The Iraqi Effect

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The OP seems appropriate enough to me: since the USA recently became the largest oil producer in the world, we are less dependent on OPEC oil than we used to be.

I have often thought our buying OPEC oil was more of a humanitarian activity than anything else because if we didn't buy their oil, we would just give them money for nothing. If they did not have oil to sell how do you think they would survive?

I think that they have been too lazy to develop other exports and technologies because they have all the oil to sit on and sell and try to manipulate foreign markets to their advantage.

They would be wise to train a bunch of engineers to start exploiting other natural resources to compete in the world markets because demand for their oil is waning.

And I think the reason Northern production has stopped or slowed is because the Kurds wanted to keep the money from oil production and sales for themselves because Baghdad had stopped sending money to the North.

I believe there is a full tanker from Kurdistan that has been floating around the world trying to find a buyer for its' full load of oil for months. No one wants to buy it because the Kurds have been banned from selling their own oil without going thru Baghdad.

Regardless, we have a lot of oil here in North and South America that can be harvested and refined. I am not too worried about OPEC.

I'm not saying this isn't of interest. But engineering, science, and technology have nothing to do with this subject/problem, as it is entirely Geopolitical in nature.

Energy is to-days biggest problem. Let it be oil or coal, all nations are power hungry to meet demands of exploding population. It will be root cause of the all wars around the world.

That' or fresh water

Here in the US, it sure would be neat if we could run a pipeline straight from the Canadian oil fields to our refineries...Iraq would be a non-issue.

I also can't help but wonder if Iraq would be so unstable if we hadn't declared a victory over terrorism, and withdrawn all of our troops.

Either way, I'm looking for China, Russia, or both, to secure private oil deals in both Iraq and Iran. If it happens, the oil won't see the world market.

It's gonna be a wild ride when oil is no longer associated with the US dollar...it's coming soon.

Canadian oil, and even tcmtech's oil has never been intended for domestic consumption. Our refineries are running at capacity and that capacity will not be increased because that would drive the price of gas down to a reasonable cost to the domestic consumer.

If you recall, the railroads became a major player in American history because some guy figured out that they could haul oil to market. They're back now, damn the derailments, high ball it ahead.

Every time some country in the Arabian Gulf farts, the price of oil is driven up artificially by profit mongers, not necessity.

The pipeline would cost about $25 billion to build and take 10 years to complete.

Of course, those numbers come out of my head, and may be conservative.

The hysteria over oil is illogical, and perpetrated by greed, because there is far more there than we will ever use.

With the current diminished status that the US has achieved, making us a former superpower through various bluffs, fake lines in the sand, abandoning our allies, endless printing and spending, backing terrorists, etc., even if North American fuel supplies were hitting the world market now, it would be nice to know that they were available to us if all hell breaks loose in the Middle East.

It would also be nice to be able to stop pretending we are friends with oil producing countries that are openly sponsoring terrorism.

Changes are coming, and the US is mattering less and less. The time to tap domestic energy is now.

http://www.caseyresearch.com/cdd/demise-petrodollar

http://economyincrisis.org/content/the-beginning-of-the-end-for-the-u-s-dollar-as-the-world-reserve-currency

I don't see any way we could be tapping domestic energy any faster than we already are.

Look what's happening in SD and other places.

The shear increase in the volume of earthquakes around the country should be enough to convince even a blind man.

I don't know all of the details, or why exactly, but a reliable source within the industry told me recently, that the mini quakes are coming from injection sites.

These are government approved sites where much nastier stuff than fracking fluid is being pumped into the ground.

http://water.epa.gov/type/groundwater/uic/wells_class1.cfm

It's a dirty little secret, and Uncle Sam is more than happy to let you blame Big Oil and fracking.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130711142401.htm

Yes, and the earthquakes we are seeing now are, "precursors to larger events at sites where pressure from waste injection has pushed faults close to failure", according to your own research.

Also, each fracked well uses 5 million gallons of water.

"Many of Oklahoma's quakes can be grouped into four seismic outbreaks since early 2009 that Keranen and other researchers have linked to oil and gas activities, primarily deep underground injection of drilling wastewater.

There's the Jones swarm, named after a northeastern suburb bordering Oklahoma City where oil comes up, along with millions of gallons of water that then gets reinjected underground. Hundreds of small quakes have been recorded in the area since 2009.

Then there was the state's biggest earthquake in 2011, a magnitude-5.7 rupture east of Oklahoma City near Prague that produced dozens of aftershocks. A study led by Keranen linked it to two injection wells near the epicenter."

Above from: Drilling-heavy Okla. ranked 2nd last year for quakes in US

Putting lipstick on the pig still leaves us with a pig.

People that hate fracking will never tell you the whole story...

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/06/11/these-companies-could-drown-in-recycled-water.aspx

Fracking is a tiny percentage of injection wells, which are intentionally drilled with the express purpose of pumping poison into them. The war on fracking is pretty much a, "Hey look, it's a squirrel", tactic...with government complicity.

Waste injection wells have been around for years! No earthquakes!

Fracking and earthquakes started to happen together, as in one started when the other did.

You would have us believe that all the fracking, that has JUST begun is not responsible for all the earthquakes that have JUST begun, at the same time?????

You're peeing in our collective boots again.

Have you always taken the wrong side of an argument, or is this a new thing for you?

They fudge the information, allowing people to think, (incorrectly), that fracking causes earthquakes. Injection wells to get rid of fracking fluid are a tiny fraction of the total.

A quick reminder: Fracking itself doesn't cause felt earthquakes. Injecting fluids into the ground (as happens with the wastewater from fracking) spawns man-made earthquakes. The added fluids increase pore pressure on a fault's surface, unclamping the fault and making it easier to slip.

http://www.livescience.com/38117-understanding-induced-earthquakes-injection-wells.html

There are all kinds of injection wells, and the government is happy to let people think that anything bad is caused by fracking operators, which isn't true.

A nutty conspiracy type might think that the government might allow lots of other kinds of injection wells, near fracking sites.

http://projects.propublica.org/graphics/underground-injection-wells

That answers the question.

You take the wrong side just to argue.

No fracking, no fracking wastewater.

That's like saying that the gun doesn't kill you, the bullet bullet does.

I won't bore you with what diverting 5 million gallons of water, per well, does to the water supply in places like Texas.

Screw the farmers and ranchers that used that water for crops and cattle, let's frack with it and then pump it underground. The earthquakes don't do too much damage, and we can buy our beef and vegetables from China.

Maybe Monsanto can genetically alter the crops and cattle to drink poisoned water.

Technology marches on...

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/82563008-fracking-water-recycling-services-reuse-waste-water.html

I don't think anybody thinks that using billions of gallons of potable water is a good idea. They're getting better every day.

the trigger doesn't pull the finger and if expansion wasn't uniform quakes maybe expected, just saying

The EPA animation assures us that these wells are safe. They would never lie.
http://water.epa.gov/type/groundwater/uic/wells_class1.cfm#animation

Can a blind man count to 75,000? That's just one region.

http://www.epa.gov/r5water/uic/r5uicwells.htm

your mention of refinery in the plural begs the question, really?

Zebari, on FOX news just confirmed exactly what I said about the Kurd's oil.

I'll bet China will buy it.

The Chinese seem to be able to avoid much of the global market by inking their own deals, which is brilliant. They'll be laughing all the way to the bank if the US forces Canada to abandon the XL project and build a pipeline to the west coast...with an exclusive deal to supply China.
On a happy note, while China is moving toward being the lone economic superpower, we will be able to brag about saving the planet through our own self orchestrated economic collapse. Yay!

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/03/world/middleeast/china-reaps-biggest-benefits-of-iraq-oil-boom.html?pagewanted%253Dall&_r=0

China doesn't want that. They own too much of us to want us to fail.

That is true: "We are too big to fail." ....where have I heard that before? I wonder if China has considered the issue of "RECALLS"?