TKE683 said:
So honestly are all the oil companies crooked bastards? It would seem so!
It has to do with restrictions on our own ability to produce our own oil. Very limited on the Flordia coast and in Alaska.
Another major problem and probably a bigger problem than the one above is lack of refineries. The enviromentalist have really done a number on the oil companys over the last 20 years. Everytime someone tries to construct a new refinery it gets shot down.
I dont think the oil companies are as crooked as most believe. The cost of producing oil and natural gas has shot through the roof in the last 5 years.
All the majors are moving into deep water zones which is highly expensive compared to the GOM shelf that we have been drilling on for the last 60 years. The rig companies are charging the oil companies $350K per day just for a rig. Not counting labor and all the countless service work that goes into a well. when you add all that in to the mix, it cost an oil company somewhere around 500K to 1MILL a day times 40 plus just to drill and complete a single well. Then they have to cross there fingers and hope that the well will come through. The success rate for a well just just a little over 70%. If the well does come through then they have to spend Millions of dollars on contruction. You can have a single well cost an oil company hundreds of millions of dollars.