An interesting article regardless of political affiliation:
An Oil Man's Perspective:
Bill spent nearly 50 years in the US oil and gas industry; most of his
career was with the Phillips Petroleum Company. Bill is a descendant of
Frank Phillips. Frank Phillips, along with his brother Lee Eldas (L.E.)
Phillips, Sr., founded the original Phillips Petroleum Company in 1917 in
Bartlesville, OK. Do you remember Phillips 66 gas stations? Phillips
Petroleum Company merged with Conoco, Inc., in 2002 to form the current
ConocoPhillips oil company.
So, when Bill talks about oil and gas issues, I tend to listen - very
closely.
I think that you will find Bill's thoughts and facts very revealing, very
compelling and very difficult to argue with.
As you prepare to cast your crucial ballots this Fall, please think long
and hard about the far-reaching, cumulative effects of the US political
philosophies, policies and legislation that have contributed to the current
and future US oil supply situation.
May 28, 2008
'Big Oil'
Did you know that the United States does NOT have any big oil companies.
It's true: the largest American oil company, Exxon Mobil, is only the 14th
largest in the world, and is dwarfed by the really big oil companies--all
owned by foreign governments or government-sponsored monopolies--that
dominate the world's oil supply.
This graph below tells the story; you can barely see the American oil
companies as minor players on the e right side of the chart in gray. The
chart was presented to the House committee last week by Chevron.
With 94% of the world's oil supply locked up by foreign governments, most
of which are hostile to the United States, the relatively puny American oil
companies do not have access to enough crude oil to significantly affect
the market and help bring prices down. Thus, ExxonMobil, a 'small' oil
company, buys 90% of the crude oil that it refines for the U.S. market from
the big players, i.e., mostly-hostile foreign governments. The price at
the U.S. pump is rising because the price the big oil companies charge
ExxonMobil and the other small American companies for crude oil is going up
as the value of the American dollar goes down. They will eventually bleed
this country into printing even more money and we will go into runaway
inflation once again as we did under the Carter Democratic reign.
This is obviously a tough situation for the American consumer. The irony
is that it doesn't have to be that way. The United States --unlike, say,
France --actually has vast petroleum reserves. It would be possible for
American oil companies to develop those reserves, play a far bigger role in
international markets, and deliver gas at the pump to American consumers at
a much lower price, while creating many thousands of jobs for Americans.
This would be infinitely preferable to shipping endless billions of dollars
to Saudi Arabia , Russia , and Venezuela to be used in propping up their
economies.
So, why doesn't it happen? Because the Democrat Party--aided, sadly, by a
handful of Republicans--deliberately keeps gas prices high and our domestic
oil companies small by putting most of our reserves off limits to
development. China is now drilling in the Caribbean, off Cuba , but our
own companies are barred by law from developing large oil fields off the
coasts of Florida and California. Eno rous oil-shale deposits in the
Rocky Mountain states could go a long way toward supplying American
consumers' needs, but the Democratic Congress won't allow those resources
to be developed. ANWR contains vast petroleum reserves, but we don't
know how vast, because Congress, not wanting the American people to know
how badly its policies are hurting our economy, has made it illegal to
explore and map those reserves, let alone develop them.
In short, all Americans are paying a terrible price for the Democratic
Party's perverse energy policies. I own some small interests in tiny, 4
barrel-per-day oil wells in Wyoming . We have 14 agencies that have
iron-hand jurisdiction over us. If we drop any oil on the ground when the
refinery truck comes to pick up oil from our holding tanks, we are fined.
Yet down the road the state will spray thousands of gallons of used oil on
a dirt road to control dirt. When it rains that oil runs into rivers and
creeks. Yet a cup of oil on the ground at our wellhead is a $50,000 EPA
fine plus additional fines from state regulating agencies. They treat oil
as if it were plutonium that has the potential to leak into the
environment. We are fined if our dirt berms are not high enough around a
holding tank, yet the truck that picks up our oil runs down the road at 60
mph with no berm around it. People wonder why there is no more
exploration in this country. It's because of the regulators; people who
have lived their whole lives doing nothing but imposing fines on small
operators like us for doing mostly nothing.
So, America , enjoy your $4.00 per gallon gasoline. Your dollar is now
worth 0.62 Euro-Cents. The lack of American production of GNP, the
massive trade deficit (as labor markets have moved overseas to fight
insanely high union imposed labor costs in America ) and the run away
printing of money (backed by nothing of value here in America ) has caused
the dollar to become more worthless on the international market. And
that's where our oil comes from. It's paid for with dollars that become
more worthless everyday. If we had just kept par with the Euro, we'd be
paying $62 dollars per barrel for oil (42 gallons) or about $1.50 instead
of $2.50 a gallon for crude oil.
What the US government also does not tell you is that it is the leaseholder
and royalty recipient of most oil production, and receives 25% of the gross
oil sales before we pay for electricity to lift the oil, and propane to
keep the oil-water separators from freezing in the winters. We pay a
pumper to visit each well every day plus we have equipment failures all the
time. We pay for that out of our 75% of gross sales. The government does
not share in any expenses to run any production well. So, if the Big Oil
Companies are making record profits, then so is the federal government from
it's 25% tax on every molecule of oil sold to a refinery in this country.
Why isn't the government on the stand for 'record' profits? What you don't
see is this 25% of the sales price of crude oil being siphoned away by the
government. That money, plus the road taxes, state taxes, etc., amounts
to over $1 per gallon of gasoline you are buying while the governments only
admit to about 50 cents per gallon.
To all you Democrats, when you go vote for your candidate, a blazing
liberal like Barrack Hussein Obama just keep in mind that their liberal
spending habits will further decrease the value of the American dollar on
the world market and your gasoline costs will hike even higher. As they
introduce more give-away programs, raise taxes on everyone to pay people
not to produce or work, your dollar will continue to dwindle on the world
market and you will be paying $10.00 per gallon at the next election.
Cheap hydrocarbon fuel is all over. Enjoy! Enjoy the fruits of your
decision to elect these folks when you are there in that voting booth and
you stab your pin through a Democrat's name.
William 'Bill' Phillips
