Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 2:56 pm Post subject: Chicago Tribune: A Tank of Gas, A World of Trouble
Here's an excellent 4-part series on the politics of oil and peak oil issues as well. What is interesting is that the journalist actually got an oil company to share their "crude slate" data with them, and with that data, they were able to tell exactly what regions and what reseviors a shipment of oil came from - in a gas station just outside Chicago. This is a highly recommended article!
Chicago Tribune: A Tank of Gas, A World of Trouble
When Tribune correspondent Paul Salopek asked the industry if he could track crude flows from across the globe to a single gas station, the answer was unequivocal: It simply can't be done.
An industry spokeswoman reinforced that notion by referring Salopek to a Web site debunking popular legends. Snopes.com declared: "By the time crude oil gets from the ground into our gasoline tanks, there's no telling exactly where it came from."
As it turns out, that's not always true.
While gasoline is certainly a fungible commodity, the key to unlocking its far-flung sources lies hidden in an obscure industry document called a "crude slate." Every refinery in America keeps a slate, or list, of the types of oil it processes. Because the names of individual crudes on such lists often can be linked to precise oil reservoirs, they offer a remarkably accurate map of the global oil supplies pouring into the Midwest.
The hitch: Such data are among the tightest-held secrets of a secretive industry. Companies compete for supplies that can vary in price by a penny a barrel--a margin that at high volume can spell the difference between profit and loss.
(more)
For years, oil companies have insisted that this could never be done. Conventional wisdom holds that America's colossal oil flows get mixed together, swapped among companies and rebranded too many times to pinpoint the actual source of your $40 purchase of unleaded. The industry has encouraged this belief for years, partly to avoid boycotts.
Yet with a little research, and proprietary data supplied by the Marathon Petroleum Co., the Tribune could trace with unparalleled clarity virtually every bucketful of trucker Howard Dunbar's shipment back to its distant origins.
On the hydrocarbon menu that September night, in round figures:
Gulf of Mexico crudes--31 percent
Texas crudes--28 percent
Nigerian crudes--17 percent
Arab Light from Saudi Arabia--10 percent
Louisiana Sweet--8 percent
Illinois Basin Light--4 percent
Cabinda crude from Angola--3 percent
N'Kossa crude from the Republic of Congo--.01 percent
For a span of five months, from September through February, other fuel shipments to the station were analyzed for their crude composition. Molecules swirled through the South Elgin Marathon's gas pumps from Nigeria, Iraq and Venezuela, as well as from declining oil fields in the United States.
Taken together, they revealed the immense human costs, the boggling technical investments, the hardball politics, the hidden exploitation and, ultimately, the alarming fragility of America's epic oil addiction--as seen through the prism of a local gas station. U.S. consumers and faraway producers were finally tethered, without resorting to metaphor or guesswork, by a clear oil trail.
Thus, $73.81 worth of unleaded pumped one Saturday afternoon by a Little League mom was traced not simply back to Africa, but to a particular set of offshore fields in Nigeria through which Ibibio villagers canoed home to children dying of curable diseases.
Every day, the jaded tanker drivers brought human stories echoing in their trucks. They plunked their long wooden measuring sticks into the Marathon station's 40,000-gallon underground tanks, and the resulting subterranean gong evoked--depending on the changing oil vintage--an Iraqi ex-colonel's cavernous loneliness. Or the laments of a West African fisherman named Sunday, afloat on a fishless stretch of the Atlantic. Or the songs of Marxist Indians reveling in their newfound oil wealth atop a dusty South American plateau.
The voices of Chinese oil prospectors gurgled inside all of the fuel shipments. And diluted in the gas came a warning that many Americans seem unprepared to hear: Our nation's energy-intensive joy ride, powered by 150 years of cheap petroleum, may finally be coming to an end. This could be as good as it gets.
...Again, this is highly recommended reading...and for anyone in the Chicago area reading this post, I sure would like a video recording of this documentary on August 3rd, Thursday night (7pm on WYCC TV)...please PM me if possible, I'll reimburse you for the hassle
Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Salopek traces gasoline sold at a Chicago-area station back to its origins. His safari reveals how America's oil addiction binds it to some of the most violent corners of the planet.
Watch Oil Safari on WYCC on Thursday August 3 at 7pm
Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:19 am Post subject: Re: Chicago Tribune: A Tank of Gas, A World of Trouble
Good job, you can watch it directly here but the last link only works to 75% then stops, someone didn't load the complete video file on the server.
Matt simmons was pretty interesting, but I understand why he is so mild in his expose.
No one believes a person that tells the complete truth on the peak oil problem.
Since we have to keep dealing with people you don't want to isolate yourself for something they won't believe anyway.
Not going to do any good that way.
We will have to wait till we have shortages. and even then the govment wont tell the truth theyll just yell WE WONT TAKE IT ANY MORE and attack sa few countries to pick a war with them.
Oh, wait, we already did that.
We need to come home and let them cut the oil off, best thing that could ever happen to us. we sould be running on about 60% oil.
Great way to conserve and the president would be a hero. _________________ ___________________________
WHEN THE BLIND LEAD THE BLIND...GET OUT OF THE WAY!
Using evil to further good makes one evil
Doubt everything but the TRUTH
This posted information is not permissible to be used
by anyone who has ever met a lawyer
Last edited by grabby on Tue Aug 01, 2006 9:59 am; edited 1 time in total
Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 9:50 am Post subject: Re: Chicago Tribune: A Tank of Gas, A World of Trouble
We could say:
In 90 days we are pulling out. all you iraqis who fought for us better get out.
Then we dismantle everything useful and take it with us and come home.
Let the crazies trash their wells, best thing they could ever do we would immediately be running on 60 % oil, and national unity would occur full power conservation, best thing to ever happen.
COME HOME stop agitating the crazies.
will have 90 days to leave.
simple.
All GW has to say is WHoops that was a mistake and look a little sheepish. _________________ ___________________________
WHEN THE BLIND LEAD THE BLIND...GET OUT OF THE WAY!
Using evil to further good makes one evil
Doubt everything but the TRUTH
This posted information is not permissible to be used
by anyone who has ever met a lawyer
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 4:50 pm Post subject: Re: Chicago Tribune: A Tank of Gas, A World of Trouble
Quote:
While much attention is given today to wind, solar and of late, biofuels, because of the enormity of global energy demand, none of these offer meaningful solutions to the bigger issues surrounding energy supply and consumption. A more fundamental breakthrough is required.
Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 12:03 am Post subject: Re: Chicago Tribune: A Tank of Gas, A World of Trouble
1. If we divert from anything but an exponential increase there will be trouble.
2. Exponential Increases are not sustainable.
3. therefore ... _________________ ___________________________
WHEN THE BLIND LEAD THE BLIND...GET OUT OF THE WAY!
Using evil to further good makes one evil
Doubt everything but the TRUTH
This posted information is not permissible to be used
by anyone who has ever met a lawyer
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