Oil Reserves

[boxcar]

The U. S. Geological Service issued a report in April ('08) that only scientists and oil men knew was coming, but man was it big. It was a revised report (hadn't been updated since '95) on how much oil was in this area of the western 2/3 of North Dakota ; western South Dakota ; and extreme eastern Montana ..... check THIS out:

The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska 's Prudhoe Bay , and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at 503 billion barrels.. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable... at $107 a barrel, we're looking at a resource base worth more than $5.3 trillion.

'When I first briefed legislators on this, you could practically see their jaws hit the floor. They had no idea.' says Terry Johnson, the Montana Legislature's financial analyst.

'This sizable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years.' reports, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. It's a formation known as the Williston Basin , but is more commonly referred to as the 'Bakken.' And it stretches from Northern Montana, through North Dakota and into Canada . For years, U. S. oil exploration has been considered a dead end. Even the 'Big Oil' companies gave up searching for major oil wells decades ago. However, a recent technological breakthrough has opened up the Bakken's massive reserves.... and we now have access of up to 500 billion barrels. And because this is light, sweet oil, those billions of barrels will cost Americans just $16 PER BARREL!

That's enough crude to fully fuel the American economy for 41 years straight.

2. And if THAT didn't throw you on the floor, then this next one should - because it's from TWO YEARS AGO!

U. S. Oil Discovery- Largest Reserve in the World!
Stansberry Report Online - 4/20/2006


Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world. It is more than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction. In three and a half years of high oil prices none has been extracted. With this motherload of oil why are we still fighting over off-shore drilling?

They reported this stunning news: We have more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth. Here are the official estimates:

- 8-times as much oil as Saudi Arabia
- 18-times as much oil as Iraq
- 21-times as much oil as Kuwait
- 22-times as much oil as Iran
- 500-times as much oil as Yemen
- and it's all right here in the Western United States .

HOW can this BE? HOW can we NOT BE extracting this? Because the environmentalists and others have blocked all efforts to help America become independent of foreign oil! Again, we are letting a small group of people dictate our lives and our economy....WHY?

James Bartis, lead researcher with the study says we've got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East -more than 2 TRILLION barrels untapped. That's more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil in the world today, reports The Denver Post.

[Sir John]

The greenies will fight this tooth and nail.


SJ

[mcnoch]

BP is one of our customers. I spoke recently to one of their prospection program managers about the unused reserves around the world and he told me that there is no need to exploit them now as they are able to satisfy the demand. It is not in the interest of oil-companies to reduce the oil-prices as they make good money from that. They are very happy that people accepted the price-increases in the recent years without much problem. That the local governments might have different plans than the global oil-companies is known but not the problem of the oil-companies, they have to care only for their stock-owners. And to avoid undue competition in the market they have bought more or less the complete drilling, pumping and pipeline-industry, so they can make sure that nobody becomes too big to change that. But they fear a new Rockefeller and new ideas.

[Deleted]

Nationalize the oil industry in the US!!!!! Yeah, I know, no one wants government interveing in bidness, but let's get real for a change. We have more than enough resources to take care of us for umpteen years IF we require the companies to bring it up.

[boxcar]

Nationalize the oil inustry? Whom would the goverment then sue with the next oil spill in the gulf? Secondly, have you ever known the government to do anything efficiently? Can you imagine political appointees in charge of oil rigs?

To nationalize the oil industry sounds just too socialistic.

[boxcar]

>The greenies will fight this tooth and nail.<

That has already happened. If you look at the date on that report, I believe it was 2008, and very little has been done since, as far as I can tell.

And this administration is not in favor of fossil fuels. They prefer wind and solar power. I don’t expect much in this area in the near future and am invested in off shore drilling instead.

[boxcar]

>It is not in the interest of oil-companies to reduce the oil-prices as they make good money from that. <

I was of the opinion that the price of oil was determined by the Mercantile Exchage, rather than the oil companies.

[mcnoch]

There are different points along the chain where prices are made.

[boxcar]

>And to avoid undue competition in the market they have bought more or less the complete drilling, pumping and pipeline-industry, so they can make sure that nobody becomes too big to change that<

The big oil companies do not own the rigs that do the drilling in the off-shore area. The primary reason for this is probably the price of the rigs run around 600 million dollars each and take two years to construct.The rigs are instead contracted out on a daily basis at prices running 500,000 a day currently. The on-shore drilling is a different story and is dominated by big oil.

As for the pipeline segment, in the United States it is owned by rather small independents. Please note the XL pipeline they are trying to push down from Canada. Big oil does not have any money invested in this. El Paso Natural Gas, used to be the big pipeline from Texas to California. They were independent. In an overseas environment , the pipelines are owned and controlled, for the most part by consortiums.

[boxcar]

>There are different points along the chain where prices are made.<

Interesting, please explain.

If one were in the stock market and decided to ask a few dollars below the recently quoted price of a stock, your stock would be snatched up by the brokers and the previous prices would resume immediately.

Were an oil company to make adjustments to his overhead, so as to maximize profits, it would have little effect on the sales price of crude to the ultimate buyer. The oil company does not sell to the end user, as a rule. They go through a broker.

[Sir John]

AFAIK, the 'producers' of crude regulate the price by simply turning the taps on or off ("for maintenance") as required.

[mcnoch]

Feb 1, 2013 15:59:32 GMT -5 Sir John said:

AFAIK, the 'producers' of crude regulate the price by simply turning the taps on or off ("for maintenance") as required.

No, that is not good for the production flow, you simply keep it in your storage tanks or on the tanker floating on the high seas. Or some refineries have to close down for maintenance, or....

The price you pay at the spot-market has nothing to do with the price you pay at the fuel-station.

[Sir John]

....and when the crude price goes up the pump price follows in a milli-second.

When the crude price goes down it takes 3 weeks, I HATE oil companies.



SJ

[Sir John]

PS,


How much does 3.8 litres (1 US Gallon) of petrol cost in Germany?

[boxcar]

>It is not in the interest of oil-companies to reduce the oil-prices as they make good money from that. <


Crude oil prices are driven primarily by global supply and demand fundamentals, as well as other factors like geopolitical risk, the value of the dollar, and speculation. But over the long run, crude prices have shown a remarkable degree of correlation to what's known as the marginal cost of oil production, which refers to the cost of extracting the last and most expensive barrel of oil from the ground.

Oil expert Chris Skrebowski estimates that marginal production costs are between $40-$80 a barrel in some OPEC countries, $70-$90 a barrel in Canada's tar sands, and $70-$80 a barrel in deepwater. As a global average, he calculates that it costs somewhere in the range of $80-$110 in order to bring one new barrel of oil online.
A separate analysis by Bernstein Research reached similar conclusions. The study found that, in 2011, production costs for the world's 50 largest publicly traded oil producers rose at a rate substantially higher than their long-run average. According to Bernstein estimates, marginal production costs increased 11% year over year and averaged more than $90 a barrel in 2011.

Soaring production expenses
Both studies highlight an important trend in the exploration and production business – it's becoming much more expensive to extract the marginal barrel of oil than it used to be. It makes sense when you think about it. As oil and gas companies increasingly venture into unconventional sources of oil, such as shale and deepwater, they require more complex equipment and highly skilled workers, which don't come cheap.

They also demand more natural resources, especially water, which is used extensively in the fracking process. Indeed, there are companies that cater solely to the water and wastewater needs of exploration and production companies.