So just last night I heard yet another debate about how all the US oil importers are radical Muslim countries, and how in the near future we might be held hostage to their price demands as oil gets more scare and our global political position weakens. I’m sure you’ve heard all the arguments before, and the range of possible solutions. But, have you ever heard that, in fact, the vast majority of our oil does not in fact come from Muslim countries at all? I’ve done my research, and it turns out that most of our oil comes from our direct neighbors! Here are the top 5 US oil imports by county.

1 – Canada
Our friendly neighbors to the north, are also number one in the list of US oil importers! Would you have guessed it? Canada imports 1.9 million barrels of oil a day, most of which come from its tar sands. The obvious advantages of Canada as an importing country are the low transport costs, zero cross-border tax and the strong relations between the two countries.

2 – Saudi Arabia
OK, so contrary to my original statement no surprise here whatsoever! What is a surprise though, is that whist Saudi Arabia is the biggest producer of oil in the word, only a small percentage (1.5 million barrels out of 9 million) are delivered to the US. The majority of is consumed domestically and in the populous Asian countries.

3 – Mexico
So, it turns out, we are sandwiched between two of the three biggest US oil importers! Not known as a big oil producing country, Mexico, is in fact not a big oil producing country, but practically everything it does produce (1.2 million barrels a day) gets delivered to the US.

4 – Nigeria
Another surprise comes in at number one. Known as the most populous nation in Africa, as well as one of the most unstable and violent, the US has huge corporate interest in the country, and has thousands of expat workers earnings big money in its oil fields and associated offices. 1.1 million barrels get but on a ship to the US ever day.

5 – Venezuela
Another unknown entity, most people are aware that Venezula produces oil, but not so many are aware that it sends a lot of it to the US – 1 million barrels per day. number 5 is our friendly South American neighbor Venezuela at 1.0 mbd.

These come a surprise – well check out these less-than-expected countries which are all in the list of the top 15 countries which import oil to the US: Colombia, Norway, Angola, Brazil, and, wait for it.. the Virgin Islands!

As we all know, the US is a huge importer of oil, and many of the oil producing countries that it imports from are not the most savory. Some of them have terrible human rights records, some have extremist governments, and some are just downright dangerous and unstable – and that is what this article is about. I have taken a look at all the major oil exporting countries to the US, and come up with the top 3 that are as far away from Norway as you can get, if you know what I mean…

1 – Venezuela
This comes as a surprise to some, considering the relations between the two countries, but Venezuela is number four in the list of oil exporting countries to the US, after Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico, at more than 900,000 barrels a day. So is Venezuela stable? Absolutely not! I travelled there myself one year ago and I can tell you that I have never been to a country that is in such a mess. None of the governmental institutions are functioning properly. The economy as a whole is in shatters and very little, other than oil, is produced in the country. Crime is off the scale. In fact, Venezuela is one of the most crime ridden countries in the world, and is way more dangerous than, for instance, it’s more notorious neighbor, Colombia. Anyone who lives in Venezuela will tell you that this corruption ridden country with deep political divisions is extremely unstable.

2 – Nigeria
Just below Venezuela in the rank of oil exporting countries to the US, Nigerian oil is known for its excellent quality, which is perfect for producing high grade gasoline. But the good news ends there. Behind Somalia, it is officially the most corrupt country in Africa (and that takes some doing!), and the oil industry there has been fraught with tension for decades. Aggrieved that only a small proportion of the revenues from oil actually remain in the country, and wanted some of pie for themselves, militants have been attacking the oil refineries and kidnapped foreign oil workers since day one. These local militias have been increasing in strength for a long time, and are heavily armed. Better so, in fact, then the local police. Most people in the business consider this source of oil to be particularly unstable.

3 – Iraq
The sixth biggest oil exporter to the US, with about half a million barrels a day. There’s not much I can say about the instability of this country that you don’t already know! Many pundits believe that Iraq will break up some time in the next few years, as violence between different ethnic groups continues. The combination of external interference and internal fragmentation is unfortunately leading this country to the scrap heap. Yet another huge importer of oil to the US which is incredibly unstable!

2) Reserves’ home countries try to get a bigger cut.
Back in the day, when prices were low, countries with plentiful oil reserves like Venezuela and Russia offered the big oil companies some pretty good deals. Now they’ve gotten quite stiff and want a bigger cut of the profits. Contracts and tax regimes are being adjusted so that the more profits oil companies make, the higher percentage the reserve country gets. Saudi Arabia and Russia are wary of letting any of the big oil companies on their soil at all now. The CEOs of these companies are tearing their hair out trying to find easier ways to foreign reserves. They complain that it is constantly getting more and more difficult to reinvest the profits they make into worthwhile ventures.

3) Too many restricted areas.

Back in the 1960s, international oil companies had access to about 85 percent of all of the world’s reserves. This has been dramatically reduced to just 16 percent today. The rest of the oil and gas in the world is either cordoned off or completely restricted. The current prospects are no longer infinite, as they once used to be. In 1979, 27.8 percent of the global gas and oil production could be claimed by British and American oil companies. In 2004 this figure dropped to just 14 percent. National companies are now given privilege in the same countries where international had equal access in the past. These include Kuwait Petroleum, Saudi Aramco, and Mexico’s Pemex. In the end, the locals are getting better treatment.

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Big oil companies are certainly not winners of popularity contests among the general public, but many are still worried about their success. In the end, their success equals gas for your car, which you really do need. However, it is getting more and more difficult for them to be successful in the current global circumstances because of tougher competition, big technical challenges, and hostile foreign governments. Here are 3 reasons why big oil companies may be in trouble, even though now they are rolling in the cash:

1) Hard to keep up with demand.

The ratio at which the supplies of big oil companies are being renewed is slipping rapidly. The standard for this ratio is 100 percent or more, but most of the big six oil companies in the United States are projected to plunder well below that over the next 5 years. This is not even close to being enough to satisfy the demand the world will have (which is constantly increasing, by the way). If this projection is correct and if demand does, in fact, substantially outgrow the supply, by the end of this decade oil prices could increase to nearly $200 a barrel, which would translate to $6 a gallon for gasoline!

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3) Untapped resources are constantly discovered.
It is a complete myth that there are only a few sources of oil that are available for the West. Oil is being discovered constantly in many countries, with Russia being the leader of new discoveries. The reason that oil giants don’t want you to know this is that they obviously make more money from the oil myth. If something is available in abundance, it is harder to make a profit from it. Also, it is easier to propagate this myth and say that we are dependent on foreign oil rather than admit that we have enough of our own, in which case, the prices would have to be much lower.

4) Oversupply in South Korea and Japan.

It has been reported that fuel oil (Diesel) is in such abundance in these countries, that they have actually had to quit refining crude oil. The prices there have decreased to $20 a barrel or less (wholesale it works out to 36 cents a gallon). Compare this to the $60 a barrel selling in America and this should immediately answer your question “Is peak oil a myth?”

5) Scientific evidence against peak oil.
Scientific research done around the peak oil theory also seems to disprove it as well. It suggests that oil is not in fact a non-renewable resource, as we are constantly being told. Oil is abiotic, which is like natural gas and coal. It actually replenishes itself from the mantle of the earth.

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Peak oil refers to the end of petroleum extraction, and simply – running out of oil on the planet. This is talked about more than any other environmental issue in the world. But more and more people are starting to wonder: “Is peak oil a myth?” We think it is, so we’ve come up with 5 reasons why the peak oil myth is not a myth at all.

1) Memos of artificial scarcity.
The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights was able to obtain confidential internal memos sent between oil giants Chevron, Mobile and Texaco. These memos talk about creating artificial scarcity of oil by closing oil refineries or limiting their capacities. All this was done with the intention of creating an excuse to raise gas prices.

2) Reserves are constantly increased.

The next peak oil myth question that begs to be asked is why so many new reserves are discovered and there is skyrocketing production when we are supposedly running out of oil? Saudi Arabia, for example, continues to increase its reserves of crude oil and earlier this year their reserves hit 200 billion barrels. These reserves are enough not only to keep Saudi Arabia with plenty of oil, but to allow it to be the main producer of oil for at least the next 100 years.

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This article is an update to the article about offshore drilling facts and offshore drilling pros and cons, posted on bionomicfuel a year ago.

The debate on the pros and cons of offshore drilling has become a big one in the US media this last 12 months. The future energy policy of the country is still unclear and many of its citizens want to know what the country is doing in the face of an uncertain future. In this article I have given you some offshore oil drilling facts, and some of the offshore oil drilling pros and cons.

In offshore drilling, oil is extracted from beneath the ocean floor, anywhere from a couple of hundred meters to 250 miles off the coast. Nowadays, oil companies are forced to explore locations as deep as 2 kilometers beneath the ocean’s surface, as easily extractable sources of oil are dwindling.

Not too many people know that the first place that offshore drilling took place was in Azerbaijan, in the 19th century. Since then offshore rigs have been built all over the world. One of the highest concentrations of them is in the North Sea off the UK, although the output from these rigs has been dropping for many years. The Gulf of Mexico is another area dense in rigs, and there are over 4000 of them currently in operation there.

US offshore oil production facts:

565 million barrels per year are extracted which equates to less than 1.5 million barrels per day. The current U.S. oil consumption is 21 million barrels per day.

Offshore drilling in the US will barely reduce the country’s demand for foreign oil. The US uses about 8 billion barrels of oil per year, and it is estimated that conventional offshore drilling would bring just 18 billion barrels in total. As a chief researcher at the Earth Policy Institute said, “Many people have a false sense of security that we have sufficient fuel under our sea beds to be independent from other countries, but in reality nothing could be farther from the truth”.

Offshore drilling in the US will not guarantee lower fuel prices. There are too many other factors which influence it, such as the hedgers who manipulate the price of oil.

Improved technologies have led to a lower occurrence of oil spills in the last 4 decades. However, at current extraction rates, it is predicted that in the Gulf of Mexico there will be one oil spill per year of no less than 1000 barrels over the next 40 years.

Offshore drilling has taken a huge knock since the BP oil spill. Before the spill, President Obama admitted that the political pressure was such that some new areas would have to be opened up for offshore drilling. However, now this process has been halted, and Obama has much more political support to restrict offshore drilling from most areas in the US.

Despite all these cons, the future of offshore drilling in the US depends less on the facts and figures and moral arguments, and much more on the political and corporate forces behind this multi-trillion dollar business.

In the offshore drilling pros and cons debate, it must be remembered that many of the offshore drilling facts get distorted. There was, for instance, so much information spread around about the oil spill which simply was not true. Whether you pay more attention to the pros or the cons of offshore oil drilling may largely depend on your philosophy. Many people are ready to move into the new green economy, whilst plenty more see bigger value in keeping the status quo and further utilizing the reserves under our ocean floor.

For the original story, and further information about facts about offshore oil drilling in US, click here

For more information, go to:
en.wikipedia.org,
naturalgas.org

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will most likely change the balance of power of international oil companies (IOC’s) and national companies in the oil industry.

Until this disaster, and the consequent mess with the oil clean up, a generally held assumption had always been that the IOCs would make use of their superior technological skill base over the national companies, which would enable them to explore further offshore into deeper and more remote wells in order to replenish their reserves.

Of the 85 million barrels per day of oil used globally, about 30% comes from offshore oil wells and its share is gradually increasing. State companies hold most of the big onshore wells, so offshore is one of the few remaining areas of potential expansion for IOCs.

Mike Wittner, head of oil research at French bank Societe Generale, explained that an ever increasing amount of global oil production is offshore, in particular deep offshore.

The Caspian, the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil and West Africa are the new areas of exploration, and of those four, three of them are deep water zones.

However, since the oil spill and unsuccessful oil clean up, governments have been hinting on introducing an entire set of new rules regarding offshore operations. As part of this governments are proposing the obligatory drilling of secondary wells to act as a buffer in the case of an explosion such as that that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. This would dramatically increase costs for the IOCs.

One of the IOCs’ only advantages over national companies is their higher level of technological innovation, but governments will now have the power to demand that the operation is a joint venture and that they want technology to be shared before they agree to giving out new licenses.

As reserves are not easy to come by for IOCs, they may well have to swap their expertise and technology for licences or agree to less attractive terms for new contracts.

When governments are making important decisions about their waters and offshore drilling, they are certainly going to want to have full control over operations. For this reason they are either going to demand majority stakes, or they will ask for joint ventures or partnerships.

Despite all this, apart from the technological edge that IOCs have over national companies, they do have some further advantages, such as their retail networks and refineries, as well as their large customer bases. When IOC’s try to win contracts, this is one of the main things they will market. In the near term, some technologies will remain in the hands of IOCs.

The oil spill occurred relatively recently and the oil clean up is still underway, but it looks like the consequences will be felt in the industry for decades to come.

For more detailed information, visit: reuters.com

In best stocks news of the day, a leading oil executive and expert from Libya has suggested that Libyan’s sovereign wealth fund purchase a sizable stake in the energy giant BP.

Shokri Ghanem is the chairman of the National Oil Company of Libya, and in his informed opinion BP shares are currently “fantastic value for bargain hunters”. According to him BP is one of the best investments around at the moment.

On July 3rd it was reported that BP is hoping to attract investment from sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East, and his comments suggest that BP will be successful in this venture.

Following the recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill, shares in BP have almost halved. Mr Ghanem explained that BP is of particular interest now as the stock price is less than half its level before the disaster, whilst he still has a lot of faith in the company and its ability to bounce back. As a result he considered this the best investment for the Libyan Investment Authority.

Asides from the Kuwaiti Investment Authority, there has been much said in the last few days about potential investors in BP. The US oil giant Exxon Mobil and China’s PetroChina have been linked to the company.
In its latest update, BP reported that the costs associated with the oil leak had risen to a massive $3.12bn, whilst it is forecasted by analysts that the final cost will be in the tens of billions of dollars. Unfortunately, up to this day oil is still leaking into the Gulf of Mexico. Better news is that two relief wells are being drilled now and they should be completed by August. If all goes well, they will stop the leak completely.

Whilst the BP Corporation is synonymous with fossil foil exploitation and such outdating industries, it is also heavily investing in business and technologies with the potential to deliver cleaner energy in the future, such as wind energy, solar energy, bio fuels, hydrogen power and other sources of alternative energy.

The BP portfolio covers an extremely wide range of new energy technologies, and since 2005 BP Alternative Energy has invested about $4 billion in green sources of energy.

The goal of the company is to build green businesses that last. This entails the creation of low-carbon energy businesses that will eventually turn into successful commercial enterprises, and become part of the alternative energy future, delivering substantial environmental benefits.

Since 2005, BP has built its wind power business in American from scratch to a generating capacity of more than 1200 megawatts. This is sufficient power to provide clean electricity for a city the size of the country’s capital.

To find out more about the work being done by BP towards achieving a sustainable future, go to: bp.com

The source of this news is: news.bbc.co.uk

1. An Environmentally Friendly Option
One of the biggest advantages of hybrid cars is the fact that they are very environmentally friendly. They have much less pollution and greenhouse gas emissions because less fossil fuel is used. With hydrogen fuel cells the only emissions are clean and pure water.

2. Lower Fuel Costs
One of the benefits of hybrid cars is that there is less spent in fuel costs. With gasoline and diesel at more than a couple dollars a gallon each. Stretching the fuel as far as possible makes good financial sense. Some manual transmission hybrids can get sixty miles or more on one gallon of fuel.

3. Better Energy Security And Stability
Because the advantages of hybrid cars means using less fuel, this lowers the dependence on foreign countries for fossil fuel supplies. This means more energy security and stability for the country and the population, because there is no need to connect the fuel supply and politics. Many other countries use fossil fuels as a hostage, and with domestically produced fuels and hybrids this can no longer happen.

4. The Hybrid Car Tax Rebate
The hybrid car tax rebate is one of the benefits of hybrid cars. The federal government offers tax credits for hybrid vehicle purchases, and these credits can be from a few hundred dollars to more than five or six thousand. This can be a big financial bonus to buying the best vehicle possible.

5. Prevent A Future Energy Crisis
The advantages of hybrid cars include preventing an energy crisis in the future. As fossil fuels become more scarce their cost will continue to rise, and it will be harder and more expensive to obtain these resources. Switching to hybrid vehicles and alternative energy sources now can prevent a crisis later on because of fuel and energy shortages.