Posted on 12/02/2007 10:44:21 PM PST by SunkenCiv
"We should not just try to import less oil," the former CIA director under former President Clinton told a Miami audience Sunday. "We should destroy oil as a strategic commodity" that allows oil exporting nations to hold monopoly power... Woolsey's wide-ranging speech went from describing how Americans' dollars at the gas pumps made their way to fundamentalist Islamic institutions to illustrating advances in solar energy technology that make it more efficient and affordable... Among his suggestions was California's decision to decouple energy company profits from sales two decades ago, keeping the state's electricity consumption flat while the rest of the states have experienced a 60 percent increase. He also cited Wal-Mart for reducing electricity consumption by 20 percent to 25 percent at its stores, a giant savings considering that 70 percent of the world's electricity is used by buildings other than homes... Woolsey also made a pitch for new battery-powered, flex-fuel cars that could be recharged during off-peak periods of electricity costs... On the malignant side, oil and coal consumption are contributing to global warming, which could accelerate at any point. The U.S. electricity grid and world oil supplies also face threats from terrorists and not just glitches that can now cause massive power outages in the interconnected grid.
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
Invade Mexico, take the crude oil out of their oil rich land, and make America the new owner of US South and offer all illegal immigrants here in America jobs at the new US Oil Refineries, Plants, and extended resort towns we’d be building as a result of growth not corrupted by Mexican officials.!
Canada and Russia own most of the circumpolar region. Alaska is a small segment of the arc and its oil fields are of corresponding size.
Thanks eleni.
Yes, we actually did export oil from Alaska to Japan. And we even today export petroleum products to other countries. It has to do with making global oil distribution more efficient. It is a fungible, global commodity.
All oil contains biotic markers and is sourced from Sedimentary Rock. If abiotic oil exists, why is it never found?
I don’t want unfettered legal immigration.
Yes, a miniscule amount over 5 years. We sent an average of 11% of a single refinery production.
U.S. Crude Oil Exports to Japan
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/mcrexja2a.htm
exports around 1 million barrels a day of oil, predominantly petroleum products
You missed the key part of that phrase. The US does not export 1,000,000 barrels of oil per day. It exports about about 30,000 barrels of oil.
U.S. Crude Oil Exports
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/mcrexus2m.htm
Nearly all of the Exports go to Canada.
Exports by Destination, Crude Oil
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_expc_a_EPC0_EEX_mbblpd_m.htm
The US does export over a million barrels per day of Petroleum, but it is mainly low value petroleum products "left over" from Refining after gasoline, diesel and others has been removed. Most of it is Petroleum Coke and Residual Fuel Oil (heavier oils like #5 and #6 fuel oils).
Exports, breakdown of Petroleum Products
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_exp_dc_NUS-Z00_mbblpd_m.htm
You miss my point. The fact that oil is a fungible global commodity means that crude oil shipments and other petroleum products can be moved about and substituted by the global oil distribution system to make it more efficient and cheaper. And the fact that the US now gets most of its imported oil, does not insulate it from the effects of a major interruption of oil from the Middle East. The oil distribution patterns will change if that happens.
"Generally, crude oil and petroleum products flow to the markets that provide the highest value to the supplier. Everything else being equal, oil moves to the nearest market first, because that has the lowest transportation cost and therefore provides the supplier with the highest net revenue, or in oil market terminology, the highest netback. If this market cannot absorb all the oil, the balance moves to the next closest one, and the next and so on, incurring progressively higher transportation costs, until all the oil is placed."
"The recent growth in United States dependence on its Western Hemisphere neighbors is an illustration of this "nearer-is-better" syndrome. For instance, Western Hemisphere sources now supply over half the United States import volume (see graph), much of it on voyages of less than a week. Another quarter comes from elsewhere in the area called the Atlantic Basin, those countries on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. This oil, coming especially that which comes from the North Sea and Africa, and takes just 2-3 weeks to reach the United States, boosts the so-called short-haul share of U.S. imports to over three-quarters. Most North Sea and North and West African crude oils stay in the Atlantic Basin, moving to Europe or North America on routes that rarely take over 20 days. In contrast, voyage times to Asia for just the nearest of these, the West African crude oils, would be over 30 days to Singapore, rising to nearly 40 for Japan. Not surprisingly, therefore, most of Asia’s oil comes instead from the Middle East, only 20-30 days away."
"Mexico and Venezuela have consciously helped the trend toward short-haul shipments. They pro-actively took the strategic decision to make as large and as profitable a market as possible for poor quality crudes, since their reserves are unusually biased toward those hard-to-place grades. Both countries therefore targeted their nearest markets, the U.S. Gulf Coast and the Caribbean, for joint venture refinery investments. They began with refineries that had traditionally run their crudes, and then with refineries that might be upgraded to do so. This policy has turned poor quality crudes into the preferred crude at these sites, significantly increasing the crude oil self-sufficiency of the Western Hemisphere."
"As the Middle East holds the majority of the world’s oil reserves (see Supply), increasing U.S. dependence on this region had been viewed as the inevitable partner of import growth. In light of the shift toward Western Hemisphere, short-haul import sources, Saudi Arabia is the only significant Middle East supplier left, and then only because of its willingness to trade security for revenue as noted above. Yet, although U.S. dependence on the long-haul Middle East has fallen sharply, this has not made U.S. prices less vulnerable to a disruption in Middle East supplies. Since oil is a global market, the relevant measure for that vulnerability is not U.S. dependence, but world dependence on Middle East oil -- and that has not shrunk.
Your point has traveled far. It started out with:
We actually sell oil from Alaska to Japan because of transportation costs.
Which was not a true statement. We did sell a little oil to Japan for a short time due to an upset condition. Transportation costs were not the reason and it was in the past.
That was the point I disagreed with you.
Because oil is a fungible commodity, oil tends to be sold to its closest market.
It was a true statement, not the tense. However, we still sell petroleum products and natural gas from Alaska to Japan.
The bottom line is that oil is a global fungible product, which is my point if you read all of my posts.
It was not due to transportation costs, it was due to a short term West-Coast glut. Which is why the oil is not longer shipped today.
It also had something to do with politics and Congress.
The only sure way to accomplish that is to drill domestically.
And the Dems and Repubs are not going to allow that.
They're beholden to way too many special interest groups to serve the American taxpayer and do what's best for America.
Absolutely True.
BTW, The Nikiski Plant on the Alaska Kenai Peninsula is the sole source of the gas exports to Japan. This is a small, experimental plant whose export license expires after 2008.
LNG plant key to stable Cook Inlet market
http://www.petroleumnews.com/pnads/329618385.shtml
There is also belief by some (not all) that TECO no longer wants to import the Gas.
Alaska LNG rumor denied
http://www.petroleumnews.com/pnads/967191296.shtml
U.S. Crude Oil and Petroleum Products Exports to Japan
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/mttexja2m.htm
U.S. Petroleum Coke Exports to Japan
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/mckexja2m.htm
And how do you know that?
You say 14 I say 40 years.
At 20 billion barrels of oil pumping at an impossible rate of 3.6 million barrels per day ANWR would last 14 years.
2. the Gulf of Mexico.
Well, that is news to me. The last time I was in the Gulf of Mexico I saw dozens if not hundreds of production and drilling platforms. Do you have some kind of insider information that would indicate that E&P has stopped in the Gulf?
Where are Chavez’s refineries?
We have the largest supply of coal in the world and
can use it as a feedstock along with natural gas for
syn fuel.
A federal / state ban on Gulf Coast drilling off Florida
has allowed the Chinese to slant drill from Cuba.
Now, how on earth would anyone be abel to “Slant Drill” from Cuba to Florida?
Again you propose something that is impossible.
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