Black Gold

Unless you've been getting around town on a broom, you've probably noticed that gas prices have jumped. I have. For the first time in ages I broke $20 filling up my little 13 gallon tank?and it wasn't even empty. (Cue eerie organ sounds here.)

Prices are up an average of 11 cents per gallon over the past two weeks. A source in this CNN article says the two main reasons are an "oil shortage caused by Venezuela's general strike and international preparations for a possible war in Iraq."

Easy to forget it, but we get slightly more oil from South America than we do from the Middle East. At least we did last year at this time, when we ran a Data item in the magazine detailing U.S. sources of oil, asking the question, "Can we do without Saudi oil?" Seems like a good time to run it again.

Comments

[Steve]

it matters little to the price where the oil comes from. Oil is a global commodity and since the supply is down and demand is relatively constant, the price goes up.

[Tommy]

Gas is still cheap, even when it spikes like that. People were paying $1.80 a gallon during the oil crisis of the late '70s, which would be close to $4 in today's dollars. Cheap gas at the pump has come at a high price diplomatically and militarily. We have stuck our heads in the sand and entrusted our nation's energy policy to corrupt, short-sighted oil men.

[Xmas]

Mwahaahhaah! Now I should reap the true benefits of buying a Prius! Haahahahhah!

[Steve]

Better corrupt short-sighted oil men than corrupt short-sighted government.

[Brad S]

Steve - I agree. At least the oil men produce a worthwhile product.

[Dylan]

Does it really matter what physical location the oil comes from, once it hits the global market? Unless, of course, shipping costs and differences in quality from reservior to reservoir are more important than I think they are.

[Della]

Oh you poor little American, how you must weep at spending a whole $20 to fill up your tank!

It would have cost you $59.94 to fill up your tank here in the UK. The UK is a net oil exporter, it exports 13.9 billion (US) gallons of oil a year. In the UK we only really use oil for transportation, the goverment is trying to get us to switch our cars to liquid petroleum gas or compressed natural gas, we have more natural gas than oil, we have more coal than natural gas, coal can be turned into a gas relativly easily.

The left winger types in the UK are saying that the reason for the Iraq conflict is we want their oil...WE DON'T NEED IRAQ'S OIL, we've got more than enough of our own oil thankyouverymuch.