Tuesday, September 04, 2012

US oil production, and a request for help from readers.

This link, and here. Does any reader have a reliable link disclosing the percentage of permitted oil exploration and exploitation licenses/permits that presently have been issued but gone untapped? A high percentage would suggest market manipulation by the permit takers, a low percentage would suggest a functioning free market. A corollary question, of the permits, what percentage are owned or tied up by big oil vs. small entrepreneurial profit-chasing risk takers? Without facts of this kind, rational analysis and debate is impossible.

Also helpful would be refinery capacity numbers for the US, and refinery output numbers. It does not reach the gas stations for filling your tank as crude. It is refinery participation in the processing and distribution petro segments that matters. We need reliable numbers to assess what the state of affairs is. That first linked Fox item is propaganda, not analysis, but, expect that from Fox.