Links tagged “fracking”

Biden Puts OPEC & Russia First, US Oil Industry Last -

WSJ: "The Biden Administration is now imploring the OPEC oil cartel to pump more oil so U.S. gasoline prices don’t rise more than they already have on Mr. Biden’s watch. Oil prices climbed to a six-year high on Tuesday after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia failed to agree on increasing production quotas." - "U.S. petroleum consumption is now roughly where it was at this time in 2019."

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As Biden seeks to limit U.S. oil production, reliance on Russian imports rises: By Bethany Blankley | The Center Square Jun 18, 2021 - "Within months of President Joe Biden halting the Keystone Pipeline, pausing new oil and gas leases on federal lands, and imposing further restrictions on U.S. oil companies, U.S. oil imports from Russia set a new record in March. According to International Energy Agency, U.S. imports of crude oil and petroleum products from Russia reached 22.9 million barrels in March, the highest level since August 2010. They had reached over 25 million barrels in April 2009. Crude oil imports from Russia in March stood at 6.1 million barrels, making Russia the third-largest oil exporter to the United States.

Fox Business: "All policies implemented by the Biden administration have created jobs, prosperity and influence for Russia’s energy sector. This has come at the expense of U.S. producers and consumers who are now paying on average over $3 per gallon at the pump, per AAA."

Also read Morano's written testimony to Pennsylvania House Committee on Climate regs: ‘It’s time to confront the wannabe planet savers here in this room & this state & tell them to not only NO, but HELL NO’

Francis Menton: "At the preposterous end of the scale we have the claim that the fashionable 'renewable' sources of electric power, wind and solar, are actually cheaper than fossil fuels to generate electricity...I call this claim preposterous because the fundamental deception is so obvious that you would think that no one of any intelligence could possibly fall for it. And yet you have undoubtedly read numerous articles in the past few years asserting that wind and solar-generated electricity is now as cheap or cheaper than electricity from natural gas or coal. To make the claim, the promoters of wind and solar simply omit from their calculations the single biggest part of the cost of those sources. That would the cost of intermittency, otherwise known as the cost of providing sufficient backup or storage to run a stable electrical grid while generation from the wind and sun fluctuates wildly. (As wind and solar become a bigger and bigger part of power generation on the grid, the cost of necessary backup and/or storage could easily multiply the cost of electricity by a factor of five or more."

In 2019 and 2020, for the first time since 1952, hydraulic fracturing helped the U.S became a net total energy exporter, thereby making a major contribution to our national security.

“The 3.9 million jobs currently supported by fracking take the form of direct jobs in the extraction industry, indirect jobs in the supply chain, and induced jobs [in] local hardware stores, restaurants, car dealerships, and bakeries.”

Dr. David Wojick, an independent analyst, working at the intersection of science, technology, and policy, outlined the impact of hydraulic fracturing on energy prices:

“Before fracking, wholesale gas was always around $7.50 a million BTU. Fracking cut that way down…Henry Hub price is $3.30, which is typical of the fracking-based price. A ban [on hydraulic fracturing] would take us back, or worse, since cheap gas has taken over electricity generation. The adverse economic impact would be huge.” *

Americans should realize that oil and gas account for 70% of our energy supply. The reality is that blocking pipelines and development does nothing to lower demand, it just makes getting access to these irreplaceable products more difficult - and more costly. Oil in particular has no material substitute, with still niche market electric cars being far more expensive and much less convenient. In addition, oil and gas revenues offer states billions of dollars to pay for schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, and other critical infrastructure - explaining why "blue state" New Mexico might already be fraught with buyer's remorse.  

Not just easily the world's largest oil and gas producer, the U.S. is quickly becoming a major exporter of these essentials, rivaling Russia and Saudi Arabia for oil and Russia, Qatar, and Australia for natural gas. Even though global oil demand fell 8% in 2020 through the pandemic to ~92 million b/d, U.S. oil exports stayed the course and remained much stronger than one might suspect (Figure). Demand this year should increase to 97 million b/d as travel normalizes, with still the potential to rise to 109 million b/d by 2040. There is simply no evidence that global oil demand is in structural decline: "Goldman Expects Oil Demand To Rebound To 100 Million Bpd By August."