Posted by Midnightblue on June 30, 2008, at 14:20:19 [reposted on July 6, 2008, at 13:09:22 | original URL]
In reply to Re: Anyone Else Starting To Fear The Economy? » Midnightblue, posted by Dinah on June 30, 2008, at 13:31:37
There is hope--the problem is a company pays to lease an area and they only have a few years to develop it. I think usually 5. So they have probably already evaluated fairly well most of the leases that they have.
Let's say an oil company has a lease, but has only drilled one well on it. If it was a dry hole or poor producer, they might not be eager to drill 3 or 4 more to see if there is something there after all. The rock formation might not be the kind the geologist said it was, or the formation may be smaller then they thought.
Most of the "off limit" lands were evaluated 30-40 years ago. What was not profitable or accessible then, very well could be profitable now. The technology today is much better, both at guessing what is in the ground and at getting it out. They are drilling six miles down offshore now.
There are quite a few smaller independents going back into the old oilfields that were plugged and abandoned by the major oil companies. They are re-opening wells and getting a few more barrels out. At $20 a barrel for oil, it wouldn't be worth spending what they would have to to recover it, but at $100 or more they can make a profit.
Ultimately, we need to look at every source of power we can. There are some things we MUST have oil for. For others, there is natural gas which was just burned off for years because no one wanted it. Nuclear power must be looked at, but that can take years to put into place. Solar and wind must be used where ever possible.
You don't have to have oil to generate electricity.
One other thing, some countries subsidize the cost of gas to make it cheaper. The United States does not. China and India heavily subsidize the cost of gas. So not only do they have more and more people wanting gas, they are getting it at below market costs.
There isn't going to be an easy or quick fix, and anyone who tells you there will be isn't telling you the truth.
poster:Midnightblue
thread:838387
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20080312/msgs/838410.html