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www.us-
tech.com
Tech-Op-ed April, 2011
SOUNDING OFF
By Walter Salm Editor
Will the U.S. Ever Be Oil Independent?
ing at $107 a barrel, not the highest it’s ever been, but high enough to serious- ly cripple an economy that has been slowly clawing its way out of the base- ment. Prices at the pump will top $4.00 a gallon soon — still the lowest cost for fuel in the world but high enough to seriously affect all aspects of business and commerce. The stock market has been strange — dropping hugely one day and recovering the next. Americans have been spoiled by decades of cheap energy. At one time,
T
the United States was totally energy self-reliant, tapping huge oil fields in Texas, Oklahoma and California. Prices at the pump were typically as low as 10 cents a gallon. Those fields are still producing, albeit at a much lower out- put, but now new oil fields in North Dakota and Montana hold the promise of once again making the US energy-independent. The Bakken shale deposits that are currently being tapped in North
Dakota and Montana have been known to exist since the 1950s. Back then, the technology was not sufficiently advanced to drill and pump oil profitably. Interest in these fields picked up when oil prices passed $50 a barrel — Bakken’s profit point. The potential of this oil deposit is huge; analysts claim that it contains far more oil than all of the vast oil fields of Saudi Arabia. There are already hundreds of oil wells in these remote areas at the top of the continental U.S., with even more oil in Canada’s Saskatchewan. These deposits, two miles below the surface, have benefited hugely from
advancing oil drilling technology. North Dakota’s production has been increasing each year. It was 80 million barrels in 2009, with the potential to grow into billions of barrels. The U.S. currently consumes 7 billion barrels per year, so this is really a drop in the bucket right now, but the drops are grow- ing. The most recent U.S. Geological Survey states that the Bakken Shale could contain as much as 4.3 billion gallons of oil, but that figure keeps increasing as more wells are drilled and more pockets discovered. The big question now: can our domestic oil drilling actually turn around
the market? The remoteness of the principal deposits means that a lot of new infrastructure has to be constructed. Some pipelines are already in place and others are being built. It’s certainly easier to access than the North Slope of Alaska, and while North Dakota winters can be pretty cold, the obstacles to gaining access are nowhere near as difficult as they are on the North Slope. We have all this oil, but are limited in our ability to get it out of the
ground and transport it to refineries. It will take years for total development to happen, and in the meantime, northwestern North Dakota is having an oil boom. Hotel rooms and housing are in short supply. There’s a serious labor shortage in Dickinson, where the McDonalds is offering a $300 signing bonus to attract new employees. Ranchers are becoming millionaires as wells are drilled on their property, reminiscent of Oklahoma’s sudden riches several decades ago. The hype now is that the Bakken Shale can save the U.S. from its over-
whelming dependency on imported oil. It can help, but it’s doubtful that we will be come energy independent in the near future. Americans love their automobiles too much and we have been royally spoiled by our energy-hogging lifestyles. And too few Americans live in “Clingstone” type environments. Yes, Bakken sounds very promising, but it’s not as though the U.S.A. has
suddenly won the Worldwide Lottery. Bakken gives us a glimmer of hope, a part of the potential solution to America’s energy hunger. We still have to fol- low stringent conservation guidelines, moving more definitively toward renewable energy sources. The cost of electricity will not be coming down in the foreseeable future, so we have to be prudent and stingy with our energy consumption. At least our grandchildren will derive some benefit from the Bakken Shale. r
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
By Jacob Fattal Publisher
Digital UST Now on iPHONE and iPAD
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a new working tool has taken up residence at U.S. Tech, the iPAD, and for a very good reason. At the beginning of the year, we launched our totally digital edition — a
oing back 26 years, U.S. Tech's first computer was a ponderous PC with a nameplate that said “Heathkit/Zenith”. It’s amazing just how long we used it for sales records, subscription lists, and even for editorial. Now
collection of seamless PDF files that show on the computer screen the exact pages of our print edition — advertising and all. In the digital edition, all of our readers can now reach any advertiser’s URL which is posted on the ad itself. If there’s a press release in our printed version, the web address as well as the e-mail information will be posted and will connect our readers directly to our advertisers! All of this is available thanks to Yudu, and you can view the electronic edition from a link on home page at
www.US-Tech.com (scroll down to the Digital US-Tech Edition icon). Now, just in time for APEX, the digital U.S. Tech is finally available for
delivery to iPHONEs and iPADs. Try out the link for an eye-popping revela- tion of this technology. It carries information dissemination to a new and exciting level. It’s a wonderful excuse to go out and treat yourself to a new iPAD, if you have not already done so. These many plus features are free of charge to advertisers, and we will
be adding even more refinements as we go along. If you see me on the APEX floor, ask me to show you my iPAD demo. You may get just as hyped about it as we are. It’s all about getting your message across to your present and future customers in a most effective way. r
he spreading unrest in North Africa in particular, has had a devastat- ing effect on oil prices, even though Saudi Arabia has increased its oil output in an effort to stabilize world markets. At press time, oil was sell-
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