BF2S Forums Something I have heard nothing about-- From Obama

(T)eflon(S)hadow wrote:

Can anybody expand on what Obama has stated in the last two Debates?
"Oil companies have over 68 million acres of land (on and off-shore) to develop into production. If they don't use it they will lose it."- Obama

What does that mean? The permit to explore and develop oil and gas leases will expire/ the US govt. will take these fields? -

Doesn't it mean that oil companies own over 68million acres of land that may have oil under it, but, whilst the country is in a state of economic crisis and depends on foreign energy, those oil companies are doing nothing with that land and so, if Obama becomes President and those oil companies don't either drill or sell said land, then it will be taken away from them?

(T)eflon(S)hadow wrote:

I thought that's what I asked
Why do my posts attract so many crickets?

I think we're both right. Is the point I was making.

They buy and sell contracts on the future use of the land. There is no shortage of oil now.. actually it's just the opposite. You'de be an idiot to open more taps right now. The market reacts according to what will happen to it. All investment are fueled by speculation. Just saying that you are going to give more opportunity for exploratory drilling can (and has) helped to bring the price down. Even if you never use the land you can take advantage of that type of speculation to fill the gap between fossil fuels and renewable energy.

Kmarion wrote:

They buy and sell contracts on the future use of the land. There is no shortage of oil now.. actually it's just the opposite. You'de be an idiot to open more taps right now. The market reacts according to what will happen to it. All investment are fueled by speculation. Just saying that you are going to give more opportunity for exploratory drilling can (and has) helped to bring the price down. Even if you never use the land you can take advantage of that type of speculation to fill the gap between fossil fuels and renewable energy.

big OIL had their chance, they should loose it.

Scorpion0x17 wrote:

Agent_Dung_Bomb wrote:

The oil companies don't own the land, they have leases on it.  If they fail to explore the area they have on lease, the leases will expire.  Since this is likely referring to federal land anyway, it was always managed by the federal government, and by way of how our government works, owned by the citizens of the US.

I was just using a short cut as I wasn't sure of the exact case in the states - if you own the right to exploit the resources, you own effectively own the land.

Not hardly.  They are allowed to extract one specific resource, for which they pay for these leases.  They have environmental requirements they must meet while extracting the resource, and in the end, it's still federal land.  When the lease is up they usually have an option to renew it, or if the area is tapped out on said resource, they will allow the lease to expire.

Also, just because they have lease rights to extract a resource does not mean that people can't go on the land.  It's still open for use in most cases.

Agent_Dung_Bomb wrote:

Also, just because they have lease rights to extract a resource does not mean that people can't go on the land.  It's still open for use in most cases.

Doesn't mean caribou cant go on the land neither .