Why do we buy any oil from the middle east?

[Conky]

We have oil reserves in Texas, the Gulf of Mexico, and Alaska that will last the United States alone for a minimum of 200 years. This doesn't even count Oklahoma, California, Louisiana, and all the other oil producing states.

Why do we let these middle east people have control over us?

I will never see the pristine forests of Alaska in my lifetime and putting a few oilwells there isn't going to change much except to relieve my country from the grip of the middle east. Anybody that has ever seen a modern oilwell knows they are not an ecological problem and the mooses will be just as happy.

This is not Bush's idea, it's mine. He would get accused of trying to profit from a scheme like this.

It will never happen because it makes too much sense and we love to let crazy foreigners have control over us.

The world is lucky I'm not sitting in Bush's seat because there would be some drastic changes. Tarriff of $50 a barrel on any middle east oil to start with. Then we could keep more wealth in our country.

OK, that's my rant.

 

[HappyPuppy]

From another perspective, we could just take all the oil we ever wanted, but we don't. Don't forget that Canada has huge oil reserves as well. Heh,heh.:evil:

 

[yoyofatjo]

Because middle-eastern oil is relatively cheap (except during times of war), and because Congress has moratoria against drilling in Alaska and Florida. Why don't you write your local Congressman if you are so vocal on the issue.

$50 tariff on ME oil?

The world is lucky I'm not sitting in Bush's seat

Indeed.

 

[rickn]

I sure as hell don't want them drilling off the florida coast.

 

[TheShiz]

where did you hear the 200 year thing?, I have heard more like less than 100 years.

 

[yoyofatjo]

Originally posted by: rickn
I sure as hell don't want them drilling off the florida coast.

Also, NIMBY-syndrome is another big factor why our dependence on cheap ME oil won't be gone anytime soon.

 

[Helenihi]

We don't buy that much oil from the middle east, only about 15-20% of our oil. Less than pretty much every other nation on Earth.

We do it because while there may be lots of oil in the US (certainly not 200 years worth though), it's cheaper to get it from the Mideast. We're already drilling in most easy to get to areas, sans ANWR, coastal drilling, and a few other places environmental hysteria and NIMBYism has stopped us from getting oil from. Drilling in more areas means that oil will be more expensive to get. Plus, we don't want to use up all our oil, it'd be nice to have a domestic reserve for the future, you need oil for a lot more than just gas you know

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: rickn
I sure as hell don't want them drilling off the florida coast.

Too late.

 

[zephyrprime]

I don't believe that 200 yr figure. I would guess that we would only have about 30yr of oil if we used only oil in the US and offshore. That's just a guess though. But that's not possible because an oil well has a limited pump rate because of dirt/rocks and you can't just suck it all out at once.

I don't mind drilling in anwr though. I don't think it would do much environmental damage.

 

[Conky]

I've worked in the oil business and I know that there is a lot more oil in the ground than you might imagine. Some of it may take advanced(expensive) methods but there is at least 200 years worth of oil in the USA alone. This is only proven reserves. Who knows how much more we can find?

This total doesn't even count friendly nations like Mexico and semi-hostile-yet-dependant nations like Canada who easily have another 300 years worth of oil between the two of them.

The point is that we have oil to last our lifetimes and the lifetimes of our grandchildren. Why should we continue to give money to people who have proven they would harm us when given the chance?

This is not a democrat versus republican debate. This is a "do we want to continue to give money to people who would kill us if they could?" kind of question.

I say no. It's really pretty simple.

 

[Helenihi]

I'd like to see a source for the 200 year figure. Are you including things like oil shale? Is that just the amount of oil in the ground? Technically recoverable reserves? Economically recoverable reserves? At what price?

You can't make a statement that far out of step with common knowledge and not back it up.

 

[zephyrprime]

Originally posted by: Crazyfool
I've worked in the oil business and I know that there is a lot more oil in the ground than you might imagine. Some of it may take advanced(expensive) methods but there is at least 200 years worth of oil in the USA alone. This is only proven reserves. Who knows how much more we can find?

Are you sure about your figures for proven reserves? It seems from these Department of Energy documents, the US only has 12.3 years of proven reserves.

usage
reserves

 

[guigui38]

well it seems that your 200 year reserve was quite a bit exagerated
if it was the case the cost to exploit it would be huge compared with the one in me
kissinger said some time ago that when the us couldnt assume their oil consumption they will do war in order to save their energy independancy
it may be now the case

 

[Bleep]

I am for buying more oil from them and saving our own for the time they run out and then them Arabs can go back to herding goats.

Bleep

 

[guigui38]

Originally posted by: Bleep
I am for buying more oil from them and saving our own for the time they run out and then them Arabs can go back to herding goats.

Bleep

and if arabs wont sell oil to the us,in 20 years america will turn to horse to transport themselves lol

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: Crazyfool
I've worked in the oil business and I know that there is a lot more oil in the ground than you might imagine. Some of it may take advanced(expensive) methods but there is at least 200 years worth of oil in the USA alone. This is only proven reserves. Who knows how much more we can find?

This total doesn't even count friendly nations like Mexico and semi-hostile-yet-dependant nations like Canada who easily have another 300 years worth of oil between the two of them.

The point is that we have oil to last our lifetimes and the lifetimes of our grandchildren. Why should we continue to give money to people who have proven they would harm us when given the chance?

This is not a democrat versus republican debate. This is a "do we want to continue to give money to people who would kill us if they could?" kind of question.

I say no. It's really pretty simple.

Canada is "semi-hostile"? Ok.

Anyway, if you were President and you imposed a $50 tarrif on Mid-East Oil, the US economy would go into crisis faster than you could explain why. Europe and Asia would be flooded by cheap Mid-East oil, the cost of Canadian, US, Mexican, and Venezuelan oil would go up dramatically. In short, the US would experience a severe Inflation shock while Europe and Asian economies would find themselves in a windfall opportunity where they suddenly had cash to burn(likely leading to De-flation, which is bad). Someone would assasinate you, the Vice-President would nix the Tarrif, history books would spend more time criticizing your short lived Presidency then talking about it.

 

[T2T III]

Originally posted by: sandorski

Originally posted by: Crazyfool
I've worked in the oil business and I know that there is a lot more oil in the ground than you might imagine. Some of it may take advanced(expensive) methods but there is at least 200 years worth of oil in the USA alone. This is only proven reserves. Who knows how much more we can find?

This total doesn't even count friendly nations like Mexico and semi-hostile-yet-dependant nations like Canada who easily have another 300 years worth of oil between the two of them.

The point is that we have oil to last our lifetimes and the lifetimes of our grandchildren. Why should we continue to give money to people who have proven they would harm us when given the chance?

This is not a democrat versus republican debate. This is a "do we want to continue to give money to people who would kill us if they could?" kind of question.

I say no. It's really pretty simple.

Canada is "semi-hostile"? Ok.

Anyway, if you were President and you imposed a $50 tarrif on Mid-East Oil, the US economy would go into crisis faster than you could explain why. Europe and Asia would be flooded by cheap Mid-East oil, the cost of Canadian, US, Mexican, and Venezuelan oil would go up dramatically. In short, the US would experience a severe Inflation shock while Europe and Asian economies would find themselves in a windfall opportunity where they suddenly had cash to burn(likely leading to De-flation, which is bad). Someone would assasinate you, the Vice-President would nix the Tarrif, history books would spend more time criticizing your short lived Presidency then talking about it.

But, if a tariff were placed on the oil, the country selling it would get stuck with the tariff. However, who's to say that the country selling the oil wouldn't just raise their price to $80 a barrel to cover the cost of the tariff? However, I do agree that such a large tariff would sink the U.S. economy quite quickly.

 

[PIMPBOT5000]

I read an article in my biology textbook a while back that says at the current rate of world consumption of oil the entire worlds reserve would be depleted in about 100 years. My professor seems to agree with that also.

 

[rudder]

Originally posted by: guigui38

Originally posted by: Bleep
I am for buying more oil from them and saving our own for the time they run out and then them Arabs can go back to herding goats.

Bleep

and if arabs wont sell oil to the us,in 20 years america will turn to horse to transport themselves lol

Arabs will sell us oil. You can't grow enough food in that region to feed the population and as far as I can tell, they have no other industries that can pull in that kind of $$$.

 

[guigui38]

Originally posted by: rudder

Originally posted by: guigui38

Originally posted by: Bleep
I am for buying more oil from them and saving our own for the time they run out and then them Arabs can go back to herding goats.

Bleep

and if arabs wont sell oil to the us,in 20 years america will turn to horse to transport themselves lol

Arabs will sell us oil. You can't grow enough food in that region to feed the population and as far as I can tell, they have no other industries that can pull in that kind of $$$.

yes it is true for the saudi and the koweit but it is not true for iraq
iraq has a lot of water and can sustain a very intensive agriculture.
history showed it.
And who did the us attack? the saudis who helped a lot bin laden ????
no no iraq .....

 

[Red Dawn]

The world is lucky I'm not sitting in Bush's seat

Not to mention America!

 

[drewshin]

there may be 200 years of reserves in the ground, but if those barrels cost $500 a barrel to extract out of the ground, it wont be cost effective at all, it'd be better to just research new technologies that were less dependent on oil.

 

[colonel]

becuase is cheap and drilling labor in American soil is expensive, you can buy the goverment of the country and get the oil, not here.

 

[TheNinja]

Originally posted by: Bleep
I am for buying more oil from them and saving our own for the time they run out and then them Arabs can go back to herding goats.

Bleep

Well part of his statement is correct. Let's think about this:

Scenario #1: We use only US oil....our oil wells dry up in 100, 200, even 300 years we are totally at the mercy of whatever the middle east, or anyone else wants to charge b/c they know we need it and don't have any and would love to take advantage of the US.

Scenario #2:We use some of our own oil and buy some from other countries. Our oil supply lasts much longer, and we have protected ourselves by consuming our own oil at or below the level that other countries are pumping/using/selling theres. Just is case the entire world's oil reserves get close to drying up we at least have some on our own land. May seem a tad selfish but it is smart.

 

[KenGr]

This thread makes so little sense, I hardly know where to start.

First, why don't we just pump US oil? Oil wells come in all varieties. They have two basic characteristics relative to yeild. The first is how expensive extraction is. There are lots of wells that can't be used at $25 oil but can be used at $40 oil. The US has a lot of expensive oil deposits. The second is rate of pumping. If you try to overproduce a well, you may increase cost and lower yields over time. There are many wells that pump only an hour or two a day and yeild only a few barrels a day. We can't increase US production to meet all domestic needs.

Second, why do we buy mid-east oil? Only convenience. Oil is a freely traded commodity. We can buy get all the oil we need from South America and Southeast Asia. The countries that now get that oil would then get it from the mid-east. In some cases there would be increases in transportation costs, but overall nothing changes.

I know everyone wants it to be about oil, but, other than international stability of supply, it just plain isn't.