[AirlinePilot]

Ok Ive about lost my marbles watching the media get just about everything wrong concerning this latest news that we will be the number one oil producer any minute now. Or that we will be energy independent within 2 or 3 years! Stuart Varney just said it so it has to be true!!!!

Will it ever be possible to get these dolts to report accurately? Its really frustrating to watch the punditry butcher the data so badly. As I thought out loud in another thread.....they are ALL now conflating Total Liquids with Crude production.

Sickening.

[Lore]

Fox can't get AGW correct, why would they for PO? It's not Orwell's 1984, but the news sure sounds like it.

[Timo]

But reality is far too depressing to report in the media! America is the Home Team! We want to feel good about ourselves. We want to believe in ourselves. We want everything to be possible, because, dammit! we're the best this earth has to offer. It's our destiny, and energy independence will finally prove that fact to the rest of the planet. Americans will finally be recognized as the dominate species ABOVE the rest of humanity. Saying that the lifespan of shale deposits is 10 years, tops, and that we're now drilling far more than ever before to compensate for the productivity losses in each well over time, that just makes people think too much. They'll just switch the channel to one where they clap louder and spinkle pixie dust on our fantasies. We are on a collective energy high, spiked with psychadelic ennui. Reality is such a downer. Please don't spoil our fun times of living in La-La Land with the truth.

[americandream]

But reality is far too depressing to report in the media! America is the Home Team! We want to feel good about ourselves. We want to believe in ourselves. We want everything to be possible, because, dammit! we're the best this earth has to offer. It's our destiny, and energy independence will finally prove that fact to the rest of the planet. Americans will finally be recognized as the dominate species ABOVE the rest of humanity. Saying that the lifespan of shale deposits is 10 years, tops, and that we're now drilling far more than ever before to compensate for the productivity losses in each well over time, that just makes people think too much. They'll just switch the channel to one where they clap louder and spinkle pixie dust on our fantasies. We are on a collective energy high, spiked with psychadelic ennui. Reality is such a downer. Please don't spoil our fun times of living in La-La Land with the truth.

Not quite. Heavy cultural conditioning has created a ready market of compliant consumers in the States and the US and UK are the furthest down this road, England having started this ball rolling . Variations of this thinking exists in every capitalist economy and of course, the Chinese ruling class are keen to replicate the same.

[Armageddon]

It's almost as bad as them talking about the gov'ts version of 911... almost

[Armageddon]

"The US is nearing oil independence" LIE
"911 was not an inside job" LIE
"The US economy is recovering" LIE

[AirlinePilot]

Polite reminder Arm...we have a whole thread for that crap..please keep it OUT OF THIS ONE.

[westexas]

Last year, Simons Hobbs, on CNBC, decreed that the US was already a net crude oil exporter, which would put US Crude + Condensate production at around 16 mbpd.

And a few weeks ago, Jim Cramer, also on CNBC, stated that US producers vented/flared more natural gas than we consume. So, in round numbers this implies that we are venting/flaring around 70 BCF per day or so (roughly the equivalent of the peak production rate from 12 Barnett Shale Plays).

And so it goes.

[ROCKMAN]

And I suspect it's obvious to most of our learned cast here: none of these folks are really that ignorant. All of them - left, right, pro biz, pro environment, etc. - have their own agenda. So they cherry pick the data to support their "cause". And cherry pick is a nice tag...some times they take even already biased data and misrepresent it. My 14 yo daughter can go online and in less then 2 minutes learn how much oil/NG the US produces, consumes and import. Everyone of the folks we're currently pissing on could easily do the same. And probably has.

[Lore]

And a few weeks ago, Jim Cramer, also on CNBC, stated that US producers vented/flared more natural gas than we consume. So, in round numbers this implies that we are venting/flaring around 70 BCF per day or so (roughly the equivalent of the peak production rate from 12 Barnett Shale Plays).

And so it goes.

Jim Cramer's eyes start spinning and then he goes loopy when ever he begins to talk about the new age of fracking NG and all the wealth it will bring for investors and their descendants, if any.

[Pops]

Diane Sawyer got the scoop on them all a year and a half ago
diane-sawyer-us-will-be-largest-exporter-t67702.html

[ROCKMAN]

Lore - And that's exactly the point I was trying to make. Each is looking a narrow part of the spectrum. It's easy to get loopy about the revenue. There's Aunt T...a nice Cajun lady trying to get by and help her single mom daughter. She was doing the best she could with her social security check and a little bit of savings. But for the last year and a half she's been getting a check for $30,000 each month for the royalty from the oil well I drilled on her land. It's very easy for me to get loopy about it. LOL. I can also get a tad loopy thinking about a family that owned a large ranch in S Texas filled with nasty mesquite and scrawny cattle that got $1 BILLION just to lease their land for Eagle Ford exploration. OTOH I don't get very loopy when I recall trying as best I could to comfort one of my consultants whose nephew was one of the 11 killed at Macondo.

So back to the point: Cramer can focus on the monetary gains and ignore potential environmental damage. His choice. Likewise someone can focus on potential environmental damage and ignore the enrichment that has been brought into the lives of so many. Their choice. But neither approach captures the entirety of the situation.

[Plantagenet]

You really can't blame the mainstream media---they are just repeating the information they are getting from the federal government. Much of the media doesn't do a lot of independent reporting anymore---what passes for the "news" today often consists of the reporter reading the latest press release from the US government.

Here's todays press release from the EIA....US crude exports hit 15 year high

Of course the MSM and the US public is going to think the US has plenty of oil, when the government puts out a press release about US crude exports hitting a 15 year high.

[dinopello]

And I suspect it's obvious to most of our learned cast here: none of these folks are really that ignorant.

I don't agree with the "none of" part. The press does not handle technical details well at all and almost always mess up the details and nuances. Even when you hand them a release with all the proper explaination they will excerpt it and/or put confusing verbage around it. I'm pretty sure that most do it completely innocently. I delt with the press at a small high-tech startup - they always totally missed the main points and screwed up the others. So, we basically stopped giving them any real detail and soundbiting it for them. We didn't like doing that but it was the only way to not have them give totally erroneous information that we had to correct.

[joewp]

Have you guys ever watched TV or listened to the radio? They carry tons of car dealership commercials. They're not going to be telling people gas prices are going to rise and you might find it expensive to drive that Ford pickup around, so don't bother getting a new one. It's not in their best interests, they have to tailor their news to the best interests of their advertisers or the advertisers will go somewhere else. And banks advertise a lot too. Think they want the news to say there's going to be an economic collapse caused by rising energy prices? People might stop taking out loans!

The media is just another industry that has been corrupted by corporate money.

[Lore]

Joewp... You're exactly right. There will be no warning by the media when the wheels come off. None by our government, even if they do know. Just as there was no heads up prior to the Great Recession. It seems the only way the US can respond to anything these days is when we're in crisis mode.

For all we're aware of right now the jig could be up next week.

[ROCKMAN]

Dino - I was referring to TPTB in the media like Cramer et al. I'm talking about the folks who have access to all the same data we do...and probably more. Not the silly news readers and ad men.

[Synapsid]

I note that almost all that record (since 15 years ago) level of oil exported, mentioned in Plantagenet's link, is to Canada, and that the largest source is the Gulf Coast (TX and LA). Eagle Ford shale crude, I guess.

[Outsailing]

Ok Ive about lost my marbles watching the media get just about everything wrong concerning this latest news that we will be the number one oil producer any minute now. Or that we will be energy independent within 2 or 3 years! Stuart Varney just said it so it has to be true!!!!

Will it ever be possible to get these dolts to report accurately?

Considering what has happened to US production rates, is it fair to blame them? The euphoria has been pretty high, but then when some old, way past its prime depleted producing country can grow oil production faster than at any time in its history, it isn't a surprise that some might be a little optimistic.

[copious.abundance]

Now let us remind ourselves of something the starter of this thread told us on Dec. 2nd, 2009:

The facts remain.

US production peaked in 1971. We will NEVER near that amount of oil ever again.

[...]

As of April we are only about 1.6 million barrels/day away from the all-time monthly high of 10.044 million barrels/day set in November 1970. And today's data shows us reaching 8.5 million barrels/day last week, which brings us closer still. At this point it seems increasingly probable we will meet, and perhaps even exceed, that 1970 record. Which makes it pretty nervy that AP is trying to tell everyone here that the media is being too optimistic, when his own, on-the-record prediction of pessimism is starting to look laughable.