US energy use, facts

Interesting facts about US energy consumption and production!

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US is producing 6.25 mb/day oil, but consuming 18.92 mb/day oil, from

1998 figures.

US vs. World

US 18.92 mb/day vs. World 73.6 mb/day All most 1/3 oil is consumed is by the US!

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America ? Energy Supply

At the end of 2000, North America had conventional crude oil reserves of about 50 billion barrels and natural gas reserves of about

290 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), roughly 5 percent of the world total for oil and about 6 percent for gas.

*********************************************************************** So, the US has 50 billion barrels of oil left in reserves, but it consumes 365x18.92 mb/day = 6.9 billion barrels/year oil. Only enough for 7.2 years, if the US would use it's own oil reserves.

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JS

Reply to
Protagonist
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US reserves and production were about the same in 1946 as they are now. Sixty years of production have not done anything to reduce the reserves. The reason for this is that new oil is continuously being found. Opening up new drilling areas or the use of advance recovery technologies on existing wells could substantially improve US production and reserves.

Reply to
Gary Reichlinger

====================== Unfortunately, the following applies to all economic conjectures/projections of this sort.

The predictions of doom and disaster about to result from the exhaustion of fossil fuel supplies has been on-going from at least before WW2. The story about the little boy that cried "wolf" should come to mind. However there are at least some imnportant differences.

In 1946, the estimates of fossil fuel reserves [coal, oil, NG] was inexact, as all estimates are, but was the best available. In the intervening 60 years, corporate "book cooking" has been raised to a worldwide art form. Fossil fuel reserves are the main asset of many energy companies, and thus there is every motive for overstating.

The numerous independent US energy companies in 1946 were just that, i.e. American, numerous, independent, and almost their entire revenue stream was obtained from energy production and petrochemicals, i.e. concrete goods and services. In 2006, the nominally US energy companies are trans-/multi-national, largely independent of governmental oversight/control, consolidated, and very few in number. Much of their income is now derived from abstract sources such as arcane financial operations, currency speculation and derivatives, e.g. Enron.

"Energy" and "energy companies" do indeed represent a threat to the people and government, but not because of the imminent end of supplies, but rather the rise of uncontrolled, indeed uncontrolable, global institutions whose individual resources exceed those of many countries. Compare the gross income of Exxon with the GDP and populations of the countries of the world. Exxon and other energy company gross income data is available from Fortune, and national GDP/population data is available from the IDB [see:

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Private organizations of this size and power have not been seen since the East India Company took control of and ran India (into the ground) for their sharholders' and management profit.

If you look at history you'll find that no state has been so plagued by its rulers as when power has fallen into the hands of some dabbler in philosophy or literary addict.

Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466-1536), Dutch humanist. Praise of Folly, ch. 24 (1509).

Reply to
F. George McDuffee

On Tue, 01 Aug 2006 09:17:12 -0500, F. George McDuffee

Reserves are certainly inexact. A better measure of future availability of oil is the drilling success rate. If we were running out of oil, the success rate should be low. Currently, it is at an all time high, largely due to improved seismic technology. We just need to open up more drilling locations.

More of the oil is being produced by independents now than was the case in earlier times. Even off-shore projects are being undertaken by independents. (An independent is defined as a company that does not have refining facilities.) Outside of Alaska and the Gulf Coast, nearly all of the wells being drilled in the US are being drilled by independents. Also, 80% of the wells in the US are operated by companies with less than 10 full time employees.

So? Exxon does not support terrorists. They are heavily taxed and regulated by many countries. In fact, if the industry were less taxed and regulated we would not have a shortage and oil would be less than $30 per barrel.

Reply to
Gary Reichlinger

Some people would say we don't have an energy policy in the US. I think we have a very good one. Use up all the foreign oil first. When the oil is gone the Middle East can return to a peaceful desert devoid of humans.

Gary H. Lucas

Reply to
Gary H. Lucas

And what does this have to do with alt.machines.cnc?

Tom

Protagonist wrote: snip his normal dribble

Reply to
brewertr

This article states it opposite!

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>>In Chapter 2 we describe research that indicates that the amount of oil discovered or added to proved reserves declined steadily between

1946 and 1978 (Figure 2-14). This conclusion now is strengthened by ten years of additional data and research. An analysis by Cleveland and Kaufmann (1991) indicates that the amount of oil discovered per foot of well drilled has declined exponentially from 1925 through 1988 without interruption (Figure P-1a). Oil prices and rates of drilling hide this decline at times, but these factors cannot alter the geological fact that the United States has discovered most of the fields from which it will produce economically significant quantities of oil. Similarly, an analysis by Cleveland and Pendleton (in press) finds that additions to proved reserves, which include revisions and extensions in addition to discoveries, declined exponentially from 1946 through 1988 (Figure P-1b). Again, drilling rates and other factors may hide this exponential decline at times, but these factors cannot alter the geological fact that the United States has drilled up most of its domestic oil supply.

The exponential decline in the rate at which the U.S. oil industry discovers oil and adds it to proved reserves sets the stage for the decline in U.S. oil production, which is described in Chapters 2 and 4.

Reply to
Protagonist

This is a frequently expressed viewpoint. There are a couple of things wrong with it. First, by not producing our own energy (oil, gas, coal, nuclear, or other), we have allowed the infrastructure supporting any of it to collapse. There is a severe shortage of geologists, engineers, and just about every other skill needed to explore for oil and gas. Oil wells that would be profitable now were plugged in large numbers during the 1990s. Nuclear engineers are retiring and there are none to replace them. There is not enough rail capacity to haul the coal from Wyoming to other parts of the country. The other problem is that there is enough oil in the Middle East to last many years (despite what some "experts" say). There has not been much exploration in the area for many years. The newer technologies, such as 3D seismic, have seen hardly any application there. You will have a long wait for them to run out. We are in the current situation because we chose to buy our energy from unreliable foreign suppliers rather than developing our own sources.

Reply to
Gary Reichlinger

Sorry, I guess I let myself get sucked into another OT thread. Interested parties could transfer to sci.geo.petroleum if they wish to continue in a forum where this thread would be on-topic.

Reply to
Gary Reichlinger

That article is total BS. I could not get very far without choking. Production and estimated reserves have been up and down since 1946, but the numbers now and then are almost exactly the same. As long the active drilling rigs are successful at finding oil, there is no reason to think that we could not find more oil with more active rigs. (Due to complaints about being off-topic, this is my last post to this thread. I would be happy to continue it on sci.geo.petroleum if there is further interest.)

Reply to
Gary Reichlinger

======================================== Like Tonto said to the Lone Ranger as the Indians closed in -- "What you mean we, 'white man'?"

While there were many factors involved in the numerous secret decisions/agreements that got us to where we are today, the long-term welfare of the American citizens and national-defense/strategic issues do not appear to have been on the list of items seriously considered, if these were even mentioned. Short-term, immediate and personal executive profits were undoubtedly of major importance, but executive egos, retaliation against governmental units for taxes, environmental and other regulation, and management obsession with breaking the unions also appear to have been important.

Unfortunately, these problems are not unique to petroleum/energy but are pervasive and systemic in all economic sectors of today's American economy, society and culture. The problems just surfaced there first and in such ways as to directly and immediately impact the consumer in their "pocket book".

If you look at history you'll find that no state has been so plagued by its rulers as when power has fallen into the hands of some dabbler in philosophy or literary addict.

Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466-1536), Dutch humanist. Praise of Folly, ch. 24 (1509).

Reply to
F. George McDuffee

============= Actually it has a great deal to do with alt.machines.cnc. When oil hits 100$US a barrel, it will have a severe impact on the trade because of increases in the cost of supplies/energy and collapse in demand.

On a deeper level, the forces that resulted in the demise of the domestic petroleum industry are the same ones that are killing the domestic manufacturing/industrial/machining industries, mainly secret deals between one-world politicians and ego driven executives for their immediate and personal profit, with the added benefits of retaliation for the imposition of environmental regulations and taxes, and the breaking of the unions.

The only complaint is that this was not labeled OT: in the subject.

If you look at history you'll find that no state has been so plagued by its rulers as when power has fallen into the hands of some dabbler in philosophy or literary addict.

Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466-1536), Dutch humanist. Praise of Folly, ch. 24 (1509).

Reply to
F. George McDuffee

Damn, I hate reading your posts, cause I think you got it right :(

Reply to
Why

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