When I tell people there is more oil in Canada than in Saudi Arabia they look at me as if I just fell off a bar stool. Unfortunately however, I am quite sober and the above statement is quite true and ironically - sobering. The world has plenty of oil - not only in Canada, but Russia,
China, and right here in the U.S. as well In fact, the only argument amongst geologists is whether there is three tillion or five trillion barrels of oil remaining beneath the Earth. The real issue causing all the grief in the world is refining capacity.
Simply put, over the last twenty years, the world's fuel consumption has increased almost 35%
(thanks primarily to China, India and other emerging economies) but refinery and storage capacities have remained the same and most probably by design. 90% of the world's oil refineries are owned by American oil companies and have been operating at 100% capacity for the last 4-5 years.
All market pricing of any commodity fluctuates according to the laws of supply and demand as any first year business major is taught. However, if one can artificially suppress the supply side, pricing can be kept at record high levels, especially when the supply is tightly held by just a
few companies. We have witnessed excatly this type of price manipulation in the diamond industry for years. Despite, an overflowing supply of diamonds, mostly from one or two sources in Africa, only a pre-determined supply is introduced into the market every year to keep retao; prices
inflated. But the recent introduction of Russian diamonds into the market will soon disrupt the clever game plan. Sadly, we have the same situation in the oil industry where oil companies, despite billions in record profits, refuse to build a single new refinery. More refineries equates to more oil on the market and lower prices at the pumps, and less profit
in their pockets. It's a great scheme.
Many companies like Ivanhoe and Hobson Secondary Oil have proven beyond any doubt that they can release vast quantities of crude oil trapped in rock formations as far as 12,000 feet below the suface with high-pressure steam injection. This technology alone would produce over a billion
barrels of oil a year right here in the U.S. - eliminating transportation costs and dependency on foreign oil. Even the Chinese have demonstrated how to cost-effectively retrieve a barrel of oil from a tone of shale. And the Canadians are successfully producing over a million barrels of oil
a day from their Alberta Oil Sands. There is plenty of oil friends - the shortage is on the ethics and will to reduce profits and fuel taxes Not surprisingly, where the governments administer the oil industry (Venezuela, Nigeria, and Kuwait for example) the price of gas at the pump is less than fifty cents a gallon! This should speak volumes, but few American consumers are even listening. Our collective ignorance of this oil scam is bliss to oil executives, but costing us all a fortune every time we fill up. It doesn't have to be this way folks.
If our legislators really want to help "WE THE PEOPLE" they would mandate the construction of two new refineries in America and when completed we would see gas below $1 a gallon very quickly. But really, what oil company wants to make less money than more? And what politician wants to
receive less campaign contributions than more, or have less tax dollars than more (from oil and gas sales) to pay for their many pork barrel projects? Indeed, our oil "problem" is not at all about oil - it is all about greed. We were first duped with invisible "weapons of mass destruction" and now its the "critical oil shortage". Wake up America - we are all being violated for the profit of a few with a very sophisticated ruse.
Bruce A. Gorcyca, (www.veteranorgandonors.org)
Authors Background: BBA from Inter American University (Puerto Rico), honorbaly disharged military veteran, and former Fortune 500 marketing executive. Currently employed as marketing and growth consultant.
