Fracking Comes to the Arctic in a New Alaska Oil Boom

Alaska’s North Slope region, including the National Petroleum Reserve (NPRA), Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and Trans-Alaska Pipeline (TAPS). US Geological Survey/Wikipedia

 

Arctic lands and waters hold irresistible allure for global oil companies. Despite opposition from environmental groups and President Obama’s 2016 ban on drilling in federal Arctic waters, exploration in Alaska has revealed massive new volumes of oil.

This comes at a time of low oil prices, when many observers felt the Arctic would remain off limits. Alaska has proved precisely the opposite. Although it has gone largely unnoticed outside the industry, foreign firms are partnering with American companies to pursue these new possibilities. I expect this new wave of Arctic development will help increase US oil production and influence in world oil markets for at least the next several decades.

Former oil exec: $5-a-gallon gas on the way

You have to basically be out of your mind to believe that lower prices are a good thing during this time. The average American citizen in the last eight years has been so inundated with the cost of everything soaring that this money they’re now saving on gas now won’t be used to get put back into the economy. They’re either going to park it in their savings account, pay their bills or increase their debt. This is also further explained and concretely supported in the previous post “Americans: One Small Emergency Away From the Street“.

This oil war also means that many smaller companies that need to see oil over $80 a barrel, for example, to make a profit will go under. That means more unemployment. The only thing that will keep that from happening, and yes it is a given, is the buying out of these smaller oil firms by larger ones who can survive (but not forever) these low prices. Think ahead while you enjoy these low prices now, because they will skyrocket — along with the price of every other essential good.

Also, expect to see in typical fashion the simple minded will blaming ‘big oil’, their favorite after ‘evil banker’, and not see the bigger picture: There’s a war between Russia and the West that’s causing all of this. What is causing the war between Russian in the West is also another story all together. You can find that explanation in such readings as New Lies for Old, The Perestroika Deception, Red Cocaine or articles from expert analyst JR Nyquist.

What we’re watching now is tantamount to seeing beach goers watching the water recede half a mile and then proceed to walk further inward where the water once was thinking it’s fun as they collect shells, play and run around on the ocean floor. Yet what they don’t know is that is a precursor for a tidal wave only moments away and they will be caught up in it.

Enjoy your prices now, but be smart and use this to plan ahead in any way that is beneficial for you — i.e. storing gasoline for when the prices predictably go sky-high. A $250 investment at this moment might save you $750 in five months from now.

 

John Hofmeister attracted national attention in 2010 when he predicted that average U.S. gasoline prices would soar to $5 a gallon in 2012, thanks to rising crude oil prices. His forecast fell short, as the cost of filling up flirted with $4 in 2012, but never went higher.

Now, with gasoline prices at $2.14, their lowest level since May 2009, the former president of Shell Oil is issuing another warning, telling motorists that their joy ride may end sooner than they think.

North America to Drown in Oil as Mexico Ends Monopoly

The flood of North American crude oil is set to become a deluge as Mexico dismantles a 75-year-old barrier to foreign investment in its oilfields.

Plagued by almost a decade of slumping output that has degraded Mexico’s take from a $100-a-barrel oil market, President Enrique Pena Nieto is seeking an end to the state monopoly over one of the biggest crude resources in the Western Hemisphere. The doubling in Mexican oil output that Citigroup Inc. said may result from inviting international explorers to drill would be equivalent to adding another Nigeria to world supply, or about 2.5 million barrels a day.