Tractors and (upcoming) tariffs?

[ultrarunner]

Go you better... for years property owners were required by law to maintain all services and tenants got a pass on paying rent.

This one act contributed greatly to the lack of rentals among the small owners getting out.

I was mandated to deal with tenant caused sewage during the lockdown without regard to no plumbers available.

I could go on but the damage done lives on...

On the flip side working at a hospital I was expected to show up everyday... so no gov payments to me...

 

[akguy09]

Wow. Restoring American oil independence? The U.S. has never been energy independent. We are producing more oil and gas today than 5+ years ago. In fact more than ever before and we’re still not energy independent. Federal lands permits are a bogus issue. Most of the high producing oil fields are on state and private lands, not federal. NM and Alaska are the primary states that have significant oil on federal lands, along with the offshore areas in the Gulf of Mexico. Almost all federal lands in NM oil fields have already been leased for years. Alaska has a significant amount of oil on federal lands in the Arctic, but so far there’s not much industry interest in operating in the Arctic because it’s extremely expensive to operate there.

Not to mention that the Company that owns the pipeline in Alaska slows down the oil flow when the prices are lower...to force a greater DEMAND.They actually have a tight hold on the oil market in the US.

 

[WM75Guy]

Using one measurement to define independence is not valid. Even when we exported more than we imported, we still were dependent on refining capability in other countries. While the U.S. does produce enough crude oil to meet our needs, we lack the storage and refining capability to utilize all of it. U.S refineries were built to refine heavy crude, which is more profitable as you get more types of products out of a barrel. What we import is heavy crude.

Since the discovery of the Permian Basin deposits of light sweet crude in West Texas and New Mexico, newer refineries and some existing refineries have been built or expanded to process it. We still cannot process or store all of the WTI that is being pumped, so some is exported to other countries for refining. We then bring back finished products, mostly gasoline and distillate fuels (diesel and fuel oil). And the net imports last week only accounted for 8% of the input to refineries.

Oil from Canada is already flowing to Texas, either by pipeline or rail. The terminated Keystone XL pipeline project was to get it there faster and in larger quantities. TC Energy (Trans-Canadian) was the builder. They terminated the project and sold off their pipeline operations. Even if a permit was approved today, no one wants to build it. The Canadian government bought and finished the Trans Mountain pipeline sending the oil to the west coast of Canada and the U.S. for shipment overseas.

Weekly Petroleum Status Report - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

Keystone XL — Maps

Crude oil imports from Canada reached a record after pipeline expansion - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

 

[jyoutz]

I can't read it for you:

The answer to my question is yes (by your definition):

In 2023, the US exported more crude oil and petroleum products than it imported. Petroleum and petroleum product exports totaled about 10.15 million barrels per day (b/d), while imports were about 8.53 million b/d resulting in a -1.7 million b/d difference.Sep 24, 2024

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[ning]

The answer to my question is yes (by your definition):

In 2023, the US exported more crude oil and petroleum products than it imported. Petroleum and petroleum product exports totaled about 10.15 million barrels per day (b/d), while imports were about 8.53 million b/d resulting in a -1.7 million b/d difference.Sep 24, 2024
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IMO there's a significant difference between "net exporter" and "independent".

If my solar panels feed more electricity back to the grid than I pull off of it, I'm a net exporter... turn off the grid and let's see if I'm independent.
While being a net exporter of oil & gas is an indication that you could be independent, it's by no means a sufficient condition.

 

[jyoutz]

IMO there's a significant difference between "net exporter" and "independent".

If my solar panels feed more electricity back to the grid than I pull off of it, I'm a net exporter... turn off the grid and let's see if I'm independent.
While being a net exporter of oil & gas is an indication that you could be independent, it's by no means a sufficient condition.

I agree. That is why I said by his definition.

 

[kw00]

Using one measurement to define independence is not valid. Even when we exported more than we imported, we still were dependent on refining capability in other countries.

Yes, but THEY were MORE dependent on our petroleum products overall than they were on ours.

While the U.S. does produce enough crude oil to meet our needs, we lack the storage and refining capability to utilize all of it. U.S refineries were built to refine heavy crude, which is more profitable as you get more types of products out of a barrel. What we import is heavy crude.

Not entirely correct. The most valuable products are very easily refined from light sweet crude. The reason U.S. light crude refineries were CONVERTED to heavy crude 50-60 years ago was because heavy oil from OPEC was so ridiculously cheap. IF our refining capacity were optimized we would be able to supply all of our own petroleum products. The thing stopping that is regulation, which has been in overdrive in recent years.

Since the discovery of the Permian Basin deposits of light sweet crude in West Texas and New Mexico, newer refineries and some existing refineries have been built or expanded to process it.

We've been producing light sweet (WTI) crude here for decades. (I'm in the Permian Basin area.) We have very old refineries out here that process it.

We still cannot process or store all of the WTI that is being pumped, so some is exported to other countries for refining. We then bring back finished products, mostly gasoline and distillate fuels (diesel and fuel oil). And the net imports last week only accounted for 8% of the input to refineries.

We export more expensive oil to other countries and import cheaper oil. We import a relatively small amount of gasoline and are to a small degree a net exporter of diesel.

Most of Canada's finished product comes from the U.S. They cannot produce nearly enough gasoline for themselves, making them dependent on us for that. They are happy to supply the raw product necessary for that.

Again, the only real limit to our independence is government overreach. Hopefully that will change soon.

 

[Lastkidpicked]

You fellas want to muddy the waters even more?

We have refineries in Montana, Washington state, and Minnesota. It is cheaper to bring in Canadian crude oil because those refineries are right on the northern border anyway. The Canadian crude is cheaper than transporting our own crude up from Texas.

So is that importation of Canadian oil good for us a whole, or bad for us?

California imports crude oil from the middle east. Why not buy it from Texas? Because it's cheaper to import it than it is to transport from Texas to California.

So is that importation of crude good for us as a whole or bad for us?

I'm genuinely interested in your answers. As an admitted nerd and proud geek, this is interesting on a mathematical level.

 

[ning]

You fellas want to muddy the waters even more?

We have refineries in Montana, Washington state, and Minnesota. It is cheaper to bring in Canadian crude oil because those refineries are right on the northern border anyway. The Canadian crude is cheaper than transporting our own crude up from Texas.

So is that importation of Canadian oil good for us a whole, or bad for us?

California imports crude oil from the middle east. Why not buy it from Texas? Because it's cheaper to import it than it is to transport from Texas to California.

So is that importation of crude good for us as a whole or bad for us?

I'm genuinely interested in your answers. As an admitted nerd and proud geek, this is interesting on a mathematical level.

It's good, in the long run, because someday we'll merge the two allegedly separate countries...
(part j/k)

 

[WM75Guy]

You bring up good points. The oil business is a global business. Going from crude oil to finished product has multiple steps. The five major steps are upstream (production), midstream (transportation & storage), downstream (refining), wholesale & retail sales. Each plays a factor in the final cost. Midstream operations are expensive, both in development and liability, and that cost is passed on to the product being moved. That is definitely factored into the decision on where to buy from, along with the type of product and cost..

We are involved in the oil business either directly from land & well ownership or indirectly from stock in multiple companies in all phases of the petroleum industry. Last year our wells produced about 6 million barrels of West Texas Intermediate crude oil from 2 production companies. We dealt with multiple companies on pipeline ROW easements and production facilities. I read lots of shareholder information on the companies we hold stock in, which are some of the major players, along with independent research.

This explains some of the decision-making process on what type of crude oil goes where.

The United States tends to produce lighter crude oil and import heavier crude oil - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

Here is information on what drives crude oil prices.

Energy & Financial Markets: What Drives Crude Oil Prices? - Energy Information Administration

Current futures for WTI for 2025 are fairly flat.