Money Beat

"But this year, even after summer of record gasoline prices, the nation’s refiners have seen profits drop 85 percent from a year ago. How did that happen?"

Oil company's profits dropped? Not according to a recent report. And last I read, it is the same Oil companies who own those same rigs.

Are you betting to put your reputation on that? Or is someone trying to fool the public about the rigs and oil companies being a separate entity.

Not all refineries are owned by the oil companies, so the profit turned by a refinery may or may not be part of the profit made by a given oil company. It's a very complex business, and I would recommend watching the series - even though I haven't seen it. Who knows, we might just learn something.

Going beyond we need to do more if UFO's were created we can go beyond, science should be taught more than 1 hour in class

This is a good balanced approach, I look forward to the series, just wish it could be more in depth. No matter what our views on the environment, our economic survival depends on plentiful availability of all hydrocarbons, including coal and shale, which may be our key to survival. It is all well and good to dream about alternatives. And for the near term it is just a dream, perhaps in long term as well. If you want to dream a little, compressed air seems the most promising to me, it could power our entire transportation system, and the power supplied by wind and solar could be used to fill the tanks and these could be transportated around the contry like CNG and exchanged for spent tanks. One could even envision large compressed air units which could be used in conjunction with wind and solar to supply power to homes and various businesses when the wind isn't blowing or when the sun isn't shinning.

To lovinggrandma53:
The onshore & offshore rigs are owned by independent owners. Each rig company has a fleet of rigs for different depths of water. Oil companies have long ago stopped owning their own rigs.

If your local library has it, look at the Oil and Gas Journal. This will give you a great deal of news about what is going on in the industry. Also, look at the issue that comes out in during September of each year. It gives the status of the top 140 US Oil Companies.

The well shown in the ABC section was probably based on the price of oil several years ago - around $35 a barrel.

The federal lease Chevron bid on has probably a nine year term. The number of years of the lease is based on the depth of water. If Chevron does not start producing by the eight year, the lease returns to the US Govt and Chevron would pay a penalty for the ninth year. Check out the Minerals Management Service of the US Department of Interior. The MMS controls the leases offshore.

We could find more than 5 million barrels per day of oil equivalent, guaranteed, without drilling in the Gulf or off the coast of Florida. In fact, not drilling at all. Just increase fuel efficiency. Proven technology. No risk. Legislate or get Detroit off its duff or Tokyo will. That is the only way we will be independent of uncertain foreign sources, and keep our money at home where it will do the most good!

My family owns land in Oklahoma and Chesapeake Oil owns the rights and there is oil on the land and gas and we only getting a check once in a while that it would not fill our gas tank in the cars we own. Why don't they try to take it out of reserve instead of buying oil overseas? U.S.A. needs it first to bring down the price so the American people could survive.One less headache would be a blessimg.We need some answers?

My family owns land in Oklahoma and Chesapeake Oil owns the rights and there is oil on the land and gas and we only getting a check once in a while that it would not fill our gas tank in the cars we own. Why don't they try to take it out of reserve instead of buying oil overseas? U.S.A. needs it first to bring down the price so the American people could survive.One less headache would be a blessimg.We need some answers?

@Ed Reinhart -

No, you have it wrong. Our economy depends on a stable, plentiful and portable POWER SOURCE, with "hydrocarbons" being the currently-used one. Develop another power source that is stable, plentiful, AND portable you'd see the need for hydrocarbons drop by about 60%, as ourside of fuel and lubrication the only real use for hydrocarbons is plastic manufacture. Try looking a little beyond the immediate future, and try looking for long-term solutions. Continued drilling is a short-term one, as the supply of hydrocarbons on this planet is LIMITED - and once it's gone, it's gone. It took a few hundred milliuon years for the current hydrocarbon deposits to form, in all their varied vorms - coal, oil, gas - and we are using them FAR faster than they can possibly be replenished. Without some kind of replacement, we will all return to a 16th-17th century existence, as the fuels needed to develop newer sources of energy are powered by CURRENT sources, and once those current sources are exhausted, if new ones don't exist - society will devolve to something maintainable. That is the sad FACT, so let's get hopping developing the post-oil power source before we no longer can.

Well If you saw Bill Moyers Journal , Local PBS New York City- New Jeresy 6:30 p.m. Sunday August 10,08, you will not tghe commentator and those he interviewed indicated that roposed off shore driling in Mexico Gulf would take years years to develop and even then does not contribute much to oil production. NO, The answer is to end the internal combustion engine, no large autos , no SUV's,Nuclear Electric Production( no plants built in 30 years!)and telling american public nuclear energy is safe! HUGE energy conservation program, HUGE Education on energy conservation for the public, The American Public told bluntly this is a 'crisis' decades.Forcing all the elected , and bureaucrats,officials into small autos, no Suv's, Educating the American Public what is Global Warming? Basically making the american public understand this is a long term fight , on multiple levels.From: Paul Muscillo Bronx NYC

If you love your children, you should be thanking Rep. Nancy Pelosi for holding Bush and the GOP's feet to the fire on their "drill only" policies. Rep. Pelosi made clear on Larry King's show last night that she does not support a total ban on offshore drilling. Rather, Rep. Pelosi noted that she supported offshore drilling in the context of a broad plan that would include efforts to develop alternative energy sources such as NATURAL GAS, wind, solar, clean coal, etc., which would break our country's addiction to burning dirty fossil fuels. However, the Republicans in the House continually refuse to consider any alternative to offshore drilling, and she vowed not to bring a measure to the floor that relied solely on offshore drilling to solve our problems. We should all thank Rep. Pelosi for this principled stand that will benefit not only ourselves, but our children and our children's children by weaning us off the dirtiest of fossil fuels that are contributing to the planet-destroying problem of global warming. We owe Rep. Pelosi a debt of gratitude for standing up to Bush and Big Oil at a time when most Americans apparently don't realize the consequences of what they want out of our energy policy.

America must not be distracted by big business and their greedy quest for oil. The age of cheap oil is over. We have been warned that an economy based on a deregulated oil industry, a Ma-Bell or Enron mentality will never produce good health to any nation, and that cheap goods from foreign countries will eventually cause our economy to stagger and stumble - becoming a far greater threat to our nation than terrorism. Sending 200,000 troops into Iraq when a single Navy Seal Team could have taken out Bin Ladin in one swift strike was a frivolous waste of energy. Our Congressional leaders (who speak with forked tongues) did not heed that voice of pending doom and they held hands with the Saudi's. Now the unfortunate truth about Middle Eastern cheap oil has finally reached the public eye. Now the people are better informed by the colossus of computer internet communications, but the burning question regarding the high cost of energy to heat your house this winter remains, “does that information come too late?
One way would be to create American jobs by restructuring our entire thinking about the uses of energy and water. We better get started seeking other sources than oil right away. It is my experience that people will use public transportation and public water fountains - if its use is made convienent and straight forward. Producing plastic bottles for drinking water uses up more oil than any other source. Discovering new sources of energy is not complicated, but our use of energy as a nation, must become self-sufficent. For the sake of our nation, we must also go back to the practice of spending our money only on American made products. Here's a thought, "How about we make a car that get 100 miles to the gallon..." George E. Buttner

Here is another suggestion on saving energy in America. The days of cheap oil are over, and we need to quit complaining, get off out butts and roll up our sleeves. That’s the American way.
Therefore, here is what I suggest. By using established right-of-ways down the middle of our national freeways,we could build a high speed unobstructed, elevated electromagnetic monorail system. our cost would be next to nil by building straight down the center of I-95 on the East coast, from Maine to Miami, I-75 in the middle, and on the West Coast, I-5 North to South from Vancouver to San Diego. The US department of transportation could be a leader in this massive project. We could connect them the same way we did when we built the railroads across our land. This entire system could be Nuclear, solar or wind powered and cost very little to operate. Every two hundred miles or so - there could be raised island platform-satellite-stations for the monorail system to offload passengers - offering plug-in electric cars for rentals to the various local destinations.
We need FDR leadership of old to inspire the American dream back into its people. Our leaders are supposed to be trusted servants of the people, but Congress and the Executive Branch of Government are out of touch with the needs of the American people and have been for nearly a decade. We need new leadership, new energy, less lobbyist, less special interest groups, less talk and more action from our leaders in Washington, DC. George E. Buttner, an American patriot.

1. What is needed is a comprehensive energy independence plan, allowing for:
a. Production, including nuclear, drilling, AND alternative energy sources including solar, wind, and new ways to store solar and wind power.
b. Conservation, which may be as simple as taxing oil. Why legislate when car buyers will pick more efficient cars if gas prices are high?

This is a STRATEGIC matter, not just pockets:
Consider 2 countries experience 60 years ago.
Germany thought ahead, built coal to oil plants, starting 1926, by 1935 they stopped importing oil. They had independence.
Sufficient independence that when blockaded, it was mid 1944 before fuel ran out - and that because air bombing targeted the coal to oil plants.

Japan was did things politically to the OPEC of the time - the USA & Dutch & British territories.
Oil embargoed.
Supply ran out after only a few months.
Japan then decided to capture some oilfields from Dutch & Brits, and kill the US Navy to keep it from interfering.
Keeping the US navy from interfering was Pearl Harbor.
Japan captured the fields, but ended up pretty badly devastated by war end.

Do you want to be forced into a reverse pearl harbor? Possibly into a major oil war?
get independent now!

Pelosi is the goofiest and most dangerous woman in power, Caliguy. She's clueless about anything that has to do with energy, except the enormous amount of tax money her area gets from it for nothing in return...no sacrifice at all.

I miss Peter Jennings.

He would never allow Chevron to use WNews to manufacture public opinion about off shore drilling. Even when the presidential candidates show pandering posture to Big Oil, Peter would keep a clear journalistic distance to be objective.

American media has lost what it used to have. They got lazy. They only regurgitate what they are fed. Some years back, it was WMD; now it's off shore drilling and how it would help the wallet. They never examine Demand Side Management.

No wonder we can no longer bring down presidents; but only prove what has been published months ago by Esquire. What a shame!

Gas expensive,Not at all.
Ever heard of supply and demand.As long as there is a demand for gas,prices will follow.There is no crying about reality. Pure theoretically:If nobody buys gas,heating oil,kerosene etc.,oil would be worthless.Today it costs $120 a barrel.
Did you get it ? DEMAND.
If you want to do something,than start to cut down on your DEMAND as much as you can and do not think that the Government will do it for you.That used to be the American way as we did in WW2.

stop all unnecessary driving---carpool ---drive a little slower---tune your car --proper tire inflation---and any other little thing you can do----guess what--OIL COMPANIES WILL GO CRAZY--YOU CANNOT BELIEVE HOW MUCH LESS WE WOULD USE.

It's not just gas - sure we can all cut down on miles driven, carpool, etc. But let's not forget that a great many of us use oil to heat our homes. With average usage of 100-200 gallons per month per household, that's $500-$1000 PER MONTH to heat a home. My mortgage is less than that. It's come to the point were living in the north where the winters are long and cold have become a luxury.

Dear,
I am surprised to hear , if a person like me have developed some alternative solution of reduce the consumption of gaslone/petroluem ok amar113118@yahoo.com. i have an Oil which we mix with gasloine then we will get more millege for your Vehicle and but further research running short of finance in this field okay
thanks
ST.Marys Technologys from INDIA.handling Invention products ok.
through your news channel wether i can get any help to start a company in USA / any Loan to start my Research Laboratory in usa.
thanks once gain
amar selvam
india
with regards

i have found out a novelty ivention Oil product to reduce your gasloine consumption ok

I would like to see a similar series on some of the emerging technologies such as algae biofuel and more efficient methods to convert cellulites (not just corn but wood waste and others) to ethanol. I have read a few articles on these and would like to hear more. I also feel if the public is informed about them, they will begin to demand expedited advancement of them. The sooner we move away from oil, the better it will be both econimically and environmentally.

@Malcolm Brown

And what happens once we use up our reserves? We'll have to again buy oil on the open market and pay market prices. How many years will that buy us? One year? Five years? Ten years?

What are we buying here and what are we giving up just so Joe-Six-Pack can save a buck at the pump?

I see comments like this all the time and it is truly amazing how short-sighted people can be. We need to develop better alternative energy sources and reduce our dependency on non-renewable petroleum resources.

Because if we don't, when we run out of petroleum, our civilization will collapse. Our entire civilization exists only on petroleum and coal usage now - starting at the bottom for the mass agriculture that feeds us (beyond the obvious fuel for tractors/combines, we use petroleum as feedstock for pesticides and in the production of fertilizers - all which make our 100+ bushel/acre corn production possible).

CLASS OF 2009
If you voted for...
Bush/Cheney '04 ----- Shoot yourself (or have a buddy "accidently" do it.
The War in Iraq ----- Blow yourself up
(or have a buddy "intentionally' do it.
Off Shore drilling --- drill a hole in your head (use a very large bit).
Investing Social Security in Wall St. ---- slit your wrists (be tidy!)
Blagojevich ---- Sell your soul first to Satan's highest bidder
The Bailout ---- Drive-off a State-maintained bridge in your SUV.
McCain/Palin '08 ---- See voted for Bush/Cheney '04 (use a bow) yes, and arrows.
Gay Marriage ---- Please be extremely polite and don't tell anyone.
Hillary Clinton ---- Try Xanax/Oxycotin "you'll live".
Obama/Biden '09 ---- "Puff-Puff-Pass".

dont get mad... now we got hybrid and electric cars.... who cares the gasoline price????