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Calls Mount to End Ban On Oil Exports as US Production Booms

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Photo Credit: Fox News When the Arab oil embargo of 1973 shocked the U.S. into long gas lines and rationing, Congress approved what was a no-brainer at the time — a ban on exporting crude oil produced at home.

But today, with domestic oil production booming, some are questioning whether that ban should stay in place. The new concern is that the U.S. has more oil than its refineries can handle.

“This ban threatens record-breaking U.S. oil production and American jobs by creating inefficiencies, gluts and distortions,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, recently testified at a congressional hearing.

Murkowski has sent a letter to the White House asking President Obama to lift the ban on oil exports, even as the U.S. still imports 40 percent of its oil.

Supporters of lifting the export ban argue that oil is a world commodity — and more of it on the global market will drive everyone’s gas prices down and create jobs in the U.S.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska, Lagging in Oil Production, Looks to Bring Back Boom (+video)

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Photo Credit: Kiskadee 3

Photo Credit: Kiskadee 3

The U.S. is on its way to becoming the world’s top oil producer. The Energy Department believes American output will soar to 9.6 million barrels a day by the year 2016. But surprisingly, Alaska, one of the country’s top oil suppliers, is being left in the dust.

Paul Hughes owns a snowmobile shop near Anchorage. He says there’s one day each year every Alaskan looks forward to: the day the state announces the oil dividend. He said this year it’s almost $900.

Every man woman and child in Alaska gets a check, their share of the state’s vast oil revenues. Hughes told CBS News’ Ben Tracy some people spend the money on snowmobiles and he used one of his kids’ checks to buy a new stove.

However, those annual oil checks are getting smaller because Alaska is producing less oil. Production on the North Slope peaked at 2 million barrels per day in 1988 but has dropped to less than 500,000 barrels currently. There’s so little oil flowing through the 800-mile Trans-Alaskan Pipeline that some state leaders say it may freeze and shutdown.

The problem isn’t that they’re running out of oil in Alaska — the oil industry says there’s still billions of barrels of oil in the North Slope alone. But they say the problem is taxes.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Shale Oil Boom Rattles OPEC

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Photo Credit: joern_kh

At a critical Friday meeting in Vienna, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will set production policy. For the first time, they will be grappling with the challenges of shale oil, even none of the member states are major shale oil producers.

The shale boom began in the U.S. as a ripple in North Dakota and Texas. Some thought its impact would be limited and regional, not global. Now that uptick on our domestic production curve has triggered a tsunami with geopolitical implications.

That’s because the U.S. does not need 100% energy independence to get OPEC’s attention. Due to production but also conservation and a protracted recession, our need for imported oil has contracted from 60-70% of consumption to about 40%, headed south. As the world’s largest crude oil market, changes in our domestic supply picture must necessarily reshuffle the import mix. Remember how skeptics argued that the shale boom is “a mirage“? I have often maintained that domestic supply increments of 500,000 barrels per day can be significant in a worldwide 90 million bpd marketplace. We’re starting to see that play out, albeit in some surprising ways.

Read more from this story HERE.

California Oil Boom: 15 Billion Barrels but the Dem’s are Trying to Stop It (+video)

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Photo Credit: Richard Masoner / CycleliciousCalifornia is on the verge of a new gold rush. Expanded hydraulic fracturing — or “fracking” — at the Monterey Shale formation is sparking estimates that 15 billion barrels of oil could be accessed, along with millions of jobs and huge contributions to the domestic energy supply.

Even the state’s green-friendly Democratic governor, Jerry Brown, says “the potential is extraordinary.”

But standing in the way is a flurry of anti-fracking bills. At last count, 10 were on the table, all introduced by Democrats seeking tighter controls over the controversial technology.

Some of the measures take aim at how crude is extracted from rock layers beyond the reach of conventional drilling.

Others call for full disclosure of what chemicals are used in the high-pressure process, how they’re removed, and where they’re stored.

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An Oil Town Where Men Are Many, and Women Are Hounded

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WILLISTON, N.D. — Christina Knapp and a friend were drinking shots at a bar in a nearby town several weeks ago when a table of about five men called them over and made an offer.

They would pay the women $3,000 to strip naked and serve them beer at their house while they watched mixed martial arts fights on television. Ms. Knapp, 22, declined, but the men kept raising the offer, reaching $7,000.

“I said I make more money doing my job than degrading myself to do that,” said Ms. Knapp, a tattoo artist with dark streaks in her light brown hair, a bird tattoo on her chest and piercings above her lip and left cheekbone.

The rich shale oil formation deep below the rolling pastures here has attracted droves of young men to work the labor-intensive jobs that get the wells flowing and often generate six-figure salaries. What the oil boom has not brought, however, are enough single women.

At work, at housing camps and in bars and restaurants, men have been left to mingle with their own. High heels and skirts are as rare around here as veggie burgers. Some men liken the environment to the military or prison.

Read more from this story HERE.