1 More Reason For Domestic Drilling

The Economist

This article makes a point that I think gets lost in the conversation when people talk about oil production. The major producers felt that once the majority of fighting in Iraq ended, that they would be able to come in and work with the government to get Iraq producing at levels greater than Saudi Arabia. They have the resource to do so, but not the will. As the article pointed out, the infrastructure is years away from being sufficiently developed, the closeness to Iran is a serious security issue, you have what amounts to bandits and militants targeting oil pipelines and international workers and lastly you have a government that can not decide if they want to work with the firms or not. Not exactly a hotbed of confidence.

Which brings me to my point. Why are companies even risking their people and resources in a place that does not want them around when they could be focusing their efforts and resource dollars in a safe environment. I'm talking about North America. That's right, from Alberta south to Mexico, we have an abundance of fuels that can be tapped. All without the worry of militants on motorcycles coming to blow you up. Imagine if we could persuade the companies to invest their billions in R&D into clean technologies. Imagine if they would focus on making the use of fossil fuels a clean venture. It would seem like a no brainer. However no matter what anyone says, we have not rolled out the red carpet to those who have the money and know how to make it happen. So, companies will continue to risk working in dangerous parts of the world and we would continue to see jobs that could be created in North America never appear on the horizon. What should be a win-win is really a lose-lose.