[StBernard] Big Oil

[Westley Annis]

	BIG OIL

	 

	Bill Phillips spent nearly 50 years in the US oil and gas industry;
most of his career was with the Phillips Petroleum Company.  Bill is a
descendant of Frank Phillips.  Frank Phillips, along with his brother Lee
Eldas (L.E.) Phillips, Sr., founded the original Phillips Petroleum Company
in 1917 in Bartlesville, OK.   Do you remember Phillips 66 gas stations?
Phillips Petroleum Company merged with Conoco, Inc. in 2002 to form the
current ConocoPhillips oil company.

	 

	 

	So, when Bill talks about oil and gas issues, I tend to listen -
very closely. I think that you will find Bill's thoughts and facts very
revealing, very compelling and very difficult to argue with.

	 

	 

	As you prepare to cast your crucial ballots this Fall, please think
long and hard about the far-reaching, cumulative effects of the US political
philosophies, policies and legislation that have contributed to the current
and future US oil supply situation.
	 

	 

	May 28, 2008

	 

	"Big Oil"
	Did you know that the United States does NOT have any big oil
companies. It's true: the largest American oil company, Exxon Mobil, is only
the 14th largest in the world, and is dwarfed by the really big oil
companies--all owned by foreign governments or government-sponsored
monopolies--that dominate the world's oil supply.

	 

	This graph below tells the story; you can barely see the American
oil companies as minor players on the right side of the chart in gray. The
chart was presented to the House committee last week by Chevron.

	 

	With 94% of the world's oil supply locked up by foreign governments,
most of which are hostile to the United States, the relatively puny American
oil companies do not have access to enough crude oil to significantly affect
the market and help bring prices down. Thus, ExxonMobil, a  "small"  oil
company, buys 90% of the crude oil that it refines for the U.S. market from
the big players, i.e, mostly-hostile foreign governments. The price at the
U.S. pump is rising because the price the big oil companies charge
ExxonMobil and the other small American companies for crude oil is going up
as the value of the American dollar goes down.  They will eventually bleed
this country into printing even more money and we will go into runway
inflation once again as we did under the Carter Democratic reign.

	 

	This is obviously a tough situation for the American consumer. The
irony is that it doesn't have to be that way. The United States--unlike,
say, France--actually has vast petroleum reserves. It would be possible for
American oil companies to develop those reserves, play a far bigger role in
international markets, and deliver gas at the pump to American consumers at
a much lower price, while creating many thousands of jobs for Americans.
This would be infinitely preferable to shipping endless billions of dollars
to Saudi Arabia, Russiaand Venezuela to be used in propping up their
economies.

	 

	So, why doesn't it happen? Because the Democrat Party--aided, sadly,
by a handful of Republicans--deliberately keeps gas prices high and our
domestic oil companies small by putting most of our reserves off limits to
development.  China is now drilling in the Caribbean, off Cuba but our own
companies are barred by law from developing large oil fields off the coasts
of  Florida and California. Enormous oil-shale deposits in the Rocky
Mountain states could go a long way toward supplying American consumers'
needs, but the Democratic Congress won't allow those resources to be
developed. ANWR contains vast petroleum reserves, but we don't know how
vast, because Congress, not wanting the American people to know how badly
its policies are hurting our economy, has made it illegal to explore and map
those reserves, let alone develop them.

	 

	In short, all Americans are paying a terrible price for the
Democratic Party's perverse energy policies.   I own some small interests in
tiny, 4 barrel-per-day oil wells in Wyoming.   We have 14 agencies that have
iron-hand jurisdiction over us.   If we drop any oil on the ground when the
refinery truck comes to pick up oil from our holding tanks, we are fined.
Yet down the road the state will spray thousands of gallons of used oil on a
dirt road to control dirt.  When it rains that oil runs into rivers and
creeks.  Yet a cup of oil on the ground at our wellhead is a $50,000 EPA
fine plus additional fines from state regulating agencies.  They treat oil
as if it were plutonium that has the potential to leak into the environment.
We are fined if our dirt burms are not high enough around a holding tank,
yet the truck that picks up our oil runs down the road at 60 mph with no
burm around it.  People wonder why there is no more exploration in this
country.   It's because of the regulators; people who have lived their whole
lives doing nothing but imposing fines on small operators like us for doing
mostly nothing.

	 

	So, America enjoy your $4.00 per gallon gasoline.  Your dollar is
now worth 0.62 Euro-Cents.  The lack of American production of GNP, the
massive trade deficit (as labor markets have moved overseas to fight
insanely high union imposed labor costs in America) and the run away
printing of money (backed by nothing of value here in America) has caused
the dollar to become more worthless on the international market. And that's
where our oil comes from.   It's paid for with dollars that become more
worthless everyday.   If we had just kept par with the Euro we'd be paying
$62 dollars per barrel for oil (42 gallons) or about $1.50 instead of $2.50
a gallon for crude oil.

	 

	What the US government also does not tell you is that it is the
leaseholder and royalty recipient of most oil production and receives 25% of
the gross oil sales before we pay for electricity to lift the oil, propane
to keep the oil-water separators from freezing in the winters.  We pay a
pumper to visit each well everyday plus we have equipment failures all the
time.   We pay for that out of our 75% of gross sales.   The government does
not share in any expenses to run any production well.   So, if the Big Oil
Companies are making record profits, then so is the federal government from
it's 25% tax on every molecule of oil sold to a refinery in this country.
Why isn't the government on the stand for "Record" profits?   What you don't
see is this 25% of the sales price of crude oil being siphoned away by the
government.   That money plus the road taxes, state taxes, etc. amounts to
over $1 per gallon of gasoline you are buying while the governments only
admit to about 50 cents per gallon.

	 

	To all you Democrats, when you go vote for your candidate, a blazing
liberal like Barrack Hussein Obama or Hillary Clinton, just keep in mind
that their liberal spending habits will further decrease the value of the
American dollar on the world market and your gasoline costs will hike even
higher.   As they introduce more give-away programs, raise taxes on everyone
to pay people not to produce or work, your dollar will continue to dwindle
on the world market and you will be paying $10.00 per gallon at the next
election.   Cheap hydrocarbon fuel is all over.   Enjoy!   Enjoy the fruits
of your decision to elect these folks when you are there in that voting
booth and you stab your pin through a Democrat's name.

	 

	William "Bill" Phillips