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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Even
though the “oil is plentiful” propaganda is everywere, the actual data tells a
different story.<BR><BR>Bob Waldrop, OKC<BR><BR><A
href="http://blog.chron.com/lorensteffy/2012/03/why-u-s-oil-production-gains-are-like-water-pumps-on-the-titanic/">http://blog.chron.com/lorensteffy/2012/03/why-u-s-oil-production-gains-are-like-water-pumps-on-the-titanic/</A><BR><BR>Why
US Oil Production Gains Are Like Water Pumps on the Titanic<BR><BR>I filled up
yesterday for $3.88 a gallon, which was 4 cents more than what I paid four days
earlier. Consumers are painfully aware that gasoline prices have been on the
rise for the past few months, and while such increases had been predicted since
last fall, no one’s happy that the predictions proved correct.<BR><BR>Because
this is an election year, rising gasoline prices are fueling political rhetoric.
President Obama has hit the road to tout his energy plan, which he outlined in
his State of the Union speech in January. <BR><BR>Missing the boat: the
political debates over gasoline prices ignore the bigger problem
(AP)<BR><BR>Meanwhile, his opponents have argued his policies are driving up
gasoline prices, even though presidents have little power over pump prices. The
oil industry, though, claims that if it got its way, all problems would be
solved. It favors more drilling, fewer regulations and lower taxes. <BR><BR>Yet
domestic oil production has increased 15 percent in the past two years, and
gasoline prices have continued to rise. A statistical analysis of monthly,
inflation-adjusted gasoline prices and U.S. domestic oil production during the
past 36 years found no statistical correlation between production and pump
prices, according to the Associated Press.<BR><BR>The much-ballyhooed increase
in U.S. production simply isn’t enough to have a meaningful effect on global oil
prices, which doubled from 2005 to 2011. That ultimately is the biggest factor
in setting prices for retail gasoline.<BR><BR>U.S. production gains look
impressive, but much of it offsets declines earlier in the decade because of
major hurricanes that disrupted offshore and Gulf Coast facilities. Domestic
production was 7.5 million barrels a day in 2010, according to the Energy
Information Administration, and that number probably increased to about 7.7
million barrels last year, estimates Jeffrey Brown, an independent petroleum
geologist in Fort Worth who writes frequently on oil issues.<BR><BR>In 2004,
before the spate of hurricanes, production was 7.2 million barrels. That means
domestic production hasn’t increased more than about 500,000 barrels a day
despite the fracking binge and other efforts to encourage drilling. During the
same period, net exports for all countries in North America — including Canada,
Mexico and Venezuela, some of our biggest suppliers — fell by 1.4 million
barrels, or 23 percent, according to Brown’s analysis.<BR><BR>Brown compares the
situation to water flowing into the Titanic after it hit the
iceberg.<BR><BR>“Let’s assume that water is pouring into the ship 10 times
faster than than water is being pumped out,” he said. “The water being pumped
out is analogous to the slow increase in U.S. crude oil production. The water
flowing in is analogous to declining annual net exports. Guess which metric most
people seem to be focused on?”<BR><BR>more at link above, including a nice chart
on US oil product, 1949 to 2010.<BR><BR>[Non-text portions of this message have
been removed]<BR><BR>
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