US Exported over $430 Billion

[G8trGr8t]

in wealth to buy energy that we have right here. over $3 trillion in wealth has been exported from the US over the last 6 years.

We imported over $430B in oil in 2012. That equals the amount of unemployment paid between 2007 and 2012 combined. We continue to import oil and export wealth because we refuse to use natural gas as a surface transportation fuel. That one simple tool would eliminate the great majority of our oil imports and result in less pollution while rpoviding a $400B annual stimulus to our economy. It would reduce the cost of transport which would lower the cost of production. So simple even a big eared narcissitic spoiled child could do it.

The US exports $780,000 worth of wealth every minute because we refuse to take advantage of our own resources. Imagine what an impact it would be to keep that $$38 Billion a month here and in this economy. but instead, we build $45k electric cars that don't sell and fund bankrupt solar panels and biofuels that ruin our engines. brilliant f'ing people we have in charge

While we were busy funding bankrupt solar companies, we did nothing to convert fleets of big rigs or muni vehicles to use nat gas that is us based, cleaner, and costs appx. $1.5 for the same amount of energy that a gallon of gas/diesel provides. ridiculous

Meanwhile, us drilling for nat gas has been cut to recent lows due to supply glut, yet we continue to fund all the other "green" fuels that are not economically competetive.

rant over....

[gator996]

Would like to read more...
(U have a link to your info?)

[G8trGr8t]

number of sources

pickens plan probably provides most detail and the numbers are verifiable by going through other sources (IEA etc)

Natural gas is a domestic fuel that can free us from OPEC oil.
Nearly 15% of every barrel of oil we consume is used by 18-wheelers moving goods around and across the country by burning imported diesel. An over-the-road truck cannot be moved using current battery technology. Fleet vehicles like buses, taxis, express delivery trucks, and municipal and utility vehicles (any vehicle which returns to the “barn” each night where refueling is a simple matter) should be replaced by vehicles running on clean, cheap, domestic natural gas rather than imported gasoline or diesel fuel.

Currently, domestic natural gas is primarily used to generate electricity. It has the advantage of being cheap and significantly cleaner than coal, but this is not the only use of our natural gas resources.

By aggressively moving to shift America’s heavy truck fleets from imported gasoline and diesel to domestic natural gas we can lower our need for OPEC oil and help President Obama reach his goal of zero oil imports from the Middle East within ten years.

But the Pickens Plan isn’t just about natural gas.
Natural gas is not a permanent solution to ending our addiction imported oil. It is a bridge fuel to slash our oil dependence while buying us time to develop new technologies that will ultimately replace fossil transportation fuels. Natural gas is the critical puzzle piece RIGHT NOW. It will help us to keep more of the $350 to $450 billion we spend on imported oil every year at home, where it can power our economy and pay for our investments in a smart grid, wind and solar energy, and increased energy efficiency.

By investing in alternative energies while utilizing natural gas for transportation and energy generation, America can decrease its dependence on OPEC oil, develop the cutting-edge know-how to make wind and solar technology viable, and keep more money at home to pay for the whole thing.

It is this connection that makes The Pickens Plan not just a collection of good ideas, but a true plan

http://www.pickensplan.com/theplan



big ag, big chem, large power consumers, and power companies do not want pickens plan because they theorize demand will exceed supply and it will raise price of nat gas. chemicals, fertilizers, even pharmaceuticals all benefitting big time from cheap nat gas. cheap nat gas repalces coal that 0 wants to bankrupt without raising price of power. power companies do not want to have to deal with coal regulations so they prefer to shut them down amd use cheap nat gas if possible. large power consumers (sttel plants to server farms) do not want more expensive electricity and don't want to fight over coal plant co2 limitations.

What they fail to recognize is that we are so awash in NG we are running out of places to store it. Get nat gas prce to $4 and the market would be flooded with additional supply and the drilling bidness would come back to life spreading money around. It will not happen until/unless we change big rigs to nat gas.

we changed from gasoline to diesel in about 6 year cycle back in the 70's. we could change to nat gas faster if the political support was there.

[dangolegators]

Wealth is wealth whether it is in the form of dollars or natural resources. Whether we use our own natural resources or buy them from other nations, the wealth is spent either way.

[gator10010]

Wealth is wealth whether it is in the form of dollars or natural resources. Whether we use our own natural resources or buy them from other nations, the wealth is spent either way.

How is sending $430 Billion dollars to a foreign country better than keeping that $430 Billion dollars right here in America?

[wgbgator]

Weren't we a net exporter of oil last year?

[wargunfan]

We have two fuel oil burning power plants just north of us (10 and 13 miles respectively). We were having soot blowing into our patio every day. Seems the land breeze would take the soot out over the ocean and the sea breeze would bring it back in.
Now that one plant has shut down and the other has converted to NG no more soot! I'm all for converting them all to NG,

[G8trGr8t]

Weren't we a net exporter of oil last year?

Finished petroleum products
It is illegal to export crude oil. Exception used to be Alaska to Japan.

[GatorEcon]

Do you think the value of our natural resources goes up as the world supply goes down? Go check what America's #1 export is.

[dangolegators]

How is sending $430 Billion dollars to a foreign country better than keeping that $430 Billion dollars right here in America?

It isn't, necessarily. The point is you can't have your cake and eat it too. Either you buy natural resources from other countries or you use your own natural resources. There's a cost involved either way.

[bluelang]

If it saved companies money, they'd already be doing it.

Sounds like a job for big government?

[G8trGr8t]

It is happening but at a very slow speed. Chicken and egg situation between supply and demand.

[mocgator]

Weren't we a net exporter of oil last year?

Ummm... no we weren't. Where did you get that??

[wgbgator]

Ummm... no we weren't. Where did you get that??

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-29/u-s-was-net-oil-product-exporter-in-2011.html

I don't know if there is info on 2012 yet.

[Gatoragman]

Sounds like the plan, spend money now putting future generations in debt, but save our natural resources so future generations can have.
Wow, the logic!!!!

[brainstorm]

Help me understand why we are importing crude to process and then sell exported gasoline, jet fuel and diesel? And are we netting $$?

[G8trGr8t]

yes, we can make money refining it because we have some of the most technologically advanced refineries combined with some the of the cheapest natural gas in the world to power them. the cheap natural gas powering the refineries makes a big difference in cost to process. we are also getting some of the chepest crude oil in the world from landlocked Canada and North Dakota, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado oil. Canada oil is currently a slave to our demand. Once they get the pipeline built to Kitimat on the west cost of British Columbia, they will be able to sell oil on the open market and we will no longer enjoy the $20 - $25 per barrel differential vs world price that many enjoy now.

We already have enough nat gas proven to last for 200 years at anticipated demand and they really haven't went after the hard stuff yet. The rest of the world is finding their gas too so we will soon no longer have that price advantage. If we double our anticipated demand and find now new nat gas supplies (not likely) and use up all the nat gas over the next 100 years and haven't created something else by then shame on us.

Google methane hydrates..we have more gas trapped in frozen methane hydrates in the bottom of the GOM than we could use in 500 years but with no demand for it, it lies untapped. Saving the fuel until you no longer need it doesn't make much sense to this simple country feller.

[G8trGr8t]

Chesapeake Energy Corp., CHK +1.54%facing a natural-gas glut that has driven down prices, will invest $1 billion over 10 years in natural-gas-vehicle technologies.

The move shows how natural-gas producers increasingly believe that prices will remain low long-term unless they can find new users for the fuel. By starting the new fund, Chesapeake will try to increase demand for natural gas as an alternative to gasoline and diesel.

Chesapeake, the second-biggest gas producer in the U.S., said Monday that it will make initial investments in two companies: Clean Energy Fuels Corp., CLNE -0.58%a provider of natural-gas-fueling infrastructure backed by T. Boone Pickens, and Sundrop Fuels Inc., a start-up that aims to create a new, natural-gas-based fuel that can work in existing gasoline engines. The money will come from Chesapeake's existing drilling budget, the company said.

Newly discovered natural-gas fields in Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and other states have led to a surge in production in recent years, pushing down prices to under $4.50 per million British thermal units, from more than $13 in 2008.

Companies are drilling fewer gas wells in response to the glut, but supplies have nonetheless continued to grow due to improved drilling techniques. Gas production in April was up 6.8% from the same period a year earlier, even as the number of rigs drilling for natural gas fell by 7.7%.

Faced with persistent low prices, companies have tried to boost demand. In 2009, the industry formed a new lobbying group, America's Natural Gas alliance, to push for subsidies for natural-gas-fueled vehicles, among other measures. Those efforts have been largely unsuccessful.

Chesapeake is now taking those efforts a step further by investing its own money rather than waiting for government subsidies. Chesapeake Chairman and Chief Executive Aubrey McClendon said he wasn't abandoning hopes for government subsidies but said the move is a recognition that "government moves more slowly than the marketplace."

Chesapeake and others in the industry, including Mr. Pickens, the billionaire investor, have long argued that the U.S. should burn more natural gas in cars and trucks because it is cleaner and cheaper than oil and is domestically produced.

But natural-gas vehicles have made only limited inroads, in large part because of a chicken-and-egg problem: Drivers don't want to buy natural-gas vehicles until there are plenty of places where they can fill them up, but service stations don't want to invest in natural-gas infrastructure until there are more drivers who would use it.

Chesapeake hopes to break through the dilemma by funding the construction of about 150 natural-gas filling stations on major highways through a $150 million investment in Clean Energy Fuels.


current price is around $3.5 while the EU, Japan, China, India are paying $16

http://www.fleetsandfuels.com/fuels/lng/2012/12/clean-energy-fuels-angh-incentives/

Clean Energy is completing the first stage of America’s Natural Gas Highway for LNG truck fueling this month, and will consider loans and grants to interested fleet operators willing to buy fuel from the company to maintain volumes at the new locations.

"Several” of the 70 completed stations are actually pumping liquefied natural gas today, says Jim Harger, chief marketing officer for Clean Energy Fuels (NASDAQ:CLNE). To open, without the danger of wasteful and destructive venting of LNG, each station needs 25 trucks each burning about 20,000 gallons per year, or 500,000 gallons to carry a the location.

For such customers, “We would entertain the idea of incentives in exchange for a multi-year fuel agreement,” Harger says.

The incentives could be loans or outright grants, he told F&F.

“We have created America’s Natural Gas Highway to support the growing number of long-haul truckers and shippers who are deploying factory-built, heavy-duty trucks powered by natural gas fuel,” Clean Energy president and CEO Andrew Littlefair said at the American Trucking Associations’ natural gas trucking summit outside Washington, D.C, this week.


they asked congress to tax natural gas at the pump and dedicate that tax to paying off bonds that would help accelerate conversion of fleets to nat gas. 60k per truck to begin with is price differential between nat gas big rig and diesel big rig. once they receive enough demand to run a line full itme, price differential goes down significantly. it is all about volume and getting price differential down. if we spent half the money we wasted on ethanol doing this, the fleets would be well on their way to conversion. pickens is willing to build stations (and is doing so) as long as fleets commit to conversion to help supply demand.

[dangolegators]

Sounds like the plan, spend money now putting future generations in debt, but save our natural resources so future generations can have.
Wow, the logic!!!!

Either way there's a cost. Are you able to understand this?

[gatorev12]

What I like about the Pickens Plan is that it addresses short, medium, and long-term needs and acknowledges that converting certain transportation segments to natural gas is only a short to medium term solution.

Long-term, it commits to investing into renewables to get them to the point where they can compete with non-renewables. There's certainly enough terawatts of energy between wind, solar, and tidal to power our country in the centuries to come, but the technology isn't quite market-ready yet (and there's no shame in admitting that).

[G8trGr8t]

and Pickens doesn't even address methane hydrates. the amount of gas hydrocarbons that could be harvested boggles the mind

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/gas-hydrates/

The worldwide amounts of carbon bound in gas hydrates is conservatively estimated to total twice the amount of carbon to be found in all known fossil fuels on Earth.

Recent mapping conducted by the USGS off North Carolina and South Carolina shows large accumulations of methane hydrates.
A pair of relatively small areas, each about the size of the state of Rhode Island, shows intense concentrations of gas hydrates. USGS scientists estimate that these areas contain more than 1,300 trillion cubic feet of methane gas, an amount representing more than 70 times the 1989 gas consumption of the United States. Some of the gas was formed by bacteria in the sediments, but some may be derived from deep strata of the Carolina Trough. The Carolina Trough is a significant offshore oil and gas frontier area where no wells have been drilled. It is a very large basin, about the size of the State of South Carolina, that has accumulated a great thickness of sediment, perhaps more than 13 kilometers. Salt diapirs, reefs, and faults, in addition to hydrate gas, may provide greater potential for conventional oil and gas traps than is present in other east coast basins.


The immense volumes of gas and the richness of the deposits may make methane hydrates a strong candidate for development as an energy resource.
Because the gas is held in a crystal structure, gas molecules are more densely packed than in conventional or other unconventional gas traps. Gas-hydrate-cemented strata also act as seals for trapped free gas. These traps provide potential resources, but they can also represent hazards to drilling, and therefore must be well understood. Production of gas from hydrate-sealed traps may be an easy way to extract hydrate gas because the reduction of pressure caused by production can initiate a breakdown of hydrates and a recharging of the trap with gas.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/11/methane-hydrate-alaska-north-slope-climate-change_n_2113828.html

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A half mile (800 meters) below the ground at Prudhoe Bay, above the vast oil field that helped trigger construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline, a drill rig has tapped what might one day be the next big energy source.

The U.S. Department of Energy and industry partners over two winters drilled into a reservoir of methane hydrate, which looks like ice but burns like a candle if a match warms its molecules. There is little need now for methane, the main ingredient of natural gas. With the boom in production from hydraulic fracturing, the United States is awash in natural gas for the near future and is considering exporting it, but the DOE wants to be ready with methane if there's a need.

"If you wait until you need it, and then you have 20 years of research to do, that's not a good plan," said Ray Boswell, technology manager for methane hydrates within the DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory.

The nearly $29 million science experiment on the North Slope produced 1 million cubic feet (30,000 cubic meters) of methane. Researchers have begun the complex task of analyzing how the reservoir responded to extraction.


The world has a lot of methane hydrate. A Minerals Management Service study in 2008 estimated methane hydrate resources in the northern Gulf of Mexico at 21,000 trillion cubic feet (595 trillion cubic meters), or 100 times current U.S. reserves of natural gas. The combined energy content of methane hydrate may exceed all other known fossil fuels, according to the DOE.

we have approximately 200 years of known natural gas reserves based on estimated usages. we have 100 times that or 20,000 yers worth of gas trapped in methane hydrates that we are just beginning to explore wrt production.

No way, no how are we anywhere near short of running out of nat gas over the next 100years regardless of how much we use once they commercialize the extraction of gas from the methane hydrates and that is anticipated to happen over the next 5 - 10 years.

The USGS really has no clue how much nat gas we have because there are so many areas that are yet to even be explored. The new ultradeep wells being drilled on shore or in shallow water are cutting edge experimental stuff that will yield another massive amount of gas once they design new tools, guages, and well development techniques to work at the pressures, depth (25k feet), and heat associated with ultradeep well

[gatorev12]

Methane has vast potential...but vast consequences too. Methane is a *very* powerful greenhouse gas and any drilling blowout that would release vast quantities of methane into the atmosphere or the ocean would have severe and long-term consequences that wouldn't be easily fixed.

[mocgator]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-29/u-s-was-net-oil-product-exporter-in-2011.html

I don't know if there is info on 2012 yet.

Umm... no..

"U.S. Was Net Oil-Product Exporter for First Time Since 1949"

Oil products are not oil.

[Gatoragman]

No oh most enlighten one, I don't understand. Technology is moving at such a pace that future needs of of these natural resources may not even be a factor, not to mention the fact that we have no idea of how many hundreds of year theses resources may last at current usage rates. So no I don't understand why we make other countries wealthy and not our own. You are probably one that saved all your halloween candy to eat later, only to find out that it is stale and no good....

[gator996]

I'm not talking political side here....

I've looked at private placements around energy for clients....


There is no question the technology is still dirty...very dirty...



I say that with the full realization of how powerful cheap, national energy has serious long-term growth & security issues...

[Gatorrick22]

Finished petroleum products
It is illegal to export crude oil. Exception used to be Alaska to Japan.

I hear what you're saying, but why not use the other nations' oil supply first and keep ours as long as we can? So long as oil can never be exported then the only problem I see is if foreign countries buy/invest in privately owned/pumped oil. We need to keep those profits here in the U.S.. And we need to keep America/Americans making the profits from drilling on their own private land.

[northgagator]

G8trgr8t you may find this link interesting

http://www.mrmethane.com/

[G8trGr8t]

980 BILLION is ten year capex expected in oil and gas over next ten years.

1 million new jobs directly related to the growth.

The golden goose that 0 refuses to embrace

[gatorev12]

There is no question the technology is still dirty...very dirty...


Fair enough...no non-renewable energy source will ever be totally "clean"--but natural gas is a lot cleaner than oil or coal.

But in saying that though, there's always drawbacks to any power source that's out there. Solar power is limited to what you capture in the daytime and typically requires large tracts of land to harness marketable amounts (though this may change in the future as panels get more energy-efficient and can store energy longer); wind is even more limited to very specific geographic areas (and also requires lots of land)...and worse, it's one of the worst at being able to supply energy on-demand since the wind isn't always blowing at peak usage hours. Long-term, I think tidal and solar are the best bets to invest money and resources in...but the technology is still at least a decade or so away in the meantime, non-renewables will be needed.

[rpmGator]

So if we stop competition and other energy systemsl, and keep sending those tax dollars to oil, we wont' have to buy as much.

Piss down someone else's back, it aint' raining.

We had an oil embago in the 1970's, did it your way. Our dependence got worse...

Oil has won each decade, and here we are doing it again.

Wonder why?

[G8trGr8t]

we didn't have 6 trillion cubic feet plus of natural gas at our disposal or a couple of million barrels of oil a day from fracking or a few million barrels a day available from Canada until the last few years. A few things have changed fromt he 70's. Opent he window and go outside, you might be shocked.

It isn't raining and nobody's pissing down your back but never let a few facts get in the way of a good emotional outburst.

fwiw. MAJOR Australian shale oil find announced yesterday could be holding up to $20 Trillion worth of oil at $100 per barrel.

[G8trGr8t]

I hear what you're saying, but why not use the other nations' oil supply first and keep ours as long as we can? So long as oil can never be exported then the only problem I see is if foreign countries buy/invest in privately owned/pumped oil. We need to keep those profits here in the U.S.. And we need to keep America/Americans making the profits from drilling on their own private land.

Because we have to buy energy. Either we buy it from ourselves and keep those jobs, royalties, and tax dollars here or we ship all that money to other countries to circulate in their economy.

We have enough nat gas to last 200 years at current consumption rates and we are constantly discovering more. Oil exploration is booming with directional drilling and fracking technology advancing. Currently, they recover less than 10% of oil in place. For every million barrels theya re pumping out of ND daily, they are leaving 9 million there for advanced resource recovery methods to go back and get. There is no real rational basis for any serious discussion involving running out of hydrocarbons when you include nat gas and the progression of the recovery technology over the last 5 - 7 years.

And many foreign countries and companies are already buying up oil lease rights. Mostly as jv partners provinding funding for working interests but some outright buyouts. Statoil (Norway national oil company) bought a big piece in ND. Respol (spanish) owns property rights in multiple formations China CNOOC is jv partner with working interests in multiple formations around the country. Many others, including British, French, Australian, Japanese, Taiwan, etc have investments in american energy resources.

Data Point - Continental Resources just recently drilled and tested shale oil layers beneath the bakken in a formatiion referred to as the 3 Forks. Although they have been drilling for over 5 years in ND now, they had not gotten around to testing the 3 forks formation. A few wells later, they increased their proven reserves by over 52% this year as they proved up the commercial viability of the 3 forks formation. Beneath it are two more formations (Tyler, Red River) that they have yet to test. The USGS and even the industry have no idea how much oil they can recover out of ND/Montana but they do know that it is a boatload more than anybody currently acknowledges. Same thing is happening in Kansas, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, California, Arkansas, Ohio, West Virgina, Pennsylvania.....the more they look and test, the more oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids they find and can make money off of when WTI is above $75.

datapoint - Massive methanol plant deal reached for Louisiana while theya re idling other plants where the feedstock is so much more. Once rest of world figuresout to tap their energy sources, we are going to lose our price advantage so we better lock down these deals and take avantage of the cost advantage we have now.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA and OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA -- (Marketwire) -- 01/23/13 -- Methanex Corporation (MEOH) (TSX: MX)(NASDAQ: MEOH)(SANTIAGO: Methanex) and Chesapeake Energy Corporation today announced the execution of a 10-year agreement to supply all of the natural gas required for Methanex's one million tonne per year methanol plant in Geismar, Louisiana. Commencement of natural gas deliveries will coincide with the startup of the plant, which is expected by the end of 2014.

John Floren, President and CEO of Methanex commented, "We are thrilled to have entered into this agreement with Chesapeake, the second largest natural gas producer in the U.S. This contract will enhance our ability to reliably supply quality product to our U.S. customers for at least the next 10 years. The agreement is structured so that the natural gas price is linked to the methanol price, and both Methanex and Chesapeake will share in the risks and rewards resulting from the changing price of methanol over the decade of this contract. This gas pricing formula, in addition to the capital cost advantage of relocating a methanol plant as compared to a new-build facility, enables the project to be profitable across a broad range of methanol prices."

Mr. Floren continued, "Having a 10-year contract in place for 1 million tonnes of methanol production per year reduces our exposure to short-term natural gas price fluctuations, which will lower the natural gas price risk for the site if we decide to relocate a second plant to Louisiana. We expect to make a decision during the first half of 2013 on whether to proceed with a second relocation project."

James C. Johnson, Chesapeake's Senior Vice President of Marketing added, "We are excited to support the ongoing revitalization of the U.S. manufacturing sector through our long-term gas supply arrangement with Methanex, the world's leading methanol producer. The unique structure of this transaction provides return certainty and price diversification for Chesapeake while providing margin protection and price stability for Methanex. Furthermore, Methanex's investment and plant relocation to Louisiana demonstrates the compounding economic and employment benefits to be derived from the shale gas revolution. We believe this is truly a "win-win" arrangement for both companies."

Methanex is a Vancouver-based company and is the world's largest supplier of methanol to major international markets. Methanex shares are listed for trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange in Canada under the trading symbol "MX"; on the NASDAQ Global Market in the United States under the trading symbol "MEOH"; and on the Foreign Securities Market of the Santiago Stock Exchange in Chile under the trading symbol "Methanex." Methanex can be visited online at

[G8trGr8t]

OKLAHOMA CITY, Jan. 23, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Continental Resources, Inc. (CLR) increased its year-end 2012 proved reserves to 785 MMBoe (million barrels of oil equivalent), a year-over-year gain of 54 percent. With the 2012 increase, Continental has grown proved reserves at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent since year-end 2009.

Proved reserves growth in 2012 primarily reflected strong production growth in the Bakken play of North Dakota and Montana, which Continental believes is the nation's premier oil play. Continental is the largest producer and leaseholder in the Bakken, with approximately 1.1 million net acres. The Company has also accelerated production growth in its South Central Oklahoma Oil Province (SCOOP), an oil- and liquids-rich play in Oklahoma.

Thirty-nine percent of Continental's total 2012 proved reserves, or 309.0 MMBoe, were proved developed producing (PDP), compared with 40 percent of year-end 2011 proved reserves.

Crude oil reserves represented 72 percent of 2012 total proved reserves, a significant increase over year-end 2011, when crude oil accounted for 64 percent of the Company's 508 MMBoe in proved reserves. The higher percentage of crude oil proved reserves in 2012 was accomplished despite two crude-oil concentrated divestitures.



http://finance.yahoo.com/news/continental-resources-increases-proved-reserves-221700692.html

[biomedgator]

Not very educated on this subject but would depending on the regime in office would that conservation/preservation laws to wild life and nature affect how expensive it would be to actually pull oil out of the ground in certain areas. It might be just cheaper to buy abroad. I also think why not use up others while we save ours when there is better technology to pull oil out of the ground.