Omnibus : Gas prices, Oil prices, Embargos

taxslave

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 25, 2008
36,362
4,336
113
Vancouver Island
It’s been clear for some time now that one of the West’s greatest weaknesses is its reliance on unscrupulous dictators for energy. It was only a matter of time before the status quo evolved from an inconvenient fact to an all-out crisis.

Yet, rather than plan for this inevitability, the Biden administration went for the easy, environmentalist-pleasing headline by kiboshing Keystone XL. Now, instead of having access to more oil from a democratic and free neighbour, Biden is begging a barbarous regime for help. Rather than standing up for human rights and democracy around the world, Biden will simply substitute one bad actor for another.

Moreover, rather than give a much-needed economic boost to America’s largest trading partner and so-called closest ally, the United States will funnel money to its adversaries.

Would it be better if we didn’t rely on oil at all and transitioned to greener energy sources? Absolutely. However, there’s no realistic universe where that transition would’ve happened quickly enough and broadly enough to render Keystone XL unnecessary.
Way back, 60s or even earlier, there was a certain logic in buying cheap fuel from Third World countries. Mostly, the idea was to use up their resources first, and save ours for the future. Remember in the early 70s the anti everything crowd predicted peak oil around 1977. That one didn't work out so well for them.
Now, of course the people making the rules are so disconnected from reality they don't even know how food gets to the store shelves.
 

Tecumsehsbones

Hall of Fame Member
Mar 18, 2013
55,435
7,003
113
Washington DC
It’s been clear for some time now that one of the West’s greatest weaknesses is its reliance on unscrupulous dictators for energy. It was only a matter of time before the status quo evolved from an inconvenient fact to an all-out crisis.

Yet, rather than plan for this inevitability, the Biden administration went for the easy, environmentalist-pleasing headline by kiboshing Keystone XL. Now, instead of having access to more oil from a democratic and free neighbour, Biden is begging a barbarous regime for help. Rather than standing up for human rights and democracy around the world, Biden will simply substitute one bad actor for another.

Moreover, rather than give a much-needed economic boost to America’s largest trading partner and so-called closest ally, the United States will funnel money to its adversaries.

Would it be better if we didn’t rely on oil at all and transitioned to greener energy sources? Absolutely. However, there’s no realistic universe where that transition would’ve happened quickly enough and broadly enough to render Keystone XL unnecessary.
But. . . but. . . dictators control all the real sunny places! And all the windy places! That's why they're bad!
 

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
22,843
7,788
113
Regina, Saskatchewan
Immediate in terms of O&G upping production is 6 months.
….& 8 months later…It is only naysayers and partisan nitpickers who, to use an Al Gore word, bring up this “inconvenient” Plan for a Clean Energy Revolution and I am certainly not one of them.

That two years later it should result in the emaciation of the United State’s energy independence and have vastly empowered imperious Vladimir Putin, putting Europe in hostage to an autocrat, well, let’s go with the flow — them’s just the breaks.

So here we are. When wise, calm Biden pleads to OPEC and gets shunned, briskly turned down during an inflation-and-energy crisis, and presents to the globe the picture of an American president pleading to autocrats for relief and being rejected, it should charitably be seen not as his lack of foresight, but the cruelty of fate, and perhaps only secondarily the operation of the laws of supply and demand.

Or just maybe the outcome of policies built on air and virtue-signalling, without thought of the realities of societies built on real and secure energy, of which there are some examples here at home.

So the decision to reduce production of the oil and gas America has, and cancel a source from a secure and neighbour state — that would (sorry, used to) be Canada — is it possible the gods of common sense have taken an unhappy view of it? The rest at the link above.
 
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petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
108,910
11,193
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Low Earth Orbit

So much for the environmental bullshit....​

Venezuela's heavy crude oil output increases are limited following U.S. sanctions relief

monthly Venezuela crude oil production

Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO)

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) effectively lifted most U.S. sanctions on Venezuela’s energy sector on October 18 for six months, paving the way for additional exports of the heavy, sour crude oil the country produces. That type of crude oil has been in short supply and has had significant price increases in recent months. Still, years of underinvestment and mismanagement of Venezuela’s energy sector will likely limit crude oil production growth to less than 200,000 barrels per day (b/d) by the end of 2024, requiring more time and investment for additional growth.

U.S. crude oil imports from Venezuela stopped shortly after January 2019 when the United States imposed sanctions on state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PdVSA). The United States eased those sanctions in November 2022 when OFAC granted waivers to Chevron so it could resume exporting crude oil from its joint venture operations in Venezuela to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries, which restarted in January 2023.
 

petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
108,910
11,193
113
Low Earth Orbit

So much for the environmental bullshit....​

Venezuela's heavy crude oil output increases are limited following U.S. sanctions relief

monthly Venezuela crude oil production

Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO)

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) effectively lifted most U.S. sanctions on Venezuela’s energy sector on October 18 for six months, paving the way for additional exports of the heavy, sour crude oil the country produces. That type of crude oil has been in short supply and has had significant price increases in recent months. Still, years of underinvestment and mismanagement of Venezuela’s energy sector will likely limit crude oil production growth to less than 200,000 barrels per day (b/d) by the end of 2024, requiring more time and investment for additional growth.

U.S. crude oil imports from Venezuela stopped shortly after January 2019 when the United States imposed sanctions on state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PdVSA). The United States eased those sanctions in November 2022 when OFAC granted waivers to Chevron so it could resume exporting crude oil from its joint venture operations in Venezuela to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries, which restarted in January 2023.
So it's good Keystone XL was cancelled to save the world from oilsands in Canada and it is good to import Venezuelan oilsands heavy crude extracted in the midst of the world's second largest tropical watershed because Texas and Louisiana are short on feedstock for diesel and heating oil?

Crisis averted?
 

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
22,843
7,788
113
Regina, Saskatchewan
So it's good Keystone XL was cancelled to save the world from oilsands in Canada and it is good to import Venezuelan oilsands heavy crude extracted in the midst of the world's second largest tropical watershed because Texas and Louisiana are short on feedstock for diesel and heating oil?

Crisis averted?
Those that backed Biden to get into the big chair were rewarded. Done deal