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The Daily Sentinel recently reported that a huge oil reserves in North Dakota and Montana might contain 3 billion to 4.3 billion barrels of oil that could be extracted with current technology. It is touted at being the largest potential oil resource in the 48 contiguous states.
The same article reported that the United States had an estimated 21 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. The last sentence of the article states that the U.S. uses about 7 billion barrels of oil a year.
According to my math teacher (old math, not new math), the above information translates into that we have only 3 years of proven oil supply and the “huge North Dakota-Montana reserve” would only supply the United States with a six-month supply.
Common sense tells us that the oil industry is not going to spend the billions and billions of dollars to prove and produce the North Dakota-Montana oil reserves for only a six-month supply.
Does all of this translate into $5 to $6-per-gallon gas, enriching the U.S. oil giants and OPEC nations even more?
We for sure need to develop affordable various alternative energy sources.
LARRY M. HEAD
Hotchkiss
14 Responses to “Our reserves won’t quench our oil thirst”
Posted April 30th, 2008 at 10:21 am Login to Send PM Report this comment
Larry,
You and I must have had similar math classes!
When a reserve is identified as having several billions of barrels, it sounds like a lot. However, when this number is compared to our insatiable demand, it becomes obvious that a few billion barrels is not really bringing much to the table.
Efficiency. Conservation. Renewable energy.
(Just having all our tires properly inflated would save more fuel than what can be found ND-MO.)
Posted April 30th, 2008 at 1:11 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
This letter indicates that it takes more than the knowledge of how to perform simple division to understand the oil industry.
We need to wean ourselves from oil for three primary reasons. First, it is an issue of national security. We need to lower our dependence on imports. Second, for environmental reasons. Third, because it is a resource that will become increasingly difficult to obtain. Therefore, we must have a long-term program aimed at creating new domestic energy sources that are not oil based.
Having said that, it will take many, many, many years to fully replace oil. In the meantime, we need to use our own oil resources while the transition takes place. It ridiculous to suggest that either the oil beneath Anwar or North Dakota, or offshore the US would be used up in a matter of months. The oil from these sources could not flow that fast. It would take one or two decades to get that oil out of the ground, possibly a lot longer. That oil could be used to replace a substantial portion of what we import from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and other enemy nations.
Some people are so blinded by their hatred of oil companies that they neglect the security of this nation. Oh, but they are so quick to point out that the reason we are in Iraq is so we can steal their oil. Well, even if they were right (which they are not), it would be even more reason to produce as much of our own as we can.
Posted April 30th, 2008 at 5:59 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
If we’re NOT in Iraq for the OIL, then I’m REALLY scared as hell. Wasn’t it because of the WMDs? Guess not; none found. Spreading democracy? No again; a dismal failure. Fighting terrorism? Oh, way too nebulous.
Uncle Sam, black-gold addict, hopes only to bully & kill as a means of securing future oil supplies. Happened to notice all the oil-supply agreements that big dragon China has quitely inked lately (while we spiral down the rathole as the world’s self-appointed police force) with Iran, Nigeria, Russia, and Saudi Arabia? The EU gets the rest, while we’re left huge debt, recession, lots of VA bills, continued ignorance, and NO PLAN for future energy supplies. Other than DRILL IT ALL and DRILL IT NOW, by gawd!!
Posted April 30th, 2008 at 6:13 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
So Chancho, are you in favor of drilling in this country so we can reduce our reliance on foreign supplies while we develop alternate forms of energy?
Posted April 30th, 2008 at 6:15 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
well good lord, chancho…if you dislike the us so bad, just why are you here?…i’ve read other of your comments about “mediocre” county…i happen to love my country, as well as the county in which I CHOOSE TO RESIDE…it’s kinda an american thang, don’t ya know…if you don’t like it where yer at, you’re always welcome to leave…that being said, i agree with larry on the whole with his letter…we all know that petroleum is a finite resource…unfortunately, we don’t have much choice on what we use for fuel, as we haven’t found an alternative yet…yes, we’re a big oil hog in this country, myself included…i’m a truck driver, and can tell you that as long as fuel prices rise, so will the rest of it, as the end consumer burdens the cost of transportation.
Posted April 30th, 2008 at 6:53 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
hiteredneck makes the assumption that because another criticizes what is being done in the county or country, that somehow the critic does not “love” either. It is not the one that criticizes that displays a “lack of love or concern”, it is the one who simply does not care. A parent who corrects his child does so because they care, the ones who don’t bother (for whatever reason) are the ones who don’t. The same applies in the relationship between the citizen and his city, county, state, and even country.
There is neither individual nor organization that is perfect, that cannot improve, and not deserving of criticsm. That includes what this country does, and what it allows, through its government. Failing to pay heed to what it has done, or what it is doing and why, constitutes the very essence of failure in meeting the most basic obligation of citizenship.
Posted April 30th, 2008 at 7:28 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
No right thinking person would consider drilling in the pristine “badlands” of North Dakota and Montana just for a six month supply of energy. Unless that person was an oil addict, or perhaps a heat addict. If our present supply happened to run out, say in December or January, or something like that. The point is you don’t cure an addiction by giving the addict more supply. As an ex smoker, I can speak to this point with authority and expertise. Mere words cannot adequately describe how grateful I am to those caring, loving individuals, who just for my benefit, worked so diligently to raise the price of tobacco beyond my means. After 50 years of smoking, with no health problems, (starting at age 19), the PC crowd finally stepped in with the solution that helped me break my addiction. It was so simple, I don’t know why I didn’t think of it. Simply raise the price of a product until no one can afford to use it anymore. Brilliant!
And in the spirit of paying this PC crowd back, and helping them break their addiction on oil, I have just completed writing letters to the elected officials of this state, and of course, all adjoining states suggesting a government program to add $.50 per gallon tax per year until you are all free of this addiction. No need to thank me. I owe it to you. And I have the satisfaction of knowing that when you plan that vacation with the family, at every fill up you will be thinking of me and what I have done for you. Sure, there will probably be a few of you that don’t understand and become bitter, and cling to religion or guns in an attempt to explain your frustrations. I hope not, because I am going to need your help to do what is Politically Correct about that God and guns thing.
More later, right now, I need a cup of coffee. Oops.
Posted April 30th, 2008 at 7:49 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
Chancho,
I don’t know why you think we went into Iraq, but my Grandson says he went to be the first on his block to get a confirmed kill. OOH RAH
Oh hell yea, we want the oil. Let’s burn theirs first before we burn ours. We can build some nuclear plants and mine more coal in the meantime. And when that runs out, we can build dams, and cut trees.
By the way, how do you feel about using food for a weapon? If the “sheiks of the burning sand” get real hungry, we could trade pork for oil. The price of pork bellies is down. We have the technology, we can ship anywhere in the world. Everything but the squeal, baby, that’s my motto.
Posted April 30th, 2008 at 7:57 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
“No right thinking person would consider drilling in the pristine “badlands” of North Dakota and Montana just for a six month supply of energy.”—————No right thinking person would believe that this oil would be pumped out in 6 months. That is foolish beyond comprehension. It cannot be physically done. Now, I agree with the concept of weaning ourselves from oil and I am in favor of raising gasoline taxes by more than 50 cents per year. But, in the meantime, while the price goes up, why in hell buy it from the Arabs and Chavez when we have it right here?
Posted April 30th, 2008 at 8:01 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
Precisely - is it more effective to give METH or METHADONE to a heroin addict?
The answer is an emphatic YES, froggie (post#4) - let’s slant drill, blast, longwall mine, retort, refine and suck the mother dry….
The MOTHER not being EARTH, of course, but that illusive, enormous oil find known as EFFCON that underlies every red & blue state, and our white butts. EFFCON, you say? a.k.a. those twin birds known as Efficiency & Conservation. The last remaining PROVEN RESERVES that we have at our disposal. Seems like the perfect opportunity to rethink our “non-negotiable American way of life” (words of Richard Millhouse Cheney).
Posted April 30th, 2008 at 8:05 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
easy granny, you’re startin’ to scare me a tad bit….mainly with the pork references.
Posted April 30th, 2008 at 8:58 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
Why would one give meth to a heroin addict?
Posted April 30th, 2008 at 9:00 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
Why doesn’t somebody call the rangely Chevron Field Office and ask them how many barrels of oil has been pumped out, and how many more they predict is still down there that is recoverable?
It’s called ‘research’, and if I did it, there are some who would accuse me of lying about it.
Posted April 30th, 2008 at 9:09 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
rl, i am a parent, and yeah, i criticize my kids behavior…but i don’t bad-mouth em to the world at hand….i don’t see what accusing our own people of murder rape and pillaging is going to accomplish…i also fail to see why, if somebody is unhappy in their current situation, they don’t just change that situation….at least i didn’t accuse him of bigotry as somebody else has done to me…there’s a clear line between criticism and vitriol…back to the subject at hand, i think we need much more research into alternative fuels and energy…
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