Thursday, June 19, 2008

What about those “unused leases” that Democrats keep talking about…

One of the talking points used by Democrats against off-shore drilling is that the oil companies are sitting on thousands of leases that are not being pumped for oil. They accuse oil companies of sitting on millions of barrels of oil and that oil companies should drill from those leased lands instead of opening up new areas for drilling.

Well, one of the best counter arguments I have read that trumps the Democratic response against offshore drilling and their claim that oil companies are sitting on unused leases was made by Bobo over at the Bobo files:

What they also have failed to inform the general public about these leases is that many of them cannot be drilled because there is no oil in them. The government makes these oil companies purchase these leases before they are allowed to survey them. The company geologists then survey, find there’s nothing in there, and now the big oil companies are stuck with these leases that they can’t do anything with..and…who pays the cost for those non-productive leases? We the people do as a pass through expense. It’s just another scam by the government and something they don’t want everyone to know about.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

1 comment:

tashabud said...

As much as we complain about the oil companies making tons of profits from the high gas price we've been paying, I guess I can understand they have a lot of overhead expenses they have to deal with. They do need the large profits to serve as a cushion during lean times and be used to invest on new technologies.

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