Don't buy gas on May 19
MAY 19TH HAS BEEN FORMALLY DECLARED "STICK IT UP THEIR BEHIND" DAY AND THE PEOPLE OF THIS NATION SHOULD NOT BUY A SINGLE DROP OF GASOLINE THAT DAY.THE ONLY WAY THIS CAN BE DONE IS IF YOU FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN AND AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN TO GET THE WORD OUT.
That was the subject of a recent mass forward email I received from a friend, similar in nature to several others that have passed through my inbox since the price of gasoline has gone up so much. Pardon my saying so but these emails are the most immature, assinine drivel that I've ever read. Generated by wishful thinking SUV drivers I suppose. Somehow my friends forward this palaver without a thought that people they know are in the oil business....like me.
The email in question seeks to have everyone not buy gasoline for a day, thus punishing "Big Oil"...I suppose the same nameless, faceless "Big Oil" that started the war in Iraq.
IT HAS BEEN CALCULATED THAT IF EVERYONE IN THE UNITED STATES DID NOT PURCHASE A DROP OF GASOLINE FOR ONE DAY AND ALL AT THE SAME TIME, THE OIL COMPANIES WOULD CHOKE ON THEIR STOCKPILES
I don't know who calculated this....but he or she is an idiot. Actually I'm betting "Big Oil" would welcome a couple of days for suppply to catch up with demand. But since even, it seems, the most moderate and normally sensible people hold "Big Oil" responsible for having to pay more to drive on important trips to secure their Starbucks Latte, let me explain a few things.
1] Important, remember this: Crude oil is at an all time high. "Big Oil" relies on crude oil stocks to make gasoline and the crude oil market is a truly global one, primarily controlled, still, by OPEC...and OPEC is, still, primarily controlled by the Saudi's.
2] You won't believe this but trust me. If it hadn't been for "Big Oil" over the years you'd be paying buckets full of money more for gasoline today. "Big Oil" has spent trillions of dollars since the '30s opening up new fields of supply in such places as Saudi Arabia, the North Sea, Iraq and Malaysia. If they hadn't and you had to rely on home grown Amerkan oil provided by small operators like me, well it wouldn't be a pretty picture for your wallet. We don't have enough oil or cheap oil in this country to support your driving habits. "Big Oil" provided the world with a sea of cheap oil.
3] For the last 15 years, the average price for West Texas Crude was $18.30. In December of 1998 it was $8.65 a barrel, so cheap it didn't even pay for us small guys to pump it out of the ground, so cheap it put 10's of thousands in our area out of work. At $8.65/bbl. no sane person in Amerka drilled any new wells. Except "Big Oil" who provided all the cheap oil and gasoline you wanted. And, by the way, where were the emailers decrying that oil was to cheap and putting Amerkans out of work? I guess I wasn't on that list.
Why is gasoline so expensive all of a sudden? Well...see #1 above, crude oil is more expensive. And why is crude oil so much more expensive now? Who's to blame. There are a number of reasons.
1] Impoving economies around the world. And not only in the U.S. and Europe, but in economies of banana republic and third world countries that in the past have not needed so much energy. Globalization for better or worse is working. You, indirectly, are paying for your cheaper Wal-Mart goods with higher fuel prices here at home. China is sucking in petroleum supplies at an amazingly higher rate to fuel the factories that make your cheap Wal-Mart 10 Pack of underwear and India needs more power to fire up all the computers that are doing your H&R Block tax returns. You get cheap undies but have to pay more to drive your Lincoln Navigator to go get them.
2] Gasoline plant shortages. Chronically there is a shortage of gasoline refinement capacity. Though overshadowed by high crude prices now, the dearth of gasoline plants exacerbates the problem causing wider swings in gas prices when crude oil prices move. Gas plants are expensive, high liability items and no one wants one in their vicinity.
3] The Saudis. I could have said OPEC, but the Saudi's lead that pack, and the Saudi's are worried, and we should worry about the Saudi's. This price rise could be the Saudi's reply to G.W. Bush for his actions in Iraq...a way to vote against him this Fall. They know he means business about change in the Arab world and that means them...the Sheiks, Emirs and Kumquats who collect all the oil royalty checks. They'd rather things didn't change. And somewhere in the price mix is something you'd rather not hear. The Saudi's know that their production is declining. Without the weight of oil weatlth, they are back to being mere sand beggars. From some inside sources in Saudi Arabia, I have learned that more and more of their oil fields are being "water flooded". This means injecting water into the oil formations to float the oil out. This is what you do when production starts to decline. So....rather than sell off all their oil and it's power at lower prices they may have decided to take the market price to a new level. I'd do the same. To get the same total check every month sell less at a higher price. It keeps them in the game longer.
4] You...and Me. As much as we don't want to blame ourselves, I have to. We Amerkans are still fuel grubbing wasteful people on the whole. I was in gas station lines in 1973 and saw the huge oil boom of 1979 go bust in 1983. Nothing much has changed since. In my home two TV's and two computers and a PlayStation often run at the same time with no one watching, we think nothing of driving 2 miles to the store for a few items. Detroit is building muscle cars again. We waste to much energy, because it's been cheap for to long.
In conclusion I have good news and bad news. First the good news. There is plenty of oil left in the world. As we say in geologic terms....one buttload of it. The bad news is that most all of the easy oil, read that cheaply produced oil, has been discovered and is being produced. The oil in the future will cost more to find and exploit for use. So, although, prices flucuate, be ready to continue paying more. So turn off one of your TV's, turn your thermostat up to 78° get a GEO Prism and stop sending me emails about evil "Big Oil". In 10 years you may really be glad there around to spend the bucks it takes to drill a well 20,000 ft. deep, 30 miles out at sea.
MAY 19TH HAS BEEN FORMALLY DECLARED "STICK IT UP THEIR BEHIND" DAY AND THE PEOPLE OF THIS NATION SHOULD NOT BUY A SINGLE DROP OF GASOLINE THAT DAY.THE ONLY WAY THIS CAN BE DONE IS IF YOU FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN AND AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN TO GET THE WORD OUT.
That was the subject of a recent mass forward email I received from a friend, similar in nature to several others that have passed through my inbox since the price of gasoline has gone up so much. Pardon my saying so but these emails are the most immature, assinine drivel that I've ever read. Generated by wishful thinking SUV drivers I suppose. Somehow my friends forward this palaver without a thought that people they know are in the oil business....like me.
The email in question seeks to have everyone not buy gasoline for a day, thus punishing "Big Oil"...I suppose the same nameless, faceless "Big Oil" that started the war in Iraq.
IT HAS BEEN CALCULATED THAT IF EVERYONE IN THE UNITED STATES DID NOT PURCHASE A DROP OF GASOLINE FOR ONE DAY AND ALL AT THE SAME TIME, THE OIL COMPANIES WOULD CHOKE ON THEIR STOCKPILES
I don't know who calculated this....but he or she is an idiot. Actually I'm betting "Big Oil" would welcome a couple of days for suppply to catch up with demand. But since even, it seems, the most moderate and normally sensible people hold "Big Oil" responsible for having to pay more to drive on important trips to secure their Starbucks Latte, let me explain a few things.
1] Important, remember this: Crude oil is at an all time high. "Big Oil" relies on crude oil stocks to make gasoline and the crude oil market is a truly global one, primarily controlled, still, by OPEC...and OPEC is, still, primarily controlled by the Saudi's.
2] You won't believe this but trust me. If it hadn't been for "Big Oil" over the years you'd be paying buckets full of money more for gasoline today. "Big Oil" has spent trillions of dollars since the '30s opening up new fields of supply in such places as Saudi Arabia, the North Sea, Iraq and Malaysia. If they hadn't and you had to rely on home grown Amerkan oil provided by small operators like me, well it wouldn't be a pretty picture for your wallet. We don't have enough oil or cheap oil in this country to support your driving habits. "Big Oil" provided the world with a sea of cheap oil.
3] For the last 15 years, the average price for West Texas Crude was $18.30. In December of 1998 it was $8.65 a barrel, so cheap it didn't even pay for us small guys to pump it out of the ground, so cheap it put 10's of thousands in our area out of work. At $8.65/bbl. no sane person in Amerka drilled any new wells. Except "Big Oil" who provided all the cheap oil and gasoline you wanted. And, by the way, where were the emailers decrying that oil was to cheap and putting Amerkans out of work? I guess I wasn't on that list.
Why is gasoline so expensive all of a sudden? Well...see #1 above, crude oil is more expensive. And why is crude oil so much more expensive now? Who's to blame. There are a number of reasons.
1] Impoving economies around the world. And not only in the U.S. and Europe, but in economies of banana republic and third world countries that in the past have not needed so much energy. Globalization for better or worse is working. You, indirectly, are paying for your cheaper Wal-Mart goods with higher fuel prices here at home. China is sucking in petroleum supplies at an amazingly higher rate to fuel the factories that make your cheap Wal-Mart 10 Pack of underwear and India needs more power to fire up all the computers that are doing your H&R Block tax returns. You get cheap undies but have to pay more to drive your Lincoln Navigator to go get them.
2] Gasoline plant shortages. Chronically there is a shortage of gasoline refinement capacity. Though overshadowed by high crude prices now, the dearth of gasoline plants exacerbates the problem causing wider swings in gas prices when crude oil prices move. Gas plants are expensive, high liability items and no one wants one in their vicinity.
3] The Saudis. I could have said OPEC, but the Saudi's lead that pack, and the Saudi's are worried, and we should worry about the Saudi's. This price rise could be the Saudi's reply to G.W. Bush for his actions in Iraq...a way to vote against him this Fall. They know he means business about change in the Arab world and that means them...the Sheiks, Emirs and Kumquats who collect all the oil royalty checks. They'd rather things didn't change. And somewhere in the price mix is something you'd rather not hear. The Saudi's know that their production is declining. Without the weight of oil weatlth, they are back to being mere sand beggars. From some inside sources in Saudi Arabia, I have learned that more and more of their oil fields are being "water flooded". This means injecting water into the oil formations to float the oil out. This is what you do when production starts to decline. So....rather than sell off all their oil and it's power at lower prices they may have decided to take the market price to a new level. I'd do the same. To get the same total check every month sell less at a higher price. It keeps them in the game longer.
4] You...and Me. As much as we don't want to blame ourselves, I have to. We Amerkans are still fuel grubbing wasteful people on the whole. I was in gas station lines in 1973 and saw the huge oil boom of 1979 go bust in 1983. Nothing much has changed since. In my home two TV's and two computers and a PlayStation often run at the same time with no one watching, we think nothing of driving 2 miles to the store for a few items. Detroit is building muscle cars again. We waste to much energy, because it's been cheap for to long.
In conclusion I have good news and bad news. First the good news. There is plenty of oil left in the world. As we say in geologic terms....one buttload of it. The bad news is that most all of the easy oil, read that cheaply produced oil, has been discovered and is being produced. The oil in the future will cost more to find and exploit for use. So, although, prices flucuate, be ready to continue paying more. So turn off one of your TV's, turn your thermostat up to 78° get a GEO Prism and stop sending me emails about evil "Big Oil". In 10 years you may really be glad there around to spend the bucks it takes to drill a well 20,000 ft. deep, 30 miles out at sea.
