Oil! A Primer on Petroleum Exploration & Production

[tripp]

We have a cat... I'll take the bairns over that horrid thing any day of the week. It marks, has a voice pretty similar to "Pat" from SNL, and is a skittish freak. In fact, I rather despise the bloody little bugger. Can't wait 'til we're rid. Wife loves it for some reason.

[jayman]

Originally Posted by tripp

We have a cat... I'll take the bairns over that horrid thing any day of the week. It marks, has a voice pretty similar to "Pat" from SNL, and is a skittish freak. In fact, I rather despise the bloody little bugger. Can't wait 'til we're rid. Wife loves it for some reason.

Strange and sad. My two cats have personalities that are 180 degrees out of phase with yours. They are calm, *very* affectionate, quiet, and only go in the litter box

Matter of fact, the few times they're had an accident - *all* pets will have an accident in the house, sooner or later - they've felt pretty bad about it. Lot's of slinking, crying, etc

Even if I'm just in the yard and mowing the lawn, when I get back into the house, they both welcome me with a cute little trilling noise. As I can work from the home most of the time, one or both are on the desk, eyes closed and purring

They're great company for my elderly father, and he clearly likes them. When he naps on the couch or in his recliner, both cats will protectively sleep near him

I've posted photos before of my cats. The little orange one is much more affectionate than the older black/white one Sylvester-looking one, and the black one is affectionate enough.

Just as there are dogs that have personality problems and/or are unfriendly, there are cats that can be that way too. Sorry to hear that. Personally, I'll feel pretty bad when mine are gone

[tripp]

Well, cats do live a pretty long time these days with the right dental care. Sorry for taking this thread the wrong direction.

[Bill Merchant]

[jayman]

Awww, don't be a meany!

[tripp]

Jayman, don't talk to natalie's da that way!



Spittin' image, no?

[jayman]

I was kidding. Of course, Bill is very sweet

[PriusSport]

My take on all of this is the lack of any attention to the energy problem the last 20 years is catching up to us. And it has become critical at the wrong time--in the middle of a reactionary administration that refuses to recognize there is even a problem--that can't be solved by throwing more money at Big Oil.

Fact is we have to get off oil--and get onto to other energy sources. First of all nuclear (the one thing that McCain is right about), then wind, clean coal and electrical.

We have to get off this insane corn for ethanol. Cellulose for ethanol is a little better. But corn is food-unacceptable. You don't want to run cars on food--for heaven sakes. Wow. And Obama is actually promoting this--along with Daschle--who has become a corn for ethanol lobbyist.

As for drilling oil in the ocean--the short range problem is unnecessary speculation in the oil futures market. Anybody who has heard the congressional testimony knows that. But the Republicans are stonewalling this legislation trying to get off-shore drilling--which is 10 years out.

The stock market will go nowhere until Congress gets a handle on oil futures pricing. Investors can't get a handle on growth with volatile oil prices. How do I know? I'm one of those investors. So the Republicans are damaging the stock market.

The politics of energy right now is a turmoil of confusion and contradictions. McCain wants off-shore drilling to get off foreign oil dependency. But he also wants to stay in Iraq for 100 years. We get only about 7% of our oil from the Middle East. The rest comes from mainly the Americas, and some from Africa. It's Japan and Europe that get a lot of their oil from the Middle East. So why are we blowing a trillion dollars in Iraq? Beats me. Probably defending Saudi Arabia. Where is the media in all this? Contributing next to zero--irresponsibly.

And layered on top of this is Global Warming. Nature's warning to take less oil out of the ground/ocean--or it will bite us.

[jayman]

Originally Posted by PriusSport

My take on all of this is the lack of any attention to the energy problem the last 20 years is catching up to us. And it has become critical at the wrong time--in the middle of a reactionary administration that refuses to recognize there is even a problem--that can't be solved by throwing more money at Big Oil.

+1. I essentially agree with all of your points

Thanks to this excellent discussion, I think we are now well aware of the complexity involved in oil extraction. The Talking Heads make it seem easy, you poke a hole in the ground and GUSH oil squirts out.

Drilling ops are complex, very costly, with very long lead times. If the offshore oil was so "easy" to get, at least here in the Grand Banks area, the oil companies wouldn't demand a large Crown Corporation to shovel billions of dollars into it every year, especially with current oil prices

I hope that other PriusChat members who have technical/engineering experience in a related field will be encouraged to start similar threads on energy topics

I would like to see a thread on power distribution, eg intertie. That isn't my primary field, and my teaching skills are pretty bad to say the least. Perhaps a PriusChat member who has better command of proper English can help out here

[tripp]

I can understand your broken Canadian pretty well, Jayman.

I agree with those points too, except the clean coal. I don't see that one happening anytime soon. Solar, especially CSP would be aggressively promoted. Geothermal needs more attention too.

I would love somebody to post a wiki, of sorts, on grid management. It's a fascinating and massively complex subject that most people don't even have a dim awareness of. I've got a very dim understanding of it but would like to have a least a dim awareness.