Onehots2k

No

Kremlin

You know that $50/barrel in production costs is considered incredibly expensive, right? in 2003 the EIA published some numbers, IIRC production cost was approx $10/barrel.

clawhammer

Does it really matter that it costs $50/barrel to produce when you can sell it for $100+/barrel?

S2000spoon

I say drill or stop bitchin...

madkimchi

NO. get Bush out of the white house quick first.

NEODYMIUM

You want to clear this up because the news just reported that the amount of oil that could potentially be produced from oil shale in the US is more than the entire world's current proven reserves.

Kremlin

It means that producing oil for $50/barrel isn't an economically feasible way to bring gas prices down. If current production costs are $10-15/barrel and selling for $130 a barrel yielding $4/gallon gas, then it's completely unreasonable to expect oil that costs $50/barrel to produce to cost the same or less. It's going to cost a LOT more.

Kremlin

Oil shale isn't counted in reserves because it currently isn't produced en mass. It's very expensive and difficult to produce, and pollutes a ton. If the other guy was correct in saying that the number is $50/barrel to produce, then you can expect gasoline produced this way to cost 5x what conventional oil yields.

Axel6

You are probably talking about PROVEN reserves. Undiscovered and untapped fields would increase those amounts. We are not saying that we can drill and refine ALL the crude we need to meet domestic consumption, but we can definitely increase the world supply and hence move the market price back down. Besides, using more of OUR OWN reduces the dependency on others' supply.

BTW, the majority of the fossil fuels used in the US come from the Americas. ME and Africa account for a minority of our domestic use. The cost of extracting shale and refining so-called "artificial" fuels will decrease once the technology catches-up, which it will.

Also, those talking about sustaining, or even INCREASING, the current market price for crude are advocating a "cold turkey" technique that WILL NOT WORK. The simple reason is that Russia, China, India, et al will continue to subsidize their fuel while the western world plays with the markets. Guess who loses? We do! I agree that renewable and alternative energy should be a top priority, however, wrecking the economy in the short-term will cause a lot of pain. Doesn't make a lot of sense, IMO.

TubeDriver

I agree.



I would prefer we start looking seriously at alternative sources of energy and add new drill sites in the USbut if we can't do that (and we don't seem able) then at least stop bitching about about the cost of oil.