A few weeks ago I posted a question on Yahoo's answers service. It is a question that has pleagued me for years. It became increasingly important that I find the answer to this question as we are all facing the unbelievable price of gasoline and the damage it is doing to our economy while the oil companies rake in record profits.
Here is the question posted and answer received on Yahoo:
Fact #1 - 37 percent of the refined petroleum products sold in the US are extracted and refined in the US. Source: Energy Information Administration http://www.rff.org/rff/Events/Energy2050...
Fact # 2 - I worked in the oil industry in 1977-1981 and the price of gasoline is not a supply issue like we are being told.
Fact# 3 - Natural gas condensate is a low-density mixture of hydrocarbon liquids that are present as gaseous components in the raw natural gas produced from many natural gas fields. It condenses out of the raw gas if the temperature is reduced to below the hydrocarbon dew point temperature of the raw gas. The natural gas condensate is also referred to as simply condensate, or gas condensate, or sometimes-natural gasoline. This natural gasoline is what we burned in our company pick-ups and cars. No refining required.
Fact # 4 - Our congress is aware of these figures...and they still do not ask the hard questions of the oil companies or reveal what they know. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_gas...
Additional Details I am hoping for a environmental or petroleum engineer or a state commissioner who keeps track of the state resources to comment...someone who knows the production process that I am referring to because condensate is a natural gasoline that comes from "wet" natural gas wells...I worked in the field on the glycol heaters and dryers that separated the liquid from the dry gas during the summers as a college intern for Sun Gas company a subsidiary of Sunoco while I studied engineering at UT so please don't comment unless you know the process.
I understand the argument for opening more public lands (ANWR-Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) for drilling but I question that also. I can't imagine the additional expense of exploration, drilling, extracting and transporting under those harsh conditions wouldn't somehow be passed along to the consumer in a higher price at the pump thus more profit. Why would we even need to bear those expenses anyway when production from established fields is currently so low? Of the already established 38.6 million acres of offshore territories only approximately 8 million acres are currently being produced. Of the already established 42.8 million acres of onshore territory only 12.3 million acres are being produced. All this and Congress is now considering allowing China to control our off shore fields...what the heck is going on?
I originally posted this question in the politics section and got 4 responses who were obviously ignorant to this process or they wanted to discredit the information that I was trying to put out - that gasoline comes from more sources than imported crude and the price of gasoline (which I suspect is largely a domestically produced product of natural gas wells) should not be moving quite in reaction in the price of crude Our Congress knows this and we the public are being held hostage by this (parading the oil industry CEO's in a mock investigation) price manipulation. We just need to know the percentage of gasoline that is produced domestically from sources other that imported crude. This information should be available freely to the public but it must be a closely guarded secret. I have been looking for this information for years, however, on limited resources.
Answer Gasoline From Natural Gas According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 2006 the USA used 9.253 million barrels of (motor) gasoline each day. On the other hand, there were 811 million barrels of natural gas liquids produced in the USA in 2006, including both condensate extracted at the lease (182 million barrels) and liquids extracted in later processing (629 million barrels.) This is equal to 2.222 million barrels per day, which is around 24% of the gasoline consumption figure. The lease condensate production alone is equal to 0.499 million barrels a day, 5% of the consumption figure. Also according to the EIA, in 2006 refineries in the USA used 5563 million barrels of crude oil (15.24 million barrels per day) and 180 million barrels of natural gas liquids (0.493 million barrels per day, or around 3% of the crude oil input volume.)
Asker's Comment: Activity is way up in the Texas natural gas fields. Wells are being uncapped and reworked to get as much domestic production out into the global market as possible to take advantage of record prices. Productions levels must be way above 2006 values-2006 values are almost 3 years old.
Additionally, we should impose a restriction on exports of domestic production. Stop the oil companies both domestic and forge in from offering up our reserves on the global market until domestic consumption is covered. You can't trade US reserves if you are Halliburton or a subsidiary.
www.connectfriend.com
Way left of right but not too left of center-a moderate progressive.
What percentage of gasoline is produced from domestic natura
"NAFTA requires that domestic oil production be sold into the North American market. Of course the other two countries are under similar requirements."
Very interesting comment Archie, I guess the way I interpret this paragraph, is that oil gained from the North American mainland can only be sold within same.
I say that's very interesting indeed, cause I'm Australian and feel VERY strongly that we, (Australia) should also have a similar requirement for BOTH our oil AND natural gas derived from under our mainland and continental shelf rather the "giving it away at pittance prices" as is currently being done, and selling by said companies at ENORMOUS profits.
It's also quiet revealing, the mention of petroleum products gained from natural gas condensates.
Here in Australia, our recent elected Government has upset Chevron and other involved parties extracting fossil fuels from "OUR" resources over the last THIRTY YEARS without any charges being laid against them for petroleium products gained from natural gas, thus in effect, and such products were a free bonus to said companies on top of the fees they charged for the natural gas it'self. It's been claimed fees for such products were excused initially as a means of encouraging resource exploration, that exploration has now ceased,(Fields in production for 30 years) therefore such products obtained as extra from natural gas would also be charged with an excise fee. (about bloody time too, IMHO)
A by product of this little saga, is the fact the general public (Australian) had no idea whatever, our previous Govts had been giving the oil conglomerates a FREE ride, especially for so many years, something the average Aussie was not very impressed to discover.
Would you believe, the said oil companies yelled and screamed at how hard they were done by, by the removal of this freeby ? (with profits so big they make the record books and these guys still have the audacity to cry they are being hard done by ? I believe Chavez has the right idea, NATIONALISE the bloody lot, kick them blood sucking SOB'S out and then watch them scream.
I wonder, whether the "special friendship" claimed between Australia and the U.S. would survive such an action, or whether we could then expect the bombs to begin raining down upon us, or our country being turned into a glass parking lot ?
by
Eddy Schmid (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 201 comments)
on Sunday, June 15, 2008 at 4:02:37 AM
Thank you for pointing out the message in the post: Natural gas is the source of 24% of the gasoline produced in the United States.
We certainly don't have to be in a long slog of high prices.This issue surrounding the current gasoline pump price is nothing more than a manipulation.We've seen it before in 1981, 1991, 2001, and now in 2007-08.There are proven supply domestically and activity in those domestic fields indicate a desire by the oil companies to un-cap and re-work those dormant wells to take advantage of the current barrel prices.Our Congress is even now considering allowing China access to some of our offshore fields.
We need to educate ourselves on this issue.Most Americans as well as public from other countries do not realize that more than 24% of the total gasoline production in the U.S. comes from sources other than crude. I suspect the same may be true in other countries. Therefore, we need to ask where is the justification of gasoline prices being so influenced by crude oil barrel pricing.Our Congress knows this but they instead choose to parade the oil industry CEO's in a mock investigation to pacify us.
This current administration is telling the public that we need to open ANWR up for exploration to help ease the supply/pricing issue. Supply or rather reserves is not the issue.
While I understand the arguement for opening more public lands (ANWR-Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) for drilling I do question that line of thinking. I can't imagine the additional expense of exploration, drilling, extracting and transporting under those harsh conditions wouldn't somehow be passed along to the consumer in a higher price at the pump. Why would we even need to bear those expenses of discovering new fields anyway when production from established fields is currently so low. Of the already established 38.6 million acres of offshore territories only approximately 8 million acres are currently being produced. Of the already established 42.8 million acres of onshore territory only 12.3 million acres are being produced. All this and Congress is now considering allowing China some level of control in our off shore fields...what the heck is going on?
by
Joe Eichler (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 11 comments)
on Sunday, June 15, 2008 at 10:47:31 AM
3 comments
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