The talk about gasoline prices and what’s driving the market has overshadowed the fact that huge oil finds have been discovered in the United States. According to Don Good, of Good Oil in Winamac, we are able to get to the product with new technology.
Don talked to us recently about the Bakken Shale Oil Field which stretches from Canada into Montana and North Dakota. This field could hold over four billion barrels of oil reserves, and the Arctic Natural Wildlife Refuge in Alaska could potentially hold up to 10 billion barrels of oil. They are looking at oilfield wireline services for the number of things these can do.
Good compares these fields to what’s in Saudi Arabia, and he says we could turn into an oil exporter in the future.
“There is a large deposit in the Bakken Oil Field, and it’s just like a gold rush out there. They think that field has as much oil as Saudi Arabia. It’s hard to believe but we’ll actually have more oil eventually than we can use, and at that point we’ll turn into an exporter of refined products.” Good said.
But there’s another side of the coin. When we become an oil exporter, the companies may find it more profitable to export to other countries. Good says this won’t help us on the price.
“Unfortunately because it’s not tied to supply and demand, most of the oil companies are predicting it’s not going to really benefit us on the price because it will be exported to Europe where the prices are higher.”
Good said there may be some in the Department of Energy that think keeping prices high is not a bad thing.
“This comment was made by Steven Chou, of the Department of Energy. He said, ‘somehow we need to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.’ Now if the government doesn’t see price hikes as a bad thing, because they want us to move into alternative energy their not going to take the steps to cure this thing.”
