Oil by the numbers

I'm pretty busy today, but since war and oil are always on my mind... I thought I'd repost part of a piece from Sept 2006...

With news of a "huge" oil reserve (AP, by Brad Foss) found in the Gulf of Mexico, it begs the question “What does 'huge' mean?”

To understand, here are some US oil numbers:

Barrels of oil
Barrels consumed per day: 20,000,000
Barrels consumed per year: 7,300,000,000
Est. barrels in the new Gulf reserve: 3billion - 15billion
Est. time to consume the new Gulf reserve: 5 months to 2 years
Est. time to consume the ANWR reserves: 6 months

Gallons of gasoline (in terms of barrels of oil)
Gallons of oil per barrel of oil: 42
Refined gallons of gas per barrel of oil: 19-20

Approximate annual US gas consumption: 140 billion gallons (7.3B barrels x 20gal)

Average American household consumption (The following numbers are rounded. Their purpose is to show reasonableness.)
Est. number of households in the US: 140,000,000
Gallons of gas consumed per US household per yr: 1,000
Gallons of gas consumed per US household per day: 3

Reserve size
Est. US oil reserves: 29 billion barrels (29 / 7.3 = 4 years supply)
Est. Saudi oil reserves: 250 billion barrels (34 years supply… if only the US, but that’s not the case.)

So it is fair to say that the Gulf reserve increases America's oil reserve by 50% (from 4 years to 6 years). But when I look at these numbers, I don't see this as a panacea. Rather, I see this as enabling us to kick the can down the road. At times that may be the best thing to do. However, with America at war, largely because of our dependence on Mideast oil, I feel we must take action now to reduce our dependence.

Can we make it happen? Well, it was once said:

"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out..." - Pres. Kennedy, May 25, 1961, on sending a man to the moon

We can and should do it. And whether or not Washington acts, Connecticut and Cheshire can and should take action.

Tim White
Town Council, 4th District