[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PraiseDoom', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '
')
I wonder who the first leading politician will be to call for an investigation of Peak Oil?

[NEOPO]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'I') can't really think of a better category for this information. This article is a few months old, but it's quite interesting, and of course has geopolitical implications. I think there's a recent follow up article and will follow up.


Blowing the Whistle on Big Oil--New York Times:


Investigators say they have found evidence of myriad problems at the department: cronyism and cover-ups of management blunders; capitulation to oil companies in disputes about payments; plunging morale among auditors; and unreliable data-gathering that often makes it impossible to determine how much money companies actually owe.

“We don’t have a system that accurately tells us how much oil is being taken out of the ground.”

Blowing the whistle on big oil -- NYT

[PraiseDoom]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '
')
It would smart for Congress to learn the facts about Peak Oil, rather than blaming high gas prices on a conspiracy by the evil oil companies.

[Zentric]

On another thread which I've participated on in the past, Plantagenet posted:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]The fact that oil companies sometimes produce more oil then they pay taxes on can't account for the high gas prices we are seeing around the world. The arrival of Peak Oil remains a better explanation.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PraiseDoom', ' ')Congress? ...I'm hoping they are the first to go.

[NEOPO]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zentric', 'O')n another thread which I've participated on in the past, Plantagenet posted:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]The fact that oil companies sometimes produce more oil then they pay taxes on can't account for the high gas prices we are seeing around the world. The arrival of Peak Oil remains a better explanation.

[PraiseDoom]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PraiseDoom', ' ')Congress? ...I'm hoping they are the first to go.

[threadbear]

I found this on Wikipedia about anti-competetive practices. If there is any way this DOESN'T apply to oil corporations, I'd like to know.

Anti competetive practises:


Absorption of a competitor or competing technology, where the powerful firm effectively co-opts or swallows its competitor rather than see it either compete directly or be absorbed by another firm.


Regulations which place costly restrictions on firms that less wealthy firms cannot afford to implement


It is usually difficult to practice anti-competitive practices unless the parties involved have significant market power or government backing.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-competitive_practices

[threadbear]

The Big Picture on Big Oil

"Back in the days when there were Seven Sisters, and a penchant in Congress to tear them apart, the federal government got the right to insert special data probes at key points in the biggest oil companies' financial structures. The largest oil companies were required to supply much more elaborate detail about financial returns in their functional segments than they ever made available to the markets: it was several layers deeper into the onion than the aggregate recap required by a 10K or 10Q. No one really knows what it was for but it probably had something to do with ensuring they didn't benefit from anti-competitive practices as they danced, not always at arm's length, with OPEC. But that was before four of the sisters ate the other three.

The graphs displayed are not exactly peeling back layers of the onion. It's what anyone could get reading annual reports nowadays, but the data are from the folks who maintain the special probes. The top one shows where the profits come from; the bottom one shows domestic production of oil and natural gas by the big companies. Even though the biggest oil companies more or less gave up on the US as an important supply province decades ago, they continue to make a very tidy* profit on their remaining activities here."

*Okay, either unreasonably huge and proof that the less you do the more you make, or an adequate return on capital given the risks involved, depending on your politics.

http://policypete.com/background(8).htm

[Plantagenet]

Think of high gas prices as nature's way of telling you to reduce your use of fossil fuels.

[JBinKC]

The reason for the high prices is partly attributable to greed, aversion to any risk taking by the industry and the lack of excess capacity of refining lower quality crudes.

Refining lower quality crudes requires a much higher non utilization rate built in the system due to the higher risks attributable to refining it. You can blame the companies by not investing more money in this area or trying to maximize the crack spread when it wasn't that wide among the different quality of crudes as it has in the past but why take on any risk when you don't necessarily have to.

[threadbear]

I don't disagree with you. However refineries are being built by the major refiners in foreign countries, for American consumption, so the idea that they don't expect to be refining much in the future because there aren't many years of refining left, due purely to supply shortage, is a bit bogus.

I just get the impression Jbink that oil companies get off pretty easy on this forum and find that rather astonishing.

The article I provided isn't about refineries as much as domestic drilling operations. You should read it. It's actually very interesting and does nothing to curb my suspicions that everything isn't necessarily on the up and up at the refinery level, either.