Friday, August 7, 2009
Oil update
North Dakota
I recently wrote about the exploration in North Dakota, of a new formation known as the "Three Forks-Sanish" level. This formation sits below the Bakken level. Bakken, as you may recall, contains at least 4 Billion barrels of recoverable oil. The Three Forks formation could contain that much, or more! The concern was that the Three Forks formation was simply the "drip pan" for the higher Bakken level and was really all the same oil. Well, the earliest testing is now in. It looks like Three Forks is yet another independent oil find, thus doubling the amount of recoverable oil in North Dakota to nearly 10 billion barrels.
Natural Gas
In the past few years, new technology has been developed to dramatically increase the production of natural gas from America's existing natural gas wells. In many cases, the new technology resulted in wells producing 10 times the level they'd been producing for years. Naturally, prices fell. But the cost of shutting down a well is rather expensive. So, gas firms kept drilling but putting the natural gas into large underground storage. Those facilities are now brimming with excess natural gas. As a result, Natural Gas producers are struggling with a glut.
Brazil
Brazil is likely to become a huge player in petro dollars as they pursue the discover of one of the largest oil fields in the world recently found in their coastal waters.
It's all tremendous news for the long term energy needs of the earth. Strangely, few media outlets are reporting on this stuff (Republican Reporter excepted, of course).
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Hillary Clinton is traveling through Africa on a seven nation jaunt. She's using the opportunity to chastise some existing governments for allowing graft and corruption to exist. She points out that nations that perpetuate the rewarding of elected officials only serve to stifle business and innovation. SHE IS CORRECT!
She offered a veiled threat to the nation of Kenya, in particular, when she indicated that they may lose their annual monetary aid from the US, if they don't "clean up their act". Again, I applaud her words.
But then it got me to thinking......
In 2009, the Obama Administration will dole out more than $26 BILLION in aid to foreign countries - Kenya gets $586 million of this booty (amounts in Iraq and Afghanistan are not included in the $26 b total). Of course, much of the money is never accounted for. (It's simply a coincidence that many of these foreign leaders work for less than a $50,000/year salary, but are able to "save" several hundred million dollars by the time they "exit" office.)
The foreign dollars reminded me of an interesting event of 2008. The 2008 election was historic for so many reasons. However, the media conveniently ignored one glaring new reality of elections courtesy of the Obama campaign. The Obama campaign, in an unprecedented maneuver, allowed for campaign contributions from overseas donors. These donations came through on-line credit card donations and debit cards that remain "un-investigated". We aren't even sure how much was collected.
When election monitors asked for information on the source of these donations, the Obama campaign pleaded incompetency and said they simply couldn't capture all the information. (Yet they were competent enough to capture the money.)
And now these same players (Obama, Axelrod, etc.) want you to believe that their management skills make them best suited for "transforming" health care in this country. "We're not competent enough to handle some credit card receipts, but managing 15% of the US economy is not a problem."
Now that we have a President who's cavalier enough to accept foreign donations, one must assume that tax-payer funded foreign aid dollars are destined to land right back in his campaign coffers. The Obama administration might be criticizing these foreign despots, but it is increasingly likely that the Administration might be doing so with a wink and a nod as they gladly accept the foreign campaign donations.
Who knows, maybe Hillary's trip is about lining up campaign contributors for her own 2016 run!
North Dakota
I recently wrote about the exploration in North Dakota, of a new formation known as the "Three Forks-Sanish" level. This formation sits below the Bakken level. Bakken, as you may recall, contains at least 4 Billion barrels of recoverable oil. The Three Forks formation could contain that much, or more! The concern was that the Three Forks formation was simply the "drip pan" for the higher Bakken level and was really all the same oil. Well, the earliest testing is now in. It looks like Three Forks is yet another independent oil find, thus doubling the amount of recoverable oil in North Dakota to nearly 10 billion barrels.
Natural Gas
In the past few years, new technology has been developed to dramatically increase the production of natural gas from America's existing natural gas wells. In many cases, the new technology resulted in wells producing 10 times the level they'd been producing for years. Naturally, prices fell. But the cost of shutting down a well is rather expensive. So, gas firms kept drilling but putting the natural gas into large underground storage. Those facilities are now brimming with excess natural gas. As a result, Natural Gas producers are struggling with a glut.
Brazil
Brazil is likely to become a huge player in petro dollars as they pursue the discover of one of the largest oil fields in the world recently found in their coastal waters.
It's all tremendous news for the long term energy needs of the earth. Strangely, few media outlets are reporting on this stuff (Republican Reporter excepted, of course).
---------------------------------------------------------
Hillary Clinton is traveling through Africa on a seven nation jaunt. She's using the opportunity to chastise some existing governments for allowing graft and corruption to exist. She points out that nations that perpetuate the rewarding of elected officials only serve to stifle business and innovation. SHE IS CORRECT!
She offered a veiled threat to the nation of Kenya, in particular, when she indicated that they may lose their annual monetary aid from the US, if they don't "clean up their act". Again, I applaud her words.
But then it got me to thinking......
In 2009, the Obama Administration will dole out more than $26 BILLION in aid to foreign countries - Kenya gets $586 million of this booty (amounts in Iraq and Afghanistan are not included in the $26 b total). Of course, much of the money is never accounted for. (It's simply a coincidence that many of these foreign leaders work for less than a $50,000/year salary, but are able to "save" several hundred million dollars by the time they "exit" office.)
The foreign dollars reminded me of an interesting event of 2008. The 2008 election was historic for so many reasons. However, the media conveniently ignored one glaring new reality of elections courtesy of the Obama campaign. The Obama campaign, in an unprecedented maneuver, allowed for campaign contributions from overseas donors. These donations came through on-line credit card donations and debit cards that remain "un-investigated". We aren't even sure how much was collected.
When election monitors asked for information on the source of these donations, the Obama campaign pleaded incompetency and said they simply couldn't capture all the information. (Yet they were competent enough to capture the money.)
And now these same players (Obama, Axelrod, etc.) want you to believe that their management skills make them best suited for "transforming" health care in this country. "We're not competent enough to handle some credit card receipts, but managing 15% of the US economy is not a problem."
Now that we have a President who's cavalier enough to accept foreign donations, one must assume that tax-payer funded foreign aid dollars are destined to land right back in his campaign coffers. The Obama administration might be criticizing these foreign despots, but it is increasingly likely that the Administration might be doing so with a wink and a nod as they gladly accept the foreign campaign donations.
Who knows, maybe Hillary's trip is about lining up campaign contributors for her own 2016 run!
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