Posted on 06/04/2008 4:28:03 AM PDT by Kaslin
Contemplate this the next time you spend $60 or more filling up your tinny little car with gasoline made from imported oil: The U.S. government knows where it can get its hands on more untapped petroleum than exists in the proven reserves of Iran or Iraq, which have 136 billion barrels and 115 billion barrels, respectively.
This unexploited stock of crude is greater than what the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports is in the proven reserves of Russia (60 billion barrels), Libya (41.5 billion barrels) and Nigeria (36.2 billion barrels) combined.
It is more than Hugo Chavez's Venezuela has (80 billion barrels).
It is more than is now known to sit beneath the waters and sands of Kuwait (101.5 billion barrels) or the United Arab Emirates (97.6 billion barrels).
So, where is all this oil? And why aren't they pumping it?
What cartel is holding it off the market, to drive up prices at American gas stations and American supermarkets? What insidious power is stifling the free market for this vital commodity and thus threatening the vitality of our economy?
It is us, of course. We are the culprits. We are responsible for artificially increasing oil prices. It is our oil that sits untapped beneath our deserts, our forests, our swamps and our oceans. It is our politicians -- the ones we freely elected, and re-elected, and re-elected -- who are not allowing our oil to be drilled by us and sold to us.
In 2005, Congress passed the Energy Policy Act, requiring the Department of Interior to inventory the oil resources that could be found both onshore and offshore in U.S. territory. In February 2006, Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) published the report on offshore oil resources on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). It determined there were 85.9 billion barrels of "undiscovered technically recoverable" oil sitting off our beaches.
Just this offshore portion of our undiscovered oil is more than all the proven oil in Venezuela, and more than all the proven oil in Russia, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain combined.
What does the government mean when it says this oil is "undiscovered technically recoverable" oil? It means we can go get it with off-the-shelf technology, but the government makes no judgment about the profitability of doing so. This oil, the government says, is "in undiscovered accumulations analogous to those in existing fields producible with current recovery technology and efficiency, but without any consideration of economic viability."
Last month, with almost no attention from the liberal media, the Bureau of Land Management released the report estimating the other part of America's undiscovered oil riches, the onshore resources. This added another 53 billion barrels to the national petroleum pot.
"The nation's undiscovered oil resources total about 139 Bbbls (billion barrels)," says the report. "Of that total, the MMS estimates that 86 Bbbls are offshore under the OCS, comprising 62 percent of the nation's resources. State waters and nonfederal onshore resources are the second largest potential source of production (21 percent), followed by Federal onshore oil resources (17 percent)."
Yet, so long as Congress and the president retain the federal moratoria that forbid most offshore drilling, the 85.9 billion barrels of crude offshore won't be tapped.
The May BLM report explains why most onshore oil won't be tapped, either. Of the 279 million acres of federal land "with potential for oil or natural gas resources," 60 percent is off limits to leases as a matter of federal statute or administrative policy. Another 23 percent is open to leases with "restrictions." These include such things as "lands that can be leased but ground-disturbing oil and natural gas exploration and development activities are prohibited" and "lands that can be leased, but stipulations ... limit the time of the year when oil and gas exploration and drilling can take place to less than 3 months."
A final 17 percent of federal land is open to oil drilling on more or less the same environmental terms as private land.
"All oil and gas leases on Federal lands, including those issued with only the standard lease terms, are subject to full compliance with all environmental laws and regulations," says the report. "These laws include, but are not limited to, the National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act and National Historic Preservation Act. While compliance with these laws may delay, modify or prohibit oil and gas activities, these laws represent the values and bounds Congress believes appropriate to manage Federal lands."
You elected Congress. It paid you back with $4.00-per-gallon gas.
Now here’s the deal. The Congress will not be returning to office unless they open up drilling the right way.
I always wondered why Clinton made all that land Federal.
No incumbants in ‘08
The government wants to control everything. That’s why they are doing this. It’s like that Global warming which is not true.
We need to get these people out of Congress and pronto.
Conclusion? Gas prices are going nowhere but up in the long term.
In the words of a famous country singer:
Mr. Earnest Tubb
Thanks, Thanks A Lot
Interesting article. Very good thread. Thanks.
Tempting as it is, I suspect the real reason no administration taps American oil seriously is a quiet agreement that their strategic value is too great - eg use foreign oil until it runs out, leaving America still self-sufficient to manage any required transitions or strategic needs with style with style while the rest of the world struggles over the few remaining foreign sources. Perhaps I’m overestimating the intelligence of both parties, but I do think current prices are worth bearing to allow such an advantage in the future.
At such a point, you can guarantee that all the legislation mentioned would be as irrelevant as..um...John Edwards in the face of such shortages.
Bumper sticker material!
Why should we have pumped this oil for $10 a barrel when now we could get $100?
The value of our reserves has increased tenfold while Congress dithers - our Congresscritters may yet end up looking intelligent.
this country is so rich that we can allow the
socialists to increase the costs of oil and gas production.
/s
mark
That dimwit from CA spilled the beans on the dems plans. Demonize big oil. Stop any and all drilling in the US and drive prices sky high. Then nationalize the oil industry for the “good fo the children”!
“that dimwit from ca...”
worse than a dimwit.
It is all about the quick fix. Typical drug addicts song.
Do the drilling, but only if it is used as a step toward an alternative.
Price of gas needs to stay up so consumption goes down. US should use its reserves to stay independent while alternatives and efficiency programs are implemented.
Otherwise it is just another quick high and a problem put off until tomorrow.
81 billion barrels of oil sounds like a lot.
BUT. At 20 million bpd that means about 10 years of oil independence. That is, of course, assuming consumption would not increase if the price went down.
Oil independence at current levels of consumption is a myth.
What’s Bakken?
I want to get a bumper sticker made that says:
“Save America, Kill an Environmentalist.”
Even hitting 2 million bpd would be horrendously expensive.
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