[AT] Now: Baaken oil Was: OT Gas prices new all time high :-(

[Dave Johnson]

Hi Ralph (and all)!
There is indeed a lot of interest in the Baaken over the last couple of years - new deposits being found under known existing pools mulitiplied known reserves in the US and have made for an explosion of leasing & drilling. Unemployment is really, really low in the area as a result.
Part of the problem in getting the stuff out is that it's locked up in the formations, and, to deal with this, hydraulic fracturing methods have been developed, some with more success than others.
Having invested in a couple of leaseholding operators (BEXP, NOG) that are actually getting respectable amounts out of the ground, I pay pretty close attention to this - turns out that the biggest chokepoint is not production but transportation of the oil to a refinery.  
There is _one_ pipeline out of the area, that has a capacity of about 200k bbls per day; trucking & rail are the other options, both very expensive... ( I've heard but not verified that the transport costs are in the range of $20/bbl!!) A new pipeline is being talked up / planned but with the permitting processes, etc, it'll be a while incoming - maybe, indeed, the $200/bbl day (:<))
Add to that that the oil is not light 'sweet' easily refineable stuff; think thick & gooey, which sells for considerably less... the prices you hear quoted everyday are for the best, lightest, most easily refineable stuff...
Like many seemly simple things, here's a lot of variables / complexities here, and of course, the usaual greed & 'gaming'!
Stay warm!
Dave, & Arlo & Ziggy the Puli's, in sunny Gilroy, California---------------------------------------Message: 16
Date: Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:39:07 -0600
From: Ralph Goff <alfg at sasktel.net>
Subject: Re: [AT] OT Gas prices new all time high :-(
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
    <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Message-ID: <4D77208B.5070608 at sasktel.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

On 3/8/2011 11:42 PM, Cecil Bearden wrote:
> Ralph
> I was sent this link by a friend I have not read it completely, but it tells
> me that the fuel prices are artifically high....  More politics than
> anything else...  Enough oil in the US to fuel the US for over a thousand
> years.  Bush ordered it extracted.
>
> http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911
>
> Cecil in OKla
>
Cecil, interesting article and I have no doubt about the prices being 
manipulated. Kind of the same way our canola in the bins changes in 
price according to the markets. Nothing to do with what it cost us to 
produce.
Recently listening to one of those late night U.S. talk shows they were 
referring to the huge reserves in the Bakken field and that it would not 
be coming out of the ground until the price hit $200 a barrel. About 
double what it is now.

Ralph in Sask.