Redstate

By MelZ Posted in Archived — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

I finally had the chance to sit down with my uncle, CEO of an oil distributor for Shell Oil.

Below are the questions I asked and the answers he gave. He has been with this distributor for over 30 years. He is the kind of guy that will tell you like it is, no matter what the circumstance.

Q) Who are this big, evil oil companies? Are you an "evil" oil guy?
A) Exxon, Shell, Phillips, Texaco are the "evil" oil companies, I just distribute for one of them since we don't have any major oil company headquarters any where around here.

Q) Do you think if we could begin exploring ANWR, made a great find and started producing oil, the cost would be driven down?
A) In theory, yes-obviously for supply-and-demand. But because certain issues in American, no the cost would not go down much. The cost to produce oil in America is incredibly high compared to Saudi Arabia because of Unions, lobbies, lawyers, taxes, environmental restrictions, etc.

Q) What about speculators?
A) They probably drive the cost up a little, sometimes a lot.

Q) Okay so can the cost of fuel come down at all?
A) If government would back out of the way...if they would lift certain restrictions to allow EFFICIENT drilling, if they would cap speculators, if they would cut taxes...then yes the cost would go down dramatically. But, the way it is now you cannot get oil to the pump any cheaper in America than we get it now.

Q) So you oil guys have a crap load of money (my uncle will be the first to tell you, he has done very well for himself. I live on part of his land...he does VERY well for himself. He also says he has made some great investments and his ROI is much lower than Coca-Cola, hollywood stars, Al Gore and/or just about any big corporation.) why don't you go push Congress around?
A) Too many Congressman are in the tank with the vocal minority-environmentalists and are clueless as to how an economy can work FOR the citizens.

Q) So in other words, we won't see lower costs any time soon?
A) No...not really. We have not built a refinery in America in over THIRTY years. It just is not worth the work, cost, red tape. For every gallon of gas you get, Shell gets 8cents, government get 40.2cents. There is no efficient/effective alternative....
Q) Are you guys for looking at alternatives?
A) NO, why would we. We have enough investment...BILLIONS in fuel. If a good alternative existed, someone would find it and if the people bought into he/she would be beyond rich. We don't stand in the way because there will always be a need for oil...but we are not going to invest in something that at this point does not really exist. Anyway, there is no efficient alternative. The different grades of fuel going to each state, the epa restrictions, some speculating keep fuel high.
If gov't would lower taxes first, open lands for more exploring while lifting some of the restrictions, and cap speculation...that would lower the cost of gas.

---Just something I thought I would share. I trust his opinion more than anyone I see on the news...so this was interesting. I don't think he said anything most of us did not already know...but this is kind of like "from the horse's mouth" if you will.