US petroleum cycle used to be closed loop from the well to the smoke out the tailpipe, then supply and demand ruled the roost.
Burgeoning China relied on exclusive use of coal for energy production.
Until people started dying and rice fields went fallow
China is starving for finished products and guess who is all too eager to sell it to them for an inflated price.
When JW Sheehan manager refineries visited the Martinez Oil refinery of Shell they toured the plant in a group.
"Say J.W. wasn't that something when the ******** eliminated the Oil Depletion Allowance?"
"They have not got a clue as to the power we wield. We control the supply and the product. This refinery is going to have maintenance issues shortly"
He wasn't joking. I was standing alongside the gargantuan electric compressor motor in the Alkalation Plant and remained unseen.
West Texas near Laredo a couple months later. Talking to a rancher kicking back on his porch and the cricket pumps were immobile
"Are all your wells dry?"
"Sonny they got me pinched back so tight it isn't funny"
A friend worked on the crude dock
"They're "****** about demurrage"
Tankers at anchor in San Pablo Bay high on the Plimsoll numbers
The Great Arab Oil Embargo.
Seeing it with your own eyes and hearing it with your own ears sorta takes the bloom of the rose...
