» oil booms

I am a Realtor and I oftain find homes that would be great for investors. Some are currentl rented or in need of repair beyond what most of my homebuying clients can get conventional or fha loans or have time to repair themselves. They would make great rentals (our town is lacking in enough houses to rent because so many people have moved in because of so many available jobs). Some could be good to flip (most people here want move-in ready since they are so busy working). I know of a few other Realtors who call "their investors" when they find a gem in the rough. I just need some connections to contacts who are interested in investing in our thriving community. I am a hardworking Realtor. I had an investor that I found on chance. He has told me he made good money on both houses. He said he made at least $10,000 per month profit including his cost but no longer has time because his busy HVAC business makes him more than that. Any ideas?

Hi Donna,

I have a great idea for you. Get in the game! I know you are a realtor – but all that really means is you have no skin in the game. If these houses are truly making so much income – why would you settle for a measely little commision? The basics of investing are the same everywhere – "the right house in the right place for the right price".

Dont have the money or credit? shoot me an email – we’ll talk

Elastec/American Marine Containment Boom and Skimmers being demonstrated in Vietnam

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after they tried burning it, using booms and skimmers, and dispersants

Only enough to coat some more birds.

I’ve seen the claim that production costs have not risen since the recent oil boom. Can anyone document a reliable source for that statement? It needs to be something like to say that oil produced in April 2008 cost $X while oil produced during the same month in 2007 cost $Y.

I will place this in the Politics section because this information influences political discussion. I may also pose a follow-up question for anyone interested.
Among so many confident assertions of numbers (not just in this answer, but everywhere), you’d think that someone would be able to come up with a source where they saw them.

I’m not knocking the answers here besides to ask for a source.
Even if you can say that you read it somewhere but can’t locate the source now, that at least makes a statement that you’re not making up your numbers.

It varies enormously.

Obviously, the cost of pumping oil from existing wells hasn’t changed much (if at all) in the past decade or two.

However, these existing sources — particularly those producing the low-sulfur oil known as light sweet crude — are largely in decline, and new sources are becoming harder and harder to find.

Some of the much-touted sources (oil shale, tar sands) have been known for a long time, and (despite the rhetoric on these boards), the reason they haven’t been developed is purely economic. It can cost $30-$50/barrel to produce oil from these sources (as compared to about $7/barrel for easily accessed wells), and so any development of these areas won’t happen unless producers can be assured that oil prices will not fall back to the levels they were six years ago.

Boom deployment in a river using a boom vane. www.cleanupoil.com

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I am purchasing five acres in southwest New York State. The land is about 2300 feet in elevation and was part of an oil and gas field during the oil boom. I have checked the USGS website and found approximately 20 oil and gas wells have been drilled on the property and are now capped.

My concern is that I want to drill for water. But, I wonder if the water table has been damaged to the extent that I will not have a good well for a home. Does the table repair itself over time? How would you test for this? What is the most economical way to do this? I close on the property the end of February and would like to know what my options are before the middle of February. Thank you.
Thank you for the information. I will contact the local landowners.

If the oil wells were drilled properly, you’re likely to have no problem. When they drill oil wells, they are required to line the hole with pipe so that when they hit oil, it doesn’t come gushing up and just go straight into the water table. Oil is generally found much deeper than the water table. If oil *has* leaked into the water table, there’s little you can do. It might repair itself, but this would probably take longer than your lifespan. It’s possible that none of the wells ever even found any oil.

I recommend that you talk to all of your neighbors that have land adjoining the parcel you wish to purchase. Ask them about their water quality. Also ask them if they have any oil wells (capped or otherwise) on their property. If they too have wells and their water is fine, I’d say there’s about a 99% chance that yours is too. But…the current owner wants to sell it for a reason…

If it were me, I’d cough up the extra money to hire a professional geologist to come out and determine if you water table is clean. If there are problems, you’ll be glad you spent the money. If there aren’t, keep the documentation for when (or if) you ever want to sell the property to someone like you that asks these kinds of tough (but necessary) questions.

There might even be a NY state service that’ll do it for you for a nominal cost or even for free.

Bottom line: you need professional advice.

Alberta is a province in Western Canada. The Rocky Mountains cross the territory, which has a number of national parks. But it is also home to an industry which is starting to exploit huge mineral deposits…the oil sands, Canada’s most important source of petroleum.

A third of the world’s oil sands are located here. But the mining of the substance is causing massive environmental destruction. And extracting crude oil from sand is very energy intensive. The emissions of CO2 are three times as high as with standard methods of oil extraction.
The oil sands industry is the largest single source of greenhouse gasses in Canada and the quantity of emissions is set to rise as the industry expands.
Because the thirst for oil is so great in the neighbouring US, Canada will hardly be able to meet its Kyoto protocol commitments.

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It’s the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at 503 billion barrels. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable… at $107 a barrel, Montana is looking at a resource base worth more than $5.3 trillion.
"When I first briefed legislators on this, you could practically see their jaws hit the floor. They had no idea." says Terry Johnson, the Montana Legislature’s financial analyst.
"This sizeable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years," reports The Pittsburgh Post Gazette.
It’s a formation known as the Williston Basin, but is more commonly referred to as the "Bakken." And it stretches from Northern Montana, through North Dakota and into Canada.

For years, U.S. oil exploration has been considered a dead end. Even the "Big Oil" companies gave up searching for major oil wells decades ago. However, a recent technological breakthrough has opened up the Bakken’s massive reserves… and we now have access of up to 500 billion barrels.
And because this is light, sweet oil, those billions of barrels will cost Americans just $16 PER BARREL!

That’s enough crude to fully fuel the American economy for 41 years straight.
To America, this discovery couldn’t have come at a better time. You see, when all the wells are finally drilled and pumping, we won’t have to import any foreign oil from the Middle East. Not a single drop!
For investors like you and me, it offers a "once-in-a-lifetime" chance to profit on ever-rising demand for oil. And we can do it by getting in on the groundfloor of the next great oil boom…

Even the US Government has confirmed the Bakken as a huge oil formation. The government’s own Energy Information Administration (EIA) issued this press release:
"…with new drilling and completion technology taken into account, the resource base for the entire formation is potentially much larger. A study provides estimates ranging up to 503 billion barrels of potential resources in place."
Oil in the Bakken isn’t gritty, dirty and expensive like the Alberta oil sands.
We’re talking light, sweet crude oil – the least expensive and easiest to refine oil out there.
And here’s the kicker…

Montana lawmakers recently passed a bill that creates an 18-month tax holiday for oil wells drilled and completed in this area.
This legislation has caused a massive increase in exploration and has blown the top off this hidden ocean of oil.

Since this bill was passed, a small group of investors have been taking advantage of this untapped resource and are making thousands of dollars each month.
"It’s a good, old fashioned oil boom," says Dr. Paul Polzin, a University of Montana economist.
One company has been there since the beginning of the Bakken boom… and is already selling its oil to the market. And the best part about it – this company is sharing its Bakken profits with everyday investors.
You see, for the past seven years, this company has distributed its net profits in the form of MONTHLY cash payments. They have sent their shareholders profit-sharing checks for 84 months in a row… and the check amounts are on the rise.

Mark my words, an opportunity like this only comes around once every so often and I can GUARANTEE that this will not remain a secret for much longer.

In fact, some of the local media are beginning to report on it…
"People in the region ‘are just starting to see the potential’ in this new oil play" – Grand Forks Herald, Nov. 4, 2007
"The huge potential of the Bakken play has industry and government officials gushing with superlatives." -CanWest News Service, Dec. 10, 2007
"Montanan residents with oil royalties have, literally, been made millionaires." -Missoulian.com, Dec. 2, 2007
Spread the word every way you can. Let the world know the jig is up!!!!

The real story however is not in light sweet crude. We have plenty of that and could use that to break OPEC’s price fixing and end these high oil prices.

However, the really big thing is something called heavy distillates. Most of the world’s oil is in the form of heavy distillates. And most of it is withing the continental borders of the US. Current technology would allow us to bring it to market for a fraction of what we pay now. We have roughly a 500 year supply at current use and the environmental impact of harvesting it is basically zero. Shell Oil is foaming at the lips to go after that oil and make the US completely energy independent (for an insane amount of profit, lol).

So….what’s stopping them? Congress won’t give them persmission, that’s what.