Curmudgeonly & Skeptical

As oily as the Donk Senators and Representatives are, why don't we pony up for some exploratory drilling,eh,what?

We dunt need no sploratory drilling Lucy. We know where the oil is, but donk environuts are blocking us from getting it.

Mebbe BroSean's "drilling" was in the Frank-Nitty sense.

Man, I would LOVE to be able to convert to a hydrogen-based transporation system, just so we could tell the oil ticks to fuck off.

Unfortunately, I don't see that happening.

A hydrogen-based energy system does NOT remove our dependency on traditional fuels. It would INCREASE our oil consumption. The only benefit is that you're burning the fuel centrally (at power plants) instead of dispersed (in every car and truck). Hydrogen must be produced, from either hydrocarbons (oil) or electrolyzed from water (which requires a hell of a lot of electricity, which calls for burning a lot more oil/coal). You just remove the exhaust from street-level exposure, a good thing but entirely unrelated to energy consumption.

What Timbeaux said.

Then again, I like ChrisofDL's idea (alternative interpretation) of putting nuclear fusion reactors in cars. Then maybe people will drive more carefully...
and leave more fuel my ol' restored gas guzzler.

Ja, Frank Nitty, dots it.

I don't care how much oil we import. If we don't have the refining capacity, you don't get any more fuel then what you get now. Refineries in the USA are running at 95% or better. One fire, one breakdown, and price up/supply down. 20 years of enviro wackoism has led us to no new refineries and 30% of New York/Jersey import of refined product. Import of refined product is a strategic disaster waiting to happen. I agree that Republicans are spineless jellyfish who beg for our votes and then DO NOTHING but cowtow to the Donks. Complete and utter collapse is about the only thing that will turn things around, I guess?

This is why I'm a big shareholder of Valero (VLO).

Congress is clueless (more than the normal clueless) about the 'awl bidness.

Back after the 1973 oil embargo, drilling kicked into high gear. The demand for drill pipe exploded! Since the oil business is terribly cyclical and the pipe business was pretty well the same as it had already been, the stockpile of pipe, which normally served the 'boom' times, was exhausted. No one builds a pipe foundry overnight, either. The result was a shortage of drill pipe.

Wellllll, CON-gress saw the conspiracy demon lurking behind all those nasty old oil barons and held some hearings into this 'shortage'. A friend of my father, who was over a large independent oil company at the time, was called to testify. One of the Senators from the left side (Kennedy, I think it was) had a fact sheet, prepared by his aids, no doubt.

It showed the number of drilling rigs operating in the US and off-shore. It showed the number of 40 foot sections of drill pipe known to exist. He said something like, "Even with TWO back-up drill pipes for each drilling rig, there should the THOUSANDS of pieces of surplus drill pipe on hand!" Then, pounding the table he says, "This committe wants to know it has all gone!"

Dad's friend was puzzled at first, then it dawned on him that the Senator had never heard of rotary drilling! In his mind, it was like the era of the Lucas Gusher, Santa Rita #1 and all of the other "cable tool" rigs. These used a piece of pipe with a sharp bit that was hammered into the ground by lifting and dropping of a walking beam.

Having a little fun, the oil guy lowered his voice, "Well, Senator... it's uhhhh, in the ground."

"It's WHERE?" In the Senator's mind, he was obviously seeing this huge supply of drill pipe covertly stashed under the shifting sands of West Texas, all in the name of high oil prices.

The oil man continued, "Uhhh, you know who Howard Hughes is?"

"Well, YES!", the Senator said, smelling conspiratorial blood. Hughes was behind it! Beads of sweat broke out on his forehead.

"Well, his father invented a process called 'rotary drilling' in the 1930s. That allows us to go below 1500 feet. The problem is that it uses this nice rotating bit that is suspended on a STRING of drill pipe and spun to make a nice deep hole." He rotated a number 2 yellow pencil between the palms of his hands for effect.

The Senator looked puzzled. "What are you saying?"

"What I'm saying is that you need 8000 feet of pipe to drill an eight thousand foot hole! Take your figures, the average depth we're going for new oil supplies and apply some fourth grade math and you'll see that we're about a hundred thousand joints of pipe SHORT of what we need!"

So much for Congressional 'experts'.

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