Why Do We Buy Foreign Oil?

[Old Trapper]

We have a surplus, so why are we buying from others?

http://time.com/5492648/permian-oil-boom-west-texas/

The main problem at this point, energy executives say, is there’s not enough infrastructure to handle all the oil and gas coming out of the ground. As a result, many drillers simply burn off valuable natural gas rather than capturing and selling it. Companies are also struggling to ship oil. In 2017, more than a quarter of U.S. oil exports–112 million barrels of crude–left from the port of Corpus Christi, Texas. The world would have taken much more, which is why a $327 million expansion is under way, the centerpiece of a slew of projects that could double the port’s export capacity in the coming years. When it’s completed later in 2019, a new crude-oil pipeline planned by a partnership of three companies will link the Permian oil fields and Corpus Christi, winding some 730 miles through Texas backcountry, picking up cargo along the way. It’s expected to transport 550,000 barrels of crude every day to ships that will carry it around the globe.

Environmental groups have opposed the new pipelines and expansions. The more oil and gas that’s pulled from the earth, transported, exported and burned, they argue, the faster the climate warms. But energy executives point to the region’s vast reserves and to demand. “It’s got to go somewhere,” says Brad Barron, the CEO NuStar Energy, a pipeline company operating in the Permian and Corpus Christi.

All this has come with costs. The man camps and other temporary housing facilities have been marred by crime and drug abuse. Home prices have soared. Roads and highways, many designed for ranchers, have become overrun by trucks and tankers, making them some of the most dangerous in the country. (During a violent storm in September, I pulled to the side of the highway in Andrews County, Texas, for half an hour, uncomfortable with careening big rigs in low visibility.)

But the most detrimental effects may be the hardest to see. Some locals, like Sharon Wilson, worry about the ramifications of nonstop fracking operations in their backyard. A Texas native and former oil company employee, Wilson is an organizer with Earthworks, a Washington-based environmental group. Using an infrared camera to capture images of gas leaks, she says she regularly detects dangers leaking from wells, including methane, a greenhouse gas that is responsible for about a quarter of global warming worldwide. Some locals have also suffered from exposure to other substances, she says, including benzene, a chemical in crude classified as a carcinogen. While it’s difficult to measure the broad scale of the Permian’s environmental impact, or its localized effect on health, Wilson says the leaks in the basin today are the worst she has seen in her years of tracking leaks. “Nothing can even come close,” she says. “It’s unimaginable what’s happening out there.”

[Old Trapper]

Then I found this:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/ar...or-texas-power

As stories about the energy transition go, Big Oil going big on solar power in the heart of America’s biggest oil patch is as transitiony as it gets. Besides the symbolism of Exxon Mobil Corp. signing up for 250 megawatts of solar power (plus the same amount of wind power) in the Permian basin, though, it is also part of a big change gathering momentum in the country’s biggest electricity market: Texas.

Despite lots of sunshine and power demand, the state hasn’t embraced solar power in a Texas-sized way. Last year, it ranked sixth in the U.S. in terms of solar generation, just behind Utah. But that appears to be changing. As of the end of November, the state’s solar pipeline was at almost 37 gigawatts, up from less than 25 GW at the beginning of the year, according to the latest monthly report from the Electric
Here Comes The Sun

Solar dominates the growth in Texas' pipeline of new power projects, especially as natural gas shrinks and wind power has flattened out

[Old Trapper]

I really thought the right wing would have some kind of comment on this, and even more so the left. I found it amusing that will all of the ranting about fossil fuels, and the generation of power, that here we are with one of the largest oil finds in mans history, and all of it is being taken out of the ground by solar power.

[Irish Exit]

I really thought the right wing would have some kind of comment on this, and even more so the left. I found it amusing that will all of the ranting about fossil fuels, and the generation of power, that here we are with one of the largest oil finds in mans history, and all of it is being taken out of the ground by solar power.

If you weren't an insufferable asshole, I would answer both your questions. Since you are, however, read Richard Nixon's many books from the 90's on and figure the other out on your own.

[Callinectes]

Infrastructure. Takes a long time to build and some leftard is always standing in front of the bulldozers, both literally and figuratively(in congress). We also sell to countries without oil reserves to make a profit and to provide a stable source. I'm pretty sure they're not buying high and selling low. As far as pulling it out with solar, if I had the money, I'd do my house with it because of the damn electric company

[tinfoil]

LOL

Mommy, why?

[Old Trapper]

Infrastructure. Takes a long time to build and some leftard is always standing in front of the bulldozers, both literally and figuratively(in congress). We also sell to countries without oil reserves to make a profit and to provide a stable source. I'm pretty sure they're not buying high and selling low. As far as pulling it out with solar, if I had the money, I'd do my house with it because of the damn electric company

The question wasn't about selling to foreign countries, the question was about buying from foreign countries. If we lack the infrastructure to handle what we have then we sure as hell don't have it to handle buying more.

And it isn't "leftards" that are holding up infrastructure projects.

[Old Trapper]

If you weren't an insufferable asshole, I would answer both your questions. Since you are, however, read Richard Nixon's many books from the 90's on and figure the other out on your own.

In other words you're a right wing dumb fuck that knows nothing. Nothing new there.

[anatta]

as far as I know since is a fungible product the contracts determine the flow - so building more infrastructure here wouldn't help with ex ports -unless its up grade to shipping ports.
Exports are done by contract, or maybe by need to refill another market.

All I really know is that it's set up so that even a failed state like Libya can sell spot market exports to tankers.
A cash and carry business.

But energy executives point to the region’s vast reserves and to demand. “It’s got to go somewhere,” says Brad Barron, the CEO NuStar Energy, a pipeline company operating in the Permian and Corpus Christi.

[anatta]

In 2017, more than a quarter of U.S. oil exports–112 million barrels of crude–left from the port of Corpus Christi, Texas. The world would have taken much more, which is why a $327 million expansion is under way, the centerpiece of a slew of projects that could double the port’s export capacity in the coming years.
When it’s completed later in 2019, a new crude-oil pipeline planned by a partnership of three companies will link the Permian oil fields and Corpus Christi, winding some 730 miles through Texas backcountry, picking up cargo along the way. It’s expected to transport 550,000 barrels of crude every day to ships that will carry it around the globe.

[Old Trapper]

In 2017, more than a quarter of U.S. oil exports–112 million barrels of crude–left from the port of Corpus Christi, Texas. The world would have taken much more, which is why a $327 million expansion is under way, the centerpiece of a slew of projects that could double the port’s export capacity in the coming years.
When it’s completed later in 2019, a new crude-oil pipeline planned by a partnership of three companies will link the Permian oil fields and Corpus Christi, winding some 730 miles through Texas backcountry, picking up cargo along the way. It’s expected to transport 550,000 barrels of crude every day to ships that will carry it around the globe.

Why do all of you ignore the question asked? It is not about selling the excess oil we have, it is about buying oil we do not need. Is that too hard to understand? Whatever happened to the right wing demand for energy independence?

[kudzu]

I really thought the right wing would have some kind of comment on this, and even more so the left. I found it amusing that will all of the ranting about fossil fuels, and the generation of power, that here we are with one of the largest oil finds in mans history, and all of it is being taken out of the ground by solar power.

Saudi Arabia uses lots of solar power going back to the 1980s.

[dukkha]

Why do all of you ignore the question asked? It is not about selling the excess oil we have, it is about buying oil we do not need. Is that too hard to understand? Whatever happened to the right wing demand for energy independence?

fungibility is the property of a good or a commodity whose individual units are essentially interchangeable. For example, since one kilogram of pure gold is equivalent to any other kilogram of pure gold, whether in the form of coins, ingots, or in other states, gold is fungible.
The Fungibility of Oil
https://www.strausscenter.org/energy...ility-oil.html

[Callinectes]

The question wasn't about selling to foreign countries, the question was about buying from foreign countries. If we lack the infrastructure to handle what we have then we sure as hell don't have it to handle buying more.

And it isn't "leftards" that are holding up infrastructure projects.

I was talking about the infrastructure to retrieve our own crude oil. We don't have it. That's why we still buy from other countries. If it's already out of the ground, you don't need wells and drills and pumps and all that machinery, do you? Also, try to build a refinery in America today, the last one built was in 1977(yes, they do undertake efforts to modernize and expand capacity)

And it isn't "leftards" that are holding up infrastructure projects.

Maybe not, but I don't see a lot of "rightards" doing the protesting

[Old Trapper]

I was talking about the infrastructure to retrieve our own crude oil. We don't have it. That's why we still buy from other countries. If it's already out of the ground, you don't need wells and drills and pumps and all that machinery, do you? Also, try to build a refinery in America today, the last one built was in 1977(yes, they do undertake efforts to modernize and expand capacity)

All of you are dancing around the topic like it was poison ivy. Now you say that we do not have the infrastructure to handle our own crude. Then why in the hell are we buying crude form other countries? If we do not have the infrastructure to handle our own how do we get enough to handle that of others? Noise make s a lot of senseless talk about the "fungibility" of oil as if his intellect could not grasp the idea that the cost is not the topic. And while there are different types of oil that refineries can be modified for, the value is still the same. So, rather then sell the heavy, and refine the light, why not just swap one barrel for another? That way you avoid a deficit such as what we have with Mexico.

It has to do with independence, the kind that was spoken of by Jefferson, and the Founders.

Maybe not, but I don't see a lot of "rightards" doing the protesting

I don't see anyone protesting the building of infrastructure. Of course, I have not seen the right promoting it in spite of the controls they have had for the last 8 years.