Black Gold

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Thank goodness for North Dakota which is filling financial coffers and providing jobs nationwide in oil related areas. Because of the oil that is coming out of her too we now import 48% of our oil where once we imported 60 to 70 % with only 14% of it  still coming from the Middle East. We’d import no oil from the Middle East except we can’t drill in areas of Alaska. The pipeline from Alaska as a matter of fact used to carry 2 million barrels of oil a day; now if carries 660,000 barrels.
What's frustrating about this is that there are myths about drilling in Alaska that still prevail. We are told that a beautiful refuge (it is) was set up by the Congress and then oil was discovered and evil oil barons wanted to drill there, of course. “Let the animals die, we want oil.”
 
The truth is that when the ANWR refuge was set up, oil geologists knew there was oil there. However, there were people who wanted to set up a place for animals and to have the wilderness undisturbed. So a compromise was reached. There would be a preserve set up and drilling would be allowed in the inhospitable parts which are not shown on T.V., for where the drilling is to be done is not by that lake with the white capped mountain as environmentalist ads show.
 
Of course, the environmentalist did exactly what you would expect socialists to do; as soon as they got the preserve, they got the government to rescind the drilling part of the agreement. And it was done with lies.
 
The oil companies want to drill on 2000 square acres total. With today’s technology they can drill horizontally which is why that area can be so small. The trucking to bring up the parts to build the oil rigs is brought up in deep winter on ice roads. During the job, there's constant cleanup. Except for the rigs which are mostly computerized, you wouldn't know construction had been done for the roads which brought the equipment melt after winter.
 
Now I know there are concerns about oil spills. Well, guess what?  We live in a society where we need energy, so risks have to be taken. Yes oil rigs fail with bad consequences, but how many coal miners die even in modern mines? How many of us would die if tomorrow we had no energy like oil, coal and natural gas? Millions.
 
Now to those who read this and get angry, I ask you, why? The story above is true. Hate drilling for oil because you don’t like it for whatever personal reason, but at least don’t hate it for unrealistic reasons.
 
In fact consider, hurricane scientists William Gray and Phil Klotzbach who were considered gods in their field just stunned other climatologist when they announced this month that they would no longer be predicting the number of hurricanes and their intensity for the year because the model used doesn't work. Of course, the model used was used by global warming “experts “to show that the world would end by hurricane if we did not stop using fossil fuels. (By the way, if the environmental treaties we signed were followed, we would eventually live, or better said, die in a country run at an 1890’s energy level. Try supporting 306 million people in a nation that has harsh winters at this energy level).
 

So how does all this get you a job? The unemployment rate in North Dakota is 3 %. And this State is going to be a little Saudi Arabia so the jobs are going to keep coming. What are needed desperately are oil geologists. If you are smart enough to go to school for finance, you are smart enough to go to school for geology. Fill your class schedule also with classes in the other sciences used in oil exploration.


 

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By
Jeffrey Ruzicka
Jeffrey Ruzicka is a retired executive of a small company that specializes in industrial water treatment. He lives happily with his wife in Western Pennsylvania and is a contributing writer toFinancialJobBank,FinancialJobBankBlog,ConstructionJobForce, ConstructionJobForceBlog and Nexxt.
 
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