4.3 "Billion" Barrels of Oil Sitting Underground in U.S. States...

[Marine1]

The U.S. Geological Survey calls it the largest continuous oil accumulation it has ever assessed....


BISMARCK, N.D. — The government estimates up to 4.3 billion barrels of oil can be recovered from the Bakken shale formation in North Dakota and Montana, using current technology.


FOXNews.com - Huge Oil Reservoir May Lie Under Northern Plains - Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News

Marine1: Think we can get past the envionmentalists to drill and recover this oil..?

[LarryO1970]

The Liberals and environmentalists would never "allow" it. When we can be energy independent, why should we pay for Arab oil?

[DWFan]

According to Wikipedia:
Not counting the Bakken Formation, there are about 175 billion barrels (28 km³) of technically recoverable oil in the United States, so the formation represents a substantial increase in U.S. reserves, which can be produced at an estimated cost of $20–40 a barrel.

According to USA Today:
Crude oil price as of Wednesday, 9 April, 2008: $112.81 per barrel.

[RabidPitWeasle]

OOOOO! some of that is under my property, tap it please!tap it $$$$$!!

[Marine1]

Originally Posted by DWFan

According to Wikipedia:
Not counting the Bakken Formation, there are about 175 billion barrels (28 km³) of technically recoverable oil in the United States, so the formation represents a substantial increase in U.S. reserves, which can be produced at an estimated cost of $20–40 a barrel.

According to USA Today:
Crude oil price as of Wednesday, 9 April, 2008: $112.81 per barrel.

Excellent numbers, DWFan...a good indication to show we have massive oil reserves here in the U.S., that we could use for the American highways, home heating, industrial uses, (things of those and other related natures)... without depending on high-cost foreign oil. But...this could bring down the prices of crude and severely put a damper on oil profiteering.They will figure ways and means to not recover this oil, I am sure. What do you think???

[TXplt]

I thinks we should start an oil company

[jmp8927]

Yeah its there. Maybe the government is trying to drain the rest of the world first then start pumping ours and selling it at outrageous prices to everyone else.

[LarryO1970]

Originally Posted by TXplt

I thinks we should start an oil company

Agreed... as a landowner RabidPitWeasle, you could have a stake in this...

DWFan, your statement: "According to Wikipedia:
Not counting the Bakken Formation, there are about 175 billion barrels (28 km³) of technically recoverable oil in the United States, so the formation represents a substantial increase in U.S. reserves, which can be produced at an estimated cost of $20–40 a barrel."

Imagine what that would translate in to gasoline cost? It certainly would not be 3.40 per gallon.

[TXplt]

We'll build a fence and keep the do-gooders out !

Maybe even require our workers to speak and read English.

No stopping us now.

[jmp8927]

I'll be a security guard! That would be fun! Get to carry out all the nice firearms and tell all those wackos to buzz off! Maybe I will even get a chance to tell Al Gore to get lost!!!

[TXplt]

Sounds like a winner. We'll even permit.......no, hell, we'll require employees to have firearms for self defense ! And folks can say and joke about what they please. Even put up the old illustrated calendars if they want..... If someone starts telling us why we can't do something good, he/she'll be on the outside of the fence...

It's just too good to be true

[Marine1]

Originally Posted by LarryO1970

Agreed... as a landowner RabidPitWeasle, you could have a stake in this...

DWFan, your statement: "According to Wikipedia:
Not counting the Bakken Formation, there are about 175 billion barrels (28 km³) of technically recoverable oil in the United States, so the formation represents a substantial increase in U.S. reserves, which can be produced at an estimated cost of $20–40 a barrel."

Imagine what that would translate in to gasoline cost? It certainly would not be 3.40 per gallon.

If my figures are correct, I would say around $1.00 - $1.25 per gallon.

[troy2000]

Originally Posted by LarryO1970

The Liberals and environmentalists would never "allow" it. When we can be energy independent, why should we pay for Arab oil?

Kind of an unsubstantiated assumption, don't you think? If the oil companies wanted it bad enough, they have the clout to get it. No environmental group in the country has their money or their accessibility to government officials and politicians.

The "liberals and environmentalists" are the excuses oil companies use to cover the fact they'd rather import Arab oil and take the markup, instead of actually investing their own money in North Dakota. Just like blaming tree huggers for the fact no one's invested in a new refinery since somewhere around the sixties...

And the next time someone starts agitating about all the oil in Alaska, they need to stop and realize most new production wouldn't even come to the States; it would ship straight to the Asian market and not affect prices here a bit. Those companies are international corporations, without a shred of loyalty to America.

[TXplt]

Troy, the oil in AK would result in American Dollars being made -- particularly for the people of AK--and you're right--it would go onto the Global Market. But the US would see $ from it. And, yes, it would be an increase in supply, so according to supply and demand, would bring the price of oil down (how much ? I don't know).

I don't accept the argument of the environmental movements NOT buying votes or having clout in DC. We're overregulating and not building things. Why isn't this happening ? Because the cost of regulation hinders profitibility. I believe in clean air and water; not in exploiting "environmental" issues to build personal and political power. Such is the case with "global warming." There's no tangible evidence linking CO2 to this, yet we're proposing taxes. Certainly there's not enough evidence to regulate over. We can have clean air and water, and industrial development as well.

Don't forget, good ol Jimmy and the greens killed our nuclear program (or set it back 30 years). THEY're responsible for alot of the mess we're now in with alternative energy. They're now claiming the technology is "safe"; it was safe in the 70's. Where are we keeping our spent fuel ? On site ? Why aren't we reprocessing ? Because JC killed the industry. There's an opportunity cost to everything.

I'm not saying we can't have some regulation; I am saying it has progressed unbounded and that is now hurting us. We never consider the COST ! Look at the grounding of the MD-80's. There was nothing substantially wrong with them. This could have been accomplished in an orderly fashion at the next phase/major MX check. All it would have taken is an agreement between the airline and the FAA. The FAA was acting stupidly thru fines, the management of AA was acting stupidly by not standing up to them and proposing a maintenance plan. There was little if any risk. Same as for Southwest; they were fined for essentially paperwork errors. Some "whistle blower" is trying to make a name for themselves in a political (FAA) organization waving the "safety of flight" banner when nothing unsafe was occurring. So we jump thru hoops and spend millions. Doubt this ? What about USAir 427 -- we had 737's flying for months/years with the same rudder power control units and replaced these for the one in a billion chance of getting a rudder reversal in an orderly fashion. Although crews had training that would hopefully have prevented a repeat, this was a far more dangerous situation. So you can see my frustration at our regulatory process. We never consider the cost, and we hurt people.

[big boomer]

If you have ever been to N. Dakota(I have) there is a lot of nothing for miles and a little oil company and refinery would not look all that bad I say to hell with the enviros. and build the damn thing.

[Seabeescotty]

Just think, we'd be able to thumb our noses at the middle east, and tell 'em we don't need their stinkin' oil. But T2K is right about the oil companies. They've gone international, and have no loyalty to America. They'd be the only ones to profit, and would continue to gouge us, like they are doing now.

[Brother Bob]

Most of the oil we import comes from Canada and Mexico. We have thousands of wells in Texas and Oklahoma(stripper wells) that were capped in the early 1980's when a barrel dropped to $12. There is STILL plenty of oil right under our noses that we know of, without new exploration. Can anybody say, "PRICE FIXING"??????

[TXplt]

The oil companies (like many others in the U. S.) are international and have international ties. That doesn't mean we (as people in the US) won't see the money -- loyalty or not money is money. They'd be brokering a deal w/AK (or whatever states they are drilling in) for drilling resulting in increased revenues for the people of the state. If we're smart, we'd use these to start building power plants. These oil companies employ people, many from the US. The profits will go to the shareholders, a great deal of whom are American (if you want to "stick it to" the oil companies with a windfall profits tax, go buy stock and cash it in after it goes up or collect the dividends--the shareholders are who own the company). I may be in the minority, but I don't necessarily believe that the oil companies are gouging us -- if they were, we'd see more competing oil companies forming. The demand has skyrocketed, the supply hasn't kept up, and the base stock is much more valuable. Their primary job (exploration and drilling) has "paid off" --hence greater profits. People weren't donating the oil companies money or calling them asking if they were OK when oil was $10 a barrel. Oil companies are merely a target for our displaced aggression at ourselves for being stupid and not developing alternative and competing energy sources. It's easier to blame someone for your plight than look in the mirror. Drilling here will also help the supply problem.

If we're really concerned about this, rather than just saying 'no" we'll make a good deal and tax the oil being drilled (not too much to keep it cost competitive) using this money, dollar for dollar, to build power plants. There are solutions.

[ArkansasHunter]

President Bush lifted the restrictsions a couple years ago, there are some companys currently drilling : quote test wells in "oil shale" around Colorado.
This oil shale contains more oil than has ever been produced in the world.

Yall would think with all this oil available we would be useing it.


EDIT: Brother BOB we also have several 1000 produceing Oil Wells in So.Arkansas matter of fact
it been told that there is vast amounts of oil way below the current formation's here.
The claim is it cost to much to produce it and Import oil is cheaper. DA

[TXplt]

By the way, alot of how we got here (and the high prices, especially diesel) is due to government regulation. We went to very low sulfur diesel, without the refining capacity; it's cheaper for our refineries to refine normal diesel and sell to asia where they don't care about the sulfur content. Overseas refineries have the capacity, but same thing. There are all kinds of specialty and designer gasolines by region, thus driving the price up further. Like I said, all this regulation has a cost and that's what we're paying. Wanna cut the cost, cut the regulation.