snipped-for-privacy@austin.rr.com (Ron M.) wrote in
> news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:
>
> >>Saw a interview with a oil man from Texas the
> >> other day and he stated that only when crude reaches $40 a barrel and
> >> stays there will it pay for him to start drilling again.
> >
> > I'm from West Texas, which at one time was pretty much the Oil Capitol
> > of the Universe. Then Saudi Arabia came along. Drive out there now,
> > and you see pumpjacks sitting dead, rusting, hundreds and hundreds of
> > them, because the price of oil doesn't cover the cost of pumping it
> > any more. That's a very critical ratio.
> >
> > It costs $30 - $40 a barrel to drill and pump oil in West Texas. In
> > the Middle East, it's so cheap you can practically scoop it out of the
> > ground with a teaspoon.
> >
> > The West Texas economy has been utterly devastated the last few
> > decades because of this. I travelled in that area recently, and small
> > towns like Crane, Big Lake, and Sterling City are dying, with
> > boarded-up storefronts everywhere. It's sad to watch. There are very,
> > very good, decent people in those towns.
> >
> > The West Texas oil industry itself has withered, as well. If you
> > wanted to drill a well out there tomorrow, it would take at least 6
> > months to even get started, because the support industry is all gone:
> > the roughnecks, the suppliers, oilfield equipment companies, etc.
> > There's just NOTHING left.
> >
> > What's happened to the American oil industry is really what's happened
> > to many other industries: production has shifted to foreign sources
> > because of lower cost. Why pay an American call center worker $25 an
> > hour plus benefits, when a guy in India will do it for $2 a day? Why
> > spend $30-$40 a barrel to pump oil from West Texas when you can pump
> > it in the Middle East for $8 a barrel? It's the same principle at
> > work. And the resources ARE here: there's enough oil under West Texas
> > to kiss the Middle East bye-bye forever, but it's not going to happen.
> > And all that oil is just SITTING there. Billions and billions of > > barrels of it.
> >
> > Now, of course, if you want to get fabulously rich, save the country,
> > and a bunch of other nice things, crank your brain up to "10" and
> > figure out a way to get that oil out of the ground cheaply. Any ideas? > >
> > Ron M.
> > 5th generation Native West Texan
> >
> Good Oil Industry Commercial. What is needed is for the our oil industry
> and automotive monopolies to be negated by a 10 year alternative fuels
> and power plant program using NASA and the patents held by the people and
> not given to the monopolies. If a serious government sponsored program
> without political corruption were started, you would find petroleum
> products suddenly fall in pricing and stable supplies reappear.
And what planet did you say you were from???