I would like everyone to join me in spreading the word!  If each person can tell 50 people and they can tell 50 people, we can spread the word all across America.  Give me your information below and I will mail you 50 cards to give out at your favorite over priced gas station, or other event. 

WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE:

United we Stand, Divided we fall:

We all have heard it, but what does it mean?  It means as a group we have the power to make a difference.  If we work together we can bring about a change, we can stop having to PAY at the pump. 

Help me unite our country in a single direction, one cause, one purpose, to stop relying on terrorist supporters for oil. 

If you are tired of paying $4.00 for a gallon of gas, join me.

Isn't enough, enough?

Does the U.S. export oil? Surprisingly, yes - but the amount is trivial, about 20,000 barrels per day vs. our 10,000,000 and more b/d imports. All exported crude goes to Canada, where it is likely refined and sent back as gasoline.

There are essentially NO major-brand retail gas stations whose product derives from US sources only, and basically all of them have Middle East oil as a significant proportion of their source crude - because if refineries used only American oil, they would be incapable of making the volumes that we demand - a 60% shortfall. A few small regional refiner-producers may use MOSTLY American oil, but even they likely use purchased oil - with imported origins - to produce the volumes of gasoline that are demanded by the American public. In addition to all the crude imported, the U.S. must import about 66 million gallons of refined gasoline because our refineries can't make enough

US OIL DEMAND, 2004: Over 20 million barrels per day, up from January 2002, when demand was about 18.5 million barrels per day, = 777 million gallons. If lined up in 1-gallon cans, they would encircle the earth at the equator almost 6 times (about 147,000 miles of cans) — every day. Here's another image: EVERY DAY, the US consumes enough oil to cover a football field with a column of oil 2500 feet tall. That's 121 million cubic feet. 55-60% of US consumption is imported at a cost of $50 billion+ per year, amounting to the largest single element of our trade deficit. In summer 2004, thanks to higher prices, increased demand, and lower production, record trade deficits of more than $50 billion per month were recorded, with approximately 30% of that attributable to imported energy costs. In September 2004, the US reported its lowest monthly oil production in 55 years, at an average of 4.85 million barrels per day.

In March 2004, the total trade deficit was about $46 billion for the month, and oil imports were about 11 million barrels per day x $40 per barrel x 30 days per month = $13.2 billion, or about a quarter of the total trade deficit for the month. If March served as an average for the year, the total value of oil imports for 2004 would be about $156 billion — but this number depends on volume of imports (which is unlikely to decrease) and price of oil (which is likely to fluctuate). UPDATE 2005: For November 2005, oil imports cost the US $24 billion, and amounted to more than one-third of the trade deficit.

US demand for natural gas is increasing, and production in many long-time prime producing areas (e.g. the Gulf Coast) is diminishing to the point of near-total depletion. Without significant increases in drilling (well beyond anticipated levels), demand is predicted to significantly exceed supply soon. By 2000, US demand (22.2 tcf/year) exceeded production (18.7 tcf/year) enough that about 14% of our natural gas was being imported from Canada. This may provide a window of opportunity for explorationists and producers (especially smaller operators), and may improve the domestic market for geoscientists. Note that it is currently impossible (without complex liquefaction) to transport natural gas across oceans -- so huge gas reserves in the Nile Delta, for example, are irrelevant to US needs.

US PRODUCTION, early 2002: About 5.9 million barrels of oil per day, plus about 2 million barrels of natural gas liquids and condensate; and 55 billion cubic feet of gas per day. Oil production is a decline from 8-9 million b/d in 1986. Update, 2005: at the end of 2005, US crude oil production stood at 4.86 million b/d, the lowest value in more than 50 years. Imports (10.01 million b/d) amounted to 67% of consumption. As shown in the figure at left, even when US production was at its peak in 1970 (and accounted for more than 40% of all the oil produced in the world), it could not keep up with consumption. Today's 21 million barrels per day consumption FAR outpaces our domestic production of 4.86 million barrels per day. Prudhoe Bay's contribution is shown in red. US oil consumption exceeds the total of the next 5 largest consumers - China, Japan, Russia, Germany, and India COMBINED. Source • From 1990 to 2007, US production decreased by 31% at the same time as consumption increased by 24%.

World's other largest producers: Former USSR (once the world's largest producer) production has declined more than 30% since 1988, from more than 12 to about 8 million barrels per day. In the early 2000s, production in Russia is recovering, and new production in Kazakhstan is coming on-stream. Saudi Arabia produces about 5 to 9 million barrels per day (7.3 million in early 2002; production depends more on OPEC quotas and prices than on real capability).

US crude-oil production capacity, about 5 million barrels per day, is accomplished with about 510,000 oil wells, averaging 10.5 barrels per well per day. (That's more than half of all the producing oil wells in the world.  The country with the most wells, after the US, is Russia at about 110,000; then China with around 80,000, and Canada with 68,000. World total producing oil wells is about 880,000.) Saudi capacity, at about 8-9 million barrels per day, is from 1500 wells — averaging more than 5,000 barrels per well per day. The best well in the onshore 48 states is in Grant Canyon Field, Nevada, producing about 4000 barrels per day from sucrosic Devonian dolomites in a small fault block.

Oil and Gas are used for much more than fuel. Every time you brush your teeth (nylon bristles), drink milk or soda from a plastic container, or play a plastic CD.

And let's not forget that 52% of the US's electricity is still generated by burning coal. The rest of our electricity (January 2005) is produced by nuclear plants (20%), burning natural gas (15%), burning oil (3%), hydropower (7%), and other such as burning wood, geothermal, solar, wind, and miscellaneous (2%). In contrast to US usage, France obtains about 75% of its electricity supply from nuclear energy sources. The US produces twice as much electricity from nuclear sources as France, although that is only 20% of the US total.

In terms of total US energy usage, the breakdown by source is given in the following table (for late 2001):

WORLD PRODUCTION/CONSUMPTION: Production in 2004 averaged about 83.02 million barrels per day, about equal to the world consumption at 82.46 million barrels per day in 2004 (up from about 74 million b/d in 2002). Consumption is increasing at a faster rate than the increase in production. And at the end of 2005, World demand was expected to exceed world refinery capacity for the first time - demand of 84 million barrels per day vs. 83.5 million barrels per day refinery capacity.

A 42-gallon barrel of oil makes about 19.5 gallons of gasoline.