Home
Mission
FAQs
Join The Team
Arctic
Icecaps Melting
Motivation
For Words
Subscribe
Overview
ExxonMobile
ConocoPhillips
BP
Murphy
Chevron
United States
U.S.A. - Drill its way to Energy Independence?
Why can’t the U.S.A. just drill for more oil in Alaska and off the coast of Florida to become Energy Independent?
In giving you a fair answer, from a Global Warming adversary’s point of view, we have to dismiss any social and ecologic problems burning fossil fuel causes. Even some of the Oil companies themselves agree that burning the very fossil fuels they sell, has a negative impact on society and the environment. Why else would those companies be spending their money to run those advertising commercials saying they are looking into alternative energy sources and better burning fuels, which would improve the environment?
The United States could drill for more oil in Alaska and off the coast of Florida but by the Governments own estimates, the benefits would not start showing for up to ten years, if ever. Not to mention that drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) will only produce about one million barrels of oil a day. That might sound like a lot but continue reading and you will get a clearer picture of the situation.
How can this be, we are producing more of our own oil?
Supply and Demand, coupled with an antiquated infrastructure and Capitalism. Plus we have to build the pipelines to carry the oil from Alaska, through Canada, and the two countries are in a political struggle as to who is going to control and maintain the pipeline.
In 2007, the U.S. consumed 21 million barrels of oil per day, but we can only produce about 9 million barrels a day, so we import the rest.
Taking into account the 2007 quantity of oil the United States used, the current estimates of the amount of oil we can drill for in those areas might, be able to double our current production of about 9 million barrels a day. Even if the United States can double its daily production of oil that is still not enough oil to cover us at today’s numbers and our consumption is growing continually. Most of the oil we consume gets refined into gasoline and here is where there is a huge kink in the line and where companies’, wanting to make ever increasing profits hurt America. We currently have to import about 12% of the refined gasoline we use each year. Even at today’s consumption rate, U.S. refineries are having a hard time keeping up with demand. August 2007 figures show that the United States only has a 20 day supply of refined gasoline, which is the shortest amount of time on record and if there is a problem, get ready for exorbitant prices and long lines.
Numbers Do Not Add Up
It costs between 5 to 7 billion dollars to build a new refinery and the oil company’s do not want to build a new refinery because they are concerned about making their money back. Maybe I am a little too cynical but didn't some of those oil companies just make that amount of profits in one quarter? The oil companies are making record profits but yet they are not investing their profits into their infrastructure and building it up to handle the ever growing demand. Why? It is a simple answer, money. If the oil companies were to build new refineries in the United States and there was more supply available, they may not make as much money as they are currently.
The oil industry says that it has not built a new refinery in 30 years because of low margins and extensive opposition, but they have expanded existing refiners. They state they have expanded existing refineries inside the fences equivalent to a new refinery a year for the last ten years. Today there are 149 refineries in the United States down 50% from 1982. If they have expanded old refineries equivalent to building a new refinery a year for the past 10 years, wouldn't their available output been substantially increased? Look at the numbers for the past 6 years and you will see how their words do not match the data.
Jack to the Rescue
In 2002 Chevron found a large oil reserve 270 miles from New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico, located in Green Canyon Block 640. In Chevron's 2006 press release, talked about their tests on Jack#2 at this location and it is scheduled to do further estimates in 2007 and start production in 2008. In 2006 the United States Government opened 8.3 million acres for exploration off the coast of Florida with the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act.
With all of the new oil production coming online and all of the new area to explore for more reserves, we should be ever closer to United States Energy Independence. Just think how much oil and gas prices will drop when the United States is Energy Independent, but wait, won't those oil companies lose a lot of their profits? Think about it!
The Oil companies estimate, that at current consumption rates, the world has a 40-year supply of oil and almost 70 years supply of natural gas. The future of fossil fuels will be defined as much by resourcefulness as by resources. No matter what we do, by the oil companies own worldwide estimates we need to find alternative energy sources now, or in about forty years we will have an even worse problem. You might be saying to yourself 40 years is a longtime and by then we would have already come up with new energy sources. We new about the millennium bug for a longtime and it did not get seriously worked on until the very end. There were no ill effects and even if there were they would have not affected everyone like it would when we no longer have energy.
In Conclusion
Without even bringing Global Warming into the equation, you can see that drilling our way to Energy Independence is not possible.A May 2008 report released by the EIA (Energy Information Administration) backs up the findings that it will take about 10 years to start to see the benefits from drilling there and it gives one more important finding. It shows that drilling for oil in ANWR will only reduce the prices of oil only $2 a barrel. In June 2008, oil is about $135 a barrel and in any given day the price goes up or down $2 a day, so a minimalistic $2 a barrel decrease has no real world impact on gas prices.
We all have to work together and start to aggressively address Global Warming and Energy Independence, NOW.
Are you ready to Lead By Example?
References:
EIA
EIA ANWR drilling report
Chevron Press Release
Energy Tomorrow Radio Episode 1 July 19, 2007 energytomorrow.org
Energy Tomorrow Radio Episode July 31, 2007 energytomorrow.org
Energy Tomorrow Radio Episode September 11, 2007 energytomorrow.org