This is all we need now. We’re already worried about foreign supply, and now we’re short on our own production due to problems in one of our pipelines. Why didn’t the operators catch the problem sooner?
BP officials said they didn’t know how long the Prudhoe Bay field would be off line. “I don’t even know how long it’s going to take to shut it down,” said Tom Williams, BP’s senior tax and royalty counsel.
Once the field is shut down, in a process expected to take days, BP said oil production will be reduced by 400,000 barrels a day. That’s close to 8 percent of U.S. oil production as of May 2006 or about 2.6 percent of U.S. supply including imports, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Let’s just hope they fix it quick. $5 a gallon gas, anybody?
But, prove it wasnt already that high.
“just as with every other shortfall in the oil supply, we all know that the only solution to problems with the Alaska pipleline is to start drilling in the ANWAR.
oh, wait … ”
I know you’re being sarcastic but it does represent a real problem. The Alaskan pipeline has a lifespan and if we don’t start drilling in ANWR soon (which is what they specifically set aside land up there to do as part of the original legislation in the creation of ANWR) then we’re doomed to lose the remaining oil up there because the pipeline will simply be past it’s lifetime (too expensive to replace or repair).
It seems that whenever gas goes up we (the U.S.) do everything but:
* drill for more oil
* build more refineries
* increase conservation of fuel
All three of those things will make it work missing any one of them just makes it worse on ourselves.
Instead we’ll just go back to the norm:
* Blame the oil companies for making a profit because, we, as a whole, do not understand the industry or economics (market-driven economies) and can only equate $5 at the pump to them robbing us.
* launch yet another investigation. They’ve been doing this for 30+ years now – haven’t ever turned up a thing (multiple administrations).
* wait for prices to subside somewhat and then go back to the norm (not bitching and buying SUVs – oh, and buying bottled water inside the convenience station as we do all of this – no complaining on the price/gal on that one).
Somehow the public continues to buy into the ‘evil corporation’ crap that the politicians keep selling us when, if the politicians would just get out of the way, many of these problems would take care of themselves (natural supply and demand). They tell us crap to placate us and it basically works.