Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (391709)	6/17/2008 4:32:48 PM
From: combjelly	Respond to of 1575192

"Maybe, regardless they have very little incentive to try to solve the problem by drilling." The only problems that oil companies are interested in solving are the ones directly related to making money. That is their job, you can't fault them for that. Until recently, I hadn't looked into the details of the refinery expansions that are going on. Now that I have, one thing stands out. Every one that I looked at are for adding the ability to handle heavy, sour crude. Now, it is significantly more expensive to add the equipment to handle the H2S and other sulfur compounds. You can't flare it any more, H2S, when burned and in the presence of moisture in the air forms sulfuric acid. When I was a kid, there was a refinery not too far from the house that flared their H2S. On really humid days, it would eat pantyhose off the coeds at Lamar College. It would eat the paint off of houses. When really bad, it would make your lungs burn. So, they have to collect it and store it. It is a decent feedstock for some synthesis products. But the equipment for handling it isn't cheap and it is extremely dangerous. In high concentrations, it numbs the sense of smell so you don't know what is happening up until the moment you pass out. Anyway, I think it is pretty clear they know peak oil is at hand. The light sweet crude will drop first because the really big finds we have had in the past couple of decades have been mostly heavy sour crude.