Making Americans Rich
I hear the lament of everyone complaining about $3.00 per gallon gas. I hear the accusations and the finger pointing at our US oil companies making obscene profits on petroleum products. There is the saber rattling and complaining about the Middle East regimes restricting production and jacking up prices. A recent article about the gas prices in Venezuela put them at $0.18 per gallon. We haven’t seen that since the 1960’s. But those prices are heavily subsidized by the Venezuelan government and when their oil runs out, they will still be a 3rd world military puppet while we will still be a super power. Never flaunt your mineral wealth. It is like the millionaire who put his money under his mattress but spent it like it was multiplying. When it’s gone, it’s gone.
There is a part of the US oil equation that Americans either have not been told or choose to ignore. We are lead to believe that our thirst for oil is met almost entirely by foreign countries. We are inundated by the news pointing to the oil rich Middle East, Russia, South America and saying how we need to open a dialogue of peace with these places to maintain the flow of oil. What you never hear is that Americans produce 40% of our own oil. America used 21,930,000 barrels / day of oil in 2005. 8,710,000 were produced domestically and 13,220,000 were imported. The US is the 3rd largest producer of petroleum. Putting that is dollars today, last years daily production is worth $635,820,000 at $73.00 per barrel. On a yearly basis, that is $232,074,300,000 or a quarter of a trillion with a T dollars. That all stays here in the US.
The 2005 cost to get a barrel of oil from the ground was $7.35. Let’s see, $73.00 - $7.35 is $65.65. The oil produced domestically does not require a super tanker ride to get here plus the loading and unloading at the terminals. That means that the US produced oil contributed $208,711,175,500 to the economy in 2005. Now let’s complain that the oil companies made a profit. Sure we had to pay out more than that for what we imported but still someone here is making money. In the mean time, petroleum will price itself out of the market at some point and alternatives like hydrogen or propane will become economically viable. I love free enterprise.
Icool
Cobb
There is a part of the US oil equation that Americans either have not been told or choose to ignore. We are lead to believe that our thirst for oil is met almost entirely by foreign countries. We are inundated by the news pointing to the oil rich Middle East, Russia, South America and saying how we need to open a dialogue of peace with these places to maintain the flow of oil. What you never hear is that Americans produce 40% of our own oil. America used 21,930,000 barrels / day of oil in 2005. 8,710,000 were produced domestically and 13,220,000 were imported. The US is the 3rd largest producer of petroleum. Putting that is dollars today, last years daily production is worth $635,820,000 at $73.00 per barrel. On a yearly basis, that is $232,074,300,000 or a quarter of a trillion with a T dollars. That all stays here in the US.
The 2005 cost to get a barrel of oil from the ground was $7.35. Let’s see, $73.00 - $7.35 is $65.65. The oil produced domestically does not require a super tanker ride to get here plus the loading and unloading at the terminals. That means that the US produced oil contributed $208,711,175,500 to the economy in 2005. Now let’s complain that the oil companies made a profit. Sure we had to pay out more than that for what we imported but still someone here is making money. In the mean time, petroleum will price itself out of the market at some point and alternatives like hydrogen or propane will become economically viable. I love free enterprise.
Icool
Cobb
posted by Cobb at
6:38 AM
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