G.U.N. Oil Report

All over the news today, Marathon Oil is opening an office in North Dakota, quoted from KXMA News here. They are planning on extracting 20,000 barrels a day from the 200,000 acres of land they’re leasing.

Minyanville has a little article today covering some shale oil facts and opinions. They mention the thought that there might be nearly a billion barrels of oil in the Mid-Northern states. They also mention that shale oil might be extracted and processed for US$20-US$35 per barrel.

The WSJ has an article on how the oil industry in the U.S. might be losing some of their clout in Congress. Considering all the preferential subsidies and monopoly-creating regulations on the oil industry, I don’t think we’ll honestly see the current oil industry hampered with fewer regulations or restrictions. If anything, we’ll see more laws created to seemingly punish the industry while secretly helping them keep a monopoly over production, distribution and refining.

The Star has an OpEd piece that is all wrong. The writer believes that Canada’s stronger loonie is causing a loss of profits and capital for the country from their exports. He comments on the oil industry being one of the markets being taken advantage of by the U.S. and other weak-currency countries.

The Washington Post has a pro-Statist article about how to fix the oil price concern. With oil still at a low price versus the devalued dollar (compared to 10, 20 and 30 years ago), I think involving more State regulations and taxes will only cause larger problems down the line. What we need is LESS State intervention, rather than more, but it seems obvious that the average educated OpEd writer has no idea that it is a declining dollar that is making prices seem to rise.

Another article from TheStar seems to have a positive opinion on the ethanol fiasco — a fuel that is really inefficient as gasoline but very efficient in padding the pockets of preferred farming companies. Ethanol is a huge burden on the cost of gasoline in my area (the Midwest) due to the paternalist subsidies and huge barrier to competition that the ethanol market has in its favor. I’m glad to see a Canadian talking about it also — rare as most Canadian OpEd pieces seem to be for more State control.

MSNBC says that Republicans are renewing their interest in ANWR drilling. I’m all in support of private ownership of ANWR and private drilling — if a private company makes an error and pollutes the neighbors, they’ll be liable for the costs to fix things, even if it takes years. The entire ANWR issue is too political to get a clear idea of the benefits, especially with both sides using it as way to gain more control over an already over-controlled industry.

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