This station in Houghton Lake, Michigan was posting 47.9 cents a gallon for regular gasoline this week. Who do we thank for this and is it a good deal?
First, let’s thank the Saudi’s. Second, the United States oil industry. For the most part, the most hated industry in the past century.
Let address the second thank you first. Despite the government, despite the media, and despite the environmentalists, free enterprise did prevail once again in this country. Oil companies hiring the brightest petroleum engineers from US universities developed technologies to extract oil and gas from pockets deep under rock that previously could not be penetrated by previous technology. Combining high pressure water and chemicals they drove through that rock and extracted the gas and oil. Then by horizontal drilling they could reach other pockets. It’s an expensive process, costing $30-40 a barrel. But, a necessary process since our own government put cheaper oil and gas off limits on public land. Public land, as not owned by Barack Obama and his environmental friends and supporters, but by you and me. We don’t count in a democracy that counts votes by dollars contributed and media support. This all took place on private land and without one ounce of technology from the Department of Energy which has consumed billions of taxpayer dollars with zero contribution toward that 47 cent gasoline price.
Now, back to the Saudi’s. When this country became the world’s biggest oil producer, this was unacceptable to the Saudi’s. The US was determining the price of crude oil, not the Saudi’s. With the US government now allowing oil companies in the US to export oil, it was a big problem for the Saudi’s. So, they start pumping the hell out their oil. It costs $15-20 a barrel to produce oil there. They have one goal in mind. Stop the US oil production by keeping the price below the cost of fracking. Why, the US oil companies stop fracking, lay off people, lose money, and regress. When prices go back up above the cost of fracking it will take a long time to get back to where the business was before the Saudi’s shut it down.
Every decision the government of the US has made in the field of energy has been wrong from the days of Jimmy Carter. The government in concert with the media has created an illusion that the government is the answer and oil industry is the enemy. Want to see how that works, just look south to Mexico. That government has run the oil business for decades. Supply is drying up and the Mexican government is begging the oil industry to come in and solve their problems in producing new wells. But, they don’t want to share fairly. So it hasn’t happened.
Just think about this. If, God forbid, this country elects a Hillary or a Bernie, what happens to energy here? Like 47 cent gasoline, how about $10 gasoline? Hillary’s first job as Secretary of State was to go to our friend and neighbor, Canada, to tell them we don’t approve of their extraction of oil from tar sands. Who is we? Hollywood, environmental zealots, and libtards who still believe energy comes from magic and a country can have an economy with $10 gasoline. If you believe that, vote for one of them. If you don’t and want to see us get back on track with our dominance in the energy production business, vote for Trump. He get’s it.
Now, with Iran jumping back into production and the heightened tensions between Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia….and a bankrupt Venezuela…and Russia having to pump overtime to keep up with demand for petro-dollars….not looking too good for OPEC, perhaps?
My Montana friends say Bakken/Wiliston new drilling has stopped, in progress is being finished and capped for the future, but existing wells are still producing. Nobody is backing off existing production yet.