The High Price Of Fuel - The REAL Reasons...

The all-time record high prices for gas - oil - diesel are no longer just an 'issue' to be talked about. Fingers don't need to be blamed. This has become an AMERICAN issue that requires both Democrats and Republicans to come together and quit their bickering and PASS an Energy Bill that will allow the United States of America to become energy self sufficient and put America and American's FIRST!

Have you have been to the gas station today? You did know how high gas prices have gotten, right???

Oil prices have been hitting new record high's everyday this week. One New York gas station was selling gas way over $4 a gallon...

Prices that high were reported to be rare, with most of the nation paying something closer to $3 per gallon...

However, one of my trucks sitting in Ontario, CA. reported seeing prices as high as $4.04 per gallon at the pump...

Magnifying the sense of alarm is the fact that a few states were suddenly hit with shortages of gas this week. And in some places, people cannot get gas at all...

The price of oil due to be delivered in June was already selling at a record high today – $75.00 a barrel – that is up several dollars from just a few days ago. Many analysts say $80 dollars a barrel could easily be the average coming this summer...

Adding to the high pump price pressure is a booming China and India putting a big new squeeze on the global oil supply where there was little pressure before. These two huge countries alone could soon use up as much oil as the entire rest of the world does now...

It also does not help that guerilla war in Nigeria has knocked out about 20 percent of that oil-giant's production. Oil traders are also worried about Iran's nuclear buildup...

Iran has threatened Israel, the United States and the World with 'serious' consequences should sanctions be placed against them by the UN Security Council...

And let's not forget that there still are 3 Oil Refineries not refining any oil along the Gulf Coast. It has been this way since Hurricane Katrina struck, and no new Oil Refineries have been built in over a decade, despite efforts last year by the Bush Administration to get an Energy Bill passed that was stalemated by Democrats...

But even without these overseas headaches, America is having its own oil production problems. Production usually goes down in the spring, but this year the problem's worse because a few refineries damaged in last year's hurricanes are still out...

And the addition of a cleaner additive to the nation's gas is causing problems because that additive -- ethanol -- is in short supply, making gas itself in shorter supply. This is also known an E85 across the Upper Midwest...

Democrats, like New York Sen. Charles Schumer, are trying to make political hay out of the pain at the pump, even as The New York Times points out that Democrats did little about high energy prices when they hit during the Clinton administration...

Schumer's calling for an investigation to see if the big oil companies might be taking advantage of the oil panic to gouge the public...

What a FARCE! We all know Oil Companies ARE making record profits and every time prices go UP, the U.S. - State & Local Government gets more TAX money in their coffers too...

And that is one thing that is driving many Democratic and Republican leaders absolutely nuts! They all want the public to see just how remarkably well the American economy is doing, but right now, most people are not seeing beyond these gas signs, and WHY should they???

High crude Oil and retail pump prices affect ALL of us. Sooner or later, EVERYTHING we buy is going to go UP as a result of what's happening right now with OIL...

Our Nation's Farmers are going to have an extremely tough time planting their first crop, let alone trying to get a second one in this year with fuel not being readily available to them and the higher cost of production causing many NOT to plant at all...

Companies that were 'hanging' on a fence, just trying to 'get by' will be GONE as a result of these higher energy costs...

Wait until your electric bills start going higher in a manner of a month or two when Utility Companies start asking for emergency rate hikes...

How many people won't be going on their vacations this summer because they can't AFFORD to buy gas for their vehicles???

INFLATION and what you have today WILL get worse! But WAIT there IS one possible solution!!!

CALL your Senator's and Congressional Representatives NOW and have them ask President Bush CONVENE Congress right NOW to enact WHATEVER Legislation is needed to get the USA more energy self sufficient and REDUCE our dependence on Foreign Oil...

I don't care how many Oil wells, Refineries, Off-Shore Drilling Platforms it takes! The time is NOW to do SOMETHING about this issue...

We need to drop the EPA regulations adding to the expense of production and slowing down our refineries!

It's way past TIME for the President to call the Congress into Emergency session and NOT be let to go ANYWHERE until they PASS an Energy Bill that INCLUDES getting our Oil from Alaska shipped TO our Refineries in the Western United States. Give Americans American Oil...

Where have you BEEN? Learn more about the industry before decrying it, please. And catch up on what has been going on in the world, especially the oil producing regions since 1999.

I'll tell you where I was up until I retired in 1997. Right in the middle of the industry you are talking about and was there for forty years.

Now you tell me something are you and all the other American citizens or businesses using three times the gas or oil products that they where using six years ago?

I'm willing to bet if the truth was known because of the price most are using less, I know I am.

The only ones who are do so because they are wealthy enough that it don't matter or they do so because they're job requires it.

Is China ? for heating and c other American

Qualified first class in three trades pipe fitting, machinist and welding. Along with me where three brother-in laws one brother and a sister-in- law all with over thirty years in the trades. Three of them retired doing well and one is still in it doing very well.

That's the reason I'm not buying that crap you're shoveling.

If you lost money it wasn't because the poor oil companies where going broke and dropping like flies It was because you made some bad business decisions or bad investment decisions.

I'm a long way from being rich but I worked hard and a lot of long hours and I worked regular.

There where a who wouldn't work the overtime and a lot who only worked three or four months out of the years and spent the rest lying around on there ass drawing unemployment and hunting and fishing six months out of the year. .

Now they are broke old and crying about how some people are lucky and get all the breaks. These are the ones who where going up to the boss every year when hunting season came in begging for lay off slip so they could draw unemployment.

I will ask you again what is it you get about about profits and expenses.

The profits companies get come after all those expenses you keep yelling about.

If you don't understand that and the fact that a company doesn't care what it's costs are as long as they are clearing money hand over fist then it is no wonder you can't get ahead.

Sure they quit building refineries in this country but they kept improving and repairing those that where here.

But they didn't quit making money or profits they just built them overseas.

You name some of the big oil companies that's been in business since the the 30's or longer that went belly up because a price drop at the pump or post a two year period they didn't make a profit.

That $75 a barrel you are talking about is exactly what I'm talking about who do you think set that price and who do you think gets the money. The oil companies that's who.

Do you know that we are importing very little more oil than we did in 1973? Where's all that increased consumption that Americans are are wasting they are talking about?

Tell me something else why did you keep putting your money in oil stocks if they where losing money.

If the work you where doing wasn't paying well or played out why didn't you take your trade skill somewhere else? I don't know where you have been or where you are coming from but if you think I'm going to fell sorry or buy this crap that these oil companies that have been making millions and now billions of dollars a year in profits since the 1930's are victims you are wasting you time.

I don't have a problem with a company making money they have to to stay in business.

But when they buy politicians and hurt American businesses and families and cause them to go bankrupt and threaten the financial stability and security of the country because of greed and the fact they got together to form a stranglehold on a extremely vital product then that is wrong.

First, if three dollar gas is going to bankrupt you, then either you made some bad business decisions or were pretty d@mned shaky to begin with.

Second, if they are buying politicians, they are getting gypped. There is much cheaper oil to extract onshore and off, and the profits you wail about are piddling compared to what they would ba making if they had just done a decent job of buying politicians. Jeez, with all that money, you'd think the b@st@rds would stay bought.

Third, you have not taken into account the businesses and jobs in the oil industry which have happened with the increase in drilling activity.

I guess if we imported 55% + of our food, you'd say the farmers had a stranglehold on it, too.

I have been working as a geologist in the patch since '79, when wells were being drilled, that is. There are times in that period when few or no wells were being drilled. If no one is drilling a well, there is no call for a wellsite geologist. No work, no paycheck. So I have taken other jobs over the years, from construction and pipeline work to dealing blackjack in a titty bar, but the kids never went hungry.

Yeah, there are those who won't work overtime, but I am not one of them. I work on day rate and my average day runs between 12 and 14 hours, seven days a week until the job is done. I get a week to 10 days 'off' to get the report together, and go do another one. Do not lump me in with the seasonal workers.

Maybe you do not understand that this year's profit is next year's investment, and that when oil prices go up, so do ours. Next year's well will be more expensive than last year's well if oil prices are up over the same time period. Prices crash when oil prices do as well because there is always some nitwit willing to cut everyone's throats to stay in business. Prices are not fixed.

Maybe you missed the oil price drop of '99. Maybe you were not aware that a multitude of domestic stripper wells were P&A'd, and that their cumulative production is and will remain unavailable.

Maybe you have not heard about the political problems in Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, and Venezuela.

Maybe you missed the increase in demand from the Chinese and India, maybe you even forgot there is a war on.

But every time someone blows up a pipeline, a hurricane puts 160 platforms out of operation, or a refinery shuts down (for whatever legitimate reason), there is a dent in world supply.

Demand has increased enough that the Saudis can no longer glut the market and bring the price down. They do not posess that production capacity in relation to world demand, and all of this has happened since the EIA released the report proclaiming a worldwide glut of oil in 1999. They (the EIA under Clinton) failed to take into consideration any East Asian demand, and crashed the price to the lowest levels in my lifetime, and I am a great-grandfather.

So now, we are seeing the repercussions of a 'perfect storm' of reduced domestic production, increased foreign demand, hurricane damage in the Gulf, and reduced foreign supplies due to political unrest and depletion.

If you are so conversant in the industry you will note that this is historically a temporary thing, and that prices will likely drop in the future. The industry has been moving in boom/bust cycles since Drake dug his well.

I don't have a problem with a company making money they have to to stay in business.

Really? Do you have any idea what it costs to drill onshore? Offshore? What a minute of rig time runs on a drilling location? Do you have any idea what legal hoops have to be jumped through just to drill a well?

Apparently not, and as the price of oil goes up, so do the costs for everything associated with drilling a well. That is how those of us whose work is tied to drilling activity get enough ahead to be able to handle the next downturn.

As for Global consumption increases,

from USDOE Report #:DOE/EIA-0484(2005) Released Date: July 2005 Figure 7.

World Marketed Energy Consumption, 1970-2025 (in quadrillion BTUs)

1970 206.7176

1975 242.7514

1980 284.8973

1985 310.282

1990 348.208

1995 365.8707

2002 411.533

(projected)

2010 503.52

2015 553.481

2020 598.078

2025 644.577

Now, the projected data are subject to change, depending on what happens out there, but the two-fold increase from 1970 to 2002 is documented, and that does not take into account the last 12 months of bombings, hurricanes, tinpot dictators, and other factors affecting the patch.

If you want Congress to do something, how about getting rid of the boutique blends that just came back in and are causing local shortages of area specific formulations. How about relaxing the ethanol requirements until the ethanol industry can catch up and the infrastructure can be built?

After all every gallon of that stuff gets subsidized out of your pocket and mine, whether we use it or not.

All they want to do is stick the "rich" with fines and taxes. Just like nailing the tobacco companies to the wall, that cost gets passed on to the consumer. Congress couldn't produce a pint of oil if they fell in a barrel of it.

And yeah, it stinks to be on a fixed income and have prices jump. I was a grad student in uranium mineralogy during the Carter Administration and watched gas prices double, my rent go up, and eventually could no longer afford to go to school. I hired on in the oil patch and two weeks later Three Mile Island happened, but that is another story.

As for pity, if you think I was trying to get pity, you are sorely mistaken. I was just explaining why I do not have any.

25th Anniversary of the 1973 Oil Embargo:
Energy Trends Since the First Major U.S. Energy Crisis

Twenty-five years after the oil embargo by members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) shocked energy markets and created long lines for gasoline in the United States, U.S. dependence on imported oil is at an all-time high. Net imports provided 48 percent of domestic oil consumption in 1997, up from 28 percent in 1972 (see figure).

This development, the result of declining U.S. crude oil production and rising demand, is among 30 major energy trends detailed in 25th Anniversary of the 1973 Oil Embargo: Energy Trends Since the First Major U.S. Energy Crisis, recently released by the Energy Information Administration. Other important trends include the following:

Encouraged by high oil prices, end-use consumers sought ways to conserve energy and switch to other fuels, driving down the import share of total consumption in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
OPEC's share of world oil production, which stood at 55 percent in 1973, fell to as low as 30 percent in 1985. By 1997 it had recovered to 43 percent.
The U.S. share of total world output of crude oil production fell from 52 percent in 1950 to 10 percent in 1997.
Real U.S. motor gasoline prices peaked in 1981, fell to a low of $1.12 per gallon in 1988, and stood at $1.15 in 1997.
The per-capita consumption of petroleum products declined between 1972 and 1997 at an annual average rate of 0.5 percent.
U.S. crude oil reserves fell 31 percent between 1977 and 1997, to 22 billion barrels.

================== We have had over 30 years and many administrations to reverse this. If we really wanted to give up our [finger, toe, whatever hold] in this part of the world, we would have done so. Until why can be figured out, prepare to go deep into your pockets.

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