Word: bbl
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
With shortages of gasoline, heating fuel and other petroleum products gripping the nation, it is easy to overlook an important fact: the U.S. is still by far the world's largest oil producer. In 1972 U.S. wells pumped out 9.4 million bbl...
...this preeminence brings no comfort to U.S. oilmen. Not only did output fall far short of domestic consumption; it did not even match the 9.7 million bbl. per day that the nation produced at the peak in 1971. The speed at which U.S. oil wells are operating is fast draining the nation's proven reserves. The outlook is for steeper production declines unless new sources of oil can be found...
...effort to encourage the industry to boost output, the Government last year made two important changes in the way that it controls oil prices. First, it lifted controls on the crude that comes from stripper wells-those that produce 10 bbl. or less per day. Stripper prices have since risen from $3 a bbl. to $8.50 or more; at these prices, the owner of a stripper can make a profit from a well that might otherwise be worthless. These wells now account for 13% of U.S. production...
...base period. In response, oilmen have sped the pumping of existing wells to their Maximum Efficient Rates* and made greater use of expensive secondary recovery methods, such as injecting water at high pressure into a well. The American Petroleum Institute estimates that as much as 5,000,000 bbl. might be recovered in this fashion. As Wayne Swearingen, chairman of Tulsa's oil-drilling LVO Corp. puts it: "Old oil wells don't die; they just become uneconomical. We are going to see an increase in the percentage of oil that is recoverable...
...these measures can help only in the short run. Proven U.S. reserves now stand at only 36.3 billion bbl., barely a six-year supply at today's rate of consumption, and new discoveries must be made if the U.S. is to achieve anything resembling self-sufficiency in crude...