Doctrine Embraced by the Heart � Already Not Yet: "Doctrine Embraced by the Heart
Posted on June 18, 2008 by Peter Cockrell
“When the heart is cast indeed into the mould of the doctrine that the mind embraceth—when the evidence and necessity of the truth abides in us—when not the sense of the words only is in our heads, but the sense of the thing abides in our hearts—when we have communion with God in the doctrine we contend for—then shall we be garrisoned by the grace of God against all the assaults of men.”
-John Owen, The Mystery of the Gospel Vindicated [1655]"
Friday, June 20, 2008
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Language Matters: Taking Centre Stage
Language Matters: Taking Centre Stage
AlbetA'S FIRST BIG WELL. bop
AlbetA'S FIRST BIG WELL. bop
Taking Centre Stage
This article appears in the June 2008 Issue of Oilweek magazine.By Peter McKenzie-Brown
At 10 o’clock in the morning of February 13, 1947, a group of dignitaries welcomed in the Canadian oil industry’s modern era. On that day Imperial Oil brought in its Leduc #1 discovery with fanfare, but the event was primarily of local interest. Internationally, only the American oil press paid heed.
The event that brought Alberta’s potential to the attention of the world came a year later. The occasion was the storied blowout at Atlantic Leduc #3. Here is the tale of that extraordinary event as seen through the eyes of Hugh Leiper – the last surviving crewman on the well. Twenty years old and at the beginning of a long and successful career, Leiper was derrickman on the rig as the adventure started.
His father worked in the small refinery at Turner Valley, which hosted Canada’s first major oilfield, so Leiper had lived with the industry from childhood. When the Second World War ended, the Turner Valley field was essentially dead from overproduction. “It had been ruined during the war,” says Leiper. “Jobs in drilling were not plentiful, to say the least. There were two rigs working in Wainright, one or two in Taber, Cantex had two working for California Standard and that was about the extent of the drilling industry at that time. Imperial had a rig of its own, the one they used at Leduc.”
After a year at Calgary’s Mount Royal College, Leiper couldn’t afford to continue studying petroleum technology. He signed on as a roughneck with Cantex in 1946 and moved to a new contractor, General Petroleums, a year later. “We were pretty lucky. We lived in camps. We were getting six bucks a day, but they deducted $1.50 for room and board. The steam rigs we used were cheap to operate; all you needed was water and fuel. But they were hard to tear down and move, and by 1949 they were gone. The new power rigs were faster and more portable.”
As drilling contractor, General Petroleums had already drilled two good wells on a quarter section of John Rebus’s 320-acre farm. Rebus owned freehold oil and gas rights, and fabled Calgary oilman Frank McMahon had snapped up that quarter section for Atlantic Oil Company, which he had founded.
The first two wells – wells that would take 4-5 days to drill today – had each taken a month of drilling. Rather than tear down the steam-powered rig to get ready for #3, Leiper says, “We bolted two huge steel beams across the bottom frame of the substructure, then used hydraulic jacks to put the end of each beam on an athey wagon. Athey wagons were steel contraptions, each with a pair of caterpillar tracks, but with no power. Then we hooked on a cat and lugged the whole rig, completely intact, over to the new location. I’d say that rig weighed 50 ton.”
“We had an old blowout preventer but they were usually clogged with mud and crud,” he says. “We really just put them on for show, and sometimes didn’t put them on at all. They were a joke, but I’m getting ahead of myself.”
Drilling began, but “we pretty soon lost circulation in the well. We pumped down straw, wire mesh, golf balls, chicken feathers – I can still smell those chicken feathers -- and anything else we could to try to regain circulation. Nothing worked.”
One evening Leiper was in the cookhouse listening to an argument among the engineers. Some of them “wanted to drill dry – just pump clear water down past the drill bit. The cuttings would theoretically seal off the lost circulation zone.” After fierce arguments, the dry drillers won the day, and disaster loomed.
It was 3 am, March 8th, 1948. Leiper continues, “A fellow named Cliff Covey and I were in the cellar under the rig thawing out a line that was frozen solid. Then suddenly the mud started flowing up. There was a blurp of mud over the drilling nipple, and I said to Covey ‘Let’s get the hell out of here.’ We ran west under the rig and a huge master bushing (a rotary table) weighing several hundred pounds went up through the rig and into the air and landed just 20 feet ahead of us.
“There it was. What an awesome sight, the roar of this thing. You couldn’t talk to each other because of the noise. The rig was winterized as they called it in those days – boarded in with tin. The well was blowing huge chunks of shale and they were penetrating that tin just like you’d taken an AK-47 and opened up on it.
“The driller was a guy named Bill Murray, a very capable driller. He dispatched a couple of people to run down as fast as they could to the boiler house and tell them to shut the fire off. Then he and I ran up to the derrick floor and we raised the string of drill pipe as high as we could, chained down the brake on the draw works, and got off the rig.
“The crown of the rig was more than 150 feet off the ground, and when daylight came we could see what we were dealing with. Oil was blowing over the crown. It seems like lunacy today, but we put up some windsocks. We wanted to know when it was safe to fire up the boilers to pump weighted mud into the well. We were wading in oil up to our bellybuttons, carrying these sacks for the drilling mud.”
“This went on for three days,” he says. Then, suddenly, “the flow subsided. It must have got plugged up a bit, naturally.” The crew got the primitive blowout preventer functioning, and things appeared to be looking up. “I’m running one of the steam pumps, and the mud gauge is going down. It looked like we were winning. Then someone came up to me and said ‘I just come by some seismic shot holes on the road and I saw oil and gas coming out of them.’ That’s when it started. That’s when she started cratering, and it gradually got worse and worse.”
“There was two to three feet of snow in the field, and we needed to get water to the rig, we had to get a line strung up to the well to continue killing it. We started setting up a line using five-inch drill pipe in 45-foot lengths, and we were using bull chains to cinch up these thick-walled pipes.”
“I saw Cliff Covey go walking by, and I wondered what he was doing, going back to the rig. Then I saw him waving his arms for us to come. Well, he was just off the farm, and he had gone into an outdoor privy, lit a cigarette and thrown the match down the hole and caught the toilet on fire. We didn’t have anything to fight fire with. We got some gunny sacks and some little hand fire extinguishers from the pumpers. The flames had gone from the toilet to the sump. We’d swat out a bit of fire here and it would jump over there. None of us should have even been in there. It was lunacy. But we were young and didn’t realize the consequences, and eventually we got it out. We always called him Shithouse Covey after that.
“We decided to do a huge cement job on that well. We got 10,000 sacks of cement, put it into the hopper and pumped it down the well. Didn’t fizz a bit on that hole, not one damned bit. It was an awesome sight. The derrick, the equipment, everything but the boilers was collapsing into the crater.”
Eventually, command of the control operation went to Imperial Oil, although Leiper worked at the site until the end, for General Petroleums. “We didn’t get any danger pay,” he recalls. “The Imperial Oil guys got danger pay – they were a mile and a half away at the river. We didn’t get any, and we were right at ground zero.”
Imperial decided to drill two relief wells, but “one of those holes was plagued with fishing jobs and every other problem you can imagine. Then, in early September, the well caught fire. But we had finished a new water line from the North Saskatchewan River to the operations area, and we pumped huge amounts of river water down the relief wells. Finally, I think it was on September 8th, the well came under control. It just went quiet.”
It took six months, two relief wells and the injection of some 700,000 barrels of river water to bring Atlantic #3 under control. As part of the crude oil recovery effort, trucks sucked more than two million barrels of oil from ditches and gathering pools in the area. Oilman Frank McMahon quipped that the well was “producing through a 40-acre choke.”
The size of the blowout and the cleanup operation created a legend. The whole world knew from newsreels and photo features about it. The words “oil” and “Alberta” had become inseparable.
From a technical perspective, much good came from this disaster. Most importantly, the blowout led to new regulation. “I didn’t see any Oil and Gas Conservation Board (ERCB) people in the area when we were fighting that well,” says Leiper. But after the event the board held a public hearing, and later instituted two important regulations.
The first had to do with surface pipe. The well had been cemented to a shallow shale formation which didn’t have a chance of containing the monster reservoir pressures it encountered. Under the new regulations, drillers had to install adequate surface pipe, and it had to be cemented into a “geologically competent formation” – one that would hold in the event of a blowout.
The second had to do with blowout preventers. After Atlantic #3, BOPs had to be adequate, and there had to be two of them, so you had a backup. This was costly to the industry. “The substructure had to be a lot higher after that, so you could fit all this equipment in the cellar,” Leiper observes. “But this changed the whole complexion of the industry. After #3 there was public regulation of the drilling sector. Prior to that, you were on your own.”
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Land of Black Gold: Please God, give us one last shale boom.
Land of Black Gold: Please God, give us one last shale boom.
Please God, give us one last shale boom.
We promise not to miss it this time.
Bakken: CLR, EOG, HES, ERF, WLL, MRO, NOG.
Haynesville: CHK, GDP, HK, GMXR, PVA.
Marcellus: CHK, ATLS, RRC, ATN.
Others: XCO, SM, BEXP, CRK, EAC, XTO.
Service: HP, CRR, WFT, etc.
Bloomberg: Dakota Oil Fields of Saudi-Sized Reserves Make Farmers Drillers.
Quotes:
His new wealth springs from the Bakken formation, a sprawling deposit of high-quality crude beneath the durum wheat fields of North Dakota, Montana and southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The Bakken may give the U.S. -- the world's biggest importer of oil -- a new domestic energy source at a time when demand from China and India is ratcheting up the global competition for supplies and propelling average U.S. gasoline prices to almost $4 a gallon.
And unlike the tar from Canada's oil sands, Bakken crude needs little refining. Swirl some of it in a Mason jar and it leaves a thin, honey-colored film along the sides. It's light - -almost like gasoline -- and sweet, meaning it's low in sulfur.
Best of all, the Bakken could be huge. The U.S. Geological Survey's Leigh Price, a Denver geochemist who died of a heart attack in 2000, estimated that the Bakken might hold a whopping 413 billion barrels. If so, it would dwarf Saudi Arabia's Ghawar, the world's biggest field, which has produced about 55 billion barrels.
Thin Deposit
The challenge is getting the oil out. Bakken crude is locked 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) underground in a layer of dolomite, a dense mineral that doesn't surrender oil the way more-porous limestone does. The dolomite band is narrow, too, averaging just 22 feet (7 meters) in North Dakota.
The USGS said in April that the Bakken holds as much as 4.3 billion barrels that can be recovered using today's engineering techniques. That's a fraction of the oil that Price said should be there, but it's still the largest accumulation of crude in the 48 contiguous U.S. states. North Dakota, where Bakken exploration is most intense now, won't become Saudi Arabia unless technology improves.
``The Bakken is the biggest thing in oil in the lower 48 right now,'' says Jim Jarrell, president of Ross Smith Energy Group Ltd., a research firm in Calgary. ``And among the least understood.''
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Moonbattery: Ambitious, Arrogant, and Unscrupulous
Moonbattery: Ambitious, Arrogant, and Unscrupulous
Environmental
Environmental
Ambitious, Arrogant, and Unscrupulous
Charles Krauthammer quotes Czech President Vaclav Klaus:
The largest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity is no longer socialism. It is, instead, the ambitious, arrogant, unscrupulous ideology of environmentalism.
Ambitious, arrogant, and unscrupulous — that certainly sums up global warming hoaxers, as Krauthammer confirms:
If you doubt the arrogance, you haven't seen that Newsweek cover story that declared the global warming debate over. Consider: If Newton's laws of motion could, after 200 years of unfailing experimental and experiential confirmation, be overthrown, it requires religious fervor to believe that global warming — infinitely more untested, complex and speculative — is a closed issue.
But declaring it closed has its rewards. It not only dismisses skeptics as the running dogs of reaction, i.e., of Exxon, Cheney and now Klaus. By fiat, it also hugely re-empowers the intellectual left.
For a century, an ambitious, arrogant, unscrupulous knowledge class — social planners, scientists, intellectuals, experts and their left-wing political allies — arrogated to themselves the right to rule either in the name of the oppressed working class (communism) or, in its more benign form, by virtue of their superior expertise in achieving the highest social progress by means of state planning (socialism).
Two decades ago, however, socialism and communism died rudely, then were buried forever by the empirical demonstration of the superiority of market capitalism everywhere from Thatcher's England to Deng's China, where just the partial abolition of socialism lifted more people out of poverty more rapidly than ever in human history.
Just as the ash heap of history beckoned, the intellectual left was handed the ultimate salvation: environmentalism. Now the experts will regulate your life not in the name of the proletariat or Fabian socialism but — even better — in the name of Earth itself.
Environmentalism is not about the environment. If the hoaxers really believed that CO2 is harmful, they would be pushing nuclear energy. Profiteers like Al Gore are in it for the money. As for bureaucrats and their lieutenants in the media: the global warming lie promises to deliver absolute power, just as communism did for Stalin and Mao.
Vinegar and Honey: Just Words?
Vinegar and Honey: Just Words?
Have you read any good books, lately? May I suggest a couple that have some pretty enlightening information in them? I wouldn't suggest going out and buying them--the author is probably already pretty well-set--but they are available at your local library.
The books I am suggesting are, "Dreams Of My Father" and "The Audacity Of Hope" by Barack Obama. I find it fascinating how much you can find out about a person in his written word--especially when his words are directed toward one particular group of people, or maybe, those who have the same ideology, whomever they may be.
Who knew, when he wrote them, that they would be read by such a diverse group, many of whom feel quite resentful at the philosophy of a man well on his way to becoming the President, and leader of our country?
Here are a few quotes from the two books:
Dreams Of My Father
"The person who made me proudest of all, though, was [half brother] Roy .. He converted to Islam."
"never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa, that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself.."
"The emotion between the races could never be pure..... the other race would always remain just that: menacing, alien, and apart."
"There were enough of us on campus to constitute a tribe, and when it came to hanging out many of us chose to function like a tribe, staying close together, traveling in packs.
"It remained necessary to prove which side you were on,to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names"
"I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother's race."
"I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites."
"That hate hadn't gone away," he wrote, blaming "white people — some cruel, some ignorant, sometimes a single face, sometimes just a faceless image of a system claiming power over our lives."
The Audacity Of Hope
"Lolo (Obama's step father) followed a brand of Islam ...."I looked to Lolo for guidance."
"We are no longer just a Christian nation," "We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers."
"I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."
After reading the words, and sensing the passion found in his books, one has to wonder if he will be President of all the People...or just a chosen group, or groups. After all, his words speak for themselves.
"Where ambition can cover its enterprises, even to the person himself, under the appearance of principle, it is the most incurable and inflexible of passions."
~David Hume 1711-1776
Scottish Philosopher, Historian
Have you read any good books, lately? May I suggest a couple that have some pretty enlightening information in them? I wouldn't suggest going out and buying them--the author is probably already pretty well-set--but they are available at your local library.
The books I am suggesting are, "Dreams Of My Father" and "The Audacity Of Hope" by Barack Obama. I find it fascinating how much you can find out about a person in his written word--especially when his words are directed toward one particular group of people, or maybe, those who have the same ideology, whomever they may be.
Who knew, when he wrote them, that they would be read by such a diverse group, many of whom feel quite resentful at the philosophy of a man well on his way to becoming the President, and leader of our country?
Here are a few quotes from the two books:
Dreams Of My Father
"The person who made me proudest of all, though, was [half brother] Roy .. He converted to Islam."
"never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa, that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself.."
"The emotion between the races could never be pure..... the other race would always remain just that: menacing, alien, and apart."
"There were enough of us on campus to constitute a tribe, and when it came to hanging out many of us chose to function like a tribe, staying close together, traveling in packs.
"It remained necessary to prove which side you were on,to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names"
"I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother's race."
"I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites."
"That hate hadn't gone away," he wrote, blaming "white people — some cruel, some ignorant, sometimes a single face, sometimes just a faceless image of a system claiming power over our lives."
The Audacity Of Hope
"Lolo (Obama's step father) followed a brand of Islam ...."I looked to Lolo for guidance."
"We are no longer just a Christian nation," "We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers."
"I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."
After reading the words, and sensing the passion found in his books, one has to wonder if he will be President of all the People...or just a chosen group, or groups. After all, his words speak for themselves.
"Where ambition can cover its enterprises, even to the person himself, under the appearance of principle, it is the most incurable and inflexible of passions."
~David Hume 1711-1776
Scottish Philosopher, Historian
Saturday, May 10, 2008
321energy :: Gasoline, Diesel, and Oil :: Adam Hamilton
321energy :: Gasoline, Diesel, and Oil :: Adam Hamilton
Excellent piece on refining/Gas Crude/ Diesel interaction on prices
Excellent piece on refining/Gas Crude/ Diesel interaction on prices
Friday, April 25, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
ArthurDeVany.com � Important Things
ArthurDeVany.com � Important Things
Not only does each member of Congress control an average of $5 billion of spending per year, more than Warren Buffet or Bill Gates, she/he also has the power to compel us to act in ways that a corporation cannot. They have to sell something we choose to buy.
Not only does each member of Congress control an average of $5 billion of spending per year, more than Warren Buffet or Bill Gates, she/he also has the power to compel us to act in ways that a corporation cannot. They have to sell something we choose to buy.
Vinegar and Honey: A "Green" House
Vinegar and Honey: A "Green" House
George Bushes house at Crawford.
George Bushes house at Crawford.
Bloomberg.com: Energy
Bloomberg.com: Energy
China, India, Russia and the Middle East for the first time will consume more crude oil than the U.S., burning 20.67 million barrels a day this year, an increase of 4.4 percent, according to the International Energy Agency in Paris. U.S. demand will contract 2 percent to 20.38 million barrels daily, the IEA says.
Economic growth of more than 8 percent in China and India, coupled with increasing car ownership among the countries' combined populations of 2.45 billion people, will more than compensate for falling U.S. demand. Oil use worldwide will increase 2 percent this year because of growth in emerging markets, the Paris-based IEA says.
``Does the U.S. matter anymore?'' said Mike Wittner, head of oil research at Societe Generale SA in London. ``Has the U.S. mattered for the last few years? It is debatable. As far as the oil market is concerned, demand growth is going to be continued to be driven by China and the Middle East.''
Monday, April 21, 2008
Amazon.com: The Lives of Others: Martina Gedeck,Ulrich M�he,Sebastian Koch,Ulrich Tukur,Thomas Thieme,Hans-Uwe Bauer,Volkmar Kleinert,Matthias Brenner
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Iran Thumbs Nose At West Over Oil Demands - Forbes.com
Iran Thumbs Nose At West Over Oil Demands - Forbes.com
Iran Thumbs Nose At West Over Oil Demands
James McKeigue, 04.16.08, 4:06 PM ET
LONDON - Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari taunted America and Britain after the two countries appealed for OPEC to increase supply.
"Why should OPEC try to lower prices? ... Let America and Britain continue demanding," the controversial minister said to journalists outside a conference in Tehran on Wednesday.
His comments came on a day when crude oil futures advanced to yet another high, breaking $115 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange before settling at a record $114.93.
America has tried to isolate Iran by imposing tough sanctions that hamper its oil industry. It is now asking the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, in which Iran is the second-biggest producer, to raise output. It is an irony that cannot be lost on Nozari, though he claimed at the conference that other foreign states were willing to invest in Iran. (See: "Iran's Deal Is A Gas For Malaysia's SKS")
His hard-line stance is echoed by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly called for OPEC to stop pricing its oil in dollars and list its products in a basket of currencies. (See: " Black Gold Back In Sight")
America does have allies in OPEC, chiefly the Saudis, but the organization's rhetoric has not changed in the face of a doubling in oil prices since early 2007. Even last month's state visit by George Bush to Saudi Arabia could not persuade OPEC to change its tune.
"Oil supply to the market is enough, and high oil prices are not due to a shortage of crude but rather it is because of the decrease in the dollar's value, shortage of refinery capacity and some political tensions in the world," said OPEC's secretary general, Abdullah Al-Badri.
It is certainly true that the weak dollar makes traders seek shelter in commodities.
"The dollar continues to weaken, and that suggests there might be a little more capital going into the commodities market," said Simon Wardell, an energy analyst with Global Insight. He did not believe that the supply-demand balance had fundamentally changed lately, and thinks prices will likely fall back with demand later this year. (See: " Oil Rises On Dollar's Slide")
As for Nozari, he does not restrict his battles to Western oil consumers. On Wednesday, he poured fuel on the flames of a long-running dispute with Crescent Petroleum of the United Arab Emirates, saying that it would have to pay the price he sets for a new gas deal.
Iran Thumbs Nose At West Over Oil Demands
James McKeigue, 04.16.08, 4:06 PM ET
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"Why should OPEC try to lower prices? ... Let America and Britain continue demanding," the controversial minister said to journalists outside a conference in Tehran on Wednesday.
His comments came on a day when crude oil futures advanced to yet another high, breaking $115 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange before settling at a record $114.93.
America has tried to isolate Iran by imposing tough sanctions that hamper its oil industry. It is now asking the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, in which Iran is the second-biggest producer, to raise output. It is an irony that cannot be lost on Nozari, though he claimed at the conference that other foreign states were willing to invest in Iran. (See: "Iran's Deal Is A Gas For Malaysia's SKS")
His hard-line stance is echoed by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly called for OPEC to stop pricing its oil in dollars and list its products in a basket of currencies. (See: " Black Gold Back In Sight")
America does have allies in OPEC, chiefly the Saudis, but the organization's rhetoric has not changed in the face of a doubling in oil prices since early 2007. Even last month's state visit by George Bush to Saudi Arabia could not persuade OPEC to change its tune.
"Oil supply to the market is enough, and high oil prices are not due to a shortage of crude but rather it is because of the decrease in the dollar's value, shortage of refinery capacity and some political tensions in the world," said OPEC's secretary general, Abdullah Al-Badri.
It is certainly true that the weak dollar makes traders seek shelter in commodities.
"The dollar continues to weaken, and that suggests there might be a little more capital going into the commodities market," said Simon Wardell, an energy analyst with Global Insight. He did not believe that the supply-demand balance had fundamentally changed lately, and thinks prices will likely fall back with demand later this year. (See: " Oil Rises On Dollar's Slide")
As for Nozari, he does not restrict his battles to Western oil consumers. On Wednesday, he poured fuel on the flames of a long-running dispute with Crescent Petroleum of the United Arab Emirates, saying that it would have to pay the price he sets for a new gas deal.
R-Squared Energy Blog: Where Our Gasoline Imports Come From
R-Squared Energy Blog: Where Our Gasoline Imports Come From
For 2007, our Top 10 importers of finished gasoline into the U.S. in thousand barrels were:
1. United Kingdom (Thousand Barrels) 25147
2. U.S. Virgin Islands (Thousand Barrels) 23590
3. France (Thousand Barrels) 11209
4. Canada (Thousand Barrels) 10605
5. Netherlands (Thousand Barrels) 10518
6. Norway (Thousand Barrels) 8406
7. Germany (Thousand Barrels) 8351
8. Russia (Thousand Barrels) 7387
9. Italy (Thousand Barrels) 7239
10. OPEC Countries (Thousand Barrels) 5516
Europeans demand more diesel. Since you get diesel and gasoline from the refining process, they get rid of their excess gasoline by sending it to the U.S. That helps keep gasoline prices in check. Take a look at diesel prices to see what gasoline prices might look like if not for the imports.
Where Our Gasoline Imports Come From
I started this post almost a year ago, but forgot about it. But someone at The Oil Drum just said they wished they had more information on where our gasoline imports come from. No need to wonder, because the EIA publishes this information.For 2007, our Top 10 importers of finished gasoline into the U.S. in thousand barrels were:
1. United Kingdom (Thousand Barrels) 25147
2. U.S. Virgin Islands (Thousand Barrels) 23590
3. France (Thousand Barrels) 11209
4. Canada (Thousand Barrels) 10605
5. Netherlands (Thousand Barrels) 10518
6. Norway (Thousand Barrels) 8406
7. Germany (Thousand Barrels) 8351
8. Russia (Thousand Barrels) 7387
9. Italy (Thousand Barrels) 7239
10. OPEC Countries (Thousand Barrels) 5516
Europeans demand more diesel. Since you get diesel and gasoline from the refining process, they get rid of their excess gasoline by sending it to the U.S. That helps keep gasoline prices in check. Take a look at diesel prices to see what gasoline prices might look like if not for the imports.
R-Squared Energy Blog: Where Our Oil Imports Come From
R-Squared Energy Blog: Where Our Oil Imports Come From
For 2007, our Top 10 importers of crude oil into the U.S. in million barrels were:
1. Canada 680.533 million barrels
2. Saudi Arabia 530.245
3. Mexico 514.48
4. Venezuela 419.841
5. Nigeria 394.856
6. Angola 181.215
7. Iraq 177.009
8. Algeria 161.755
9. Ecuador 72.138
10. Kuwait 64.306
Source: U.S. Crude Imports by Country of Origin
If you compare to the list for gasoline imports, Canada is the only country common to both lists (although "OPEC Countries" in total came in at #10). Any surprises on that list? I am surprised to see Ecuador in the Top 10. I would have thought Brazil would have come in higher than Ecuador (Brazil was 11th). For me, it was also noteworthy that Mexico and Saudia Arabia swapped places in 2007.
Total OPEC imports in 2007 were 1.97 billion barrels. Total non-OPEC imports were 1.69 billion barrels. Consider how dependent we are on oil, how oil prices have run up, and the resulting massive transfer of wealth out of the U.S. and into other countries.
This is a big reason that I am pessimistic about the U.S. economy recovering any time soon. A lot of discretionary income is disappearing from American pockets and ending up flowing into the hands of oil exporters. An obvious solution is to do more business with these oil producers, and offer them something of value that will pull more of that money back. (I am also basing many of my personal finance decisions based on the premise that this trend will continue).
Where Our Oil Imports Come From
Following the theme of the previous post on where we get our gasoline imports, below is the list of our Top 10 sources of oil imports for 2007.For 2007, our Top 10 importers of crude oil into the U.S. in million barrels were:
1. Canada 680.533 million barrels
2. Saudi Arabia 530.245
3. Mexico 514.48
4. Venezuela 419.841
5. Nigeria 394.856
6. Angola 181.215
7. Iraq 177.009
8. Algeria 161.755
9. Ecuador 72.138
10. Kuwait 64.306
Source: U.S. Crude Imports by Country of Origin
If you compare to the list for gasoline imports, Canada is the only country common to both lists (although "OPEC Countries" in total came in at #10). Any surprises on that list? I am surprised to see Ecuador in the Top 10. I would have thought Brazil would have come in higher than Ecuador (Brazil was 11th). For me, it was also noteworthy that Mexico and Saudia Arabia swapped places in 2007.
Total OPEC imports in 2007 were 1.97 billion barrels. Total non-OPEC imports were 1.69 billion barrels. Consider how dependent we are on oil, how oil prices have run up, and the resulting massive transfer of wealth out of the U.S. and into other countries.
This is a big reason that I am pessimistic about the U.S. economy recovering any time soon. A lot of discretionary income is disappearing from American pockets and ending up flowing into the hands of oil exporters. An obvious solution is to do more business with these oil producers, and offer them something of value that will pull more of that money back. (I am also basing many of my personal finance decisions based on the premise that this trend will continue).
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Villainous Company: A Suspension of Contempt
Villainous Company: A Suspension of Contempt: "A Suspension of Contempt
'Duty is the sublimest word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more; you should never wish to do less.'
-Robert E. Lee
Marvelous
'Duty is the sublimest word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more; you should never wish to do less.'
-Robert E. Lee
Marvelous
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Global warming rage lets global hunger grow - Telegraph
Global warming rage lets global hunger grow - Telegraph: "Global warming rage lets global hunger grow"
The mass diversion of the North American grain harvest into ethanol plants for fuel is reaching its political and moral limits.
We are all part of this drama whether we fill up with petrol or ethanol. The substitution effect across global markets makes the two morally identical.
The mass diversion of the North American grain harvest into ethanol plants for fuel is reaching its political and moral limits.
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"The reality is that people are dying already," said Jacques Diouf, of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). "Naturally people won't be sitting dying of starvation, they will react," he said.
The UN says it takes 232kg of corn to fill a 50-litre car tank with ethanol. That is enough to feed a child for a year. Last week, the UN predicted "massacres" unless the biofuel policy is halted.We are all part of this drama whether we fill up with petrol or ethanol. The substitution effect across global markets makes the two morally identical.
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