I'm sorry but most of you all are nuts. Oil is on the world market, not the US market. It all sells the same, just varies based on the quality of the crude.
Judge to answer your question, fact is Alaska gets most of the money when oil is drilled on Alaskan lands. They make a nice royalty on it, most people have heard of the stabilization fund which pays Alaskans every year for basically being Alaskans. The US government gets very little, although in this situation it might be a little better because it would mostly be drilling federal lands. I don't know how they would do it, but truth is the oil in that area is pretty crappy quality and the cost to drill it is exorbitant compared to much of the world's existing supplies. ARCO used to have years they would lose money on their Alaskan drilling activities back when oil was cheap.
Still amazes me some of the answers here. ANWR reserves are not proven, just theoretical. Sure there is some oil there, but the full extent won't be known until they dig it up. I don't know if it particularly matters if we protect that land, like most will tell you its not exactly going to be a future site of a Disneyland. Fact is though there are better sources of oil begging for investment worldwide. Since non-Alaskans will make virtually nothing from exploiting the fields, we would all be better off going after oil in other locations. That oil field is probably a "2" in priority if the world was a level playing field for drilling. Of course it is not and therefore it becomes a higher priority. Someday it will be drilled, little doubt of that, but for anyone who thinks it makes one bit of difference in oil prices, put down your pipes.
We don't have an oil shortage, we have a refinery shortage topped off with an out of control fear premium pushed up by momentum investors. The world has plenty of supply of oil as long as geo-politics doesn't disrupt it. Let the skeptics go on about China and Asian demand. If oil stays at $70 there will be production at levels no one is thinking about. There are vast sources of oil that don't make sense at $35, but make sense at $50 and above. Drilling is going to hit an all-time high pace in a year or two and much of it will be financed not by our government, but by all those "windfall" profits some in the US government wants to confiscate. Lets not be stupid, even if they found a way to take those profits, do you think it will do anything for us? Of course not.
Rational thinking in this situation is just remember $1 gallons of gas aren't coming back and maybe $2 will be a thing of the past, although I have my doubts we will be above $2 gallon 18 months from now. The days of cheap gas are gone and with it, they will change consumption patterns and drive additional capacity. Supply and demand does us GOOD not bad when prices go up. It creates scarcity which forces gas to go towards the highest and most valuable uses, while stimulating supply to the market. Just be patient and this will all be forgotten, mark my words.
Judge to answer your question, fact is Alaska gets most of the money when oil is drilled on Alaskan lands. They make a nice royalty on it, most people have heard of the stabilization fund which pays Alaskans every year for basically being Alaskans. The US government gets very little, although in this situation it might be a little better because it would mostly be drilling federal lands. I don't know how they would do it, but truth is the oil in that area is pretty crappy quality and the cost to drill it is exorbitant compared to much of the world's existing supplies. ARCO used to have years they would lose money on their Alaskan drilling activities back when oil was cheap.
Still amazes me some of the answers here. ANWR reserves are not proven, just theoretical. Sure there is some oil there, but the full extent won't be known until they dig it up. I don't know if it particularly matters if we protect that land, like most will tell you its not exactly going to be a future site of a Disneyland. Fact is though there are better sources of oil begging for investment worldwide. Since non-Alaskans will make virtually nothing from exploiting the fields, we would all be better off going after oil in other locations. That oil field is probably a "2" in priority if the world was a level playing field for drilling. Of course it is not and therefore it becomes a higher priority. Someday it will be drilled, little doubt of that, but for anyone who thinks it makes one bit of difference in oil prices, put down your pipes.
We don't have an oil shortage, we have a refinery shortage topped off with an out of control fear premium pushed up by momentum investors. The world has plenty of supply of oil as long as geo-politics doesn't disrupt it. Let the skeptics go on about China and Asian demand. If oil stays at $70 there will be production at levels no one is thinking about. There are vast sources of oil that don't make sense at $35, but make sense at $50 and above. Drilling is going to hit an all-time high pace in a year or two and much of it will be financed not by our government, but by all those "windfall" profits some in the US government wants to confiscate. Lets not be stupid, even if they found a way to take those profits, do you think it will do anything for us? Of course not.
Rational thinking in this situation is just remember $1 gallons of gas aren't coming back and maybe $2 will be a thing of the past, although I have my doubts we will be above $2 gallon 18 months from now. The days of cheap gas are gone and with it, they will change consumption patterns and drive additional capacity. Supply and demand does us GOOD not bad when prices go up. It creates scarcity which forces gas to go towards the highest and most valuable uses, while stimulating supply to the market. Just be patient and this will all be forgotten, mark my words.
