Think gas shouldn't be under $1 a gallon right now? ..Bullshit...read this

[Justice Is Comin]

You could be filling your tank for under a dollar a gallon right now and we shouldn’t be at the mercy of Saudi Arabia, the oil cartel or anybody else. The oil companies have been avoiding and sabotaging a technology which has oil right at their fingertips and right here in our backyard.



If word of this truly got national, it would start a riot. We know without a doubt they have orders right now from urine face and Cheney to steadily drop the price at the pumps so republicans can claim some sort of magic miracle of intimidation they have engineered against the oil companies. Whereas in actual fact, the price was artificially and purposely raised so it could be artificially and incredibly timely, dropped. They're employing every dirty election tactic that's in their GOP slime generating sewer because they're all-time record level desperate. But here's the REAL story.

If this don't make you furious, I don't know what will. All you “market driven” price believers, maybe this will convince you otherwise.

I knew I had heard it, now I have the link exposing all the dirty details..............................http://baltimorechronicle.com/2006/081806GORCYCA.html


~clip~

While the American public is struggling to pay $3 a gallon at the pumps, it seems that there is plenty of oil right here in North America that the oil companies have been ignoring for years, with an apparent wink and a nod from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Just recently the Wall Street Journal reported that Chevron was working with "new" steam injection technology in Saudi Arabia to recover millions of gallons of heavy crude oil trapped in rock formations surrounding "dry" wells. In reality however, this technology has been around since 1980 and patented by a Sam Miller in 1990 (U.S. Patent No. 4967840). Basically, super-hot steam is injected under great pressure into a dry well that fragments the rock formations down to 12,000 feet and releases oil in amounts that far exceed what the well produced in its lifespan. Geologists agree that as much as 85% of the Earth's oil reserves remain trapped in these formations, and what has been pumped out today is a small fraction of what remains. A U.S. Department of Energy Report dated 1980 even addressed this potential, but allocated no funding to pursue development of the technology. Why?

Furthermore, last year Miller's son teamed up with Hobson Secondary Oil of New Jersey and proved beyond any doubt in 15 field tests that the technology works flawlessly. In less than an hour after injecting 800 degree steam into dry capped wells, they began to flow at rates up to 1,500 barrels per day--without any negative impact to the environment. Hobson and Miller have offered their technology to the oil companies of the world at no up-front cost to the oil companies and guess what--no takers. Again the question is Why?


..................Anyone who does their homework on steam injection technology knows it works and works very well. In Mexico, Canada, and the United States alone there are over 3,800 capped wells capable of producing over a billion barrels of oil over the next 100 years. Steam injection technology could easily drop the price of oil back down to under $1 a gallon at the pumps. The only question that remains is whether our elected officials and the big oil interests that fund them, will let technology prevail over the profits of the oil giants. Don't hold your breath


Our Democrat leaders should get in touch with Hobsons and call a live press conference with these company owners as soon as they can get them to Washington and expose these oil hijacking price raping bastards for what they are. Just in time for the election.

Let them explain to the nation why a company willing to work for nothing in exchange only for a small percentage of what they can generate with unquestioned confidence, can't even get a response to come in and extract oil from wells that are sitting there rich with oil and doing absolutely nothing.

If only 3,000 of the almost 4,000 wells sitting dormant were producing only 1,000 barrels a day which is far less than this company feels can be extracted with this technology, that would equate to as much as the entire country of Iraq was producing prior to invasion.

And you poor oil company fuckers want us to believe you are breaking your backs with generosity to charge us $2.50 a gallon huh? Tell it to the finger.

If the trucking companies heard about this, they would be driving their eighteen wheelers right through the White House fence. :grr: :grr: :grr:

[rwenos]

1. Artificial Scarcity

It has worked in the world diamond market for decades. Why shouldn't it work for oil also?

What's the proof? The fact that Iraqi oil fields produce LESS now than they did before the American invasion.

It's incredibly obvious, Mandrake.

[greenbriar]

2. Those mother truckers

I hate them all

[bigbrother05]

3. kick

[Cobalt-60]

4. No matter how much oil there is,

I submit that the behavior of the current batch of energy companies has made it clear that they can not be trusted with a stranglehold on the energy supply.
It's true, they control the petroleum.
If they dropped gas to the quarter a gallon I bought it for as a boy, I would still push other energy sources.
If you own a diesel trucking company, I'd say it's damned well in your interest to produce your own fuel.
Consider the mega cash a trucking line dishes out for fuel. That could produce a lot of corn oil and methanol to feed their rigs.
Business types once called this horizontal integration. It cuts other organizations out of the profits which might otherwise be extracted from your and your customers' asses.
It works better for local or regional lines. Too far from the tank and you're paying Exxon+Mobile again.
If we've learned one thing about Big Oil is that it's never enough. Prices will soon surge beyond where we've just seen them. What's to stop it?
Indeed I think the subsidies paid from the treasury to Big Oil have purchased a political promotion, reduced prices for two months before election day.

[RC]

5. Another "To good to be true" scam

Clues: "... that the technology works flawlessly." - Since when does any big scale technology work flawlessly?

"... will let technology prevail over the profits of the oil giants." - Sounds to me like the 100 mile per gallon carburetor.

"A U.S. Department of Energy Report dated 1980 even addressed this potential, but allocated no funding to pursue development of the technology. Why?" - Because it was a report. Just a report.

"Steam injection technology could easily drop the price of oil back down to under $1 a gallon at the pumps." - Really? And where would the energy come from to make this superheated steam? Under a $1 a gallon gas?

Do your own research. This article may be based on facts, but it raises too many red flags and comes across as sour grapes

[ClintonTyree]

6. The Big Oil philosophy.........

is not to exhaust OUR country's resources and then depend on foreign resources, it's to exhaust OTHER country's resources and then keep whatever we have for ourselves and ourselves ONLY. While the rest of the world clamors for the black goo to sustain their "way of life", domestic oil is being hoarded so we can sustain "our American way of life": at least for a while longer than the rest of the world which will be plenty of time for us to invade and colonize the rest of the planet. Good old, "American values" at work.
All of those oil wells in Texas and other oil producing states that were capped because they weren't "economically feasible" before the Arab oil glut in the 60's and 70's are still sitting there. Capped. With LOTS of oil inside them. You'd have thought that when oil reached $70+ a barrel those wells would have become "economically feasible" again, but you'd be wrong. Those wells will sit there, capped, until the rest of the world's oil supply has been exhausted. Then, and ONLY then, will it become "economically feasible" to extract America's life blood from them once again.
I have no doubt this technology works. I've read numerous articles about this technique and everything points to it being exactly what they say it is and does. But American "Big Oil" isn't interested in using this technology in our country. Yet. He who has the most oil in reserve when the rest of the world's supply is exhausted wins. It's always about "winning" in America. Cooperating to make this a better planet for all isn't an option. WINNING IS EVERYTHING!
It's a great country, don't get me wrong. But we could be SOOOOOOO much better and sometimes I'm ashamed to call myself an American. We ARE what the rest of the world says we are: greedy, self centered, colonialistic bullies. It shouldn't be like that but it is. The notion that America is a shining beacon of freedom and truth is just that: a notion. We're the neighborhood bully, so full of pompous indignity we've become a pariah to the rest of the world. We've squandered (when I say "we", I mean Republicans) every bit of goodwill we ever had, every trace of moral leadership.
Enough of my sexagenarian ramblings.

[Dogmudgeon]

7. Temporary at best

First, the article appears to have been written to promote a particular set of oil development companies. The beneficiaries of the enthusiasm seem to be Sam Miller and his son, and Hobson Secondary Oil, for which I'd be willing to bet that one of the Millers serves on the board. And Steam Injection technology for oil development has been around in various forms since the late 1800s. Hence the use of the quote "new".

Here's what it says about the writer, Bruce Gorcyca:

Bruce A. Gorcyca, of Parma, Ohio, is marketing consultant and growth analyst in the private sector after a career as an executive for a Fortune 500 company. He may be reached at [e-mail].

Seems like he's got his hand in this enterprise, too. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just that he may have an overly rosy view of it. Even one small contract for Miller Steam Injection technology could make millions of dollars for the principals of the supplying company.

Still willing to "grr"?

Steam Injection technology itself requires lots of energy. That energy won't come from windmills or the sun, and it sure as hell won't come from nuclear reactors. And two miles is a long, long way to inject steam just to get oil; that oil then must be drawn to the surface. It will take even more energy to overcome the force of gravity. That steam had better be mighty hot.

Every "solution" we've seen for oil will give us a little breathing room, but that's all. We get a few more years to build a better, more efficient, more ecologically sensible infrastructure. We ought to be working on that, rather than getting angry at "suppressed" miracle technologies that will eventually only make a few people rich and not drop the price of gasoline at all.

Yes, lately, the prices of oil and gasoline have been going down quite quickly. It's the autumn, there's an election coming as you noted, and there's also been a big increase in oil output from Iraq. And lots of the oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico that were damaged by Katrina and Wilma have been repaired and came back online this summer. But the two biggest oil fields in the world -- Cantarell in Mexico and Ghawar in Saudi Arabia -- have peaked out, and no really big oil fields have been found since the North Sea fields in the late '60s. The price of oil will be volatile -- it will roller-coaster, and may even drop to $1/gallon for some brief time -- for a couple of years (2? 5? 10? it's impossible to say for sure) before the inevitable supply decline sets in.

Steam Injection is an interesting technology. It will certainly help us along. But the future demands that we develop non-petroleum energy sources. And by the way, if you're inclined to feel bad about this, don't. The article was interesting, and I'm sure we'll be hearing more about this process improvement.

--p!

[bvar22]

8. Minor point., but really chaps my ass.

5th paragraph from the bottom, you say:
"Our Democrat leaders should get in touch..."

That should read:
"Our Democratic leaders should get in touch..."
Please don't assist the Repubs in their campaign to denigrate and slur our DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
There is NO Democrat Party, and there are NO Democrat leaders.

As far a superheated steam injection, it has been in use throughout the US for many years.
The old, shallow fields around Bakersfield, Ca have been a maze of steam pipes, boilers, and compressors since before the '80s.

[rman]

9. "a billion barrels of oil over the next 100 years" = nothing.

Global oil consumption is 30 billion barrels per year

[slaveplanet]

10. buying from foreign sources

has nothing to do with how much oil is in the US reserves, both those on the public books and the huge amount in classified wells that you will NEVER hear about. BTW, there is way more than 3800 capped wells. They've been capping flowing viable wells in the US, non stop since the 1960's. 3800 would equal around 1 a day for just 11 years in the entire US...do the math, then multiply it by 50 states, than add in Mexico and Canada then safely double it, it's a huge amount. I bet there is more than 3800 capped wells in Texas and Oklahoma alone, most capped for no reason other than the oil companies going in and buying em up just to cap em.

Oil is the worlds reserve currency and the FRN "dollar" would collapse if oil weren't purchased elswhere. We are forced to buy from overseas, this is all you will ever hear from the oil soaked media.

[NOLADEM]

11. Bullshit article

First of all, steam injection wells can often cause ground water to become irrevocably damaged by hydrocarbons. It is also VERY expensive and extremely energy inefficient.

The easy oil has been tapped folks. The remaining oil is deep, far from production, complicated to produce, and exceedingly energy intensive. Many finds cannot be produced because it would take more energy to pump them than it would produce.

This article is just hocus pocus babble. They already use this technique in major oil fields.

And, most of all, the quantity of oil this technique claims it would miraculously produce over 100 years is LESS THAN TWO WEEKS of current world consumption.
:crazy:


Lastly, the $1 price is gone for good. Tax, refining, shipping, delivery and retail markup alone exceed one dollar, and that does not include exploration, drilling, royalties to the landowner, etc.

Wishful thinking is all this is.

[man4allcats]

18. "Lastly, the $1 price is gone for good."

"Tax, refining, shipping, delivery and retail markup alone exceed one dollar, and that does not include exploration, drilling, royalties to the landowner, etc."

But would those costs exceed one dollar if the price of gas weren't already somewhere between $2.50 and $3.30 a gallon? Everything hinges on the cost of fuel. Raise the price and other prices go up as well across the board. I agree that cheap gas and oil are probably history, but only because the corporate fascists want it that way.

[NOLADEM]

23. Yes.

These costs are only partially influenced by the cost of oil...they are energy intensive, but from electricity which are largely derived from coal and nuclear in oil producing areas in this country.

Yes, gas influences the price of nearly everything, but lowering gas prices to 1992 levels would not impact the federal road tax on gas, the cost of maintaining the INSANELY expensive oil production infrastructure, inflation, wages, royalties, etc.

Add to that the fact that the cost of building and maintaining gas plants is unreal, and you have a base cost that is above a dollar without paying royalties, exploration, etc, etc.

Gas could not continue to cost less than bottled water.

And remember, oil was $12 a barrel not too long ago, and that severely limited how much new exploration was done and how much gas refinery expansion/maintenance was done, in part leading to higher prices now (adding illegal war in the Middle East was the other main reason). In consideration of this fact, some minor price controls of gas price and production limits are called for, so as oil gets more expensive to pull from the ground, the market prices can support it. Otherwise, oil companies will not spend $3B to build a new oil rig and pipeline in 10,000 feet of water and drill down 27,000 feet, as the new find in the gulf would require.

Since the price went from $1.27 when Clinton left office to the higher prices now, there is an IMMENSE amount of new exploration of wells and fields that were not economic to produce at $1.27 and now are, so we will see a reduction in the cost of fuel for the next few months or years, and it is not only because there are political shenanigans.

Now, I am no big fan of oil companies, but there are two sides to every story, and arguing that gas could be around $1 a gallon again is wishful thinking that flies in the face of facts. The cheap, easy access oil with no sulfur in it is largely gone. New finds will cost more to produce. Sad fact.

[progressoid]

21. Yep - bullshit indeed.

[TransitJohn]

27. So the steam would

somehow penetrate steel casing?

[lonestarnot]

12. No secret there. Follow your gut. 90% accuracy. But you are

kidding yourself and everyone who reads and believes that oil is not a finite resource that is running out. It's just a matter of time.

[slaveplanet]

13. it's more a matter

of who owns the watch, and who is looking at it trying to get others to believe what time it is.

"Matter of time" is too vaugue.

[cascadiance]

14. The bottom line is consumption needs to be curtailed, not supply increased

Even if we find ways to get more oil (and even if those methods are found to be "environmentally clean", which it sounds like these methods aren't), the bottom line is that it is still rewarding an oil dependency that is growing larger, unless we find ways to curtail it, either through curtailing population growth, or moving to other forms of energy consumption of environmentally healthy and renewable sources.

Ultimately consuming oil at our current healthy pace STILL will just make the CO2 and global warming problems worse and will lead to our doom later. We must find ways to minimize our usage of oil. Then if we have greater supplies, and the price goes down, we'll be:

1) limiting our usage of it and resultant global warming threatening environmental damage.
2) limiting the power of those trying to use their control of the supply of oil for their financial and political gain.
3) hopefully limit global conflict over the various areas that supply this oil.

Increasing the supply of oil through technological means doesn't help with these problems. It may just make some of them worse in the long run by perpetuating and increasing our dependency on it, by lowering the short term consequences of its supply more.

[TreasonousBastard]

15. Pure rabble-rousing bullshit...

A lot of those capped wells are capped because even tertiary recovery won't get more than a few barrels a day.

Steam is expensive, uses a lot of energy just to make the steam, and isn't usable in a lot of fields simply because it just doesn't get enough oil out of them or creates worse environmental problems. Same problems with shale, that this guy seems to not have heard of-- maybe lots of oil, but we can't get at it easily, cheaply, or cleanly.

Biofuels work just fine, but we'd have to give up food production and still put a few million more acres into production to make enough fuel for everything from cars to heating.

If federal, state, and local taxes add one or two bucks a gallon, they'll still add one or two bucks a gallon to biofuels.

No new refineries have been built in this country because every time someone wants to build one, they are stopped by local activists and politicans. Ask how many times someone tried to build a new refinery in California and got shot down. Alaskan oil has been shipped to Japan because of refinery backup on the west coast. Refineries are being built in other parts of the world, though, and refined product is being shipped here. And our present refineries are constantly upgraded for higher output when possible.

There are moratoriums on drilling in large parts of all three coasts because of environmental concerns. Leases off of California, Florida, North Carolina... all dead in the water.

Now for the real problem-- we just burn too much damn oil here. The US is the least energy-efficient industrialized country and we're just going to have to get used to shortages and high prices. We do not have the right to burn half the oil in the whole world.

If anyone doesn't understand that, I know of a warehouse full of Pogue carburetors to sell them.

[tblue37]

16. Except that cheap oil has led us to such profligate behavior that

we are destroying the climate with global warming. At least when oil costs, people tend to buy fewer SUVs.

[misternormal]

17. Oil Companies have been using...

... "Steam Injection" in the oil fields near Bakersfield, CA for at least 15 years now. It is highly sucessful and profitable...

"Chevron has used steam injections successfully for decades to greatly boost production in heavy-oil fields in California and Indonesia. Now, the Saudis and Chevron want to see if the technique will work in the more porous rock formations common in Middle East."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06191/704785-28.stm

[VoiceFrmThOuterWorld]

19. It never ceases to amaze me...

...how fucking gullible people are.

Someone comes across a single - obviously bullshit - article and attaches global importance to it.

Peak Oil is real. If you need proof of that assertion go back 25 years when the OPEC countries - out of the blue and with no scientific data - doubled their "estimated oil reserves". Pure politics. The only major government official who is telling the truth about this is the Iranian oil minister, who this past May told a conference, that the Middle East oil reserves are likely half or less than what is claimed.

Even if he's wrong and there's lots of oil left, over the past few years Global Warming has reared it's ugly head to the point where even the troglodytes can't deny it anymore, and which will likely escalate exponentially as the 1000+ coal burning generating plants in China, India, and the US come online over the next 10 years. China will have 100,000,000 oil burning cars coming online over the next generation, their economy, and India's as well, will require massive amounts of oil. And all this will compound the real problem facing the planet today: global warming.

A picture of our near-term future: the vast majority of the population of earth will be living in poverty and disease, working under slave labour conditions, under the watchful eyes of a highly-paid mercenary private security force armed to the teeth, famines, droughts, and pestilence, will be the norm, while the ultra-rich will be living in a newly temperate Antarctic Paradise, ringed by another private army, to keep the barbarians at bay.

[newyawker99]

20. Hi VoiceFrmThOuterWorld!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[VoiceFrmThOuterWorld]

31. TNX

Thank you

I hope this site is NOT like SmirkingChimp.com: But i am afraid it IS. Already, one of the three threads i've responded to, has been deleted.

I don't remember what the thread was about, but i can guess: either it was critical of Israel, or it was critical of Democrats, or it was critical of the Official 9/11 fantasy commission.

At the risk of having my account deleted, here is what is actually happening in our fucked up, piece of shit, country: one out of every three dollars is spent on "defence" - read OFFENCE. We have opted out of the Non-Proliferation Agreement, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the Anti-Landmine Treaty, and every single last treaty pertaining to war, war crimes, interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign nations, chemical warfare technology....you name the nightmare scenario, and the United States Of America appears on the wrong side of the ledger.

To quote Kill Bill Part II: (we) deserve to die. We are a fucking pestilence upon this planet. Of ALL the people who live here, we deserve to live the least.

[treestar]

22. Katrina was the excuse for raising the prices the last time

Now that they are going down I am trying to remember what they were, because I bet they are not going to go down that low or lower. Every time the prices go up, they go way up and back down to a price above what they had been. It is such an obvious ploy to get people used to the higher price and even grateful for it.

Google isn't helping, does anyone remember? I've seen them back as low as $2.27 per gallon in this area (the election downturn, and they waited for now to do it, I don't think it takes a tinfoil hat to think that) but can't remember what they were per gallon just before Katrina.

[Deja Q]

24. When I posted that Beiging has gas for 33 cents a liter, nobody responded.

[TheFarseer]

25. The only problem with this is

it will re-inforce the "drill in Alaska" crowd's position that we don't need to develop alternatives. Being held hostage by price-fixers who charge what they want with no regard for the "free market" is just fine.

[Justice Is Comin]

26. It's amazing how far some will go to

attempt to debunk or rationalize a bold faced Benedict Arnold congolmerate pirate screwing Americans for profit.

Here is a company telling you that oil is sitting in the ground they can turn into cheaper prices for all of us at the pump and some of you are finding reasons to criticize the company or the technology they say they have to do it. Not only that, patented and proven technology, which Chevron has now cleverly admitted they're using themselves as "new" technology and in Saudi Arabia?

What the hell are they doing in Saudi Arabia when oil wells are sitting here all around us in the US and Canada that have been closed for business!! I'll tell you why. Because they want to increase their profits, that's why. If someone had a gasoline contraption that would get 100 miles to the gallon, do you think they would be saying...OOOooo, let me help you get that on the market.

This is the same thing they had done in the late 70's to squeeze every mom and pop gas station to the point where they had to close their business. They raised the prices so high, the small companies couldn't afford to buy the gas to compete and make a profit. All the while claiming there was an oil "shortage." Bullshit!! There were tankers of crude oil sitting off the coast of California that weren't allowed to go into the ports to unload. Gas lines were common that stretched for two blocks and car owners were told they could fill up only on assigned days.

When all the small full service friendly gas stations were finally squeezed into bankruptcy, all of sudden these shortages magically disappeared and you saw supermarket gas stations popping up everywhere bearing the names of only the few corporate monopoloy oil giants, taking the profits of the companies they Wal-marted out. Surprise surprise America.

That was a contrived conspiracy and so is this. Only with a different more cleverly orchestrated and concealed strategy.

If steam injection technology can produce oil that the oil giants are claiming to have just "discovered" and they are refusing to acknowledge any company that is willing to put their money where their mouth is to prove it, I say let's find out which one has more to gain by keeping the prices high. If you are willing to chastise a company for receiving profits from something they do to save all Americans money and willing to invest their money in advance to do it, you have a very strange agenda yourself.

Ninety two percent of every type of merchandise commodity that is used in this country comes by truck. Ten cents a gallon difference gan make the difference between a company's survival and a company's demise.

If these oil pirates are charging $2.50 a gallon and I could be paying $2.49, I'm being ripped off. If I could be paying $1.25 a gallon and they're charging me $2.50, I want their heads on a platter.

And you know what, I'll take Hobson Secondary Oil's word for it that it's happening over theirs, any day.

Let's let them roll up to some of these capped oil wells and see who can do what. I bet you won't find many Exxon executive anxious to make that phone call. Or be called up to Capitol Hill to explain why they shouldn't.

If you like being reamed doggy style, that's up to you. My ass is still sore from 1977!!!!!! :grr:

[Odin2005]

28. What bullshit, that idiot apparently has never heard of peak oil.

[Justice Is Comin]

29. And you apparently haven't heard

of price fixing or theft by deception. Or aren't interested in why Cheney fought all the way to the Supreme Court to not reveal any of the attendees in his energy meeting.

Yes, peak oil indeed.

[Odin2005]

30. I wasn't denying that there is price manipulation.

What I am deneying that prices can go back to $1.

[berni_mccoy]

32. No, DON'T believe that article... it's an editorial

And the fact is, we are AT PEAK OIL now: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil#Has_it_happened_already.3F

Oil companies are going to profit hugely POST-PEAK. Oil companies, more than anyone, want peak oil because as the oil supply starts to decline, the demand will continue to grow. The price of oil will sky rocket and the oil companies will make more money than ever for less cost. Of course, it will be the end of them over a periof of about 100 years, but it will be a very RICH, BRIGHT-BURNING end.

The sooner we stop relying on fossil fuels, the better off we will be. Gasoline will never be under $1/gallon again.