Marx's Role in Gas Prices

The next step in oil exploration?

I read an interesting article a while back about this project:
http://www.shell.com/home/Framework?siteId=us-en&FC2=&FC3=/us-en/html/iwgen/shell_for_businesses/exploration_production_shared/mahogany_shared/dir_mahogany.html

Apparently, Shell has figured out a way to extract oil from oil shale in situ that does not require rehydrogenation. They way that it had been done in the past is mining the shale and melting it. But the high melting temperatures necessitated reintroducing hydrogen to the oil, basically defeating the purpose.
 
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And i would go with "european consortium of top geologists find" over "employee of the oil companies says" any day of the week.
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Actually he is a contract geologist, with no axe no grind and no agenda to satisfy....

It's sort of the gig its not what you know, but who you know....:D


WilditsallaquestionofcredibilityandgripsareincomingnextweekAlaska ™
 
Actually he is a contract geologist, with no axe no grind and no agenda to satisfy...
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Key word in that sentence..."contract."

Meaning he works for whoever has the cash and is probably often told what results they want him to find.
 
PP, rather than clog it up further, I''ll just say...I trust this guy :) Guess we will know if they ever start to drill.

WildsaudiAlaska ™
 
The videos work fine for me. He says a lot, but his basic statement is that there is proof that "peak oil" is a fraud, that the North Slope of Alaska has as much oil under ground as does Saudi Arabia.

I have heard him speak before. He claims to have contacts in the oil industry... very close contacts which he has had for years.

Is it so hard to believe that this might be true? Is it as hard to believe as the fact that we are paying Saudi Arabia $130.00 per barrel of oil when it costs the Saudis about $0.75 per barrel to get it out of the ground? Do you really believe the cost of oil is due to a "supply and demand" issue?
 
It talked about the billions of dollars of tax payer money that oil companies have collected...
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What about the trillions of dollars of taxpayer money that oil companies have paid?

Did you know that last year a single oil company, Exxon-Mobil, paid about 25% of their GROSS revenue in one kind of tax or another to one government or another around the world?

That their total tax outlay amounted to the entire GDP of the bottom 60-some nations combined?

That their total US income tax exceeded that paid by the entire bottom 50% of US taxpayers?

That their total global TAX outlay was about equal to the entire GDP of Chile?

So whining about "tax breaks" to oil companies rings hollow. It's like the mugger giving you a "mugging break" by giving you cab fare home out of the wallet he just took from you.
 
I have an uncle who works for Marthon Oil. They are expanding at least one of their current refineries. It seems that it is easier to expand existing refineries than to get through the ridiculous environmental nonsense that the left puts up.
 
What about the trillions of dollars of taxpayer money that oil companies have paid?
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My company pays about 40% of it's income in taxes. Should I be getting payments from the government? Why should taxpayers support a privately owned and profitable company?
 
Have you ever given a slight thought to why gas prices differ from station to station, place to place? It is absurd to talk about "monopoly" when you have competition holding prices back.
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Perhaps 2 to 3 cents huge difference for sure their competing.:barf:


As to obscene profits, measure profitability by profit on sales. You find the oil companies making about what the S+P 500 (in average) does, while Microsoft makes double. Who is gouging whom?
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I never said anything about obscene profits but to believe the oil companies
are struggling is either naive or your a stock holder and love to see average
Joe take a beating in his struggle to drive to work. Look I believe overall
we all use too much no doubt but the oil companies do have huge profits,
they do have a monopoly and no matter how you wish to spin the problems
we face it is in part due to greed of large corporations.

If your doing well in life thats fine I'm happy for you but the idea that the
oil company is innocent and friends of the American public is truly silly.
 
Key word in that sentence..."contract."

Meaning he works for whoever has the cash and is probably often told what results they want him to find.
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You don't know the person. You have never seen them. Don't know their parents or kids.

But you know they lie, they have sold themselves to the highest bidder.

So, then what shall we make of every politician?

And of savants who know how and why people think without ever seeing them or talking, listening, or having any technical skills to evaluate what they say?

FWIW, such savants have more pride than knowlege, bigots, basically...they "know" without knowing. Useless.
 
My company pays about 40% of it's income in taxes. Should I be getting payments from the government? Why should taxpayers support a privately owned and profitable company?
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Define what you mean, about "Why should taxpayers support a privately owned and profitable company?"

Do you even know what you are saying?
 
I never said anything about obscene profits but to believe the oil companies are struggling is either naive or your a stock holder and love to see average Joe take a beating in his struggle to drive to work. Look I believe overall we all use too much no doubt but the oil companies do have huge profits, they do have a monopoly and no matter how you wish to spin the problems we face it is in part due to greed of large corporations.

If your doing well in life thats fine I'm happy for you but the idea that the
oil company is innocent and friends of the American public is truly silly.
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I understand you did not use the word "obscene". Evidently, you think they are. Have you outsourced your thinking to Chuck Schumer?

The point I was making did not sink in. Oil companies are not making ridiculous profit rates compared to sales and other companies, which is the only legitimate way to evaluate profitability...and I am a CPA/finance puke, for 29 years. I suspect I may have forgotten more about the trade than you know.

How do you define "monopoly"? You are aware that in the last 25 years there have been 34 Federal Trade Commission investigations into price fixing on gasoline...with zero conclusion monopoly or price fixing existed. How many times do you have to hear that for the "good story" about monopoly to be replaced with facts???? Or have you not done any real work to understand the subject???

A firm position about a subject without doing the required homework just requires prejudice. And bigotry is "knowing" without knowing. Doesn't matter about the subjects at hand. Get it?

I notice PP is silent about his definitive experience at Kenova and the epiphany in the Atlanta airport. Why might that be?

Facts and knowlege talk. BS hides, methinks.
 
Do you even know what you are saying
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I do...do you?

You assertion that liberals are responsible for oil companies and private investors driving up the cost of fuel is so detached from reality that I can't help but wonder.
 
I don't know how much of the price escalation is the fault of the oil companies. They would lead you to believe none.

Then I remember the testimony of the cigarette company executives denying any evidence of addiction or health issues.

It's amazing how most of us adjust are beliefs to benefit our pocketbook.
 
Tapping Alaska is about short term v. long term gains and really doesn't make sense. We have to get off oil in the long term and the negative externalities of drilling in Alaska are just too great. Remember a lot of conservatives are against this also.

I didn't read all these posts, but I seriously doubt anyone has said what I am about to. Brazil is an rapidly expanding economy with no oil problems, why? THey produce ethanol using sugar cane. Right now as part of the embargo on Cuba (the worlds largest sugar producer) we also have a strict quota on sugar from other countries to control commodity/goods washing (ship to Mexico then USA). This limits the importation of sugar or its ethanol derivatives from foreign sources.
THe US can easily and quickly end all of our oil and environmental problems. End the embargo on Cuba. At only 90 miles off Florida an underwater pipeline could bee built and sugar ethanol would flow from Cuba to the US with almost no environmental impact and at a cost well below oil tanked from Alaska, the mid east, Russia, or Venezuela.
Oh but John, we can't support the Castros!!! BS, nothing will take the Castros down faster than an invasion of 300,000 of the US's fine young Americans every April (spring break).
Oh but John we can't let all that oil money move out of the US!!! Who do you think will own the refineries? The US will probably pick up a big chunk of it and the money would come home in the end. Better the Cubans than the Saudis anyways.
This seems so simple, why hasn't it happened? Simple the Cubans fleeing Cuba after the '58 revolution came up with my "stack a state idea." They still lay claims to lands they ran from 50 years ago and only support presidents who protect their claim. They actually seem to think that when Castro falls they will fly back to Cuba and the proletariat will return their land without a word of protest. Florida swings almost every election. I often hear claims about the overpowered Jewish voting block. Total joke when you compare the influence of Cubans/capita.

I am an economist specializing in the Cuban economy.
 
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