Sometmes the facts are helpful even when partisans continue to lie... Here are the facts from the BLM. 9 FACTS ABOUT THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY September 26, 2011 In a news release earlier today, the Western Energy Alliance claims that “Colorado BLM offered a shockingly low four parcels in 2011” for oil and gas leasing. They failed to mention that Colorado BLM is set to auction an additional 54 parcels covering more than 41,700 acres. And, there are several million acres leased in Colorado for development that have not yet been developed. In FY2010, for every three drilling permits issued for public lands in Colorado, industry started only one new drilling well. Here are a few other pertinent facts: 1. Oil and gas companies receive $15 billion in special tax breaks. Taxpayers for Common Sense outlined over $15 billion each year in special tax breaks to the oil and gas industry. 2. About 57 percent of lands leased to oil and gas companies for development – covering 21.6 million acres – are idle. Industry has plenty of access to public lands. The U.S. Department of Interior released a report earlier this year outlining the unused leases. 3. Industry has yet to develop 7,000 drilling permits. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management recently testified in committee that the oil and gas industry has about 7,000 undeveloped permits where industry has a green light to drill. 4. The Salazar leasing reforms are creating more certainty for industry, and the number of protested leases is down nearly 40 percent from just two years ago. According to the BLM, the number of protested leases dropped nearly 40 percent from 1,108 in FY08 to 665 in FY10. As of September 15, just 105 parcels had been protested in FY11. (BLM fact sheet available upon request) 5. For the last two years, the BLM has approved more drilling permits than applications it has received. The BLM has actually been clearing the backlog of permits not processed by the Bush administration and processing those permits at its highest rate in nearly a decade. 6. Business is booming for the oil and gas industry. The top five oil and gas companies made over $67 billion in profits the first half this year. Colorado operator Anadarko Petroleum (who sits on the board of Western Energy Alliance) posted a $562 million profit compared to a $28 million net loss just one year ago. continued. http://checksandbalancesproject.org/...-gas-industry/
7. Drilling activity is reaching record levels in the U.S. Oil and gas activity is back to pre-recession levels and actually nearing a 20-year high. In fact, there are more active drill rigs in the United States than all other countries combined. The national boom is being driven by higher prices at the pump, encouraging development of shale oil plays like the Bakken in North Dakota. 8. The oil and gas industry is adding 10,000 jobs a month. Despite the reported jobs slowdown last month, in 2011 the oil and gas industry has been adding roughly 10,000 jobs per month on average. In fact, The Wall Street Journal reported that energy jobs are at a two-decade high and that industry is worried about a shortage of skilled workers. 9. The United States is a net-exporter of petroleum products. While it may sound unbelievable, over the last six months the United States has exported more petroleum products than its imported. That includes the crude oil we important abroad and the refined gasoline and diesel we sell to neighboring countries. Experts attribute this to reduced demand for oil in the United States to the economic downturn and increasingly fuel-efficient cars on the road. Click to read a new Bureau of Land Management fact sheet.
Asked and answered on another thread. http://www.politicalforum.com/curre...ts-about-oil-gas-industry.html#post1061054344
Somethings just don't add up. If we are to believe that record profits are being made, which I don't dispute. And we are to believe that 7000 approved permits have yet to be drilled and that 57% of leased areas are idle, agian something I'll take on its face as fact. The question is, why. Why would an industry that is making record profits not be punching holes on those Federal lands, but instead have their rigs set up on private lands?
Rig counts and availability. When the business has been slow to a creep for over a decade, it takes time to order and build rigs. Federal lands have stricter safety rules and regs.
I'll tell you why the oil companies are not drilling on about 57% of the leases: BECAUSE THEY KNOW THERE'S NOT ENOUGH OIL UNDER THOSE LEASES TO MAKE IT ECONOMICALLY FEASIBLE BASED ON TODAYS TECHNOLOGY!!!!!!!!!!!! Wise up LIBs. I'm guessing the engineers are a tiny bit more informed than a bunch of 'selective' environmentalists. Ever notice you can find the word 'mental' in environmentalist?
Seismologists study plate tectonics and the movement of the earth's crust. You perhaps are meaning generalized "geologist"? I dated one once upon a time. He once worked for the USGS then he sold out to a petro-exploration firm that could pay him six times his government salary to predict where the next "find" will come from. It is absolutely gambling. George Bush's company, Arbusto, went bust...why? I mean, if we know exactly where all the oil is and the US has so much of it why did he go bust? Because there are no sure things in oil exploration which is why people fall back on the reserves that they know.
Seizmologists aid in oil exploration... I think its called seismology reflection. Bush went bust with Arbusto because he was MIA and not tending to business. incompetence.. http://alaric3rh.home.sprynet.com/science/bceo.html
Yes.. they have always held leases that they didn't drill, but I didn't know that the time limit had been reduced.
I can see a problem if the lease is too long and that would be taking up leases so others could not explore. It costs something like 100 to 200 million just to get a rig in place before any drilling starts. Our company does some work on the new rigs and they are a really a marvel of construction.
1 fact about American Politics. Whoever is in office gets the blame for high prices at the gas pump, it is a tradition just like Thanksgiving and 4th of July.
In the USA the American oil industry has been losing profit due to over 10% less oil sales at the pump. As a result they need to raise prices at the pump, and also rely on speculators to boost the price of global oil sales. Why, because US oil production is at an all time high and the USA is now able to export oil for mega profits. Also, since 2001 the US dollar has beed degraded to almost worthless compaired to the rest of the world emerging markets. As a result, other countries will pay even more for oil from oil producing countries. And, countries like South America, Canada, Russia, and the Arab world will continue to profit off countires that have limited oil production like France, Turkey, Greece, All of the Asian countries particularly China, Japan, Korea, and India. So you can rest assure the oil lobbiest in Washington are doing a great job capitalizing on their moral efforts to make mega bucks off the ignorant masses who have no political power, and no ability to see through the propaganda corporate money can buy.
Oil company profit margins remain steady as the have for decades at about 6 to 8%.. and while US domestic consumption is down.. we are exporting gasoline for the first time in 40 years and that will help to reduce the deficit a bit. Did you read the particulars of the article?
FACT! Gas in my neighborhood is 19 cents lower than it was two weeks ago ... Now if it was President Obama's fault two ago when it went up; is it President Obama's fault now that its gone back down?
So lets see land where there is no oil is not used got it. like many industries they get subsidies got it. We have seen the EPA hurting the industry and US refineries closing. We also have seen production decrease on government land while it grows on private land. So what we see is government hurting the oil industry
