You continue to parrot the party line simplistically tying this concept of "proven oil reserves" to production without acknowledging the handicapping impact of government over-regulation. My point here is that the US oil industry would explore (in other words, find more proven oil reserves) and produce more if the government would merely ease regulations. You are discussing a logical relationship of cause and effect, but you stop short of identifying the true cause as in why these "proven oil reserves" in the US seem to be on the decline. Today, we have more regulation on our oil industry than ever before, and some regulations evolve with our political climate.
I never said that there weren't "true" causes beyond the logical relationship that I stated. Regardless of
why proven oil reserves aren't currently found in abundance in America, the basic premise still stands: More proven oil reserves = more oil production.
I agree with you as to why there aren't as many proven oil reserves in America, but that doesn't refute the logical premise that was stated. All you're saying is that
if America changed its stance on drilling for oil domestically, and
if we find more proven oil reserves,
then America would be in a better position to produce more oil domestically and rely less on foreign oil. This is true, and in fact just goes to support my premise that more proven oil reserves = more oil production.
Yeah... There's always an apocalypse on the horizon, but as in most cases, this one is caused and hyped by an over-reaching government hellbent on obtaining more power and control. It's 47 years today, 25 years tomorrow and 53 years 2 weeks from now. In fact, I even recall hearing that we had less than 10 years before we ran out of oil. I've heard it all before. They just conveniently forget to tell us that we still have far more "unproved reserves" than all the "proven reserves" combined over the last 50+ years.
Meanwhile, in the real world, futures traders are more skittish than stray dogs. The average futures trader doesn't have a clue about any proven oil reserves. Many are merely holding out for the next crisis that drives oil prices up and put several grand in their pocket.
Of course, I agree there...that's why I said the following:
The commodities market deals with future interests; contracts are made today based upon predictions of the existence of extracted oil in the future, as well as other predictions involving demand, politics, war, and numerous other factors. This means that if the supply (number and size of proven oil reserves) is reported as getting smaller, then the price of oil cited in these futures contracts will increase; the proven oil reserves do affect the commodities trade even before being extracted.
I'm with you in stating that all of these studies and reports are complete guesses based upon estimated information, and that more often than not, they are exaggerated so as to create fear and rumors about our "vastly depleted" source of energy. The futures market speculators obviously paid attention to the big "energy crisis" reported in 2000, which partially explains the sudden spike in gas prices during that time. Did the speculators believe the hype? Maybe, maybe not, but my point was that reports on the status of oil reserves do affect the market, regardless of whether they affect the market out of fear or greed.
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