We can’t even get much more oil than a trickle out of Iraq, so it doesn’t matter how many attacks their refineries take. Most of our crude comes from Russia and South America, and other Middle East/North African countries anyway. Not being able to get oil out of Iraq isn’t the cause of this, no matter how many times our politicians might say so.
Its just like zepp said, nothing more. The 20 cent spike is just because our refineries keep breaking down. The high price is generally is pretty much because OPEC can do whatever the hell they want and no one can stop them.
Between $2.30 and $2.55, depending on what station you go to (Albany, Ore.). Doesn’t effect me much either way, as I still do not drive, and even if I did, I would take the bus places because it’s free for students at the local community college, and even if I don’t go to school there, it’s only 60 cents per trip, with free transfers. Woohoo run-on sentences.
Yes, Dev, I understand, but don’t forget that OPEC is formed by countries that have a love-and-hate-and-more-hate relationship with US. They feel threatened by war too, and even when they come to TV to say they’ll keep prices at control, in reality they arrenge for oil to be more expensive when they feel politically annoyed.
I think part of the problem with the US oil supply isn’t that they aren’t using it or don’t want to use it but has something to do with the quality of the extracted product and how it can’t be used for purposes such as these. That’s just something I heard a long time ago. I think this might also be a reason that the Alaska drilling idea is so popular amongst some circles.
In Ireland the government controls the prices of Petrol and Diesel so people will only get so sick of the prices before the government gets their ass handed to them.
The centre of oil refining in Canada is at about .97 to $1.02 per litre. Of course, just north of here is some of the largest oil reserves in the world.
8 years is the figure provided by the CIA. And it’s not DOOM DOOM DOOM, just face it: Almost every industrialised country completely relies on oil imports, sometime this point will be reached for the US too.
Here you go:
Oil - proved reserves: 22.45 billion bbl (1 January 2002)
Oil - production: 7.8 million bbl/day (2004 est.)
Maths tells me it’s 7.9 years left before the reserves are empty.
And I don’t think there are much shale plates, because shale oil is INCLUDED in this figure. See for comparison Canada: Oil - proved reserves: 178.9 billion bbl including shale oil (2004 est.)
But those figures probably only account for proved reserves. There are still a lot of undiscovered or untapped reserves in Iraq and Iran, particularly Iraq.
I read somewhere that the main reason for the continuing jump in prices is that China is steadily consuming more and more massive amounts of oil. Most people seem to think it has something to do with the Middle East, yet I don’t understand why what’s going on over there would cause less oil to be exported.
We are talking about the USA, not Iraq and Iran. In Iraq and Iran, there MAY be undiscovered reserves, but most likely not in the USA. Those 8 years mean simply that the USA oil will be consumed in 8 years, not the entire oil on earth.
We already get most of our oil from foreign countries, though, so the U.S. running out of oil will not drastically change things from the way they are now.
In NC in my work area and my home area (RTP and somewhat nearby towns), it’s been in the $2.50s per gallon for regular (no economy grade here). I just paid over $30 earlier this week to fill the tank for my normal sized car - it’s painful since I’m commuting about 100 miles per day. How am I going to afford a house when my money’s going for gas?
I’m glad you can paste figures, but please don’t assume I don’t know what I’m talking about. It’s well known that there is more usable oil in untapped reserves throughout the US than has been produced up to this point. Sin made a good point that this oil is not quite of the same quality as the stuff being produced now, but it is there. Mainly due to environmental lobbying and the desire for oil companies to milk as much profit as possible without investing in new technology, refineries, or scouting, no new oil sites have been drilled in the US since the 70s or 80s. It is running out, but there’s more of the stuff out there than you think. With gas prices rising, you can expect these untapped reserves to not remain that way for long. Also, shale oil is most certainly not included in that figure, because US oil companies haven’t invested in the technology to be able to retrieve it (it is more expensive than traditional oil recovery). As for the Canadian figure…that is only including a slight portion of the shale oil reserves that they can recover with their current level of investment in technology. But there is an estimated 1 to 2 trillion barrels of crude oil up in those canadian reserves.
God I love only having to pay $16 for a pack of bus tickets. One pack of those’ll last me a couple weeks and I get taken practically from my front door straight to work, too. ^^
