TAKING THE BULL BY THE HORNS

Over the past several weeks we all have felt the pinch of higher fuel prices. Whether you use diesel or gasoline it will cost more to get from point a to b. The extra fuel costs can take away the disposable money that we could use for recreation or purchasing the things that we need in life. The example that I just quoted should illustrate the need for this country to get serious about developing a new source of energy.

Oklahoma is an energy producing state. Our state has been blessed with many natural resources such as oil and gas. We need to remember that those blessings are limited. Many years ago some of the early oil fields seemed to be inexhaustible, one such field was the Glen Pool field near Tulsa. Today that field still produces oil but it is only a fraction of what it once produced. The same thing has occurred in the huge Texas oil fields. The big Texas oil fields peaked decades ago. Prudhoe Bay in Alaska is seeing production drop like a stone. Even the super oil fields in the Middle East are showing signs of peaking. Super oil fields produce from 500,000 to one million barrels per day. Leading up to the 1970s, only eight of these huge fields had been discovered. Two more were discovered through the 1980s. Since then, only one more has been found.

Too many assume that oil companies can just drill more wells and keep the world furnished will oil. We should not blindly believe in that assumption; many people believe that our world is nearing peak production. Once that point is reached, oil companies can drill more and faster, but they won't be able to keep up their production. When that point is reached the energy cost will make today’s prices look cheap.