Is Crude Oil Vital for Our Economy? Howard Lowe Professional Engineer / Geologist January 20, 2022 The average US citizen considers crude oil vital for transportation and does not realize that large amount of this production is used for feedstock in the petrochemical industry. US total crude oil and natural gas liquid production as of December 30, 2021, was 13.4 million barrels per day. About 15% of the 13.4 million barrels becomes feedstock for the petrochemical industry. Americans should be concerned about energy supplies, as well as the amount of crude oil and natural gas liquids available for manufacture of everyday products vital to maintaining our standard of living. America’s proven oil reserves (38.2 billion barrels) are minuscule when compared Venezuela (297 billion barrels), Saudi Arabia (268 billion barrels) and Canada (173 billion barrels). In short, our ability to maintain high production rates is temporary at best. Example: 3,500 wells in Saudi Arabia can produce 12 million barrels of oil per day. We produce oil from over 600,000 wells to obtain 11.5 million barrels of crude oil. Why has our oil production and oil imports from Canada dropped precipitously in less than one year? I will try to give a short and informative simple answer for a very complex question: •
Keystone XL Pipeline cancelled. The Keystone’s capacity - 1.1 million BOPD (barrels of oil per day) of Canadian tar sands crude and light crude from the Williston Basin (mainly North Dakota Bakken oil).
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Close all Federal lands to new oil and gas leasing.
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Close the Alaskan Arctic leases for further exploration and development.
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Shutdown hydraulic fracking.
Modern societies would find it extremely difficult to survive without petroleum-based products. What are these products? Did you realize there are over 5,000 of them? The table below gives a partial list of some of the all-important products that originate from petroleum.
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Personal Medicines clothes vitamin capsules shampoo vaporizers
Sport helmets
Building Office roofing ink
Home upholstery
Transport tires
skis
chairs
percolators
auto bodies
combs
anesthetics
life jackets
water pipes floor wax
telephones
curtains
cold cream toys
dentures
golf balls
paint
speakers
contact lenses
boats
dolls
antiseptics
footballs
plastic wood putty
ballpoint pens drinking cups glue
aircraft fuselage safety glass
dishwasher
dashboards
cameras
aspirin
tool racks
CDs
TV cabinets
oil filters
purses
toothpaste
fishing rods movie film
carpeting
VCR tapes
linoleum
battery cases
pajamas
artificial limbs
epoxy
eyeglasses
toilet seats caulking
cassettes
pillows
fishing boots tents
sweaters
bandages
luggage diapers perfumes
wading pools sunglasses
folding doors hearing aids tool boxes antihistamines golf bags paint rollers heart valves parachutes insulation
refrigerators fan belts
plastic fertilizer matts computers1 trash bags awnings mops soap dishes
Petroleum and natural gas are not going to destroy or detrimentally affect our environment. However, without it our standard of living would go downhill fast. We must use commonsense coupled with science to reach sensible long-range solutions about climate change. Man cannot alter climate or weather. He can alter the environment, improve it, and protect it. About Howard Lowe: Independent Petroleum Engineer/Geologist 1948 – 2008. Experience - domestic and international oil industry. International - Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Algiers, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey.
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Printer & computer cases, keyboards, monitors, mouses, etc
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