The Next Oil Revolution

Energy Tribune ^ | November 17, 2012 | Peter C Glover

[scooby321]

I bet its Kills Obama

[volunbeer]

I bet its Kills Obama

---

I bet Obama tries to kill it.

[gleeaikin]

Well, at least Interior is selling 4.5 million acres of oil land leases in Alaska. That sounds like a fairly large area. I have heard that one of the issues on public lands has been that companies were just sitting on leases and not doing anything with them so a bunch were canceled to be reactivated, or something like that. Hopefully someone here is more knowledgeable and can clarify this issue.

[mosesdapoet]

You have a regime which by design was driving up the costs and uses of energy the most a basic resource because it suits its socialist matrix. What’s even worse is the massive corrpution resulting from that regime doling out tons of funds towards its campaign donners for so called alternate forms which don’t work or are laughingly inefficient . That’ got a pass by the Romney campaign and a huge mistake because this policy affected everyone. It was a bread a butter issue affecting all Americans.

[Yardstick]

Thank God for Big Oil and the coming American oil boom. It’s one of the few reasons for optimism these days.

[uncommonsense]

The one piece of bad news:

"Unconventional oil and gas activity will generate over $61 billion in federal and state tax revenues in 2012, rising to $91 billion annually in 2015 and $111 billion by 2020."

We need to starve the beast, not feed it. Cut the size and scope of government, not increase funding.

[dalereed]

If the government and environmentalists don’t stop them we desperatly need refineries.

For starters, start up the refinery on the California coast that they have stopped from using for over 40 years.

[RockyTx]

is there some reason that shale oil
only exists in North America?

is shale oil existed worldwide,
the Arab hegemony would be broken

[SatinDoll]

Oil shale is not exclusive to the U.S.A.

I believe it requires specialized equipment to find it, however.

[Orange1998]

Around 12 years ago it was selling for $ 10 barrel. Today it seems impossible, but who knows.

[American Constitutionalist]

One can take a good guess that those who are in the northeast after hurricane Sandy who were effected and are still left in the dark, without fuel will take a good long hard new look of hydrocarbon fuels.
Yes, those " GREEN " energy technologies are laughable and probability won't mature for a long time.
If the " GREENIES " want to help mature those " GREEN " energy technologies they can use the current technologies, the current use of hydrocarbon fuels to help fund and pay for the research by relaxing some of the regulations, taxes and let the economy and the new OIL BOOM flourish.

[American Constitutionalist]

Start building smaller scale refineries at a cheaper cost but more of them all over the place.
Same thing with building smaller pebble bottom safer nuclear power plants all over the place.
One reason that drives up the cost for most of these things is that they are centralized.
The same thing with government... when it's centralized it's less efficient.
Build more and more smaller scale refineries that could possibly made mobile ? modular ? that can be taken down and set back up in another area as needed.
Make more use of modular designs.
Have them put more funds into research and development into more smaller refineries, make them more modular, more efficient.
With a oil refinery that is not centralized it becomes less prone to risk of terrorism or some other accident.

[American Constitutionalist]

Perhaps the reason Oil Shale is big in the USA is because the USA has more of it than the rest of the world ?
Maybe other countries do have it but there is so little of it that it's not worth the capital cost to go after it.

[American Constitutionalist]

The USA now enjoys perhaps the cheapest cost and source of natural gas than other counties.
We even have out paced Russia in natural gas development.

[gotribe]

I wonder whether these particular leases are the best leases?

[usconservative]

I bet its Kills Obama

I hope it kills Biden too!

[gotribe]

You are correct. China has the largest holdings in the world. The U.S. has the lead in exploration technology and knowledge - after all we started the oil industry, from exploration and production to refining. That leadership is something most politicians don’t ever appreciate. It’s a leadership lead as wide as our IT technology lead. So you can bet that as China and others seek to use their new-found reserves, they will turn to U.S. companies for help.

[Smokin' Joe]

Well, at least Interior is selling 4.5 million acres of oil land leases in Alaska.

Don' let em bamboozle ya kid!

What good is a lease if they won't let you have a drilling permit, won't approve the site construction, the well plan, etc.?

If you find oil, you still have to get it to market, no road, no pipeline permit, no EIS approval for the righto-of-way, you aren't going to make a dime, but the costs can run into the billions (right, with a 'b'). Oil companies are visionary in that they are always looking for 'the next big thing', but even so, dumping a lot of money into Exploration with little chance for payout is a great way to crash your company.

For now, the easier pickings are in the lower 48, on private leases, especially with the administration making noises about ending "subsidies" (which are the ordinary business expenses other industries deduct, not a payment by the government to the oil industry).

In reality, most oil companies pay three times as much in taxes as they make in profit.

[thackney]

Start building smaller scale refineries at a cheaper cost but more of them all over the place.

So you want lower inefficiencies combined with more infrastructure being built, to duplicate existing capacity.

And you think that lowers cost?