Breaking Our Dependence On OPEC Oil

[longknife]

by War News Updates Editor @ War News Updates: Breaking Our Dependence On OPEC Oil

This site brings us this awesome map:

World Shale Gas Resources: An Initial Assessment of 14 Regions Outside the United States. EIA

Thought We Were Running Out Of Fossil Fuels? New Technology Means Britain And The U.S. Could Tap Undreamed Reserves Of Gas And Oil -- Daily Mail

Read more @ War News Updates: Breaking Our Dependence On OPEC Oil

The problem I see is that, while other governments do everything possible to take advantage of these new energy sources, our government is doing everything possible to stifle that development.

Oh yeah, and noticeably absent from the map are areas in the far north where massive oil reserves are known to be located! It does not show the massive places in northern Russia that that government is taking measure to drill for.

 

[RGR]

A) Our dependence isn't on OPEC oil so much.

B) The information contained within your source (World Shale Gas Assessment) should be very carefully considered before you randomly assign it a high value.

C) Increased oil and natural production to highs (18 years or so in oil, all time in natural gas) would seem to contradict your statement about is,or is not, happening in terms of drilling here in the US.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - we fight dey's wars for `em an' dey thank us by gougin' the schlitz outta us...

OPEC will earn a record $1.05 trillion in 2012 in oil revenues
December 24, 2012, OPEC, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, is set to earn a record $1.05 trillion this year in net oil export revenues, the U.S. Energy Department says.

In 2011, OPEC raked in more than $1 trillion in net oil export revenues for the first time ($1.03 trillion), the Energy Department said. As a consequence, Americans will pay the highest average price ever for gasoline this year. The U.S. average for a gallon of regular gasoline in 2012 will be $3.63 a gallon.

The 2012 average breaks the old record, set last year, of $3.53 a gallon. OPEC will have to tighten its collective belt a bit in 2013, when it will earn a projected $955 billion.

The Energy Department did have some encouraging news for Americans. U.S. oil production is set to average 6.4 million barrels a day in 2012 as the nation continues to reduce its dependence on foreign crude.

The U.S. oil production boom is being driven by states like North Dakota and Texas. In 2013, the Energy Department predicts that U.S. oil production will increase to 7.1 million barrels a day, which would be the highest level since 1992.

Source

 

[waltky]

Granny says we can grow our way outta foreign energy dependence...

Colorado national lab and industry team to turn grass into gasoline
12/28/2012 - The goal is to turn a pine tree into a tank of gasoline, and it turns out it is just as difficult as it sounds.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden has been working on the challenge of making biofuels for years and has now struck up a partnership with London-based specialty chemical maker Johnson Matthey Plc. Under the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, NREL and Johnson Matthey are embarking on a five-year, $7 million project to perfect the chemistry and cut the price of turning trees, switchgrass or solid waste into fuel. Making fuel from corn has been easier as the plant's combination of high sugars and cellulose makes it easy to turn it into alcohol, said David Robichaud, an NREL staff scientist.

Switch grass or fast-growing trees such as pines and poplars are a challenge because along with cellulose they contain lignin, Robichaud said. In the pyrolysis process — which uses heat and pressure in the absence of oxygen — the lignin adds impurities, such as acids and water, to the fuel mix. The aim of the NREL-Johnson Matthey project is to find catalysts that will help break down the lignin into useful components. Johnson Matthey is one of the world's largest makers of catalysts. "The challenge is that catalysts are expensive, and the impurities tend to inactivate the catalyst. And that hurts the economics," said Ken Reardon, a chemical- and biological-engineering professor at Colorado State University, who is not involved in the project.

Reardon's work focuses on using enzymes instead of heat and pressure to break down cellulose — but it, too, faces a problem with lignin. "With either route, you are trying to deal with the economics and the environmental impacts," said Reardon, who is working with NREL on a separate project to find a naturally occurring enzyme to break down lignin. The aim of the new project is to combine Johnson Matthey's catalysis expertise with NREL's biomass processing to "help accelerate the development of more economic routes to biofuels," Andrew Heavers, Johnson Matthey business-development director, said in a statement.

The cost of producing a gallon of fuel from the pyrolysis process will have to reach about $3 a gallon, according to NREL. NREL will use each catalyst and report to Johnson Matthey the chemical constituents of the oil. The chemical company will then tweak the catalysts, trying to direct the chemical process in the right direction. "It is a journey," Robichaud said. "It may be incremental, but we hope there will be a Eureka moment that will really drop the price." The cooperative research-and-development agreement with Johnson Matthey is one of 184 active joint ventures NREL has with industry.

Read more: Colorado national lab and industry team to turn grass into gasoline - The Denver Post Colorado national lab and industry team to turn grass into gasoline - The Denver Post

 

[YoungRepublican]

Well there is a problem... eE as a nation could drill until our little hearts couldnt drill anymore, but our oil companies are part of the free market which means that they can sell their oil to whoever and need to maintain a competitive pricing. unless we nationalize our oil field which, well, you can guess the answer on that one, drilling at home doesnt really do too much besides adding jobs.

 

[pwjohn]

Well there is a problem... eE as a nation could drill until our little hearts couldnt drill anymore, but our oil companies are part of the free market which means that they can sell their oil to whoever and need to maintain a competitive pricing. unless we nationalize our oil field which, well, you can guess the answer on that one, drilling at home doesnt really do too much besides adding jobs.

Everything we export has a "cost in oil consumed" attached to it, whether it be a bushel of wheat, an automobile and so on...

 

[Mad Scientist]

Well there is a problem... eE as a nation could drill until our little hearts couldnt drill anymore, but our oil companies are part of the free market which means that they can sell their oil to whoever and need to maintain a competitive pricing. unless we nationalize our oil field which, well, you can guess the answer on that one, drilling at home doesnt really do too much besides adding jobs.

^Came in to post this.^

When Oil Companies have a monopoly on production the prices won't go down. And it seems to me that the powers that be, The US Gov't and the Oil Companies, are working towards an Artificial Scarcity which will only drive up prices.

 

[RGR]

When Oil Companies have a monopoly on production the prices won't go down. And it seems to me that the powers that be, The US Gov't and the Oil Companies, are working towards an Artificial Scarcity which will only drive up prices.

How is it that oil companies can cause the geologic processes which create oil to make...scarcity?

 

[Reality91]

The best thing we could do to lessen our dependence on global oil prices is to use less of it.