be catastrophic. And I personally don't believe the transition to alternative energy will be seamless either.

    Chris Martenson also brings up a good example. Think of it this way: You buy a gallon of gas. You drive as far as that gallon takes you - let's say 25 miles.

    Now, you are out of gas. Push that car back to your driveway - all 25 miles that you previously drove. Difficult huh? If you can't do it - pay someone to do it. What will it cost you? Any takers? Thought so.

    Get the picture? Oil is basically the cheap equivalent of slave labor. No emperor in the history of the world had the power we have using fossil fuels - dishwashing machines, 747s, fire engines, ambulances, farming equipment, etc... And it's DIRT CHEAP. This plentiful supply of cheap oil propelled the explosion of world population this past decade. It also propelled fractional reserve lending and Fiat Money - and the markets as well. Without such cheap energy, the wealth of the world we see today would be much less.

    I used to think Peak Oilers were crackpots and thought that we have so many alternative technologies. Then I studied the issues and all alternative technologies. My conclusion?

    We lack political will, the Oil Companies are too strong, and no one wants to give up that annual vacation to Hawaii just yet.

    In sum: We're screwed. I fear Peak Oil more than I feel the current financial crisis.
     
    #31     Sep 3, 2009
  2. You have to excuse our resident ET Blowhard . . . Eric "EMR" Global. I believe he was a rather "small" prop trader at Schoenfeld in Chicago just a few years ago, and now he claims to be in the oil business.

    Obviously, he has NO IDEA what he is talking about, as you so well point out. Elm Coulee may be the "highest producing onshore field found in the lower 48 states in the past 58 years" but it certainly is not the largest producing field in the United States. As of 2007, it was ONE OF THE TWENTY largest oil fields in the U.S. - - - Big difference, but one that the resident ET clown is unable to comprehend, let alone distinguish.
     
    #32     Sep 3, 2009
  3. Come on folks, oil trivia,

    Why bbl?
     
    #33     Sep 3, 2009
  4. Yep.

    And the Mexican government and legislature has been sucking PEMEX "dry" like a two-bit whore on a street corner for years.

    The Government "finances" 45% of the national budget in Mexico via PEMEX. PEMEX pays out over 60% of its revenues in royalties and taxes. They are in a TON of debt, including $24 billion in off-balance sheet debt because the Mexican government treats it like a whore. Their revenues do not go back into exploration and production. Their fields are old and antiquated and lack new technology.

    Unfortunately, at current production rates their biggest fields will run dry in about 8 years . . . The only thing that lessened the pain of the declining production was the big ramp in crude prices last Summer.
     
    #34     Sep 3, 2009
  5. In the beginning of the oil industry, containers for oil varied a lot in size and shape. Standard Oil was the first to manufacture a standard barrel 42 gallons for transporting petrol. It was colored blue.

    Hence.... bbl


    (yeah I googled it)
     
    #35     Sep 3, 2009
  6. [​IMG]

    Chevron's Richmond, California refinery processes roughly 250,000 barrels of crude oil per day, which produces 5 million gallons of gasoline per day. It opened back in 1902 and is the oldest refinery in the nation, is 2900 acres in size and employs over 1300 people. Supertankers come in to the San Francisco Bay every 3-5 days to offload their crude oil at the refinery.

    (1/2 a barrel of crude oil can be refined into gasoline. The other half becomes diesel fuel, jet fuel, and lubricants).

    The refinery includes two 750,000 barrel storage tanks, the largest in the United States, to receive marine cargoes.
     
    #36     Sep 3, 2009
  7. spot on, blue barrels from Rockafellar.

    2nd, why was it so important for the barrel to be blue?
     
    #37     Sep 3, 2009
  8. Not necessarily.
    I believe that the "bbl" nomenclature goes back as early as the late 1700's - - - well before Standard Oil was founded.

    The extra "b" could have been added so as to eliminate any confusion with "bl" which was the symbol for the bale. Or, it could have been added simply to denote the plural.
     
    #38     Sep 3, 2009
  9. bozwood

    bozwood


    very good points. with that said, and with what you know about this subject, how are you investing and/or trading with regard to peak oil?
     
    #39     Sep 3, 2009
  10. I.C.E has to die... the faster the better !
     
    #40     Sep 3, 2009