Speaking of that and the price of everything
going up because of the price of gas,
there's another element to this
inflation angle mentioned during
Senator Crapo's press conference.
The price of gas and how it is
affecting the price of everything else.
We just said there are those on the diets
today that seem to have a simple solution.
We could create more good jobs.
Across America and bring down the price
of gasoline at the pump and provide a
some real relief to American consumers.
If we would just produce
more energy here at home,
but we want to do is help on
the supply side of the economy,
including producing more.
Fossil fuels here in this country
and all forms of energy.
In order for us to see the price
go down at the pump and and
the utility bills go down.
Yeah, there's been a small
tick down in the gas prices,
but they are still the major driving force
here and they're still above $5 a gallon.
I think the answer is.
The President needs to stop looking
for excuses and start focusing on
the right kinds of policies that
my colleagues have described here.
Senator Graper said the policies
of producing more product right,
which Senator Crapo and his colleagues say,
runs contradictory to the
current administration.
So who's to blame in all this?
Remember back in March when President
Biden and his press secretary Jen Saki
said the onus is on the oil industry
to get to drilling because there were
more than 9000 oil leases out there on
federal land just being unused and they
could have been doing some drilling.
Any onshore onshore drilling
at anytime up to that point?
Well, that's true.
At the end of last year there were 9173.
Approved and available permits
to drill on federal lands.
In fact, it's common for there to
be thousands of unused permits,
no matter who's in the Oval Office,
according to the Independent
Petroleum Association of America.
But it's not as simple as
have permit pull out the oil.
There's a lot that has to happen.
Companies have to get permits
to drill for that oil,
then hire the people to do that drilling.
And none of this happens within a work week.
It could take months to years because
of the complex local permitting
requirements and the possible
construction of infrastructure.
Such as pipelines and storage facilities,
and that could require securing rights of
way with state and private land owners.
There's a whole lot that goes into this.
One study found the world's largest oil
and gas fields averaged 5 1/2 years to
go from discovery to first production,
and then it took 17 years of production
on average to reach peak output.
It's a lot of time.
There's also the cost of doing that
these days with worker and supply
shortages still plaguing well.
Everyone since early in the pandemic.
And also,
who knows what's really under there.
You can go through all that drilling
all that time and money for nothing.
But then there's the other incentive
to not drill.
Even if you're sitting on proven reserves
and you're a for profit company,
relying on and reporting to investors,
why not just hold on to that lease
and that reserve as a way to attract
investors for future dividends
or even current ones?
You've heard about the record profits being
made by major oil companies these days,
right?
After losing $76 billion two years
ago because of the pandemic bust,
according to the Center for
American Progress,
the five major oil companies first
quarter profits totaled more than
35 billion in just three months.
Wouldn't increasing that supply
decrease those profits?
Oh, and by the way,
we are drilling back in 2018.
We became the world's top producer of
oil and prior to the pandemic U.S.
oil production hit an all time high,
pulling out just shy of 13 million
barrels a day.
The most recent data available from
the Energy Information Administration
shows we are producing about
11.6 million barrels a day,
still below what we were doing
2 1/2 years ago.
But it's bouncing back and
drilling at 4 oil and
gas has gone up by 60% over the last year.
Not that all of it stays here.
We are a net exporter when it
comes to petroleum in America,
shipping out more to other countries
than we bring in from other countries to
the tune of about 160,000 barrels a day.
According to the US Energy
Information Association.
So is it as simple as just saying
drill more and whose job is
it to make sure that happens?
Is this a short term solution
or is it even a long term one?
I guess well time will tell.