World's Largest Deposits of Shale Oil in the US.

This Post first ran in
April, 2005.





Bought gas lately? OHWEE! That hurt!

Gasoline prices are soaring (again) at the pump and tempers are flaring as consumers become even more hesitant to drive that extra trip to the mall, or the grocery store, or the Big Box Shopping Center. The price on everything, on all the shelves, in all the stores, of any kind, is going up, and up, as the transportation and delivery services passes their increased “costs of doing business” on to their customers, the stores from which you buy. Ultimately, the consumer, that’s you and me, pay the full price of the increased prices on the goods we purchase in this country simply because the stores pass that increase on to us.

There is no end in sight. Yet.

The US has known for sometime that this country holds the world’s largest deposits of Shale oil. (Oil, which is a part of the shale rock.) It has been, until now, too expensive to squeeze out and process. Back when Oil was selling on the international market for $22.50 a barrel with the occasional spike to $25.00 a barrel, the cost of “squeezing” oil from Shale was at, approximately, $35.00 a barrel. It was just too expensive. Now that oil, on the international market has risen to $55.00 (Remember now, this post first ran in April of 2005!) a barrel plus the strong possibility that it will increase even more, shale oil production is looking very good… and much cheaper than oil from OPEC!

I don’t think there is any question the US is being gouged by the international oil bosses. Maybe it’s payback for Afghanistan and Iraq. No matter. It is still something this country struggles with every day.

The sooner the Congress gets off their duffs and clears the way for the wells in the Anwr, in Alaska, and off shore drilling along the entire coast(s) of the US, and clearing the way for Shale Oil production, the sooner we can invite the oil merchants in the Middle East, and elsewhere, to drink they own oil.

The American consumer will pay the higher pump price with less grousing if he knows the money is staying here, in the States, and will continue to circulate in our vast economy. American consumers will not like the increase in “at the pump prices” but we will, over time, accept it, and move on. However, if Opec and the other oil merchants continue their gouging, the American consumer is going to turn surly. It has, in fact already begun. A surly American populace is not, believe me, what the oil merchants need… or want. The Surly American is even worse than the Ugly American, and I’d remind those same merchants, the Surly American will soon begin to throw his considerable weight around. It could get a bit dicey!

Sooner, or later the US will have an alternative fuel. But not yet, and not for a few more years. But, that time is coming. When it does, we won’t need their oil, nor, for that matter, their so-called "friendship". What goes around… comes around.

“Longstreet”