Keystone XL Pipeline

[heironymouspasparagus]

It's not all the same "stuff." This is not crude oil. It is much worse. It is "tar sands oil". It is a volatile, exotic hydrocarbon slurry containing benzene and arsenic. It is nothing like crude oil. It is heavier than water, so it goes straight down into the groundwater. Nobody knows how to clean it up.

You do realize benzene is present in pretty much every hydrocarbon - and tar sands oil IS crude oil.  Benzene is gasoline.  Or the largest component of gasoline.  And the tar sands are a lot like the oil CITGO uses for it's feed stock from Venezuela.  Very thick.

Arsenic is definitely heavy.  How is that different from all the arsenic we blow into the air from coal fired plants?

[heironymouspasparagus]

If anyone is still concerned about Keystone, here is something to take your mind off it and get a little perspective.... only 56 million gallons to go!!

http://news.yahoo.com/nuclear-board-warns-hanford-tank-194416353.html


Close family friend has been there doing exactly what you see those guys doing - has spent many months there over the last 3 years or so.  After showing this, the comment is, "yes, it is as bad as they make it seem in the news."   Ch2M was just fined about $18 million - time card fraud.  And unlike the Halliburton "no-bid" contract, this one was out for bids at one time.  Money for everyone!!

Interesting little tidbit - at another site, they unearthed about 25, 1 gallon size glass jars with varying amounts of plutonium in them.  Mostly dried out plutonium residue, but some had as much as a couple quarts of liquid suspension left.

[Townsend]

Harold Hamm Says U.S. Oil Industry No Longer Needs Keystone XL Pipeline



http://kwgs.com/post/harold-hamm-says-us-oil-industry-no-longer-needs-keystone-xl-pipeline

Harold Hamm, CEO of major Oklahoma-based petroleum producer Continental Resources, used to be against the Keystone XL pipeline.

Then he was for it.

Now he says the pipeline isn't really needed anymore. At least, he's not counting on it, as northeast Texas public radio station KETR's Mark Haslett reports:

[Hamm] has said that his company's booming operations in North Dakota's Bakken field are relying on rail transport to move its product.

In a conversation with Reuters, when asked whether Keystone XL is still needed, Hamm said "not for our Bakken (crude oil). And is it needed for the industry? I don't think so ... not in the U.S.

StateImpact reported in September 2012 that "The Oklahoma oilman stood alongside landowners and environmentalists, and formed a lobby group of Oklahoma oilmen that successfully squashed permits for the pipeline."

He didn't want cheap Canadian crude undercutting Continental's market.

But that all changed when TransCanada, the company building the pipeline, agreed to build another line connecting the Bakken Field in the northern U.S. — where Hamm has oil interests — to the rest of the project.

Suddenly, Hamm had a new way to get crude to refineries on the gulf coast. As an energy advisor for the Mitt Romney presidential campaign, he helped develop an energy policy that was very much pro-Keystone XL.

Since then, however, Hamm tells Reuters railroads have become more and more important and viable as a way to transport crude, a trend StateImpact reported on Dec. 6.

"Rail has been a big factor and, you know, proven to be a very effective way," Hamm said on Dec. 12 Continental now ships 90 percent of its crude oil by rail, Hamm told Reuters.

Continental still plans to use the Keystone XL extension it pushed to get built.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Harold Hamm Says U.S. Oil Industry No Longer Needs Keystone XL Pipeline

They just can't get their story right...and keep it the same for more than a few moments!

They are more into "change" than Obama ever dreamed about....

[Gaspar]

"They" are doing great right now.  Biggest fossil fuel boom in decades!

I have to admit, President Obama has been great for the oil & gas industry (not that he intended to be).

NG prices may be low, but volume is through the roof! Ethanol is on it's way out with increased demand for "real fuel" and fewer ethanol processing permits. Old wells here in Oklahoma that have been capped for decades (many a friend of mine owns up in Owasso) are now being re-opened, because even with the high ratio of saltwater that has to be disposed of, the separated product is now profitable.

[heironymouspasparagus]

"They" are doing great right now.  Biggest fossil fuel boom in decades!

I have to admit, President Obama has been great for the oil & gas industry (not that he intended to be).

NG prices may be low, but volume is through the roof! Ethanol is on it's way out with increased demand for "real fuel" and fewer ethanol processing permits. Old wells here in Oklahoma that have been capped for decades (many a friend of mine owns up in Owasso) are now being re-opened, because even with the high ratio of saltwater that has to be disposed of, the separated product is now profitable.

Now profitable.... just as it has been for the last 30+ years.  It has NEVER, in the history of the industry, since the 1840's, been unprofitable.  It is, and always has been, an energy "crisis" only because the industry propaganda made it that way.

The only question that has ever had any validity for the industry is, "Should be be satisfied with mega-mega-profits, or manipulate the market for mega-mega-mega profits...?"


Why is it you don't understand this at your age??

[Conan71]

Now profitable.... just as it has been for the last 30+ years.  It has NEVER, in the history of the industry, since the 1840's, been unprofitable.  It is, and always has been, an energy "crisis" only because the industry propaganda made it that way.

The only question that has ever had any validity for the industry is, "Should be be satisfied with mega-mega-profits, or manipulate the market for mega-mega-mega profits...?"


Why is it you don't understand this at your age??

At $9.00 a barrel in the early 1980's it was unprofitable for smaller producers. That's why so many marginal wells were shut in at that time. It cost more to get it to the surface and transported off the lease than it was worth.

Enhanced extraction methods like steam flood or fracking and horizontal drilling are more expensive processes than conventional drilling.  If oil prices ever dropped below $50/bbl you would see a lot of the supply shut off until prices went back up. 

[Red Arrow]

At $9.00 a barrel in the early 1980's it was unprofitable for smaller producers. That's why so many marginal wells were shut in at that time. It cost more to get it to the surface and transported off the lease than it was worth.

Enhanced extraction methods like steam flood or fracking and horizontal drilling are more expensive processes than conventional drilling.  If oil prices ever dropped below $50/bbl you would see a lot of the supply shut off until prices went back up. 

Party pooper.  They could just make up for it in volume.

[AquaMan]

But don't ignore the obvious. The prices were low because supply was high versus demand. Even so, the industry was profitable and always has been as H suggests. Even in 1974 when I worked at Cities Service marketing and the price of a bbl of crude skyrocketed, I remember seeing memos stating that our 10% ROI was not enough and that we needed to increase our exploitation of the market. Its never enough and that's ok. Stockholders like that attitude. But you must be aware, that outside of incompetence, they very much control their own market like DeBeers does diamonds and NFL does football.

Or maybe Mary Fallin is responsible for their profitability. You'd have to ask the cabbage man.

[Conan71]

But don't ignore the obvious. The prices were low because supply was high versus demand. Even so, the industry was profitable and always has been as H suggests. Even in 1974 when I worked at Cities Service marketing and the price of a bbl of crude skyrocketed, I remember seeing memos stating that our 10% ROI was not enough and that we needed to increase our exploitation of the market. Its never enough and that's ok. Stockholders like that attitude. But you must be aware, that outside of incompetence, they very much control their own market like DeBeers does diamonds and NFL does football.

Or maybe Mary Fallin is responsible for their profitability. You'd have to ask the cabbage man.

Yes the industry was so profitable in the early 1980's that tens of thousands lost their jobs and some Oklahoma towns nearly became extinct.

[Red Arrow]

Yes the industry was so profitable in the early 1980's that tens of thousands lost their jobs and some Oklahoma towns nearly became extinct.

If the oil industry had been as profitable as many claim, my mother would be sitting in the lap of luxury from dividends.  Unfortunately for her (& me and my siblings), that is not the case.

[Red Arrow]

I remember seeing memos stating that our 10% ROI was not enough and that we needed to increase our exploitation of the market.

Oooooh.  Please check out the ROI on pharmaceuticals, the network media, and maybe a few others for comparison.

This is left as an exercise for the student.   

/sarcasm  The oil industry has been mostly profitable but the only thing most of us see is the price of gasoline and that has several middlepersons involved.  Why did the price of gas go up $.10 today other than the weather report?  I doubt Exxon, etc caused that.

[AquaMan]

Yes the industry was so profitable in the early 1980's that tens of thousands lost their jobs and some Oklahoma towns nearly became extinct.

No kidding. You mean companies expand, contract and disappear during boom and lean times? Who'd have figured that? Individual companies that were poorly managed, misread the signals, under capitalized, expanded into areas they didn't know enough about and on and on, failed to make it through a cycle? Communities that relied too heavily on just one industry became extinct? Curious but predictable. The one I worked for was one of them. It stupidly invested in risky oil extraction methods, copper mines, etc. and made itself a buyout candidate.

But overall, its hard to not be profitable when your industry is something widely used throughout nearly every product we touch.

[AquaMan]

Oooooh.  Please check out the ROI on pharmaceuticals, the network media, and maybe a few others for comparison.

This is left as an exercise for the student.   

/sarcasm  The oil industry has been mostly profitable but the only thing most of us see is the price of gasoline and that has several middlepersons involved.  Why did the price of gas go up $.10 today other than the weather report?  I doubt Exxon, etc caused that.

If I get a chance I will. This was in 1974. That was a darn good figure at that time.

[Red Arrow]

If I get a chance I will. This was in 1974. That was a darn good figure at that time.

Not according to my dad who was in the pipeline business.  It was OK but not darn good.