m0002a wrote:
judge56988 wrote:
The only reason they are drilling there is because of America's insatiable demand for gas to fuel all those huge V8 engined pick up trucks so many of you seem to love driving around in.
The US consumes a quarter of the entire worlds annual production of crude oil, of which 47% is used for gasoline!!
If the US government taxed gas as much as European countries do, that might be an incentive to start using smaller engines.
Oil is a fungible product. It doesn't matter where the oil is located versus where it is consumed. BP drilled there because they thought they could make a profit, not because the well was near the US. When they got behind schedule and had massive cost overruns, BP cut corners and the rest is history.
That is nonsense. It is US policy to reduce their dependence on foreign oil. That is why the US government issued licences for exploration in deepwater off their own coast. BP bid for and won some licences. It is only natural for any company to seek to maximise profits - that is what capitalism is all about as you should well know as you seem to be an expert in most fields.
m0002a wrote:
If oil had been $50 a barrel when the project was evaluated, I doubt that well would have ever been drilled. I think that there are more reasons than just US demand that have caused oil prices to increase in recent years, including the extremely robust growth in less developed countries.
Not so - the well would still have been drilled, it's original purpose was for reservoir evaluation in order that the government could assess their reserves. At some point during the actual drilling operation it was decided to turn the well into a producer. This
may be one of the reasons for the complications that arose.
You are correct in saying that the demand for oil has increased in countries such as China and India, however this does not change the fact that
the US with 4.53% of the worlds population consumes 24% of it's oil.
m0002a wrote:
Regarding V8 engines, a lot of European auto makers including BMW, MB, Jaguar, Audi, etc sell cars with V8 engines for passenger cars, much less for pickup trucks. How come the EU doesn't ban the manufacture of these engines for passenger cars?
That argument is once again nonsense. It is true that some European manufacturers equip their
luxury models with V8 engines however firstly, the capacity of those engines is much less than the V8 engines used in a typical American Pick-Up and the weight of the vehicle is much less - both factors combine to give a substantially lower fuel consumption.
Secondly, the proportion of these types of luxury vehicles on the road in Europe is substantially less than the proportion of large engined vehicles on the road in the US. I've been to the US on a number of occasions and have seen for myself.
It is also well known that European and Japanese engines are designed to have a much higher fuel efficiency for a given size than are American engines. You have never had the need to think about such things because the price of gasoline in the US is, and has always been, so ridiculously low.
Take your blinkers off and recognise the truth for what it is! America's excessive consumption of gasoline is squandering a finite resource.
When oil runs out - present estimates are around 25 years; it's not just gasoline that will be in short supply, there's also heating oil, aviation fuel and most importantly, the plastics industry. Will we be going back to a world where things are made of wood and/or metal? (Much nicer materials in my opinion, but that's not the point) The point is that cheap plastics make many, many products not only cheap but possible.
You may be more logical than Mr Spock, however Captain Kirk was the one with the common sense.
