This is pretty old, but I just wanted to share, I don't agree with everything, but he is on the right track. Just thought I would share.
Bill spent nearly 50 years in the US oil and gas
industry; most of his career was with the Phillips
Petroleum Company. Bill is a descendant of Frank Phillips.
Frank Phillips, along with his brother
Lee Eldas (L.E.) Phillips, Sr., founded the original
Phillips Petroleum Company in 1917 in Bartlesville , OK . Do
you remember Phillips 66 gas stations? Phillips Petroleum
Company merged with Conoco, Inc., in 2002 to form the
current ConocoPhillips oil company.
So, when Bill talks about oil and gas issues, I tend
to listen - very closely. I think that you will find
Bill's thoughts and facts very revealing, very
compelling and very difficult to argue with.
As you prepare to cast your crucial ballots this
fall, please think long and hard about the far-reaching,
cumulative effects of the US political philosophies,
policies and legislation that have contributed to the
current and future US oil supply situation.
May 28, 2008
'Big Oil'
Did you know that the United States does NOT have
any big oil companies? It's true: the largest American
oil company, Exxon Mobil, is only the 14th largest in the
world, and is dwarfed by the really big oil companies--all
owned by foreign governments or government-sponsored
monopolies--that dominate the world's oil supply.
With 94% of the worlds oil supply locked up by
foreign governments, most of which are hostile to the
United States , the relatively puny American oil companies
do not have access to enough crude oil to significantly
affect the market and help bring prices down. Thus,
ExxonMobil, a 'small' oil company, buys 90% of
the crude oil that it refines for the U.S. market from the
big players, i.e., mostly-hostile foreign governments. The
price at the U.S. pump is rising because the price the big
oil companies charge ExxonMobil and the other small
American companies for crude oil is going up as the value
of the American dollar goes down. They will eventually
bleed this country into printing even more money and we
will go into runaway inflation once again as we did under
the Carter Democratic reign.
This is obviously a tough situation for the
American consumer. The irony is that it doesn't have to
be that way. The United States --unlike, say,
France --actually has vast petroleum reserves. It would be
possible for American oil companies to develop those
reserves, play a far bigger role in international markets,
and deliver gas at the pump to American consumers at a much
lower price, while creating many thousands of jobs for
Americans. This would be infinitely preferable to shipping
endless billions of dollars to Saudi Arabia , Russia , and
Venezuela to be used in propping up their economies.
So, why doesn't it happen? Because the Democrat
Party--aided, sadly, by a handful of
Republicans--deliberately keeps gas prices high and our
domestic oil companies small by putting most of our
reserves off limits to development. China is now drilling
in the Caribbean, off Cuba , but our own companies are
barred by law from developing large oil fields off the
coasts of Florida and California . Enormous oil-shale
deposits in the Rocky Mountain states could go a long way
toward supplying American consumers' needs, but the
Democratic Congress won't allow those resources to be
developed. ANWR contains vast petroleum reserves, but we
don't know how vast, because Congress, not wanting the
American people to know how badly its policies are hurting
our economy, has made it illegal to explore and map those
reserves, let alone develop them.
In short, all Americans are paying a terrible price
for the Democratic Party's perverse energy policies. I
own some small interests in tiny, 4 barrel-per-day oil
wells in Wyoming . We have 14 agencies that have iron-hand
jurisdiction over us. If we drop any oil on the ground
when the refinery truck comes to pick up oil from our
holding tanks, we are fined. Yet down the road the state
will spray thousands of gallons of used oil on a dirt road
to control dust. When it rains that oil runs into rivers
and creeks. Yet a cup of oil on the ground at our wellhead
is a $50,000 EPA fine plus additional fines from state
regulating agencies. They treat oil as if it were
plutonium that has the potential to leak into the
environment.
We are fined if our dirt berms are not high enough
around a holding tank, yet the truck that picks up our oil
runs down the road at 60 mph with no berm around it. People
wonder why there is no more exploration
in this country. It's because of the regulators;
people who have lived their whole lives doing nothing but
imposing fines on small operators like us for doing mostly
nothing.
So, America , enjoy your $4.00 per gallon
gasoline. Your dollar is now worth 0.62 Euro-Cents. The
lack of American production of GNP, the massive trade
deficit (as labor markets have moved overseas to fight
insanely high union imposed labor costs in America ) and the
run away printing of money (backed by nothing of value here
in America ) has caused the dollar to become more worthless
on the international market. And that's where our oil
comes from. It's paid for with dollars that become more
worthless everyday. If we had just kept par with the Euro,
we'd be paying $62 dollars per barrel for oil (42
gallons) or about $1.50 instead of $2.50 a gallon for crude
oil.
What the US government also does not tell you is
that it is the leaseholder and royalty recipient of most
oil production, and receives 25% of the gross oil sales
before we pay for electricity to lift the oil, and propane
to keep the oil-water separators from freezing in the
winters. We pay a pumper to visit each well every day plus
we have equipment failures all the time. We pay for that
out of our 75% of gross sales. The government does not
share in any expenses to run any production well. So, if
the Big Oil Companies are making record profits, then so is
the federal government from its 25% tax on every molecule of
oil sold to a refinery in this country. Why isn't the
government on the stand for 'record' profits?
What you don't see is this 25% of the sales price of
crude oil being siphoned away by the government. That
money, plus the road taxes, state taxes, etc., amounts to
over $1 per gallon of gasoline you are buying while the
governments only admit to about 50 cents per gallon.
To all you Democrats, when you go vote for your
candidate, a blazing liberal like Barrack Hussein Obama,
just keep in mind that their liberal spending habits will
further decrease the value of the American dollar on the
world market and your gasoline costs will hike even higher.
As they introduce more give-away programs, raise taxes on
everyone to pay people not to produce or work, your dollar
will continue to dwindle on the world market and you will
be paying $10.00 per gallon at the next election. Cheap
hydrocarbon fuel is all over.
Enjoy! Enjoy the fruits of your decision to elect these
folks when you are there in that voting booth and you stab
your pin through a Democrat's name.
William 'Bill' Phillips