So, when Bill talks about oil and gas issues, I tend to listen - very closely. I think that you will find Bill's thoughts and facts very revealing, very compelling and very difficult to argue with.
As you prepare to cast your crucial ballots this Fall, please think long and hard about the far-reaching, cumulative effects of the US political philosophies, policies and legislation that have contributed to the current and future US oil supply situation.
May 28, 2008
"Big Oil"
Did you know that the United States does NOT have any big oil companies. It's true: the largest American oil company, Exxon Mobil, is only the 14th largest in the world, and is dwarfed by the really big oil companies--all owned by foreign governments or government-sponsored monopolies--that dominate the world's oil supply.
With 94% of the world's oil supply locked up by foreign governments, most of which are hostile to the United States, the relatively puny American oil companies do not have access to enough crude oil to significantly affect the market and help bring prices down. Thus, ExxonMobil, a "small" oil company, buys 90% of the crude oil that it refines for the U.S. market from the big players, i.e, mostly-hostile foreign governments.. The price at the U.S. pump is rising because the price the big oil companies charge ExxonMobil and the other small American companies for crude oil is going up as the value of the American dollar goes down. They will eventually bleed this country into printing even more money and we will go into runway inflation once again as we did under the Carter reign.
This is obviously a tough situation for the American consumer. The irony is that it doesn't have to be that way. The United States--unlike, say, France--actually has vast petroleum reserves. It would be possible for American oil companies to develop those reserves, play a far bigger role in international markets, and deliver gas at the pump to American consumers at a much lower price, while creating many thousands of jobs for Americans. This would be infinitely preferable to shipping endless billions of dollars to Saudi Arabia, Russia and Venezuela to be used in propping up their economies.
So, why doesn't it happen? Because the Democrat Party--aided, sadly, by a handful of Republicans--deliberately keeps gas prices high and our domestic oil companies small by putting most of our reserves off limits to development. China is now drilling in the Caribbean, off Cuba but our own companies are barred by law from developing large oil fields off the coasts of Florida and California. Enormous oil-shale deposits in the Rocky Mountain states could go a long way toward supplying American consumers' needs, but the Democratic Congress won't allow those resources to be developed. ANWR contains vast petroleum reser ves, but we don't know how vast, because Congress, not wanting the American people to know how badly its policies are hurting our economy, has made it illegal to explore and map those reserves, let alone develop them.
In short, all Americans are paying a terrible price for the Democratic Party's perverse energy policies. I own some small interests in tiny, 4 barrel-per-day oil wells in Wyoming. We have 14 agencies that have iron-hand jurisdiction over us. If we drop any oil on the ground when the refinery truck comes to pick up oil from our holding tanks, we are fined. Yet down the road the state will spray thousands of gallons of used oil on a dirt road to control dust. When it rains that oil runs into rivers and creeks. Yet a cup of oil on the ground at our wellhead is a $50,000 EPA fine plus additional fines from state regulating agencies. They treat oil as if it were plutonium that has the potential to leak into the environment. We are fined if our dirt burms are not high enough around a holding tank, yet the truck that picks up our oil runs down the road at 60 mph with no burm around it. People wonder why there is no more exploration in this country. It's because of the regulators; people who have lived their whole lives doing nothing but imposing fines on small operators like us for doing mostly nothing.
So, America enjoy your $4.00 per gallon gasoline. Your dollar is now worth 0.62 Euro-Cents. The lack of American production of GNP, the massive trade deficit (as labor markets have moved overseas to fight insanely high union imposed labor costs in America) and the run away printing of money (backed by nothing of value here in America) has caused the dollar to become more worthless on the international market. And that's where our oil comes from. It's paid for with dollars that become more worthless everyday. If we had just kept par with the Euro we'd be paying $62 dollars per barrel for oil (42 gallons) o r abou t $1.50 instead of $2.50 a gallon for crude oil..
What the US government also does not tell you is that it is the leaseholder and royalty recipient of most oil production and receives 25% of the gross oil sales before we pay for electricity to lift the oil, propane to keep the oil-water separators from freezing in the winters. We pay a pumper to visit each well everyday plus we have equipment failures all the time. We pay for that out of our 75% of gross sales. The government does not share in any expenses to run any production well. So, if the Big Oil Companies are making record profits, then so is the federal government from it's 25% tax on every molecule of oil sold to a refinery in this country. Why isn't the government on the stand for "Record" profits? &nbs p;What you don't see is this 25% of the sales price of crude oil being siphoned away by the government. That money plus the road taxes, state taxes, etc. amounts to over $1 per gallon of gasoline you are buying while the governments only admit to about 50 cents per gallon.
To all you Democrats, when you go vote for your candidate, a blazing liberal like Barrack Obama or Hillary Clinton, just keep in mind that their liberal spending habits will further decrease the value of the American dollar on the world market and your gasoline costs will hike even higher. As they introduce more give-away programs, raise taxes on everyone to pay people not to produce or work, your dollar will continue to dwindle on the world market and you will be paying $10.00 per gallon at the next election. Cheap hydrocarbon fuel is all over. Enjoy! Enjoy the fruits of your decision to elect these folks when you are there in that voting booth and you stab your pin through a Democrat's name.
William "Bill" Phillips
Marty's:
Oh brother! There is no way an oil family Phillips member wrote this, no way! One has only to read in the first paragraph , "Did you know that the United States does NOT have any big oil companies." to realize that what will follow will be, excuse the expression, total dreck. And it is. Further, this isn't about oil, about which the true author (the ubiquitous pimply faced Atwater/Rove Nazi Youth, Goebbels wannabe), knows nothing. This a cheap, bargain basement political tract that isn't worth the paper, or keyboard, it was written on. The poor kid's zits must have been suppurating.
Anyone who has the chutzpah to characterize American oil companies as "relatively puny" should, contrary to my liberal anti-death penalty stance, be taken out and shot.
Jesus Christ, the statements made here and the innuendos and assumptions are beyond belief for shear, brazen hyperbole. These are QUOTES: 1. "Thus, ExxonMobil, a 'small' oil company, buys 90% of the crude oil that it refines for the U.S. market from the big players, i.e., mostly-hostile foreign governments.." Well, we'll define "small" oil companies later, but this statement says that Exxon buys less than 10% of its crude from our largest suppliers Canada, Mexico and, say, Norway among other "mostly-hostile"(sic) governments. Yea, right! In addition to this nonsense, for lack of a more vulgar term, hostile countries "charge" us...as if markets had nothing to do with determining, price discovery, current and future, anticipated, prices. Mercy, spare me this gibberish.
"The United States--unlike, say, France--actually has vast petroleum reserves." Really? We have half the world's oil wells, 521,000, in the United States pumping less than 11 bbl/day, where the hell are these "vast" reserves?...Please, no laundry list of ANWR, continental shelf or Colorado shale. When the economics of deep sea drilling and oil extraction from shale pencil out, it will happen. If the oil oligopoly wanted to drill for oil at State and Madison in Chicago, they'd drill at State and Madison in Chicago. Forgetting demand elasticity for the moment, wouldn't any company that has a profit margin of say, 10%, prefer to sell their products at $10.00 rather than $1.00?
"This would be infinitely preferable to shipping endless billions of dollars to Saudi Arabia, Russia and Venezuela to be used in propping up their economies." True. But why fail to mention Canada and Mexico? When it comes down to it, we have no use for Canucks..and their "socialistic" health system..not to mention curling! (any word that Canada has had a higher standard of living than the U.S. for at least 20 years is strictly verboten). And, God forbid, we all know what SPICS represent! And why is there no mention of what our reciprocal trade accounts look like with these horrible, no good, low down, dirty bastard countries? If we presently didn't enjoy the export business we have we'd be in a depression! And isn't the policy of this administration to spread the "values", you know, the family values we cherish along with democracy and capitalism..to the rest of the world? Isn't that why we've killed untold numbers of Iraqis, so they may enjoy the values of democracy ?Or does this policy only extend to those targets of our imperialism which we have yet to conquer? Doesn't it make sense that countries prop up their economies so they will be more prosperous, better trading partners, freer markets, healthier and happier citizens that will contribute to a growing global economy...and benefit OUR interests in the process as well?
Quote: "So, why doesn't it happen? Because the Democratic Party--aided, sadly, by a handful of Republicans--deliberately keeps gas prices high and our domestic oil companies small by putting most of our reserves off limits to development. China is now drilling in the Caribbean, off Cuba...." OK, Republicans had the hat trick of government control for 6 years, Executive, Legislative and Judicial and didn't do squat...IMO, because the oil oligopoly control them and the Democrats...both parties are but pawns to be manipulated by big dough, big companies...govt is the farm team system for global mega-corps. Why would oil companies want gas prices low? They are sovereign unto themselves, they are not patriotic, they don't care in which currency their profits accrue, they are making the goal of their existence, profits, in amounts never seen before in the history of mankind...why in God's name would they want to change this? It would not surprise me in the least to learn that Exxon and others actually funnel money to 'treehugger' and environmental organizations...they have NO scruples, no morals...the compass of their soul is permanently fixated on p-r-o-f-i-t. Period. They are neither Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Socialist, Czarist or any "ism"...they are apolitical in the sense of govt form and only favor any govt that is tractable...and the cost of it.
China's drilling off the coast of Cuba, and Cheney's saying China is drilling 60 miles off the coast of Florida, is bullshit. Bullshit! Talk about Hitler and Goebbels big lie theory, Dickhead Cheney has it down pat. Ask Senator
Mel Martinez of FL, a Republican, or Jorge Pinon, the energy expert at the Center for Hemispheric Policy. This is false...but of course, chapter and verse from the Nazi propaganda masters constantly reiterated the necessity of changing the facts when they didn't fit with the political agenda. Mention of 'propaganda' and 'Nazi' today in any political context immediately draws guffaws, smirks and heehaws, but don't kid yourself, there are political operatives today who study and learn the Nazi PR lessons...well. This "Phillips" piece is an egregious example of distortion, innuendo and outright lies.
"small" oil companies? PetroChina largest in the world at $1T? It so happens I know quite a bit about PTR..having recommended its purchase at $20.00 in 2003..before Warren Buffett bought it...as much for its stand alone value as the potential of the yuan/dollar exchange rate of its ADRs per the float requisite for membership in the WTO. It reached $266.00. Here's where these lying bastards get away with this stuff. PetroChina, PTR, has billions of shares authorized but only 2.2% of those shares registered on the Shanghai exchange..which trade at a huge premium to shares trades anywhere else....and multiplying the artificial price X the total of authorized shares does, of course, total over a trillion...but its hardly a true indication of the value of the company, which is more like $400B, less than many companies including Sinopec and China Natl Petroleum. PetroChina's revenues are in the area of $110B....would you rather own it or ExxonMobil with revenues of $347Billion? There are at least 25 companies in the world with revenues greater than PTR including: Shell, BP, Chevron and ConocoPhillips. Isn't proof of this kind of finagling, altering facts, sufficient for most reasonable people to say, "enough", we are not lemmings to be led over the cliff by diabolical REPUBLICAN political operatives with agendas that best serve their own interests?
And now the coup de grace, "To all you Democrats, when you go vote for your candidate, a blazing liberal like Barrack Obama or Hillary Clinton, just keep in mind that their liberal spending habits will further decrease the value of the American dollar on the world market and your gasoline costs will hike even higher." Inasmuch as Republicans have effectively controlled all energy policy for 7.5 years...whatever it might be since Cheney conducts it in secret..plus all SPENDING bills, not to mention off-budget, deficit, war costs....this blatantly spurious statement is laughable on the face of it...and needs no refutation for the edification of anyone with more than oatmeal for a brain.
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