Why is it that the USA has to buy oil from other countries.......?

Question

Why is it that the USA has to purchase oil from other countries when we have one of the largest off-shore oil refineries right here. It's been locked up for over 20-25 years, with the high prices of oil isn't it about time we open it up and use our own resources while we develope other means of energy?

Answer 1

I met a person on my travels through Europe who worked for an oil company which i sat down and talked to .I think that the oil that is being produced can be turned in to turning in to a gas which you would get more kilometres or miles out of .I would rather see my magnetic compressed engine with an electronic loop be built for cars and motor cycles as it would then let society drive the the family for free and instead of paying the oil company's at the pump the government would introduce a small payment that allows the roads to be maintained.The USA buys oil from other country's because of consumption at the pump or bowser in ratio with the amount of vehicles on the road .

Answer 2

Holy smokes!!! I hope you get this far in your reading of the answers. And here you go: We have enough oil in the ground already drilled in the N. Shore, Alaska. I'm not going to bore you with a lot of statistics but, we could pump steady from just one well for a long long time... We don't need oil! We need; environmentalist to lighten up on saving outdated federal law that protects polywogs and micobes that are so insignificant to the big picture that it makes you wonder who is saving who!
We can't build a road to place the pipe to deliver the oil to the refineries because everything is protected. That's one side...

Side two: We owe so much money (National debt 9 trillion and counting) that, if we start pumping oil from Alaska, Some one like China may very well call in it's note to us, all we have to guarantee that we will continue to make interest only payment is... You may have guessed it?? YES... US Real Estate! Commonly referred to as: Collateral!

We don't have an energy crisis, we don't need oil from the Mid-East. All we need to do is start paying principle on our
National debt to release collateral used, once that is accomplished all we have to do is let the American people know that: OK one fact, one well in Prudhoe Bay on the N. Shore, Alaska, has enough artesian pressure (no pumping) from one,yes one well to literally pour at 1600 pounds pressure at 135 degrees, to supply the entire United States for the next 20 years!! On top of that: There is also enough natural gas to supply the United States of America for over 200 years... Check it out, our government won't tell you. If you dig hard enough you'll find everything stopped around 1973 when government inspectors found cracks in the pipeline that never got built. wYou can probably tell I get really frustrated with this subject, all I can say is do some research. We have oil.

Answer 3

a) It's not a refinery, it's a resource

b) Deepwater gulf coast reserves are actively being produced and new development is being rapidly undertaken. The environmental movement has not prevented any development so far in the US, except for some shallow water reserves off the coast of Florida, though these reserves are primarily good for gas deposits and not oil. FYI the newest reserves right at the edge of the continental shelf are about 15 BBbl, enough for about 2 years of US demand or 6 months of world demand.

c) Nobody has 200 years of oil left, not Saudi Arabia, not even the Athabascan tar sands of Alberta, Canada. The North Slope is in terminal decline (400,000 Bbl/day and dropping), and only ANWR has any new reserves that could be exploited, which are only about 10-16 BBbl (at best enough to supply the US for 2 years, not 20).

d) The US has to buy oil because even if we were to pump at maximum capacity from all reserves we would fall far short of demand. We couldn't be self sufficient if we wanted. Blaming environmentalists for this just demonstrates a total lack of knowledge of the oil and gas industry.

Geology has become a big limitation and peak production is going to hit in 20-40 years. Oil is going to be gone in 100 years. There won't be a peak oil crisis because we can produce syncrude from coal via the Sasol process. that being said, all fossil fuels will be gone in 150 years if the population continues to expand at it's current rate.

Answer 4

A refinery is different from pumping oil wells...

We have to buy oil because we don't produce enough domestically to meet the demand. Many places won't allow more drilling for oil -- e.g. Florida. Ironic-- Thanks Jeb Bush.

We should be drilling wherever we can find oil in the US. We have to do so responsibly. I mean really, what is up in ANWR (sic?) anwyay. The deer and stuff will move just like they did when we build the pipleine in Alaska.

I'd like to see the info the other mentioned-- around having 200 years of oil supply.

I have a theory that we have plenty of oil and waiting for the day when we can stick it to OPEC.

Heck-- the top oil importers to the US include Canada, Mexico and Venezuela. We've got to have some oil around.

Answer 5

The US has oil reserves large enough to sustain itself for quite a while, but with an increase in oil consumption per annum (thats around 20bn barrels daily), and an increased need for oil based products (plastic too guys), there will always be a need to purchase oil over drilling for it. Drilling is expensive, may not be fruitful, in many cases there are too many environmentalists proclaiming that "we have to save the planet man".

Answer 6

We have plenty of oil in the United States to last us for a long time.

Maybe they want to use someones oil up first, I don't really know, but it seems odd.

After all the US Oil Companies were the ones who found the majority of the oil in the Middle East.

Answer 7

You may want to ask that question to your congressman/woman. Why do they continue to hinder the development of known oil fields in Alaska, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and other states? They only cater to the lobbyists shoving money at them, that is why. However, they will tell you that they are trying to protect the environment and essential wildlife habitat which is bull-pocky. The industry is already so constrained and the oversight of oil/gas fields is tremendous. The simple fact is that they will milk the system for as long as they can.

Answer 8

It called reserve, and the way the Middle East is looking these days we need to keep something reserved just in case.

We're not the only country with oil on our soil, and out of these countries we're not the only ones not touching our oil.

Besides, without oil the Middle East would have no source of income.

Answer 9

For one we don't have an Off shore refinery, but we do have off shore drilling production rigs going on right now. Two, the environmentalist and democrats don't want us to drill off shore for their own political purposes, three, we should be drilling up in the ANWR but don't hold your breath, so we buy our oil from Canada, Mexico, Venezuela and Africa, in that order, of course the uneducated Democrat will try and tell you that's why we are in Iraq, lol!

Answer 10

The USA has enough documented oil along it's coast lines alone to last another 200 years.

The issue is in the actual digging up of that oil.