Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote user="vsmith"][quote user="Bucyrus"][quote user="vsmith"][quote user="Bucyrus"][quote user="vsmith"] The ANWR aurgument is a red herring, even if it was opened to drilling today it would be up to  10 years before any meaningful production could begin, and then, where are they going to refine it? Crude avalability is high worldwide, its refining capacity thats been the bottleneck binding supply, particularly here in the US. High demand for refined products worldwide, coupled with nervous speculators driving price per barrel up. Bush said recently that new refineries are required, with record windfall profits wheres the incentive for oil companies to sink millions into strangling the golden goose of profit? If Bush truely thinks new refineries are needed the only likely way he's likely to get one will be for the Guv'ment itself to build it bypassing the oil companies. [/quote]You suggest the government should bypass the oil companies and build the refineries that are needed.  Do you believe the oil companies are not building new refineries because they don't want to?  They want to drill in ANWR.  So I would think that if they needed new refineries for ANWR oil, they would want to build them.  Why would they want to drill for oil if they can't refine it?[/quote]I beleive the oil companies dont want to invest a penny more than they feel is absolutly necessary, no drill in ANWR means no necessary increase in proceesing the crude oil it would produce, hence no incentive to a build any new refinery. Seems to me they are perfectly happy with their current production levels, and their current profit level. Why invest in something that would in the end hurt your profit margin by increasing current supply and in doing so suppressing prices, thats just plain bad capitalism. I honestly think that even if ANWR was opened that the oil companies would simply process it thru the existing infrastructure, that way they still maximize their profit while accessing a source in a decidely less hostile part of the world, Elk dont drive carbombs, well, not yet anyways.[/quote]So if congress authorized drilling in ANWR to increase the supply of oil, do you believe there would be no takers because the oil companies do not want to increase the supply?[/quote]No there would definelty be takers, the question is who has the deep pockets to explore such a remote region? Some companies  have already stated getting the oil out of ANWR overland or by sea is problematic at best. But I'm not going to speculate on whether or not it will ever get opened, too big a hot potato politically, even with the sky high oil prices.[/quote]I guess I'm not sure what you are saying about oil companies and ANWR.  You said ANWR was a red herring because the oil companies either could not, or would not go after the oil.  Then you said they would go after it, but you asked from where would they get the capital to go after it, suggesting that they don't have sufficient capital to put ANWR into production.  Everything that I have ever heard suggests that the only thing that prevents ANWR from going into production is the U.S. congress.  Also, from what I have heard, the alleged excess profits made by the oil companies is not a result of high crude prices on the world market, but rather, from the processing and marketing of that crude.  Rising crude prices dampen demand, so it is entirely possible that lower crude prices resulting from new supply sources would actually increase oil company profits, not lower them as you suggest.  So I am skeptical when you say the oil companies would not want to develop ANWR because it would not be in their financial interest.  I think that's the red herring you mentioned concerning ANWR. Also, as I previously mentioned, if congress approved ANWR development today, the world price would drop the instant the news is received.  This silly notion that ANWR is just a drop in the bucket, too little, and too far off in the future to matter is transparent propaganda put out by the same interests who want us to believe we are running out of oil, and we had better stop using it.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag