By Gary Mccollum
It burns my biscuits that Congress and our current POTUS are speaking of increased taxation on US oil producers.
As an Industry, we have been forced to find any areas where we can become more efficient, reduce costs, reduce down time, and make it profitable to be able to survive in a _$45 dollar a barrel oil. To remain profitable with a $2.75 MCF or MBT natural gas price.
Many things have been considered and implemented, from the basics of shopping vendors and getting bids to the extreme of attempting with some success to remote operations, and less we mention the ability to drill extreme horizontal plays that overall reduce the ROI over time producing more volume and lengthening the life of wells as opposed to just 20 years ago.
Now that the US Oil/Gas industry has become a much more efficient Has been able to sustain itself under attacks from “Green Energy Activists”, from OPEC increases in production attempting to break the back of US shale producers, even to limited investment and funding from financial institutions. We find ourselves under attack by the government that needs our services more than ever. They wish to tax the industry, preventing innovation, new exploration, and more efficient and more environmentally friendly drilling/extraction methods. The US Govt would rather spend money on Tankers, than pipelines. They would rather spend Billions of dollars with countries that would like nothing more than to destroy our country, than invest or just allow right of ways and pipelines to be put in place that are, by definition, much safer than Rail, Truck or Cargo ship. Also creating a much greener footprint.
In my humble opinion, I believe the “Green” issue is, for the most part, a cover story for the government and others who wish to shut down the largest producer of Natural Gas and Oil in the world. We (The USA) have reserves that are unmet on a global basis.
President Biden in a recent speech basically accused US oil producers of price gouging the public. How dare such a person, who has never spent a day in his life in an actual job, make such an accusation. He has no clue of the R&D it takes to be successful. How many issues/failures/dangers it takes to overcome and be successful. Yes, Oil is a lucrative business. It is also fraught with many failures over the past 130 (see Spindletop) years. Many oil companies have come and gone during that time. Many people’s lives have been lost and many lessons learned
Oil/Gas is responsible for the industrial revolution. If it weren’t for the Oil & Gas industry, World War II may have ended in a completely different fashion. (Special thanks to the “Roughnecks of Sherwood Forest” …A Fantastic TRUE story).
Over 6,000 products are made from oil. Does the US and its president wish to travel in time back to 1850? Think of the innovation that has occurred in your own lifetime. I am 57 years old. I think back to a time when we had “Party lines” on our phones, when black and white television was the norm, rabbit ears and aluminum foil were a thing. The first video game was pong and the internet was supposed to lead to a vast wealth of knowledge for the betterment of society, instead of being a bastion of… well I’ll not delve into this. My point is, none of this technology would be present without the sacrifice of the Oil & Gas industry.
The US President fails to recognize that it is not the US producers that set the price for oil. It amazes me that uncaring politician’s and the uneducated public believe this to be true. We need better social influencing / marketing in today’s society. I like to challenge anyone that I have a “discussion” with regarding the petroleum industry to attempt to live ONE day without the influence of oil and gas in their lives. Doing so is quit literally impossible. Please excuse my rant, but the constant bashing of an industry that has transformed the world into what it is today, irritates me to no end.
If you wish to lower prices at the pumps, encourage oil and gas exploration in the United States, limit/reduce regulation and allow access to the “9,000” existing drilling permits. There is no infrastructure to be able to access those “permits” so without lying to the public, the government is in fact lying to the public
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